Total Recall: Directors Who Started in Horror
With Paranormal Activity 2 hitting theaters, we look at some notable directors who got their starts in the fright game.
Paranormal Activity made all kinds of money last year -- and it also launched the career of director Oren Peli, who used its $193 million worldwide gross as a gateway to projects like the upcoming Area 51. The jury is still out on Mr. Peli's career, but with Paranormal Activity 2 opening this week, we got to thinking about some of the other directors who got their start in horror, and it's a pretty impressive list. Though it isn't the most critically respected genre on the block, horror has often acted as a breeding ground for scary levels of Hollywood talent, and the seven directors profiled in this week's Total Recall are proof!
John Sayles
Bloody Beginnings: Like a couple of other directors on this list, Sayles got an early break from Roger Corman, who used Sayles' screenwriting skills for 1978's Piranha. This started a pretty good horror run for Sayles, who also wrote Alligator (1980) and The Howling (1981) to pay the bills for more contemplative fare, like 1980's The Return of the Secaucus 7. It's a pattern he's followed throughout his career, alternating between thoughtful (and often critically lauded) dramas and paycheck gigs like his script rewrites for The Fugitive and Apollo 13.
Non-Horror Highlights: There are plenty to choose from -- both 1987's Matewan and 1992's Passion Fish boast 100 percent Tomatometers, and The Secret of Roan Innish (1994, 100 percent), City of Hope (1991, 93 percent), and Baby It's You (1983, 93 percent) aren't far behind. For a real sense of Sayles' breadth as an artist, schedule a triple bill of any of the above, Piranha, and the delightfully strange Brother from Another Planet (1984, 92 percent).
What's Next: It's anyone's guess as to when (or if) it'll finally reach theaters, but Sayles has reportedly been commissioned to write the script for the fourth Jurassic Park.
Sam Raimi
Bloody Beginnings: While other kids were collecting action figures and secret decoder rings, Raimi was making movies with his dad's Super 8 camera -- and his pal Bruce Campbell. They proved it was more than just a hobby with 1978's Within the Woods, a 30-minute short with a minuscule budget ($1,400) and a storyline that would form the basis for The Evil Dead in 1981. More than $1.2 billion in worldwide grosses (and two Evil Dead sequels) later, Campbell's one of the most beloved cult actors currently working, and Raimi is one of the few directors who can move between genre fare (Drag Me to Hell) and blockbusters (Spider-Man).
Non-Horror Highlights: The 1999 Kevin Costner baseball drama For Love of the Game (64 percent); 1990's pulpy cult classic Darkman (78 percent); 1998's subtly creepy thriller A Simple Plan (90 percent); and, of course, the first two Spider-Man movies, which weigh in at 89 and 93 percent, respectively.
What's Next: He's been rumored to direct a Warcraft movie and a new Shadow picture, but it looks like Raimi's next project will be Oz, the Great and Powerful, a Wizard of Oz prequel starring Robert Downey, Jr.
Oliver Stone
Bloody Beginnings: Before he was the award-winning iconoclast behind films such as Platoon and JFK, Oliver Stone cut his filmmaking teeth on a pair of horror flicks: 1974's Seizure, starring Herve "Tattoo" Villechaize and Troy Donohue, and 1981's The Hand, starring Michael Caine as a cartoonist whose severed hand takes on a murderous life of its own. A far cry from the Oscar-approved stuff Stone would direct in the 1980s and 1990s, in other words -- but also arguably a lot more fun than 2008's Bush biopic W..
Non-Horror Highlights: It's become fashionable to deride his efforts, but Stone's career is filled with highlights, from his screenwriting credits (including Scarface and Midnight Express) to his work behind the camera, which has earned nine Oscars and counting. The cream of the crop: 1986's Salvador (91 percent) and Platoon (86 percent), 1989's Born on the Fourth of July (89 percent), 1991's JFK (83 percent), and 1988's somewhat underrated Talk Radio (80 percent).
What's Next: Now that Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is out of the way, Stone will reportedly turn his full focus to a documentary series titled Oliver Stone's Secret History of America.
Peter Jackson
Bloody Beginnings: His films have earned a combined $1.3 billion and 20 Oscars -- not bad for a guy who got his start with the aptly named low-budget alien invasion picture Bad Taste, the violent puppet cult classic Meet the Feebles, and the gory zombie comedy Dead Alive. It wasn't until 1994's Heavenly Creatures that Jackson was able to turn his penchant for dark fantasy into something a little more, shall we say, serious -- and pick up the first of his many Academy Award nominations in the process.
Non-Horror Highlights: Though criticized for its length, Jackson's King Kong remake (2005, 83 percent) stands on its own -- albeit not as tall as Heavenly Creatures (1994, 95 percent) or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, whose installments weigh in at 92, 96, and 94 percent on the Tomatometer.
What's Next: Perhaps you've heard that Jackson will be directing a small independent feature titled The Hobbit -- or the sequel to the upcoming Adventures of Tintin, which he's co-producing with Steven Spielberg.
CJ Lowery
The Evil Dead's are amazing.
Oct 20 - 03:20 PM
Tamas Kovacs
I did not find them particularly amazing. They are nice flicks but Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" is better than any of them in my opinion.
Oct 20 - 04:50 PM
Markus Arbutina
That's a bad opinion. Just teasin.
Oct 20 - 06:12 PM
CJ Lowery
In a way, Evil Dead created a genre, the Horror-Comedy genre. In many ways they are classified as action movies also.
Oct 20 - 07:13 PM
Chris McGee
no way
Oct 24 - 02:35 PM
Aaron Dicken
Evil Dead 2 is far superior to the first one.
Oct 20 - 06:13 PM
Link O'Fett
I second that. Big time.
Oct 20 - 09:36 PM
Josh Quarles
Thirded. Evil Dead 2 was the movie that got me into horror flicks. Alongside Aliens.
Oct 21 - 08:03 AM
Passing Stranger
Agreed. Though they definitely set out to accomplish different things, I'm a far bigger fan of the second. It feels like Raimi wanted to prove himself with the first, but just have a lot of fun with the second.
Oct 24 - 05:09 PM