Blumhouse’s Halloween: Who Is David Gordon Green?
Mike Sprague
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Director, David Gordon Green
As everyone knows full and well by this point, Blumhouse has an all-new (direct) sequel to John Carpenter’s classic Halloween coming our way this Halloween. We all know this. And we all also know that the film is co-written by Mr. Kenny Powers himself, Danny McBride. But who is David Gordon Green?
For starters, David Gordon Green is the man Blumhouse hired to direct and co-write with Danny McBride. Great, good to know. But who is he and why was he picked to helm Halloween instead of some of the other big-name horror directors out there such as Adam Wingard (You’re Next, The Guest) and Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Hush)?
I’m glad to give all of you guys a primer on David Gordon Green because the man has been one of my favorite directors for years now. It had become a running joke of sorts around my group of friends that whenever we played “Who Should Direct Such-and Such Horror Movie” I would always say Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension, The Hills Have Eyes)! And, oh yeah, David Gordon Green! True story. And while Green might not be known to many horror fans, the filmmaker has been around for years and in that time has more than earned his credibility as a worthy director for our new night of terror with Michael Myers.
To begin, Green first caught my attention back when he was making the best indie-dramas around. These classics include Snow Angels starring Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale, Undertow starring Josh Lucas, All the Real Girls with Zooey Deschanel, and his best early film George Washington, which starred a group of unknown kids in a tale of life surrounded by supreme poverty. These films are super intense (and for the most part, super fucking sad) but through them, Green more than established himself as a director that isn’t afraid to embrace the magic of the moment. Most of his films rely heavily on improvisation, and that makes his work feel wholly fresh and alive at all times.
After a few years making all the indie-dramas mentioned above, Green’s film school cohorts Jody Hill and Danny McBride began to rise in popularity too with their film The Foot-Fist Way (which Hill directed). And it wasn’t long before Green and McBride collaborated in the big leagues with the Seth Rogen/James Franco stoner comedy classic Pineapple Express.
Yes, the new Halloween is coming to us from the director of Pineapple Express – not that that’s a bad thing. Anyhow, from there, Green took a turn for slapstick comedy and directed McBride again in the positively silly and delightfully ridiculous period comedy Your Highness. And as if that film didn’t get bad enough reviews, Green followed it up with the Jonah Hill dark-comedy The Sitter, and then all but called it quits in the comedy arena (at least in film that is).
From there Green went back to his indie-drama roots for a few years writing and directing such new classics as Joe starring Nicolas Cage, Prince Avalanche starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch, and Manglehorn starring actor supreme Al Pacino. Then after his brief stint back to the world of interpersonal dramas, Green went a bit more mainstream with his high-profile dramas, which included the 2017 biography-drama Stronger starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and Our Brand is Crisis starring Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton.
Green then returned to straight-out comedy, this time in the TV form and helmed a total of 12 episodes of Danny McBride’s killer HBO series Eastbound & Down and every (second season) episode of McBride’s other HBO comedy series Vice Principals co-starring Walt Goggins. On top of that, Green created the animated MTV comedy series Good Vibes and executive produced/directed multiple episodes of a series I have zero knowledge of called Red Oaks.
And that catches us up to present day where Green has returned to feature filming and will be hitting all of us with his first horror movie EVER this Halloween with the direct sequel to Carpenters prototype slasher film. I’m as excited as I could be for Green’s take on Halloween, and I think you should be too. The man knows his filmmaking inside and out and if you need proof, start watching all the films I’ve laid out above. It’ll make for one hell of a night/week at the movies. Enjoy!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is about all you need to know about Mr. David Gordon Green. Does this article make you more (or somehow less) excited about Blumhouse’s Halloween? Make sure to hit us up and let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
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