V/H/S Halloween can make a strong claim to be the best installment in the entire franchise. From creepy haunted house stories to funny scare to dark storytelling, the latest entry has it all. ‘Home Haunt’ is arguably the strongest of the stories. Filled with nostalgia and scares, it is the perfect Halloween story. Writers and directors Micheline Pitt-Norman an R.H. Norman spoke with us about the their segment and the power of Halloween.
AIPT: How did you both get involved with V/H/S Halloween?
R.H. Norman: Well, that came out from our friend Josh Goldblum, who is the producer and kind of the mastermind behind the V/H/S during the Shudder era. We had met him several times at different parties and just we have a similar group of friends and he saw our short film ‘Grummy’ and he was really affected by it and he kind of just approached us about you know the new V/H/S installment they’re working on and when we found out it was Halloween, we kind of freaked out.
Micheline Pitt-Norman: Halloween is one of my interests since I was a little kid you know it’s a moment where this someone mentions the thing that you’re most obsessed with so I excitedly started listing off all the things I could do and showing them pictures of stuff. I think probably like two weeks later he asked us if he wanted to pitch on it and we were really excited at the opportunity
AIPT: You might’ve answered this but what was the inspiration behind ‘Home Haunt’?
R.H. Norman: The inspiration is actually funny. It’s connected to the big cameo we have in there. ‘Home Haunts’ are a big part of Burbank culture and the best version of that is put on every year by Rick Baker who has kind of a stage show. He put his whole family in make up and we’re fortunate enough to be friends with Rick and we overheard a loving kind of disagreement from his oldest daughter who was tired of being made to look ugly like a monster. The whole family gets made up and they put on this big show and trick-or-treaters lineup for miles to come and get full size candy bars from them. I just thought it was really funny and we start thinking what if Rick Baker’s home haunt killed half of Burbank.
AIPT: It was really nostalgic for me cause I grew up during the 80s and they used to be the little homes but you just don’t see anything like that anymore so I thought it was really cool.
Micheline Pitt-Norman: Yeah, they still do them quite often here in Burbank, which is really cool and I agree with you; definitely something from like the 80s is an early 90s. But here in Burbank it’s very much a big part of the community.
AIPT: How important was it to have an element of charm in ‘Home Haunt’?
Micheline Pitt-Norman: We grew up with Goosebumps and I think the big thing for us is like could we do an R-rated Goosebumps? Could we do something that felt like inherently charming and also kind of get horror fans excited and have a good time. That was actually the biggest goal for us is going into V/H/S Halloween.
R.H. Norman: We didn’t really know what everyone else is working on, but like we said, for us Halloween is really special. And so we were like whatever we make it have to be like the most Halloween thing I ever. It has to be incredibly holiday-centric. Most of the decorations are from Michelin’s personal collection and most of the costumes in the film done for my own collection by myself, so there was a lot of our DNA in the segment.
AIPT: How do they decide to end a V/H/S Halloween with a ‘Home Haunt’?
Micheline Pitt-Norman: That was a collective decision by the producers and they all apparently agreed on it immediately and I think a big part of that was they knew that there was two movies in particular that went after kids pretty hard and they kind of like had a balancing effect. From what we’ve been told by the producers ‘Kid Print’ and ‘Home Haunt’ had to go together. ‘Kid Print’ is so traumatizing. We kind of won the audience back over again with like a fun kind of a version of a similar kind of story. I think they got the structure just around tone and how they all interact together. I think each director brought their own voice and their own aesthetic.
R.H. Norman: ‘Kid Print’ is so rooted in reality and that makes it really scary. And also, it feels like a vintage original V/H/S segment, which I think people have really been asking for for a very long time. I think that’s really great and then you have our segment with its fantastical world building that isn’t rooted in reality and I think they really play of each other. I think what’s cool about this installment is that it almost feel like a roller coaster. We’re probably going up and down up and down up and down and you’re going on a ride and it’s really fun and it’s scary and it’s also shocking and I think that’s the thing you get from horror as a whole.
I just know that one thing is interesting at V/H/S Halloween is the only entry where they did not have to test the order of the segment usually they spend many hours and many viewings trying to figure out curating it like a set list for a concert. They knew that the set list for all the different segments like immediately.
V/H/S Halloween is now on Shudder.
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