The Farrelly brothers name the greatest horror movie: “It’s just got an undercurrent”
In the 1990s, big-screen comedy enjoyed a renaissance, and the Farrelly brothers were two of the most prominent creative voices in the crowded field.
Peter and Bobby, who hail from Rhode Island, got their start by writing an episode of Seinfeld. However, they soon embarked upon a run of comedy hits the likes of which few directors have ever matched before going their separate ways in the 2010s to dip their toes in dramatic waters. Fascinatingly, though, the brothers reunited in 2024 and revealed their love of horror – including the film they believe is the greatest scary flick of all time.
After breaking out with 1994’s Dumb and Dumber, the Farrellys rattled off three more hilarious efforts by 2000: Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary, and Me, Myself & Irene. Things went off the rails slightly in the 2000s, with the likes of Shallow Hal, The Heartbreak Kid, and Hall Pass failing to prove as beloved as their classic films. Eventually, the brothers got to the point where they were itching to try new things, which meant trying to forge their own paths. Bobby told Variety, “For most of our career, we’ve worked together on everything, but we did it for 20 years or more, and eventually, we just thought it might be time to go off and do some individual projects too.”
Peter enjoyed the most success in his solo endeavours, winning a controversial Oscar for ‘Best Picture’ for 2018’s Green Book and directing The Greatest Beer Run Ever for AppleTV+. Meanwhile, Bobby directed the charming sports comedy Champions. The brothers were soon inexorably drawn back together for a pair of comedies in 2024, though: Ricky Stanicky and Dear Santa.
With the brothers back together and their creative collaboration in full swing again, the duo is now ready to explore a different genre avenue for their movies. The filmmaker responded to the idea during the conversation and said, “Absolutely. Horror. I want to do a horror movie that’s going to scare the hell out of people someday.”
Bobby was quick to chime in after his brother, though, clarifying that they gravitate to a very specific type of horror. He explained, “We wouldn’t want to do a horror movie just to do a horror movie. We’d do one if the inspiration comes to us to tell one that we find interesting.” He revealed that slashers weren’t his bag, but he’d love to make something with many twists and turns in the vein of an M Night Shyamalan picture.
He mused, “Psychological thrillers, those kind of things. That’s what motivates me.”
Once Shyamalan’s name was dropped into the conversation, though, Peter went one further than praising the divisive director for his skill with unsettling psychological films. He stated, “The Sixth Sense, that’s maybe the greatest horror movie ever. Something that’s not as gory. It’s just got an undercurrent. It scares you another way.”
The brothers’ sudden interest in horror certainly seems surprising due to their funny filmography, but it’s likely that working on their latest comedy subtly put them in a scary mindset. You see, Dear Santa is about a child who writes a Christmas letter to Santa Claus but misspells it as “Satan,” and is soon visited by Beelzebub himself, in the manic form of Jack Black.
The brothers admitted that they worked on the script on and off for ten years before making the film, and they were constantly wary that the movie could inadvertently become too sinister. Bobby told Moviefone, “The trick is doing it in a way where it’s fun, and it’s not too dark, and it’s a Christmas story, and then it has a nice happy message….We didn’t want to turn it into a horror movie by any stretch of the imagination.”
So, with horror on the periphery of their thought processes for a decade, is it any wonder the brothers have suddenly found themselves keen to dive into something scary?
