Q: What were your influences in becoming a filmmaker?
DOMINIQUE: At 19 years old, I fell by chance in front of the London International Film School in Covent Garden, London. That was the moment were I realized my path. The filmmakers who made an impression on me were for example, A. Zulawski, A. Hitchcock and F. F. Coppola between others like I. Bergman and F. Truffaut.
Q: How did you get the job of directing HALLOWEEN 5?
DOMINIQUE: I had met Debra Hill at the Sundance Film Festival and she asked me if I were interested to meet Mr. Akkad. A week later, well prepared, having watched all the Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm street films, I met with Mr. Akkad and his 2 men team, (story development and scriptwriter). After I made an analysis of the market of horror film and their sequels and an analysis of the script I received from him; I asked him if he intended to continue with following installments of the Halloween films. He laughed and asked who I was to ask such a question. I then said, so if you do, may I do what I think will allow you to continue with the privileged niche that you have on the market? He nodded. I took the script they gave me and threw it in the trash can in front of them. Silence.
Slowly, after the offense for their work had eased up a bit, I started to tell them the story I came up with, following the structure of the original Halloween from Carpenter/Hill; a structure following the Hitchcock rules of suspense, not mixing the genres like the script they had given me. It had a body count of death like the Friday the 13th, and many deaths in nightmarish situations like the other competing series. Once I got their attention, I asked Mr. Akkad if I could let in a friend of mine, a writer I worked with. Mr. Akkad was irritated by my boldness, but allowed to let me go on. Robert Harders entered and I started to work with Robert in front of them, explaining the story I was going for. He had not read their script and had not seen Halloween 4. After 20 minutes, Mr. Akkad interrupted and said that to be a producer is to be able to take important decision alone. He let us go. Two hours later, my agent, who thought I went too far, received a call from Mr. Akkad. The next day I went in with Michael Jacobs. Shem Bitterman remained on the credits, although no elements of his draft remained in the final script written by Michael Jacobs and myself.
Q: Did you feel a lot of pressure to direct H5, considering the huge success of H4?
DOMINIQUE: Not at all. I am a storyteller and once the script was accepted, my mission was to make the best suspense/horror film I could within the limit of time and budget. I concentrated on the work and let go of the outside perception of how should such sequel look like in order to accumulate more money than the precedent sequel. I simply had to remain within the genre and mostly make the film work.
Q: When you took on the Job of directing H5, were you given total control over the overall “look” of the picture? Were you under pressure to make H5 look similar in style to H4?
DOMINIQUE: Mr. Akkad had questioned me on how I conceived the film. I told him my concept of starting the picture in daylight with pastel colors, as the story developed I would accentuate the contrast and would finish the film in harsh contrast, only black and gold. Once he accepted my vision, he let me free with it. He was of great support.
Q: Did you have any interaction with Debra Hill or John Carpenter during the making of the film?
DOMINIQUE: I unfortunately never met John. Once I got the job to write and direct H5, Debra offered her piece of mind on the script development and enriched the story with her comments. She was a supportive and generous consultant.
Q: HALLOWEEN 5 is my favorite movie in the series because of its dark, stylistic lighting and overall look. What are your comments about the drastically different look and feel of this film, compared to the previous films?
DOMINIQUE: I chose Robert Draper as director of photography because I wished a realistic feel and look to the film. I wanted to anchor the story in our daily life. I always create a visual concept during the writing and during the prep of a film. That concept is then improved by the contribution of my team. Robert Draper is a great DP. He offered me a great freedom in conceiving the shots, which often were very demanding on him and his team. Robert was impressed and stood by my visual concept.
Q: I’m a huge fan of H5, it was the first HALLOWEEN movie that I ever saw and it got me involved in the entire series. But I am wondering why the Myers housed look like a huge gothic mansion, instead of the famous house used in the original HALLOWEEN?
DOMINIQUE: We had to shoot the film in Salt Lake City, and the neighborhoods are not so similar to the ones of the original Halloween. In any case, Michael Myers’ house came in play towards the end of our film, it had to be designed for the various scenes I had planned and it had to be a fascinating set for a 20-minute showdown. It had to have space and several specific locations like an open living room floor with many windows for the night lighting, (I desired no interior source of light), an interesting curved staircase with a window to create the apparition of Michael Myers’ back silhouette against it, long corridors for the escaping running child, several bedrooms with a laundry chute for Jamie’s hide-out leading to a kitchen, a spooky basement where the horrible blind stabbing thru the laundry chute takes place and a large ceremonial attic, all with the abandoned look. So for the need of drama, I went away from the original house that felt too small for the climax of a film of the genre.
