Danny McBride Says He Wants New ‘Halloween’ to be More Dread than Gore

Danny McBride is in the news again talking about “Halloween.”  At this point we don’t know a whole lot about “Halloween,”  but we seem to be getting lots of soundbites about it. I have a lot of faith that Danny McBride will do right by the franchise, but I’m really hoping we don’t look back on all these bits of info and see them as just obvious lip service.

So what’s the latest news from Mr. McBride?  While speaking with the Charleston City Paper McBride was asked about his upcoming “Halloween” feature.  He didn’t have a whole lot to reveal, but did discuss what type of film they were hoping to create.

The original is all about tension. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) doesn’t even know that Michael Myers exists until the last minutes of the movie. So much of it you’re in anticipation of what’s going to happen and the dread that Carpenter spins so effortlessly in that film, I think we were really trying to get it back to that. We’re trying to mine that dread. Mine that tension and not just go for gore and ultra-violence that you see some horror movies lean on. To us, it was all about bringing back the creep factor and trying to find the horror in your own backyard, in our own homes.

The “Halloween” franchise wasn’t known for it’s gore . . . until the Rob Zombie films came along and cranked it up a whole bunch. However, the films beyond the original “Halloween” did lose their subtlety and Michael definitely became more of a traditional slasher figure.  So if they’re gonna try to get back to the feel of the original, I’m all for it.  Whether or not they can deliver on those ambitions remains to be seen.