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LA Press Junket: Jamie Lee Curtis Talks 2018’s Halloween

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This past Saturday, September 15th, HalloweenMovies.com sat down with film star Jamie Lee Curtis on the Universal backlot to discuss her forthcoming movie Halloween, which is set for release by Universal Pictures this October. Co-written by Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green and directed by the latter, Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and returning star Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

Seated outdoors at a picnic table on the backlot’s Wisteria Lane, which was decked out for the occasion in Halloween décor, Lee said of the film, which ignores all existing sequels subsequent to Carpenter’s seminal 1978 film and which pits Curtis’ character of Laurie Strode up against original nemesis Michael Myers, albeit in a fresh way, “It’s a movie about trauma. There’s no question. Generational trauma. But you know, it can’t be (too) heavy. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Halloween movie, so it can’t be laden with psycho drama. Do you know what I mean? It has to be judicious.”

The generational trauma Curtis referred to is the PTSD her character now suffers after having survived the (now random, as they aren’t related in the new narrative) October 31, 1978 attack by escaped mental patient Myers, as set forth in Carpenter’s original. And as with any tragedy, the ensuing trauma has impacted everyone in its path. In Green’s Halloween that includes Laurie’s daughter Karen (portrayed by actress Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (newcomer Andi Matichak).

Expounding on the familial damage the attack would inflict, as well as the personal, Curtis recalled of the shoot, and of her head space during, “The entire movie I was very isolated. I’m a homebody. I’m a mom. I’m a card carrying friend. Do you know what I mean? I buy a lot of birthday presents. I’m that girl. And I left (my home) and went to South Carolina to make this movie and I was very isolated. And from the moment I began the movie, Laurie’s trauma just all came back. The first time I walked on set it was very emotional. And it was that way all of the way through.”

Curtis continued of ‘finding’ Laurie four decades later, pointedly in a moment which serves to communicate the enormity of her trauma, “It was the last scene (of the film) that we shot, and as written in the script, Laurie sits in the truck, her truck, and there’s a gun and there’s alcohol and basically forty years of trauma comes back. Now, what do you do? So I prepared, and we were shooting it in the middle of nowhere in Charleston on a street called Ashley Phosphate Road in that truck and in a parking lot at night, with a bunch of lights and a bunch of people.”

“You need to know in advance that when I make a movie I like crews to wear name tags for the first few days of the production,” expounded the actress, “Because I like to know who you are. So on this last day, as I walked to Laurie’s little truck under this bank of lights and cranes (ready to shoot the scene), I realized that the entire crew were (instead) wearing names tags which read, ‘We Are Laurie Strode.’ The entire crew was saying, ‘We are with you. We are all in this together, and we believe in you.’ Needless to say, it was an incredibly emotional gift for them to give me, and something that for me was sort of the underpinning of the whole thing. It was beautiful.”

As Green’s Halloween cuts a new path in the franchise, talk then turned to the complicated narrative of the Halloween series, from the introduction of Jamie Lloyd as the daughter of a deceased Laurie in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers in 1988, to the re-introduction of Laurie (and that of a new timeline) in 1998’s Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, the latter of which was intended as the final showdown between Laurie and Michael.

“H20 was my simplistic idea of, ‘Hey! We’re all still in show business and the movie’s twenty years old. How often does that happen? Let’s make a twentieth anniversary movie and deal with the trauma,’” offered Curtis of the Steve Miner-directed film.

“(In that film) she was running (and had) changed her identity,” she continued. “She was an alcoholic and a drug addict, and we tried to explore it a little bit in that movie, but she wasn’t Laurie Strode. She’d already given up her identity. And it just didn’t work. I mean it was good. There were great things in it. It just wasn’t great.”

“What was beautiful about what David, Danny and Jeff did is,” Curtis mused of the writers’ decision (which was to ignore, barring the first film, its predecessors), “is that if you imagine all the Halloween movies as their own inner tubes on a lake, all they did was untie them from the dock. And they floated away. And they all exist. There’s Halloween II, there’s Halloween 4, but the only one that this movie relates to is the first one. Because in order to tell this story, that was the way they could. If they had to take all of those stories and try to weave them together, it wouldn’t have been possible, because Laurie died (in Halloween: Resurrection)! So I think the way that they did it was beautiful, and all of those movies still exist. None of them have been popped and or drowned. Do you know what I mean? They’re right there. But this is the story we’re telling today.”

