10 Horror Movie Directors That Quit The Genre
From helming horrors to superhero spandex, fairy tales, and When Harry Met Sally...
Some filmmakers start out in the horror genre because it’s a cheap and easy-to-produce form of film which lives and dies not by its grand scale and ambitious vision, but more by one easy-to-measure metric: “Was it scary, though?”
Some stay there for good, carving out a gory niche with a dull machete to become legends of the genre. Shout out the late, great Wes Craven, whose string of hits like Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Scream series are a testament to the diverse range of styles and tones available to directors within the genre.
However some directors use horror as a springboard for bigger (read: more conventional) aspirations, taking their gritty small budget successes, stripping the gore, and helming family friendly blockbusters for the rest of their days. It would be hard to convince a cinemagoer leaving the “gruelling experience in terror” that was The Evil Dead that its creator would go on to helm a trio of Spider-man flicks, but nonetheless Sam Raimi managed to move into the mainstream with ease.
The directors who made this list are a diverse bunch, with some beginning in horror and moving on later in their career whilst others began in less edgy territory, had a triumphant outing in horror, and then returned to mainstream comfort. But what they all have in common is each of these ten directors quit the horror genre after helming a classic apiece.
10. Jonathan Liebesman (Darkness Falls, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning)
Of all the varied filmmakers listed here, it doesn't feel too mean-spirited to call Jonathan Liebesman something of a journeyman.
Sure, the man may feel passionately about his films, but when a filmmaker starts out with a flick which casts the tooth fairy as its terrifying villain, it's easy to think they might be in it for the pay cheque. To be fair to Liebesman, 2001's Darkness Falls may be his best flick, a corny but inarguably fun and propulsive slice of cheesy horror which soars where the outwardly comparable Boogeyman and The Fog remake flopped hard.
However, as if to reaffirm suspicions about his journeyman status, Liebesman soon followed this sleeper hit (and critical flop) with the woeful Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, a glossy prequel which managed to fumble the goodwill his pretty solid first film had earned.
With a pointlessly polished style and a convoluted plot, two things no Texas Chainsaw Massacre instalment should ever have, this 2006 dud was the coffin nail for this horror helmer's career as he went on to bigger and, well, bigger things such as 2011's Battle: Los Angeles, 2015's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and uncredited reshoot work on Doolittle.
So still making horrifying films, just not horrors.