The next 'Star Wars' spin-off should be a Darth Vader horror movie

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ROGUE ONE FOLLOW

"You know I'm the best thing about these movies anyway."

If you've seen Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (as I have; read my [positive] review here), then you know that probably the best part of the movie comes at almost the very end. The part I have in mind is when freaking Darth Vader shows up and massacres a bunch of rebel scum who first try vainly to fight him and then try desperately to escape him. His scenes are framed to make him seem like a horror movie monster, and he moves through the rebels like a Terminator. This scene lasts for no more than five minutes, but it felt, on my first watch-through, like it was only 30 seconds, such did it shock me.

This scene may have surprised some people, even though Vader does have a brief scene earlier in the movie before showing up the second time. And while this second scene's quality did stun me, I wasn't surprised that it happened: I predicted it! Here's what I wrote four days before the movie came out: 

Here's how I imagine the movie going, in rough form: Along the way, a few of the motley crew die in their efforts to get the Death Star plans. But, near the end, it seems that they are about to succeed. All is merry. Then, out of nowhere, Darth Vader shows up. Since, to my knowledge, none of the characters in this movie have any kind of Force powers, Vader will be treated on-screen, essentially, as a horror villain. He will pop out of dark corners, float down from high places, block blasters with his hands, Force choke, dismember, decapitate, and utterly ruin whomever remains of Rogue Squadron by the end of the movie, and there's nothing anyone there can do about it. This, remember, is Darth Vader at his prime, when he was choking pilots and boarding enemy ships effortlessly. The main female protagonist in the movie, in classic final girl style, will barely escape Vader's grasp; as she flies away, she sees Vader staring at her, menacingly. That would be an incredible final act.

With some minor alterations, this is almost exactly what happened. But I'm not just mentioning this to pat myself on the back (though I am doing that, too). The consensus emerging about Rogue One is that it's a good movie, but the Vader sequence is by far the best part. I agree with this, with one exception: I think it was too short.

"It needed more me." 

Maybe it would have been too much to center the entire final act around Vader hunting people down. That would have made what was basically a war movie more like a horror movie. But, in the spirit of my prior free advice for the creative personnel behind Star Wars--past examples including casting me as Han Solo, how to make the Han Solo movie good, and how Episode VIII could (and why it should) make Rey turn to the Dark Side--allow me to suggest an idea: There should be a Star Wars spin-off horror movie, and Darth Vader should be the monster.

The end of Rogue One proved Darth Vader's potential as a horror villain. He is dark, unstoppable, and generates atmospheric dread simply by his presence. Framed by darkness, he can hide, and then burst out surprisingly. He can also float, hurt or kill you from a distance, stop your bullets, and brutally maim you--and there's nothing you can do about it. But you'd still have to build a plot around this potential to make it interesting for an entire movie.

So what's the best way to do that? The way I see it, these are the two best options. Both of them involve Jedi. The first would have Darth Vader learn that a group of Jedi somehow survived Order 66--a purge that killed all the Jedi, depicted in Revenge of the Sith--by fleeing to a remote planet. Vader then travels to that planet and hunts down these very overmatched Jedi (perhaps they are younger, padawans, or even younglings). The creative personnel behind this film would intentionally chose/design it to heighten the atmospheric dread as much as possible; make it dark, swampy (Dagobah?), full of ruins, shadows, etc. Maximize the horror potential of Vader's silent breathing, coming from somewhere, but with none of the victims-to-be able to see him until too late. Tensions would rise within the group, horror movie cliches would be demonstrated and subverted in a Star Wars setting. It could be scary as Hell. It would actually be something like this from the Clone Wars cartoon directed by Samurai Jack's Genndy Tartakovsky, except without the (relatively) happy ending, and with Vader instead of Grievous:



The other possibility is just a reversal of the above situation. Instead of Vader coming to the Jedi, a group of Order 66-surviving Jedi learn where Vader's headquarters are: a lava-surrounded, very Mordor-esque castle seen and heavily implied in Rogue One to be on Mustafar, where Obi-Wan Kenobi defeated Vader and severed his limbs. Thinking they have a chance to defeat Vader, they sneak onto the planet and into Vader's castle. And though they outnumber Vader, he, in a native--tight-quarters, frightening--environment, quickly turns the tables on them. In short, it would be a Star Wars version of Don't Breathe, a horror movie released earlier this year in which a group of home invaders attempt to rob the home of a blind man, only to find that he is much prepared for them than they could have realized. Much the same as above, Vader uses the element of surprise and his overwhelming powers to hunt them all down.

Actually, though, in both stories, I think the best way to end it is for Vader not to kill everyone. I think one person should escape, either by his or her own luck/skill, or because Vader decides to let that Jedi escape. Either way, the end result is that Jedi's becoming a messenger to other surviving Jedi, and to the rest of the galaxy, that it is foolish to take on Vader. (If Vader intentionally lets this Jedi survive, then he will explicitly state this to that Jedi as his motive: "I will let you live, but only so you can serve as a messenger: Tell the galaxy how foolish it is to face me.) It will be a classic "I alone escaped to tell thee" trope. And it would work extremely well, I think. Now that I think about it, they don't even have to be Jedi in either case (maybe just one Jedi in each group or something like that), but if they all were, that would certainly underscore the extent of Vader's power. The basic ideas work regardless, as long as Vader wins.

Oh, one more thing: If we ever do see this Star Wars movie, it should be released not in December, as the last two Star Wars movies have been, or in May, as all previous ones have, but in October, aka, Halloween season. If the way to keep Star Wars interesting is to tell different stories within its broad universe, then Hush: A Star Wars Story should fully embrace its status as a horror movie by settling in the Halloween season. And maybe even make it rated R, to maximize the brutality and the horror. We'll probably never see this movie, though. But if we do, it won't be the first time I'll have been right about Star Wars.