And in this story, the character of Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson factors significantly. Portrayed by newcomer Andi Matichak, Curtis effused of the young actress (who bears a striking resemblance to the nineteen year old version of the grande dame of scream queens in not only physicality but in demeanor), “Andi (apparently) was going to go to college on a soccer scholarship, and that summer, before college, she went to model in Greece and met an actor’s manager there, who said, ‘You could be an actress.’ And she gave up college and moved to New York to become an actor at nineteen.”

Curtis continued of the shared similarities in their respective career trajectories, “When I was nineteen I was going to college, and I ran into an actor’s manager who said, ‘You could be an actress,’ and I went up for a part and ended up quitting college and becoming an actor. (1978’s) Halloween was my first movie. (2018’s) Halloween is her first movie. Neither of us were going to be actors, and we both ended up being actors, and in a Halloween film for our first movie.”

She concluded of Matichak, “She’s gorgeous, she’s grounded, and she’s gonna’ be a big star.”

David Gordon Green’s Halloween arrives to theaters October 19th, 2018 from Universal Pictures.

Check out the trailer below.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

My Favorite Horror Movie: Matt Mercer on John Carpenter’s Halloween

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With the re-release of 1978’s Halloween taking place next week (the film returns to theaters on September 27th via CineLife Entertainment/Trancas International Films/Compass International Pictures), we’re continuing at HalloweenMovies.com our celebration of the John Carpenter classic, via a series of essays on the subject.

Culled from the 2018 best-selling book My Favorite Horror Movie, which features 48 essays by horror creators on the films which shaped them, they serve to explore just why 40 years later, The Shape still terrifies.

Second up (on the heels of our first essay is a piece by Beyond the Gates and Contracted star Matt Mercer, who found that as a child his all-encompassing fear of that shark from Amity was supplanted by that of a featureless masked murderer from Illinois, during one simple VHS viewing.

HALLOWEEN
by
MATT MERCER

In July of 1986, ABC aired Jaws as the Sunday Night Movie. I was six years old, visiting my grandparents in Culpeper, VA, and, with my mom’s “okay”, they let me stay up late to watch it to the end. It changed my life.

For the next few months, I literally couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I convinced my mom to buy the VHS cassette of Jaws and I watched it constantly. Watched it until certain sections of the tape (mainly the attack sequences which I replayed over and over) were so demagnetized that one couldn’t make out what was happening on-screen entirely. Adjusting the tracking on the VCR didn’t make a lick of difference. Just as Bryan Adams played his guitar until his fingers bled…I played Jaws until the tape was in shreds.

I became a shark fanatic. I wanted to be Matt Hooper, the Richard Dreyfuss character. I projected a future in which I became a marine biologist – specifically an ichthyologist – who studied all kinds of sharks. I’d get myriad scars from my encounters with them. I’d live the Hooper Life, traveling the world to find giant sharks and study them. Amity Island, Brisbane, aboard the Orca or the Aurora… bring it on. I’d read every book about sharks. I was ready.

I tried to convince my mom we needed to switch our summer beach trips from Myrtle Beach, SC to Amity Island. It’d be safe… they didn’t have a shark problem anymore. The issue I encountered was when I looked on a map to find Amity Island, I could only find an Amityville in New York. The heck?! Where was the island? Must be some mistake.

We had a fish tank and I cruelly tried to tie a soda can to one of my pets with a string to see if I could recreate the yellow barrel scenes from the film. It didn’t work. Beta fish are slippery. And fast. (As Hooper would say, “Fast fish.”) I also “recreated” several attacks from Jaws in the bathtub with little green plastic army men and a rubber Great White. These reenactments came to a halt when my stepmom couldn’t find her McCormick red food coloring and I got in trouble for stowing it under the sink in the bathroom, having used almost all of it for the attacks.