Q: You have a writing credit on HALLOWEEN 5. What part of the script did you write?
DOMINIQUE: In H4, Jamie had seen herself in the position of stabbing her mom; I had to give her a possibility to redeem herself, so I wished her “handicapped” in some ways. I thought that to take away the speech ability of a young girl was a heavy punishment and a difficulty she had to overcome. From there she could make the journey of becoming a hero. I also started the writing with the concept of giving to the traumatized Jamie her “visions”. I gave her the ability to sense the activity of Michael, I wished for her to see what Michael sees when he gets furious. That was the tool for the character to “help” out the hunt for Michael Myers. Then I basically recuperated the elements still unresolved of H4 and designed the new characters with their plot. I disciplined myself to stay in the genre created by the first Halloween.
A roller coaster ride: I wanted a limited amount of death in the film but promised Mr. Akkad high suspense and many occasion of high sudden fears, shocks and frights. I went away from gore but wanted in the moments of the “kill”, that the audience feels astound and hurt by the short sudden violence and by the injustice of the moment. I concentrated during the writing process on the phenomenon of fear, on what is “in our deep psyche” the fear of the dark, (the bogeyman lurking in the night); where it comes from and how does it renders one disable. I asked myself how can I touch and move an audience in their inner fears. How can I play the classic elements of a horror film in the way to not only entertain an audience but in the way for the audience to reproduce those reactions to fear for itself, watching a film.
Q: Can you please expand on the “Man in Black” character, and his role in the film? We don’t find out until the next sequel who he is, but I’m curious to know if you even knew who he was when filming H5. How did you want the man in black sequences to be interpreted originally?
DOMINIQUE: The “Man in Black” character was inspired by Mr. Akkad during the filming. His concern was how to add an additional hook for the next sequel. So I created the character without knowing his exact origin, created on-the-fly per se. I considered him as a soul brother to Michael who came from far to get to Michael. I was conscious enough to give freedom of interpretation to the next team of creators (for H6) as to who he really is. I was attentive not to lock them in a too tight position, so they could play that card as they wished. On the set, I found the idea of the “mark” (the Thorn tattoo) to link him to Michael and drew on them and on the wall my own “Rune”.
Q: Probably the biggest question us fans have is about Michael Myers’ mask. It doesn’t resemble the mask used in the previous films at all, and I am wondering what your intention was by going with an almost completely different look for Myers.
DOMINIQUE: I wished to make it possible to relate to “Evil”, to Michael Myers’ “ill” side. I wanted to inject in the series the possibility to render Michael more human, which means even vulnerable, with contradicting feelings inside of him. When I looked at the preceding Halloween installments, I remember remaining a bit short of being satisfied, especially when I tried to understand the character. My response to that feeling was to make him closer to me as a character. During the casting for Michael, I tried the mask created for H4 on Don Shanks, a great actor and stunt man and I remained perplexed in front of his performance. How could I make this character feel human and alive when he has no right to speak and when we can not see his face expression? As latex is a perishable material, we had to create a new series of masks for him and with the KNB SFX team we went for a human interpretation of evil. I wanted also to distance myself from the plastic shiny look of the hockey mask of Friday the 13th. I may have broken some of the rules (knowing myself I tend to always want to break them), and I apologize to those who feel offended, but I stand behind my innovative choices and Mr. Akkad did too, understanding my motivations and wanting to check them out on this version of the Halloween story.
Q: We have heard that the nose on the mask underwent a change early on in the making of the movie. Did you ask the special effects team to change the nose in any way? If so, how and why?
DOMINIQUE: Yes, I did when I saw the mask in profile in an early day scene. It felt too realistic and too normal, too round and soft, too much like a human nose. I still wanted the feel of a mask, something rigid like a façade that is unmovable, like a facade hiding a terrible secret behind steel. Impenetrable, with force and threatening character. Evil is not easy to shoot in plain daylight!
Q: In the scene where Michael takes off his mask and cries, why did you feel this was important to the film?
DOMINIQUE: Again, to humanize him, to give him a tear. If Evil or in this case our bogeyman knows pain, or love or demonstrate a feeling of regrets; he become even more scary to me if he pursue his malefic action. He shows an evil determination beyond his feelings. Dr. Loomis tries to reach his emotional side several times in H5. He thinks he could cure Michael through his feelings.
