Stan Winston Tried to Assemble a Horror Dream Team of Directors to Make TRICK ’R TREAT... and Every Studio Passed

Imagine a version of Trick ’r Treat with George A. Romero, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, and legendary creature effects artist Stan Winston each directing a different segment. That sounds like one of the greatest horror collaborations that never happened, but according to writer and director Michael Dougherty, it almost became a reality.

As someone who considers Trick ’r Treat my all-time favorite Halloween movie, I wouldn't change the film we eventually got. Dougherty created something special with its interconnected stories and its genuine love for Halloween. But the idea of those four horror legends bringing their own styles to the material is pretty exciting.

During a Q&A at the FilmQuest Film Festival, Dougherty shared the story of how Winston became one of his earliest champions in Hollywood and tried to help him get Trick ’r Treat made.

At the time, Dougherty was working in children's animation at Nickelodeon, first on Blue's Clues and later on Little Bill. While he was gaining valuable production experience, he wasn't particularly happy with the creative limitations of the job.

He explained: “I was working at Nickelodeon on Blue's Clues, and after Blue's Clues, I worked on a TV show called Little Bill. I was learning a lot about computer animation and the production process, but I still wasn't happy because I wasn't making my own stuff.

“When you're an animator, you're very much part of a machine. Your job is to move a little blue dog from here to there and shut the fuck up. You have no creative input whatsoever. I was so frustrated that I kept writing at night.”

That frustration eventually helped set him on the path toward making horror movies. Dougherty's manager sent a copy of his animated short Season's Greetings, which introduced the world to Sam, to Winston in Los Angeles.

For Dougherty, this was a huge deal. Winston was one of his childhood heroes, having helped create some of cinema's most unforgettable creatures through his work on Aliens, The Terminator, Pumpkinhead, and Jurassic Park.

Dougherty recalled: “My manager at the time sent a copy of Season's Greetings, the Sam short, to a gentleman named Stan Winston in L.A. Stan, I don't know if you're familiar with his work, but he was the best creature designer who ever lived, as far as I'm concerned.

“He did Aliens, The Terminator, Pumpkinhead, Jurassic Park. He was one of my heroes growing up, to the point where when I was 17 and Jurassic Park had just come out, I wrote a letter to him and his artists.

Stan watched the short film and loved it. He said, ‘Well, if you ever get out to L.A., we should sit down and talk.’ So I booked a flight to L.A., sat down with him, and he said, "I know you're doing animation, but you should be making movies. That really lit a fire under my ass.”

One of the greatest creature designers in movie history watches your student short, invites you to Los Angeles, and tells you that you should be making movies. I can only imagine how much that meant to a young filmmaker trying to find his way into the industry.

Encouraged by Winston, Dougherty got to work on a feature screenplay. He drew from material he'd already written while attending NYU, including stories that would eventually become the werewolf segment and the tale involving children buried in a backyard.

His goal was to create a Halloween anthology in the tradition of Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt, but with all the stories taking place on Halloween night.

Dougherty also drew inspiration from Carpenter's original ambitions for the Halloween franchise, which he understood as an anthology concept rather than a series devoted entirely to Michael Myers.

He explained: “I decided I needed to write a screenplay. I needed to try. I did what everybody else does. You go to a coffee shop, and you write a screenplay. I kind of cheated because it was Trick ’r Treat, and I took two other shorts I had written.

“One was a story that eventually became the werewolf story, and the other was the story where the kids are buried in the backyard. Those were actually homework assignments I wrote while I was at NYU.

“I realized there had never been a Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow-style horror anthology set on Halloween night. I'd always heard stories about how that was John Carpenter's original vision for the Halloween series.”

“He never imagined it was going to be strictly about Michael Myers, which is why he did Halloween III, which was about Silver Shamrock and these masks. He imagined that every Halloween movie would be its own thing. Obviously, that didn't happen because Halloween III was a disappointment. So I thought there was something there.”

Once Dougherty finished the screenplay, Winston read it and immediately wanted to help bring it to life, and this is where the story gets really interesting.

Rather than simply helping Dougherty find a director, Winston reached out to some of the biggest names in horror with the idea of having each filmmaker direct a separate story.

Dougherty revealed: “I wrote Trick ’r Treat as a spec screenplay, and Stan read it and jumped in. He said, ‘I'm gonna call some friends up. We're gonna take this script out and sell it and make it.’ So he called up George Romero, Tobe Hooper, himself, and John Carpenter to each direct a segment.”

So Stan bassically assembled the Avengers of horror! He continued: “I was just wild. I was starstruck. I couldn't believe my luck. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I made it!’ It felt like getting inducted into the mob.”

Romero helped redefine zombie horror with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Hooper gave us The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist. Carpenter directed classics such as Halloween, The Thing, and The Fog. And Winston was responsible for some of the most impressive creature effects ever put on film.

The thought of each of them tackling a different Halloween nightmare, with Winston potentially bringing his creature expertise to the project, is enough to make any longtime horror fan wonder what might have been.

Unfortunately, Hollywood wasn't nearly as excited about the idea. Despite having that incredible collection of talent attached to the pitch, every studio turned the project down.

Dougherty explained: “And every studio passed. Every studio read it and said, ‘This is too old-fashioned. Nobody wants to see a movie with vampires and werewolves and zombies.’ Because this was the post-Scream era. Everybody was making a Scream ripoff or a Japanese horror remake.

“Everyone passed. It was a whole bummer, but I used that time to keep working on it.”

It's pretty wild to hear that studios considered a horror anthology featuring classic monsters too old-fashioned, especially given how much audiences have continued to embrace those creatures over the years.

Obviously, a Halloween anthology filled with vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other supernatural creatures wasn't what executives were looking for.

While the rejection was disappointing, Trick ’r Treat still helped Dougherty get his foot in the door as a screenwriter.

He continued: “It was a good introduction to the business because even though nobody wanted to make it, it was out there as a writing sample. Along came a company called Phoenix Pictures, and they said, ‘We love your script. Again, we don't want to make it. Do you want to write Urban Legend 3?’ And I was like, ‘Sure, why the fuck not?’

“A friend of mine from NYU, Silvio Horta, wrote the first one, so it kind of felt like we were passing the baton. I teamed up with a friend of mine named Dan Harris, and we wrote Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, which I think they shot up in Salt Lake City. It's not very good, but I was young and needed money.”

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary wasn't the Halloween movie he wanted to make, but it helped launch the screenwriting career that would eventually lead him back to Trick ’r Treat.

There's something fascinating about this alternate version of the film. On one hand, I would have loved to see what Romero, Hooper, Carpenter, and Winston could have created together. It could have been an incredible horror anthology.

On the other hand, those rejections ultimately helped lead to Dougherty directing the movie himself, and I think that's a big part of why Trick ’r Treat works so well. Every story feels connected by the same mischievous spirit, the same love of Halloween traditions, and the presence of Sam watching over everything.

Still, knowing that Stan Winston believed in Dougherty's vision enough to rally some of horror's greatest filmmakers behind it makes me appreciate the movie's history even more.

It's also a reminder that Hollywood has been passing on some awesome horror ideas for a very long time.