When the school year started, my first grade teacher Mrs. Jones expressed concern when, for the first show-and-tell of the year, I didn’t share my shell collection from a summer trip to the beach, or cookies I’d baked with Mom, or a wood shop project made with Dad… No. No, no, no. I performed Quint’s death from Jaws in all its glory. I laid on the floor in front of the entire class, and while kicking and screaming, slid down the stern of the Orca into the shark’s mouth. In my mind, it played beautifully. I flailed wildly. I kicked at the imaginary chomping maw of the shark. I maneuvered my body to make the slide seem natural, as if the floor were at an angle. I aped Robert Shaw’s giant blood- puke. And, I very clearly recall the army of blank stares I got in return from my classmates when I was done.

Further explanation of the scene and the events leading up to it didn’t help, and Mrs. Jones quickly invited me to sit down before the details became more grotesque. Enough already. I wanted to yell at them, “Don’t you get it?! I’ve experienced this incredible thing, and so help me God, you’re going to take the journey with me!”

What had this movie done to six-year-old me? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about it and wanting to relive and recreate its thrills over and over in any way possible? Was any of the movie real? How did they make it? Was Robert Shaw really killed by that shark? What was the path to more of these thrills?

These questions started to be answered that Christmas, when my grandmother (who had become aware it was Jaws 24/7 for me, and was also super-cool apparently) gifted me a copy of The Jaws Log, a firsthand account of the making of the movie Jaws by one of its screenwriters, Carl Gottlieb. Now, this book was a bit advanced for someone my age, and although I was a fairly advanced reader, I didn’t entirely get it. My filmmaking lexicon was limited at that age, obviously. But it made one thing clear for me: the movie wasn’t “real” and a group of people had indeed made it. They’d put it together, piece by piece, over a relatively large chunk of time, photographed it, and the process was all spearheaded by one person, a director, Steven Spielberg. Jaws wasn’t some crazy event that happened to get recorded by some folks near the beach. It was manufactured, piece-by-piece, and came out as this scary movie. Great.

So, that means there must be more of these movies. Right?

Not long after finishing The Jaws Log (probably early ’87 by now), I asked my mother one morning while getting ready for school, “Mom, what is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?”

She thought for a moment. “Hmmm. Probably Halloween.”

Halloween? There’s a horror movie called Halloween?! My kid-brain caught fire. My mind started to conjure what the movie might be, and the dream-reel didn’t stop…images of demons in the autumn dark, monsters snatching trick-or-treaters off the street and dragging them into the woods, creatures with glowing jack o’ lanterns for heads…what the hell could this film be? She wouldn’t tell me. And thus began a massive campaign on my part to see the movie. I wouldn’t let up.

I mean, I really begged, and begged, and begged my mother to rent it. I could handle the movie, but I couldn’t handle waiting until I was older to see it. Her answer was a flat “no,” until honestly, I don’t recall how her change of heart exactly happened, but after a few weeks, she finally relented and agreed to let me see it on one condition: she had to watch it first, and I had to turn away during anything involving nudity or sex.

Deal.

Next thing I knew we were headed to Rent-A-Tainment, our local video store in Newport News, VA. It had a bright yellow sign shaped like a strip of unspooled celluloid, the store’s name in big bold letters on top of that – a beautiful beacon at dusk. I remember that night vividly. Prior to the video store, we’d grabbed some dessert, something called frozen yogurt (a fresh concept in the mid-’80s, and a “healthy” alternative to ice cream!) from a new place called Yogurt’s Inn. (Newport News small business owners in the mid-1980s were super clever in the store-naming department.) Walking into Rent-A-Tainment, I went straight to the Horror section, blowing past all the sections (Disney, Family, etc) that had been safe, easy, and allowed in the past…

And there it was. The VHS display box of the Media Home Entertainment release of John Carpenter’s Halloween. The iconographic box art with the jack-o-lantern and a big hand with insane vascularity, swooping down with a gleaming butcher knife in its grip where the last ridge of the pumpkin should be… it stared me in the face. Glorious. It held so much promise.

We raced home and popped it in…I don’t recall if my mother ended up doing a pre-screening or not (I think she just winged it from her memory), but I do remember the experience of watching it that night. From the opening credits, as the camera slowly pushed into the glowing, flickering pumpkin, I was completely entranced. I couldn’t move. And it just kept getting more and more intense, every element of the film perfectly calibrated to scare the living hell out of me…out of the audience. It was one of those rare times the movie lives up to the quality you’ve been cultivating in your head…even though it was nothing like the movie that had been playing in my head prior to seeing it.