Q: In HALLOWEEN 6, the “Thorn” symbol tattooed on Michael’s wrist is fully explained, but I am wondering if in H5 there was another purpose for this symbol. Jamie seems to be psychically connected to Myers… was this part of your vision of what Thorn was?
DOMINIQUE: Jamie is psychically connected to Myers, even by genes if I recall well. I unfortunately have not seen H6 and don’t know how they interpreted the “Thorn”.
Q: I have seen H5 several times and though I think many aspects are suspenseful and exciting, I always wonder why Ellie Cornell’s Rachel was killed off so early in the movie?
DOMINIQUE: She was killed off so early in the film because she was a lovely, innocent, pretty and much likable girl. It is so unfair to kill her off and that’s why I did it. I wanted to destabilize, to disturb and shock the audience. If Ellie goes so early, that means that anything could happen next.
Q: Were you disappointed when HALLOWEEN H20 disregarded the storyline that was set-up in HALLOWEENs 4-6?
DOMINIQUE: Not at all.
Q: Why was Jamie a mute for most of the film?
DOMINIQUE: I set up her huge handicap, so that she could supersede it and become a real heroine. Check the earlier answer.
Q: Danielle Harris has stated in previous interviews that the scene where her legs are stabbed in the laundry chute was re-edited due to the film fighting an “X” rating. Why did you feel that a heavy gore element was important to this film, and were you disappointed when you had to cut down on the gory effects to avoid the “X” rating?
DOMINIQUE: Jamie was running for her life and had a long way to go still after the event of the laundry chute. As I am rooting for her as an audience, I wanted to make her escape almost impossible. Stabbing a young girl in the extreme confinement of a very dark chute is sooo mean and sooo unfair. I took great care not to shoot it in a gory way, there was no blood splurging out of the leg, just the knife entering the flesh. Just a very short hit which was supposed to hurt and scandalize an audience. Of course I was disappointed to remove it, but the scene is still very potent.
Q: What was it like working with Danielle Harris?
DOMINIQUE: It was simply a great joy. Every day and even after long hours or late at night, Danielle was simply available in a good mood. She was my inspiration and she inspired the whole crew with her humor, her courage and her unending will to push on and push on. Incredible, that strength and determination at her age. A great maturity in a young girl’s body and already a superb actress. I love children and would never abuse them in any way. I took great care of her and never involved her fully in the dramatic, scary scenes. I could never forgive myself if she would end up traumatized after the shoot. I would play games with her and protect her from what we were really shooting. For example: we would run fast, giggling like mad in the corridors of the house, so that she would get really out of breath and as we returned to the camera crew, I would shout “roll” and I would ask her to continue to run, but this time with a frightened expression, run for her life, for real… Danielle understood my tricks and would use them to create her performance.
She got to be so touching that she made me cry a few times as I was behind the camera. It was like watching a new born little bird perched high up the tree in it’s nest and throwing itself for the first time in the void, not sure that the wings would open and carry her weight. Danielle was afraid of nothing and would take risks, throwing herself confidently in scenes with sincerity and vulnerability. She gave a magical performance. At the first screening of the film where she was invited, we sat together. After watching the film for 10 minutes, Danielle was short of breath and probably did not recognize the film she shot with us. This was scary for her, so I took her out of the screening room and we went for an ice cream. The film was too strong for her. She had never realized the potency of the scary scenes. Don Shanks who interpreted Micheal Myers was so sweet, gentle and kind to Danielle that he never once scared her on the set. Only when she saw part of the film did she realize how evil his character really is.
Q: How closely did you work with film score composer, Alan Howarth, and were you happy with the music in the film?
DOMINIQUE: We were very close. The music themes were from John Carpenter. They knew each other well and I had the feeling John trusted Alan. Normally, Alan designs sound SFX, which he did for H5 as well as the score. My work as a director is to stimulate and to give confidence in my collaborators. So we spent quite some time with the completed edited film at analyzing it and searching for the best way to enhance the emotional moments provided by the pictures. At times musical sound SFX were the right tool to exploit an impact and at time we would search all night long for an arrangement of the themes that would fit best the scenes. I enjoyed our work together. Alan was always open minded and always willing to go the extra mile.
Q: Any comments on your portrayal of the two cops in the film? They seem to be in the movie to provide comic relief.
DOMINIQUE: For me they were conceived as the comic relief. Cops who seem to always be around but never advancing the plot nor give any clue to resolve the case. Perhaps I exaggerated with the comedy treatment of those scenes. During the casting sessions, I made a risky choice to partner such opposite types together. Good actors that were so enchanting as they were making their stand up comedy show in the rehearsals that I lost my distant perspective of the overall film. I feel I allowed the comedy aspect to go a bit too far. The cops or should I say “the penguins” as I used to call them, came out in a too obvious way. I could have asked them to hold back a bit. In the editing room, as the film came together I could not change the characteristic of those scenes and made the choice to lay on these scenes comical music. Like a farce.
