Caffeinated Clint
Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, the duo behind ‘comedies’ “Pineapple Express and “Your Highness”, are set to write and direct the next instalment of the “Halloween” franchise for Blumhouse, executive producer John Carpenter announced today.
According to the godfather of the legendary horror series – and director of the first and best instalment in the long-running Michael Myers saga – the unlikely duo impressed the shit out of him with a pitch that he seems to believe will revolutionize the franchise.
In recent years, the “Halloween” franchise has become somewhat of a laughing stock – what with Busta Rhymes doing battle with the masked marauder at one stage – so it’s only fitting that the dudes behind “The Pineapple Express” get the keys to the Haddonfield horror house.
I joke. And in all seriousness, though this news will no doubt be met with a big ‘whaaaaat?’ by horror pundits, what they’re forgetting is that despite their pedigree, both McBride and Gordon Green have spent enough time in other genres to know how films not of the ‘ha ha’ variety work. McBride, for instance, has just wrapped working with Ridley Scott on “Alien : Covenant”. No doubt he would’ve learnt a few things on that about how to stage a good scare and how to finely balance character with kills. Do a google search on Green and you’ll discover he’s actually had his finger in the horror pie for a couple of years now – he produced the slasher flick ‘’Splatter Sisters’’, which stars Evan Rachel Wood and Marilyn Manson, and is directing the US remake of the Italian cult classic film ‘’Suspiria”. Furthermore, he regularly quotes “Deliverance” and “2001 : A Space Odyssey” as two of his favourite films.
It’s quite likely that there will be some humour in McBride’s “Halloween” script – if even the kind of smart satirical black humour that littered Wes Craven’s “Scream” films. That mix of self-referential genre mimicking with hardcore gore and horror worked a treat on audiences when Kevin Williamson was getting movie work, so nothing to say the “Halloween” series won’t be well treated with a similar tone.
The fact that Carpenter is back onboard the franchise (he might even score the film!), when he’s refused to get involved in the previous “Halloween” sequels, suggests that he’s happy with what he’s heard so far. And that’s enough for me.