But watching Halloween was more than just a defying of expectations.

That night was the peak viewing experience of my (short) life up to that point. Part of that experience was I’m sure due to the fact that I was a young, impressionable kid watching a truly scary movie for the first time, but I don’t know that another film has worked on me like that since. At least not in that way. It was everything all at once. Every element of the film wrapped around me like a dark blanket of dread and terror that, as the film played on, tightened around my mind and body until I was suffocating. But I couldn’t look away. I just wanted more. Where Jaws had imbued me with a sense of wonder and thrills, Halloween was scarier and more pure…it was perfect, shadowy atmosphere and visceral terror honed from the simplest (but well-crafted) elements. Jaws was my gateway into horror and showed the possibilities of film, but Halloween was the real deal and blew my world apart. I think I watched that two-day rental copy ten times that first weekend I saw it. To this day, I watch Halloween at least three times a year. I’m still obsessed. It still takes me on an incredible journey and inspires me to no end.

So much has been written about Halloween…the making of it, its success as a low-budget independent film, how it ushered in and created an entirely new “slasher” subgenre and era of horror films, and the techniques that made it so effective. I won’t regurgitate that here in great detail. If you’ve seen the movie, and read about it, you know these things already. The techniques Carpenter uses are transcendent and game changing. The music. The mask. Dean Cundey’s cinematography. The way he fills the ‘Scope frame. It’s a flawless intersection of technique, storytelling, atmosphere, and scares. There’s an unrepeatable and unmistakable alchemy that makes the film what it is. In other words, it’s all about how this story is told, not necessarily what it’s about. The style these elements create, added to the simplicity of the film, is the formula that makes it so effective.

In a small Midwestern town, Michael, a six-year-old boy murders his sister on Halloween. Fifteen years later, on Halloween, he escapes the sanitarium where he’s being held, and goes back to his hometown to kill again. That’s pretty much it.

Simple.

Over the years since the first time I saw the film and the countless times since, I’ve often thought about what the key factor is (beyond the aforementioned style) that makes it my favorite horror movie. I think the answer lies somewhere in its restraint. In a way, it’s not what Carpenter did do, it’s what he didn’t do that makes Halloween special. The film is nearly bloodless. He uses the frame to create a visual language that puts us on edge, as opposed to throwing gore at us (not that there’s anything wrong with that…I love a good bloodbath, but I’m glad it’s not here). Carpenter also suggests, but doesn’t overexplain, the subtle supernatural aspects of Myers. Mystery begets better terror. The first of these touches is the fact that it takes place on Halloween. In its development, the film was originally called The Babysitter Murders (which sounds scary already), until one of the producers of the film, Irwin Yablans, suggested it take place on (and be called) Halloween. This idea was a stroke of genius, because although Carpenter (wisely) doesn’t use the dark holiday to explain Michael’s killing spree, the fact that Michael “activates” on All Hallows’ Eve adds a layer of bizarre uneasiness to his motivations. It comes from somewhere dark and inexplicable. Carpenter knew better than to have a ritual or séance or possession aspect to explain the killer’s actions…it’s just simply the date when Michael goes home to kill. And that’s enough.

Another subtle touch: the methods used to make Michael the personification of Evil. As Doctor Loomis says in the movie, Myers “isn’t a man.” Well, he looks like a person, and he’s shaped like a human, but measured doses of strange behavior suggest there’s something more going on there…something more at the wheel inside Michael than just himself. He doesn’t talk, he only breathes. He wears a mask to kill. Later, he wears coveralls taken from a tow truck driver that he’s murdered, his “costume”. He inspects his kills in a curious way; after murdering one kid, he tilts his head back and forth. Later on, he sets up a haunted house of corpses as a gauntlet of terror for the main character, Laurie. He also doesn’t seem daunted by injury. When Laurie stabs him, he doesn’t stop. It’s these touches of character that make The Shape scarier. Where is this weirdness coming from? These traits culminate in the climax, where Michael is shot six times and falls from a balcony…and then disappears.

