Is Tarantino really reconsidering directing a horror movie?

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Given the amount of violence in his flicks, can you imagine an out-and-out Tarantino horror joint?

Well, the iconoclastic filmmaker has. And no, we're not just talking about DEATH PROOF, which I suppose can be construed as the closest thing to a real horror flick QT has done thus far (though THE HATEFUL 8 does have shades of THE THING). See, it's well known that Tarantino has designs on pulling the plug after 10 directorial features, and with only two left on the docket, the thought of doing a horror flick didn't seem all that realistic. However, consider what QT just told Time Out regarding future dream projects:

…And if I had all the time in the world, I would love to make a really, really scary horror film, like The Exorcist. But I don’t know if me taking my sense of humor and putting it in the backseat just to hit a tone of dread from beginning to end is the best use of my talents or my time.

QT continues:

I don’t know if I could let go of that humor and be able to make something like The Exorcist and keep that tone of dread all the way through. Although a case could be made that The Hateful Eight is the closest I’ve ever come to a horror film. And more than any other Western, the film that influenced this movie the most is John Carpenter’s The Thing, way beyond just working with the same composer, Ennio Morricone, and star, Kurt Russell. The Thing also hugely influenced Reservoir Dogs, of course. And in its own way, The Hateful Eight is also influenced by Reservoir Dogs.

So you see the dilemma? Perhaps the cheeky tone can be employed in a Sam Raimi kind of way…cartoonishly over the top but still brutally violent. It wouldn't be THE EXORCIST then though, would it? Either way, the thought and faint hope that QT will do a horror movie as one of his potentially last two, well, let's start voicing support for such an idea now. Can you dig it?