Name a non-horror director you would like to see take a stab at the genre, and explain why.

Dave - Rue Morgue’s The Abbatoir

I’d like to see Rian Johnson direct a horror film. Brick blew my mind and it’d be great to see him bring his strong sense of character, setting, plot and dialogue to something even darker than a noir pic.

Plus, he’s worked with Lucky McKee, editing May and Roman, so the dude knows a thing or two about what makes a great horror movie.

Jeff O’Brien

PETER BOGDANOVICH because TARGETS is one of the most suspenseful and smart thrillers I’ve ever seen. He should take that innate skill and try a horror pic.

Rony

I seems to me that every director that I want to see make a horror movie has already done at least one early in their career, and it’s so hard to think of directors that would make an awesome horror movie. But if I had to pick fresh meat, I think I would like to see Mel Gibson Make a horror movie because that guy is already messed up as it is and he’s very graphic when it comes to violence in his movies. In recent movies, the directors seem to cut away from the violent/fast paced scenes too quickly and you are always left wondering about what you just saw, where Mel Gibson lets you see it all like in Braveheart and Apocalypto. When you put a crazy man in charge of a horror movie, the movie will most likely come out crazy as well and that’s what I’d like to see. Mel Gibson + crazy = insanely awesome movie.

JA - My New Plaid Pants

Well they’re two of my favorite directors so I may be biased, but I’d love to see what Mike White or Todd Solondz would make with a horror film. I mean, there are moments of discomfiture in their films that approach a level of social horror, especially in Solondz’ films (the imagined gun massacre in Happiness… hell, roughly 7/8 of Happiness is a horror show… likewise, I’ve always thought of Welcome to the Dollhouse as an horror-comedy). But really, you’d just have to take one of their beloved misfits one tenth of a degree further and you could have something very interesting indeed.

Curt - Groovy Age of Horror

I’d rather not see anyone take a stab at horror if they don’t already love and understand the genre. I’d much rather see a total newcomer with a fresh vision emerging out of a long, heartfelt, and comprehensive engagement with horror.

Tim - Mondo Schlocko

For me that would have to be P.T. Anderson, because I am a unabashed fan of his work. It would be interesting to see how he would use characters and dialogue the way he does in a horror maybe supernatural setting.

Joakim - Mexploitation

A lot of my favorite horror movies are actually by what most people consider “non-horror directors”, The Shining is an obvious one, but also Adrian Lyne’s completely brilliant Jacob’s Ladder, and a couple of Lynch movies (I think most people don’t consider Lynch a horror director).

So given that the non-horror directors I’d most like to see have already done horror movies, I’m going to try something a bit out there that I think might work. Baz Luhrmann, director of Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, etc. I’d want him to do a large, stylish, 70s type giallo/supernatural horror in the vein of Argento’s Suspiria. Hell, just let the man remake Suspiria. The acting will certainly be better, and we could have musical numbers about people being stabbed, falling through skylights, and being hanged, or falling into a room full of razorwire. And the blood will be super-saturated red instead of 70s orange.

Seriously, though, I think it would work. He has the right sort of over the top stylized aesthetics that would work for horror, especially the more gory, slasher-oriented stuff. It’s basically baroque art in motion, and baroque is definitely a term that could easily be applied to the detailed and inventive deaths typical to slasher movies. And yeah, the over-saturated red thing…

David Z. - Tomb It May Concern

Once upon a time I would have said Neil Labute, but we saw how that turned out. W.D. Richter would be my choice to get back into directing by doing an all out Alien Invasion film…but without the Hong Kong Cavaliers to save us. Buckaroo Banzai(etc.) is one of a kind and it would be fun to see how unconventional a horror film could come from the same creators.

Thanks to everyone who came out this week for the Roundtable. Make sure you check out their blogs for further horror goodness. And if all goes well, I’ll be back next week with regular Horror Blog posts.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Roundtable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.