Thus, by the end of the film, these supernatural hints (and the Myers character) have fully developed and transformed into theme, the idea being that evil never dies. It can’t be killed. It will always be there, looming in the dark, ready to strike without warning.

Halloween started me on a constant diet of horror movies, and there are many in my “favorites pantheon”. Alien transported me aboard a ship in deep space and showed me creatures I couldn’t have seen in my wildest dreams. Psycho catapulted me into the mind of an isolated killer living a double life. Jaws had already whisked me away on an adventure on the ocean and given a glimpse of what lurked beneath the surface of an unknown world.

But Halloween was in my backyard. Every night. Staring up at me from between the clotheslines. It turned the most basic location, the most identifiable place, suburban America, into a terrifying landscape. A place of darkness and danger. Haddonfield didn’t feel like South Pasadena, CA, where they shot the film. No, Halloween felt like it was happening in a small Illinois town. It felt like my hometown in Virginia. The streets in it felt like my street. The houses felt kinda’ like my house.

Halloween didn’t just take me to another world; it turned my own world into something new. As I started my own career, I took that with me.

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Check out the new trailer for the re-release of 1978’s Halloween below, and for theatre and ticketing info, please visit www.CineLifeEntertainment.com

TAKEN FROM THE BOOK
MY FAVORITE HORROR MOVIE
© 2018 CHRISTIAN ACKERMAN/BLACK VORTEX CINEMA
MYFAVORITEHORRORMOVIE.COM

Matt Mercer can be found on Twitter/Instagram @MercerShark

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Trancas International Films or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

LA Press Junket: Director David Gordon Green Talks Halloween

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This past Saturday, September 15th, HalloweenMovies.com sat down with director David Gordon Green on the Universal backlot to discuss his forthcoming film Halloween, which is set for release by Universal Pictures this coming October 19th, 2018.

Co-written by Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride, this eleventh entry in the franchise is intended as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 film. Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and returning star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

Seated outdoors on the backlot’s Wisteria Lane, decked out for the occasion in Halloween décor, Green said of his initial attraction to directing the film, which serves as recalibration of the franchise, “I didn’t want to see someone else’s (version, because) I’ve been a huge fan of the (Halloween) movies. All of them, actually. But particularly the original film, which got under my skin in a way that no other horror film – well, maybe The Silence of the Lambs – has. Those two movies really affected me. I saw them in my youth and at a time in my life where they were very exciting and terrifying.”

Talk turned to Green’s script for Halloween, which co-written by he, McBride and Fradley, ignores all existing sequels, and picks up forty years after Carpenter’s original, with antagonist boogeyman Myers behind bars and final girl Laurie waiting with bated breath for his eventual return.

“As the franchise progressed it got more and more complicated, (and) my concept and Danny’s (was to) simplify it again,” said Green of their bold approach, “and go back to the least complicated version. And so, I wanted to do that rather than having to incorporate all of the mythology the series (had) absorbed over the years.”

And he laughed, “(To) use it as a device to be able to meet John Carpenter.”

As for the return of Curtis to her iconic role of Laurie Strode, there was however no guarantee during the initial scripting process.

“We had written it already, hoping she would (return),” recalled Green, “but were prepared for her to say, ‘No.’ (But) I just wanted to hang out with her. And she’s Laurie Strode. When you think about someone else stepping into that character? There’s no one like her. It’s iconic, so I put on my sweet talkin’ salesman voice and gave it the hard sell, and she said, ‘Yes.’”

“This was (us) assuming she wouldn’t want to be very involved,” revealed the filmmaker, “(but) as I started talking to her I realized (that) she was actually very excited about it. But originally we thought, ‘Let’s just try to get her for a couple of days and see if she’ll just do a cameo in the movie.’ Our initial thought was the trauma (of the first film) having been inherited by her daughter Karen (actress Judy Greer) who has inherited this sense of trauma and identity crisis from her mother who has raised her in this kind of captive, strange, over-protective landscape, and make that the centerpiece.”

“Before we presented her with the script,” he continued, “we did a quick sleight of hand, and moved all the meat to her, and said, ‘Let’s put it all on the table and see if we can make it happen.’ But we were prepared to have to pull it back, and play with other characters and other dimensions, and take the foreground with other characters.  I’m just glad we didn’t have to do it. It seems silly to even think about it now.”

