{
  "id": 18549120,
  "title": "‘Trick ‘r Treat’ Director Michael Dougherty on the Joy of Designing Sam, His Signature Halloween Mascot, ‘Strictly for the Passion, Strictly for the Art’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/06/trick-r-treat-director-michael-dougherty-on-the-joy-of-designing-sam",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-11-06T18:45:34.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Variety",
    "slug": "variety",
    "url": "https://variety.com/2026/film/features/trick-r-treat-michael-dougherty-sam-halloween-1236940667/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Michael Dougherty really loves October 31. “Some of my earliest memories were Halloween,” Dougherty said during a Variety-moderated production masterclass in partnership with genre festival FilmQuest in Provo, Utah. “Carving a pumpkin with my dad, going out trick-or-treating. That, combined with my love of horror movies and the occult, made me go down the Halloween […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}