After the bombastic displays of testosterone-fueled excess that were the first three TRANSFORMERS movies, it was nice to see Michael Bay tackle the smaller scale PAIN & GAIN. Without relying on CGI and massive citywide explosions, Bay tapped back into his filmmaking toolkit and made a movie that showed us what kind of director he can really be. Now, the director is setting his sights on another genre entirely, one he has never dabbled in before.
A recent feature interviewed various filmmakers about the horror genre. Bay was included, one would assume, because of his association with Platinum Dunes, the production shingle he co-owns that has remade THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, FRIDAY THE 13TH and many other horror movies. But, Bay shared a very interesting piece of information about his future association with horror.
“I have a great fantasy — that I will probably make a reality — of directing my own self-financed horror movie.”
One wonders what a small horror movie would look like coming from Bay. Would we get a ghost story? A zombie movie? A slasher film? The options are wide open. While I often criticize him, I want to see where this could lead. We don’t often get big names like Michael Bay involved in the horror genre so this could be an interesting experiment for him and the studio. If all works right, this could create a path for a lot more high profile directors to try their hand at scary movies.