Another one of the things which changed from concept to execution was Green’s desire to re-shoot the ending of Carpenter’s original from a different perspective, a plan which existed well into production.

“It was a very complicated overhead view of Loomis shooting the gun,” illuminated Green, “and then Michael going over (the balcony). And then when we were shooting (the film), we kept pushing it off.”

“So this is interesting,” Green expounded. “We rebuilt the bedroom from the climax of the original film, so we had the bones of this room, but the budget was getting tighter, and the schedules were getting tighter and we were trying to jam this (into the) movie and finish it up, and then we were like, ‘Screw it, let’s not do that.’ And if we need it later, we can always rebuild it, so we used the set for the scene (in our film) with all the mannequins. But it is (still) a rebuild of the bedroom (from the first Halloween) down to a square inch.”

In addition to set construction, in preparation for the aborted re-imagining of the finale of Carpenter’s original, the production had also hired actors to reprise needed characters from the first film.

“We cast a Loomis double, who was actually our art director, because he looked exactly like him,” said Green of the role originated by deceased actor Donald Pleasence, “and we would have re-created Laurie with a blend of Jamie and a body double similar to a nineteen-year old Jamie. And there was conversation of utilizing footage from the original film and digitally altering it, so we could get some other interesting elements, but all of it starts costing money, and you look at what you’re trying to do (and ask), ‘Do you need the gimmick? Do you need the exposition? Do you need the set up?’”

“Carpenter actually calmed me down on set and said to me, ‘Just trust (the audience) and let them figure it out.’”

As for Carpenter’s presence on the South Carolina set, “(It was) super surreal,” Green recalled of the famous director’s arrival. “My parents were also visiting and he and my dad were just talking about comic books while I was shooting the babysitter scene upstairs. It was the scene with Vicky (Virginia Gardner), with a ghost sheet over her, so it was kind of a fun scene for John to show up on set for. But yeah, really surreal seeing Jamie Lee and Nick Castle and John kind of bonding again. Someone was showing me photographs of that day recently, and it was pretty overwhelming and emotional and nostalgic and sentimental in a lot of ways.”

Conversation progressed to the film’s score, as composed and performed by Carpenter as he did for the original, and Green offered, “He kept me out of (the scoring process and) said, ‘I wanna’ have a whole score for you. It’s not gonna’ be piece by piece. I was like, ‘Is he doing an orchestra? Is it gonna’ be the opera?’ But then I heard it and it feels very Carpenter. I can sense a little Escape from New York in a couple little pieces. I was so fucking excited to hear (it).”

Reflecting on his career, “One of the things I’m most proud of (is that) I genre hop,” said the filmmaker, whose previous features include the decidedly non-horror films George Washington (2000) and Pineapple Express (2006), along with the comedic television series Eastbound & Down.

“I can’t sit still. I gotta’ do a comedy here, a fantasy movie there, (and) a drama there. What I’m most excited about that Halloween does, (is that) it lets me exercise all of it: humor, drama, emotional honesty and action. I felt more so than any other movie (that I’ve directed) that I could jam more genres that I love into one film. And call it a horror movie. So, that’s really rewarding, particularly if an audience likes it, because I don’t have a huge relationship with an audience responding well to my films,” Green laughed self-deprecatingly.

(Writer’s note: given the positive critical reviews stemming from Halloween’s world premiere at TIFF earlier this month, perhaps for Green this relationship will change).

Concluded the forty-three year old director, as behind him Carpenter and Curtis chatted against the backdrop of ghostly Halloween decorations which shifted in the failing light, “You know, critics have been kind and I’ve managed an awesome, exciting career and have traveled the world but out of thirteen movies (only) one of them is commercially successful. I don’t have a great track record. So it would be awesome to be able to think that I can infuse so much of what I’ve learned through the various movies, TV shows and commercials that I’ve done into one thing, and have an audience respond to it, because the sky’s the limit with what we want to continue (to do) with this franchise. So a lot of this movie, for me, is about trust: getting an audience to trust me, and getting me to trust a franchise, and then let’s see what needs to happen next, if it works.”

