Tyrese Gibson is teaming up with filmmaker Deon Tayor where you shouldn’t open the door. This chilling imperative would be very welcome advice in a great many horror movies; off the top of my head, I can certainly think of a few vampires and masked murderers (among other onscreen menaces) whose kill tallies would have been significantly reduced through their victims’ obedience to such a commandment. “Don’t Open the Door” is already the name of a very little-known fright flick from back in the 1970s. Now, two established thriller veterans are teaming up to deliver another horror film with this title.
From ‘Dead Tone’ to ‘The Intruder’: Deon Taylor’s Horror Legacy
Taylor is a filmmaker who has built his entire career in the horror and thriller genres. In the mid-2000s, he founded the production company Hidden Empire Film Group with his business partner and future wife, Roxanne Avent; in 2007, he directed (with Brian Hooks) his debut film, a slasher flick called Dead Tone. Subsequent films of his include Meet the Blacks (2016), Traffik (2018), and The Intruder (2019), which is really a quintessential “don’t open the door” horror movie.
Inside Tyrese Gibson’s Career, From Music to Movies
Gibson is both a successful R&B singer – his discography includes seven studio albums – and a prolific actor. His onscreen credits include roles in two John Singleton dramas (Baby Boy and Four Brothers), multiple entries in the Transformers and Fast & Furious franchises, and Taylor’s own Black and Blue (2019), a police-corruption thriller in which Gibson played a courageous store clerk who provides aid to an imperiled straight-arrow cop played by Naomie Harris.
From ‘Black and Blue’ to Horror: Tyrese Gibson and Deon Taylor Team Up Again
Taylor now has plans to direct the horror thriller Don’t Open the Door, and he has cast Gibson in a starring role. Nothing is yet known about the plot of this film nor the nature of Gibson’s character, but in a recent interview with Deadline, both artists have made it clear that they feel tremendously privileged and excited to be teaming up once again.
“Collaborating again with Tyrese is like dropping a match in gasoline,” Taylor asserted, “We lit a spark with Black and Blue, and this time we’re bringing that same energy to a whole new world that is twisted, elevated, and unapologetically ours. There’s nothing like building something this ambitious with someone who shares your vision and your drive.”
Gibson expressed his own enthusiasm no less vigorously: “I don’t just trust Deon with my performance, I trust him with my legacy. Black and Blue was the beginning of something real between us. Now, with Don’t Open the Door, we’re stepping into a story that’s even more personal, something layered, and rooted in purpose.”
Production on Don’t Open the Door is slated to begin in Central Los Angeles later this year.
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