Doctor Sleep Director Shares His Pitch For A Halloween Movie

Mike Flanagan, whose Doctor Sleep represents one of the best Stephen King movies of recent years, has been discussing his ideas for taking on various franchises. We’ve already looked at how the director could tackle A Nightmare on Elm Street, which is taking new pitches, but it seems that Flanagan also has his eye on another classic film series.

When interviewed by Bloody Disgusting, Flanagan revealed his idea for a new Halloween movie, and it sounds pretty compelling. Before David Gordon Green took over the franchise with last year’s surprise hit, soon to be followed by two sequels, Flanagan was reportedly on a shortlist of directors being considered by Blumhouse to take on the project. And here, he explains how this short-lived idea played out:

“I found my notes for that very brief period of time when I was trying to come up with a take on Halloween because Jason had said, ‘Hey, if you want to do this we can probably figure something out.’ I’m glad that I didn’t and so glad it did not come to me because the only note that I had scribbled over three days of brainstorming was ‘Dr. Loomis a woman?’ That’s as far as I got on Halloween.”

Flanagan also admits that:

“They made the right call in not trusting the franchise to me. In a lot of ways, Hush was my riff on the beautiful simplicity, silence, tension, suspense that Halloween is. All of my love for Carpenter’s film is poured into that. If Hush didn’t exist, and I was doing Halloween, it would look a lot like Hush.”

For those not in the know, Flanagan’s 2016 Hush is a masterclass in lo-fi horror, playing out a home invasion story with a deaf author being stalked by a killer. The film certainly has similarities with Carpenter’s original Halloween, from its strong female protagonist in a vulnerable position, to an understated style that goes for suspense over shock value. As such, we’d be intrigued to see how Flanagan’s style would have played out on Halloween, especially given the ability he showed in Doctor Sleep to merge a faithful approximation of Kubrick’s The Shining with a ghost story indebted to Stephen King.

It’s probably now unlikely that Flanagan will get his chance at Halloween, although the director could be a great choice to revive the Nightmare on Elm Street series after its lackluster remake in 2010. Of course, the filmmaker has plenty on his plate at the moment already, including series The Haunting of Bly Manor, the much-anticipated (and apparently even scarier) sequel to The Haunting of Hill House.

For Michael Myers fans, they’ll be getting Halloween Kills in 2020 and Halloween Ends in 2021, which may or may not be the end-point of this particular version of the series. Tell us, though, do you think Mike Flanagan could have done a decent job with Halloween? Sound off below.