Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Michael Dougherty is a genre director who clearly grew up loving the holidays-gone-wrong subgenre, and it shows. Trick 'r Treat is a near-perfect Halloween film, an interwoven anthology with a little burlap-sacked mascot, Sam, who's become a real icon for horror fans. Then he flipped to Christmas with Krampus and nailed that same blend of menace and dark humor. I appreciate that he came up writing big studio scripts like X2 yet kept his heart in practical, mischievous monster movies. Even his Godzilla entry leans into pure kaiju spectacle. He's a fan first, and you can feel it.
Overview
Michael Dougherty (born October 28, 1974) is an American screenwriter and film director from Columbus, Ohio. He co-wrote the superhero films X2 and Superman Returns before turning to horror, writing and directing the cult Halloween anthology Trick 'r Treat and the Christmas horror film Krampus. He also directed Godzilla: King of the Monsters and contributed to the MonsterVerse franchise.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Michael Dougherty
- Name (Japanese)
- マイケル・ドハティ
- Reading
- まいける・どはてぃ
- Born
- October 28, 1974 (age 51)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Scorpio / Tiger
- Origin
- Columbus, Ohio, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- Screenwriter / Film director / Author / Actor / Editor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Screenwriter — see all → · Film director — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.