Check out the trailer below.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

 

Laurie’s Packing a Pistol in New Halloween Stills

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With only thirty-three days left until the theatrical debut of director and co-writer David Gordon Green’s hotly-anticipated Halloween, a handful of new photos have emerged. Have a look!

Green’s Halloween is set for release by Universal Pictures this coming October 19, 2018. Co-written by Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride, the entry is intended as a direct sequel to Carpenter’s seminal 1978 film. Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and returning star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

Joining Curtis in her final showdown with The Shape is actress Andi Matichak (pictured above) in the role of Allyson Strode, Laurie’s tenacious granddaughter.

Check out the trailer below.

Excl: Interview with Halloween Producer Irwin Yablans

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As Trancas International Films have teamed up with HorrorHound Ltd. in order to deliver the upcoming Halloween-based convention H40: 40 Years of Terror in Pasadena, CA on October 12-14, HalloweenMovies.com recently caught up Irwin Yablans, who along with Moustapha Akkad served as an executive producer on John Carpenter’s 1978 classic originator, in order to discuss the film, the event, his thoughts on David Gordon Green’s upcoming direct sequel, and more. Read on.

Yablans, who will be joined by his son Mickey at the convention (the latter who appeared in a bit part in the ’78 film as “Richie”) and who will be signing never-before-seen photos taken on set, as well as his 2012 autobiography The Man Who Created Halloween, told us of his appearance at H40, “The last time I got involved in any of this (Halloween) stuff was in Pasadena. I went there with my book, and I was besieged by people. I couldn’t believe how many people wanted autographs.”

Seated in his southern California office and surrounded by framed photographs documenting his life, from his beginnings in Brooklyn, New York to his stint in the US military and later his rise through the ranks of Hollywood (first as a film shipping clerk and later as a producer and executive producer of a string of successful independent films), eighty-four year old Yablans reflected on Halloween (which this September 27th receives a worldwide re-release), “(That production) was like a finally meshed piece of machinery. Everything that could go right, went right. There wasn’t a hitch in the whole thing. There wasn’t a desperate phone call. There wasn’t a request for more money. There wasn’t a request for more time. There was never a moment of drama or panic. Every time I went down to the set, I came away feeling that there was no need for me to (go there) the next night.”

“And I think that the whole story of how Halloween was born is a great story, you know, and people never tire of hearing about it,” offered Yablans, whose suggestion of moving the action in John Carpenter and Deborah Hill’s working script titled The Babysitter Murders to All Hallow’s Eve proved impactful. Filmed in southern California (standing in for Illinois) in early 1978 over the course of twenty days for a mere $300 thousand, Halloween would famously go on to make $70 million in its initial theatrical run, rendering it the highest grossing independent film of all time (until the release of The Blair Witch Project in 1992).

“They were shooting on Orange Grove (in Hollywood), (and) my office was on Sunset Blvd.,” Yablans remembered of the film’s production, “and I’d finish my business and go on out there, and I would stand around feeling like a useless twit. I would stay until about 1AM, and then go home, and they would stay until dawn! And some would stay on the set: sleep there, eat there, and then start again. They were a happy band of vagabond kids, and they were all young, and it paid off, and it made a lot of careers for them. Of all the things that happened, everything worked out perfectly! Even the distribution process: I’m proud of that. People forget about how that picture was rolled out. Remember, with all the exposure that film’s gotten, and its fame, everybody forgets that it started out in one little theatre in Kansas City, Missouri.”

Of the film’s marketing, Yablans stated, “While this is going to sound very self-serving, and tooting my horn, Halloween wasn’t just a movie. There was a whole campaign that I devised. My thought was, and remember, we’re dealing with a movie that no one wanted to distribute, was to develop a campaign. The poster, I designed. I actually sat with the artist and showed him my fist.”

Yablans traced the curve of his clenched hand.

“You notice how the curve of that goes?” he asked. “(And) you notice how a knife curves and how a Halloween pumpkin curves? There’s a symmetry to all of that. And I wanted something that incorporated those three thoughts. Hence you got this iconic (image).”

