Horror is the hottest of topics for October, but that doesn't mean there's no room for comedy. Nowhere has that been more true than in the sitcom and animation arena. With shows like The Simpsons‘ long-running tradition, The Treehouse of Horror, we see the typical format of these series broken to do something different for Halloween. Many rely on the trusted anthology model to throw their characters into different homages to familiar horror stories. But Solar Opposites isn't a show that sticks to the conventional.
Solar Opposites typically follows a family of aliens who crashed in middle America after escaping their destroyed homeworld with the mission to turn Earth into their species' new planet. It follows the family through wacky sci-fi adult hijinks every season. Over the years, they have had a few holiday specials, including the first Halloween Special in which they kill the Great Pumpkin. The show and the special are currently streaming on Hulu.
We spoke with Solar Opposites stars Dan Stevens and Thomas Middleditch, along with creator and executive producer Mike McMahan and Josh Bycel, about this year's Halloween special, the lines between spooky and scary, and with Dan Stevens specifically about this being the final jewel in the crown of his year as the scream king.
The show returns with its newest special, a direct sequel to the first Halloween special. When asked what makes a Halloween special different from horror, Middleditch told FANGORIA “Horror comes with an almost explicit intent to scare, challenge and make you feel unease, whereas a Halloween special is typically some element of parody, satire, or commentary on something.” His co-star Dan Stevens followed up by saying, “It's more like a celebration of Halloween in general,” setting it apart from a horror-themed episode.
When discussing the line between funny, spooky, and scary in the media, the show's co-creator Mike McMahan described how important the camera's distance was to the feelings in a scene. “If it's really close to the camera, it scares you. If it's really far away from the camera, you'll laugh at it. Nobody's going to be scared when you close the medicine cabinet, and the reflection of a ghoul is all the way down the hall, but if it's right up on your shoulder, that's scary. I do think that if you're five feet away from the camera, nine times out of 10, you're funny, and if you're closer than that, it's too scary for me. No, thank you!”
Josh Bycel, the show's executive producer, followed up on the distance point with his own thoughts: “With animation, with anything really, it's the way it's portrayed. Our witch is so funny and her voice is so funny that it sets a special kind of tone.”
The question sparked Mike to bring up the topic of “spoopy” which he went on to describe as “halloween adjacent” with titles like Hocus Pocus as the focus. He went on to further clarify “It's either gotta be funny or it's gotta be so scary that I wish I wasn't watching. But when something becomes ‘spoopy,' it lives in this in-between for me, which I dread. I dread falling into ‘spoopiness‘. There needs to be some level of prevailing dread in both spooky and scary to make it worthwhile for me“.
Inevitably, the topic of sequels came up. While it isn't typical for television show holiday specials to do direct sequels, Solar has never been one to stick to a formula. When first asked why they wanted to do a sequel, Mike McMahan was quick to throw it to Bycel to say that the caliber of the sequel they were shooting for was Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.
Bycel went on to explain that they both just genuinely love holiday specials. With Solar Opposites, they thought “It was just stupid enough for Solar that we would do a direct sequel to a special we made two years ago and that there was a special in between it.” They both also proclaimed they just love the Great Pumpkin.
But I would be remiss if I did not ask Dan Stevens a few specific questions coming off of his run of great horror films including this year's Abigail and Cuckoo. When it comes to doing something spooky with voice acting versus being on-screen, Dan said:
“I think it's more insanity, if you can believe it. I've done some fairly really insane on-screen horror things, but this really goes there. It's pretty bonkers. I like the fact that it's in parallel with Halloween but there's this whole storyline about a country club and then trying to be accepted in a country club, which is not at all Halloweeny. But it's a persistent theme with the Solar Opposites, just trying to be accepted by their human counterparts.”
When asked what it was like to finish his year with the Solar Opposites Halloween Special 2, Dan said, “It's the glorious blue and green icing on the cake.”
The Solar Opposites Halloween Special Part 2 is now streaming on Hulu.
