Quentin Tarantino Once Revealed Which of His Movies Is the Closest to Being a Horror Film

Quentin Tarantino has expressed interest in dabbling in the horror genre for a long time. But to him, one of his own movies comes pretty close to being a part of that category.

Quentin Tarantino revealed why this movie is the closest he’d come to directing a horror film

Tarantino has always been open about his fascination with horror movies. There were even a couple of scary movies that the director would’ve liked to experiment with if he could. He famously talked about taking the reins of Wes Craven’s Scream and making it in his own image. But he also fantasized about doing a movie as good as 1973’s classic The Exorcist. However, he felt tackling a horror film of that quality meant he’d have to tone down his own trademark movie. It was a compromise he wasn’t sure he could do.

“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,” he once told Time Out.

Tarantino felt he was able to tap into some elements of the horror genre with his 2015 movie The Hateful Eight. It helped that Hateful Eight was partially inspired by another classic horror flick as well.

“Although a case could be made that The Hateful Eight is the closest I’ve ever come to a horror film,” he said. “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.”

Quentin Tarantino once wanted his last movie to be a horror film

Tarantino entertained the possibility of fully committing to the horror genre by writing his own scary movie before his retirement.

“If I come up with a terrific horror film story, I will do that as my tenth movie. I love horror movies. I would love to do a horror film,” he once told The Independent.

But it seems Tarantino abandoned that idea in favor of The Movie Critic, which will focus on a film reviewer in the 1970s.

The 1 horror movie Tarantino was mad at for not being great

The often outspoken filmmaker considered himself as much of a critic as he was a director. As such, the Oscar-winner was particularly impressed by the 2014 horror film It Follows. The movie was about a group of young adults being stalked by an unknown creature. Tarantino heralded it for its unique concept but was somewhat disappointed with its execution.

“It’s one of those movies that’s so good you get mad at it for not being great,” Tarantino once told Vulture.

But Tarantino believed the film wouldn’t commit to the mythology it set up. He also felt the behavior of the film’s villain was inconsistent, which distracted Tarantino from the narrative.

“The movie keeps on doing things like that, not holding on to the rules that it sets up. Like, OK, you can shoot the bad guys in the head, but that just works for 10 seconds? Well, that doesn’t make any f***ing sense. What’s up with that? And then, all of a sudden, the things are aggressive and they’re picking up appliances and throwing them at people? Now they’re strategizing? That’s never been part of it before,” he said.

Perhaps the upcoming It Follows sequel might expand on its mythology in a way that Tarantino might agree with.