Trick 'r Treat director Michael Dougherty offers pandemic safety tips through horror movie supercut
So far, 2020 has felt a lot like living through a long, drawn-out horror movie. An incredibly contagious virus has thrown the world into disarray and twisted monsters wearing skin suits openly discuss sacrificing populations to conjure up money in grim nightly news conferences. Editor Evan Gorski and Michael Dougherty, the writer and director of movies like Trick ‘r Treat and Krampus, have noticed other, more direct parallels with our current era and horror films, and tried to turn the comparison into something positive by mashing up a bunch of horror and sci-fi clips into a COVID-19 survival advice video.
The video begins as Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” starts playing and Ellen Ripley (not yet back from outer space) types in a request for coronavirus “survival tactics.” It then shows what Ripley finds, cutting together a ton of movie scenes and individual sound bites into a collage of noteworthy tips. A bunch of characters—including a terrifying Leland Palmer—yell at us to wash our hands and Kyle Reese explains that what we’re up against “can’t be reasoned with.” There’s a frenzied World War Z stockpiling scene, excerpts of The Shining’s characters losing it in isolation, and the casts of The Thing and Shaun Of The Dead planning to hole up and wait for everything “to blow over.” I Am Legend’s Will Smith notes our “social de-evolution,” the mayor from Jaws gives terrible advice that’s compared to governments wanting to reopen businesses, and people desperate for a “cure” are given body-melting bleach injections.
Watch the video for yourself to take in some sound advice, the rallying power of Gaynor’s disco hit, and an ending that stresses the importance of ordinary people holding strong against constant fear and bad information. It’s probably a good idea to listen to Dougherty’s tips. Remember: This is the guy who gave us Trick ‘r Treat, which concluded with a long-haired Brian Cox being attacked by a Halloween demon child, all because he refused to listen to common sense advice about how to survive a perilous time.
[via Bloody Disgusting]
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