Shazam! Director David F. Sandberg Is Brilliant, But His Real Talents Are Wasted On Superhero Movies
"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" opened this weekend with such a low box-office turnaround that there's a good chance it will be the last cinematic adventure for Billy Batson. Now, I don't work for Warner Bros. or DC, but I can't imagine anyone who does work at either company is having a particularly good Monday morning after this opening weekend. I can only assume that emergency meetings are occurring where folks are frantically trying to troubleshoot what went wrong, and how they can recoup some of the losses. Is it superhero fatigue? Is it Zachary Levi's seemingly anti-vaxxer stance on social media? Is it that folks know there's a new DC slate coming so they're not invested in the last vestiges of a soon-to-be-bygone era?
While there's certainly no easy answer, there is one thing I know for sure: director David F. Sandberg is innocent. Sandberg directed both "Shazam!" movies, nabbing the job after the successes of the horror films "Lights Out" and "Annabelle: Creation," joining the legions of directors who make the pivot from horror to superhero fare. Sam Raimi, Tim Burton, Guillermo del Toro, James Gunn, Scott Derrickson, James Wan, Andy Muschietti, Ruben Fleischer, Taika Waititi (horror comedies count!), Zack Snyder, and following the release of "The Marvels," Nia DaCosta, are all horror filmmakers who have played in the Marvel and DC sandboxes.
And it makes sense, considering every single one of these directors has proven they can spin gold out of a next-to-nothing budget. Certainly they could do the same with an endless money hose and a global marketing campaign, right? In some instances (James Gunn, especially), the answer is a resounding yes. But in others, like David F. Sandberg, the superhero genre is just holding him back.
Humble beginnings
David F. Sandberg has been making films his entire life, crafting home movies on his father's VHSC camera, and treating his video store clerk job as a form of film school. As he was honing his craft, digital editing software was becoming more accessible than ever before, and Sandberg began making a bevy of short films that he uploaded under the name "ponysmasher" to YouTube, a site still in its infancy at the time.
With only the resources he could get his hands on, he directed a variety of short films. The animated short "Vad Tyst Det Blev" is a raunchy, absurdist comedy about the inner monologues of two people going through their day, complete with anthropomorphic emotions chiming in with commentary. The film was a huge success, snagging over two million views and motivating Sandberg to start his own company. The hard work paid off because a few years later, he was awarded the Jönköpings läns culture scholarship for his work in film. He used the money to purchase his first HD camera. Sandberg kept making short films, dabbling in both documentary and live-action fiction in the process, but everything changed in 2013 with his release of "Lights Out."
I distinctly remember when the short film "Lights Out" first started going viral, because it was inescapable on social media. People were sharing the film with the same fervor we recently saw with "Skinamarink," and the short inspired plenty of copycats. The brilliance of "Lights Out" was not with a creature design or over-the-top gore effects, but in its simplicity. Lights on, lights off, terror ensued. Sandberg made one of the most effective horror shorts of all time with nothing more than a few people, a creepy face, and a light switch in a hallway.
The success of Lights Out (the feature)
As is the case with any sort of viral fame, Hollywood quickly came knocking. "Lights Out" was the new hotness, and everyone wanted a piece of Sandberg's success. Luckily, he got connected with Lawrence Grey, Eric Heisserer, and horror maestro James Wan, and fast-tracked a feature-length film based on Sandberg's original concept. /Film actually spoke to Sandberg all the way back in 2016, and it's evident that he knew exactly what he needed to do to make the film fit his vision. "Really you need less light than you would normally need on a film set. That was something that scared some people on the crew, like, 'We can't keep the movie this dark. People need to see what's going on.' I feel that it's scarier if you don't see everything in frame. If there are big areas of black than anything could be hiding in there. It was more of a fight to keep it with as little light as possible."
Sandberg's wife, Lotta Losten, played the terrifying Diana in the short film, but when the story was given the Hollywood treatment, he still wanted to rely on his micro-budget roots. "Now we could have these Oscar-winning makeup guys do it for real," Sandberg said. "Even so, we made sure to not show too much of her because we want people to get their imaginations going because that's usually scarier than any rubber suit can be."
And he's right. Regardless of how people felt about the script expanding the backstory of Diana, the actual scares in the film are ridiculously effective. To this day, I still do a double-take whenever I see a single street light beam to make sure my eyes aren't playing tricks on me.
Resurrecting Annabelle
After "Lights Out," Sandberg was given the difficult task of following up (see: saving) the budding series of "Annabelle" movies as part of the greater "Conjuring" cinematic universe. The first "Annabelle" film was a massive disappointment for fans, and there was little confidence in "Annabelle: Creation." However, with Sandberg at the helm, the film was a huge success. Our own Ethan Anderton called the film "a relentlessly frightening, superior horror follow-up," in his review. The anticipated sequel film was actually a prequel, giving the origin story of how the haunted doll came to be, and legitimately helped solidify the doll's place in the horror canon of cursed objects.
"It's shocking how intense, suspenseful, and gruesome the scares are in this movie, each more surprising than the last," wrote Anderton. "There are jump scares for sure (some do exactly what you expect while others play against expectations), but there are moments where you'll be taken aback simply because of how bold the demon is in harming the inhabitants of the house."
Obviously, films are a collaborative medium and there's no one person responsible for the success of a project. Gary Dauberman wrote all three "Annabelle" films (as well as the "IT" films, "The Nun," and the upcoming remake of "Salem's Lot") but as "Annabelle: Creation" often regarded as the bright spot of the trilogy, it's obvious Sandberg's talents were a major factor in the film's positive legacy. This mid-budget scare-fest brought home over $306 million worldwide, meaning Sandberg directed back-to-back box-office hits for Warner Bros., the folks who own DC. From a business standpoint, asking Sandberg to direct "Shazam!" was probably a no-brainer.
Sandberg is better than Shazam!
Let me make something explicitly clear before I have "Shazam!" fans showing up with fire and pitchforks; I really love the first "Shazam!" movie and am always on board with a movie that captures the childlike wonderment of Penny Marshall's "Big" and provides a continued paycheck for Meagan Good ("D.E.B.S." 4 Ever). Sandberg clearly loves the Shazam character and the films are great fun, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't audibly cheer when he announced that he was going to return to horror for his next project. This isn't to say that Sandberg didn't turn out solid work for the "Shazam!" films (he did), but this arena doesn't play to his strengths.
There are some directors — the Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich types of the world — that thrive when given absolutely no restraints. These are the people I want to see spend millions of dollars blowing stuff up, coming up with banana-pants nonsensical plotlines, and making movies that explore larger-than-life, multidimensional chaos. While Sandberg has obviously proved he can make a superhero movie, he's the type of director who can make magic out of thin air. These are skills better suited for another coveted arena of film — low-budget horror features that obliterate at the box office.
There are countless directors who could have made a serviceable if not outright enjoyable "Shazam!" film, but there is no one else on the planet other than Sandberg who could make "Lights Out" or "Annabelle: Creation" work as well as they do. He is the type of innovative filmmaker that we should be encouraging to make original, unique projects, rather than stifling that creativity with existing IP.
When Sandberg's next horror film hits theaters, trust and believe I'll be the first one in line, ticket in hand.