Q: Were there any deleted scenes from H5? If so can you describe some?
DOMINIQUE: Not that I recall apart from the opening killing scene. Following H4, were Michael fell into a hole in the ground. He was recuperated by a man living alone by a river. A year later, Michael wakes up and kills his host before leaving. Mr. Akkad had Ramsey shoot the killing scene again with a different cast. Moustapha wanted an old man living in isolation and was convinced that if Michael was to kill an old person as his first kill it would make the film more commercial. I was not of the same opinion and I had cast a very special young thin man. It was OK for Mr. Akkad and we shot the scene. We all liked it. But as we were shooting the farm scenes we heard that Moustapha was planning to re-shoot the shots of the young man with a special unit. In the edit Mr. Akkad asked me to insert those shots.
Q: Do you know what happened to the Camero in H5 after filming wrapped? Was it sold, or did the car belong to someone at the time and it was just being borrowed/rented?
DOMINIQUE: I have no recollection. I am pretty sure it was rented as we took so much care as to not scratch it. In the mirror reflection, the hit and deep scratch Michael is giving the car is not on the car itself. We place an extra cover to the boot to play the effect.
Q: I thought the ending – where Myers was tranquilized and then beaten unconscious by Dr. Loomis – was the best ending of any HALLOWEEN movie to-date because it made Myers seem vulnerable and human Whose idea was that and was there ever any resistance to that ending?
DOMINIQUE: Thank you so much for your compliment. I liked it too. Mr. Akkad gave me entire freedom with that scene and with most of the scenes of the film.
Q: The ending of H5 implies that Dr. Loomis died after he beat Michael and collapsed on his body. Was this your intent?
DOMINIQUE: Yes, Donald Pleasence resisted making H5 and was finally convinced by our conversation on the character’s journey. He felt that his Dr. Loomis was not evolving anymore and wanted out of the series. So we considered killing the character.
Q: What was it like working with Donald Pleasence?
DOMINIQUE: He was remarkably easy to work with. I had been warned by Moustapha about his difficult actor’s side, but Donald was wonderful with me. We enjoyed shooting together and he never manifested controversies towards me nor the part to play. A real pleasure.
Q: Do you have any comments about working with Moustapha Akkad?
DOMINIQUE: Moustapha used to call me “Mr. Thank you” and would repeat to me to stop saying thank you for every thing I got from the crew. He would tell me that I am the boss and a boss does not have to thank every one who is working for him. That’s not the way I saw it, but overall, Moustapha taught me much. I enjoyed him a lot. A real character who knew film storytelling and who would respect talent when he saw it. He had a fine nose for talent and had the creative intelligence to make it work for him. On one of the first days of shoot, Moustapha was telling me the way he saw the scene where Jamie sees Michael from the hospital window and the way he saw her escape to the old gardener. I remember him saying “a slow, quiet, suspenseful scene” and I was telling him that at that point of the movie, I felt we needed some action and near violence.
He said no! The gardener is an old kind man; there is no possibility for violence. I had prepared the laundry room with all the white sheets drying on lines and I had asked him if he could give me the freedom to shoot the scene how I saw it and made some demonstration of my intents with the shadows and light on the sheets. Moustapha looked at me, filled his pipe and lit it, and left without a word. He left me hanging. I shot the scene my way. Moustapha was never on the set when we were shooting. I never heard back from him, even though he was seeing the dailies a day or two before I could see them. But he never came back to tell me how he saw scenes shot. Moustapha was a “Signore” and would enjoy pitting the director against his line producer. He liked the fact that we were each defending our cause: me asking for more, him wanting to safe more; and that would create arguments between us. He said that was good for the film and always laughed when he heard of a quarrel between me and Rick Nathanson.
Q: What projects are you working on now?
DOMINIQUE: My next feature film is an adaptation of the true story of a “mole” who infiltrated a criminal network specialized in laundering drug money through the Swiss banks. I also have two TV specials coming out in Europe: the life of Henry Dunant (the founder of the Red Cross), and the tale of a catastrophe in a major tunnel that crosses the Alps.
Q: If you had the chance of directing another HALLOWEEN, would you?
DOMINIQUE: Certainly, I would consider. I enjoyed making H5 and learned a huge amount doing it.