My Director Wishlist for the Spirit Halloween movie

Remember all those times you or your friends told you the classic saying “Hollywood really has reached the bottom barrel”? To you and or them, I must say congratulations! Y’all manifested into reality. To be fair I thought more or less the same exact thing when the trailer for the Lego Movie dropped and I ended up loving it when I saw it. 

To those wondering whether or not I’m fucking with you, the report comes 1 hour after I write this from Variety. Starring Christopher Lloyd and Rachel Leigh Cook, the Spirit Halloween movie is billed as a family/kids movie (no shit) with a synopsis that reads as follows. “When a new Spirit Halloween store appears in a deserted strip mall, three middle-school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick-or-treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night,” the logline reads. “But they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.”

A first time director is attached to direct but the rest of this article assumes said director loses the job for some reason and your fellow writer has the power to short list who I’d like to see directing it:

#1: JJ VIllard – I was first made aware of the existence of this movie because the gnarly artist of adult swim fame expressed interest in directing this Spirit Halloween movie. If you’re not familiar with JJ, he’s the mastermind behind some of the more aesthetically wild shows to be featured on Adult Swim including JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales (which I called the real expendables of horror in a previous article). He’s currently in the short running to have a show with Cartoon Network called Scaredy Cat, which according to the pitch is based off his experience as a kid with breaking comfort zones but through the lens of his acid trip spookshow animation style. Especially when you’re working with high budget productions which are gonna drown the cast in cgi monsters, who better to direct those visuals than an animator with horror love and experience?

#2: Sam Wineman – The up and comer of my list is the same one I’ve been following’s directing career since I asked him for a screener of The Quiet Room. I worked along side him in different capacities on the films to follow including his Deathcember short ’Milk and Cookies’ now on Peacock, and soon you’ll be able to check out the mini doc series he got to direct on the history of queer horror cinema coming soon to Shudder. Whenever you see his work or hear him on the podcast he does with Jordan Crucchiola (Aughtsterion), you’ll understand that his knowledge and experience with the horror community at large is complimented by his unapologetic gayness in a way that sets any project he touches a cut above the rest. 

#3 Tim Story – Of everyone on the list Tim has the most experience with cgi/live action blended projects on this caliber of a budget. I friggin love his F4 movies and after seeing Tom & Jerry 2021, it tells me that he’s still got it in that regard. The Ride Along movies are his most recent displays of comedic directing power which seems like an equal must for a Spirit Halloween movie. Oh, and he’s doing a fucking Monopoly movie right now! If the powers that be see this short list, it’s a safe bet they’d reach out to Tim first.

#4 Ari Aster – The question isn’t whether studios would go for him or not but rather the other way around. While we all know Ari Aster as the resident ‘indie horror guy’, we’re soon going to know him for stepping into the pool of dark comedy. Not that I believe the Spirit Halloween movie will have anything beyond family humor, but the movie will lightly pull from two genres that Ari Aster is well versed in. He’d be the least likely of everyone on the list to accept the job, but how much of a trip would it be if throughout the teaser trailer for this spooky kids fun movie you see the title card ‘from the director of Hereditary and Midsummer’ lol

#5 Steve Oedekerk – Unlike Ari Aster, goofy kids hijinks is very much in the wheelhouse of the person you may not know wrote Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty, and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. What works of his more properly put his name in the running is Kung Pow: Enter The Fist, Jimmy Neutron, and the Thumb parodies (which I’m overdue to write about later). Particularly spooky kids horror is something he’s familiar with through the Halloween specials of his shows, and The Blair Thumb. I heard a few years ago that a sequel to Kung Pow is in the cards but it’s been as long as it has since he’s had a proper comeback in the director’s chair. Would love to see what he does with cg and the main cast in this movie. Or any movie really…

Honorable Mention: Jeff Burr – It’s more than likely because I did an article on his straight to video movie called Phantom Town, but of everyone on the list Jeff Burr has the most direct experience with horror movies that are family geared. A few episodes of Beetleborgs, and a fistful of IP sequels including Puppet Master and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While he’s mostly under the wings of Full Moon, it would be neat to see what he could pull off with a more robust budget. 

We all have our dream directors for any movie that does or doesn’t come out and those are just my picks. What director would you want to attach to Spirit Halloween the movie? Let us know in the comments and as always, thanks for reading!