(Writer’s note: painted by Robert Gleason, the original art not only contains Yablan’s trio of ideas, but also delivers something often not noticed: a demonic, sinister face hidden within the veins and knuckles of the knife-grasping hand).

“He got it on the first try,” recalled Yablans of Gleason’s painting. “Everything was in alignment on this thing. And then of course, when I opened the movie, I knew that with my limited resources I had to nurture this in a certain way, so we opened it in Kansas City by design. If the picture didn’t do well, I could keep it quiet until I worked out what to do next. But if it did well, then I knew what I had. The first night that we opened the movie, I got the results and I’ll never forget, the numbers were like two-hundred dollars a theatre – it was not bad. The next night it was double. Then it was exponential. By the weekend it was quadruple, and by the first week we knew that we had something unusually, incredibly important.”

“The fact of the matter is, all the movies I’ve done have all been ideas I got from newspapers or magazines or a thought or an idea,” continued Yablans, who post-Halloween would go on to executive produce a string of horror films, including 1979’s Tourist Trap, 1980’s Fade to Black, 1981’s Halloween II and 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch, among others.

“Halloween is about the visceral, ancient fears that people have of the unknown. That’s what it’s really about. And they go back to that with this movie,” he stated of the original, and of David Gordon Green’s upcoming Halloween.

“The idea of Laurie Strode (and Michael Myers) being eventually combatants so to speak, that’s a great idea, because that’s really what it’s about,” he concluded. “Those two, that’s the driver.”

For H40: 40 Years of Terror ticket information and more, visit the official site here, and like H40 on Facebook here for updates.

Excl: Take a Behind-the-Scenes Tour of HHN’s Halloween 4 Maze

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With Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers mazes opening this Friday, Sept 14th at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando as part of the two theme parks’ yearly attractions Halloween Horror Nights, we got an exclusive peek behind-the-scenes this past Friday.

Thirty years since its release, the Danielle Harris-starring Halloween 4 is still beloved by fans, and celebrating the milestone, HHN creative director John Murdy, along with Halloween 4 director Dwight H. Little and Trancas International’s own Malek Akkad took us on a tour of the then still-under-construction west coast maze. And as per usual, Murdy and crew have spared no expense and ignored no detail in realizing Little’s film as a fleshed-out, haunted walk-through.

Said director Little of the maze, “It’s incredible. It gave me the chills. It’s been thirty years and it seems like it’s happening right in front of your eyes. I can’t wait to come see it as a guest of the park, and I can’t wait for anyone who had seen or who has not seen Halloween 4 to come experience this maze. It’s unbelievable.”

Will poor Ted Hollister make an appearance? That’s yet to be seen, but fans of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers should prep themselves for a fully immersive journey into some of the film’s main set pieces, from Penney’s garage and diner to the jack-o-lantern filled streets of Haddonfield. Check out the video below.

The Shape awaits.

For more information about Halloween Horror Nights at either Universal Studios Hollywood or Universal Orlando Resort, visit them here, and engage with them on social media using @UniStudios @HorrorNights #UniversalHHN

Jamie Lee Curtis Teases ‘Halloween’ Trailer w/ New Poster

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Ahead of tomorrow’s release of the second full length trailer for David Gordon Green’s upcoming Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis debuted the official poster via her social media channels.

Make sure you’re following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram so you can be one of the first to see it when it goes live!

The eleventh film in the franchise, co-written by director David Gordon Green and collaborators Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley, the latest Halloween film serves as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 film of the same name.

Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

In it, series star Curtis returns to her role of embattled final girl Laurie Strode, as does Nick Castle to his role of Michael Myers. They are joined by Judy Greer as Karen Strode, Laurie’s daughter, and Andi Matichak as Allyson Strode, Laurie’s granddaughter.

Universal Pictures will release Halloween worldwide on October 19, 2018.

Halloween: The Shape of Change

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Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton Takes a Look at the Past and Future of Halloween

For genre fans, the name Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton has become synonymous with modern horror journalism. From his humble beginnings working with The Horror Channel in the early 2000s and his co-creation of the revered Dread Central in 2006 (where he served as Editor-in-Chief for well over a decade) to his recent establishment of the popular Brainwaves Horror and Paranormal podcast in 2016, Barton’s erudite knowledge and unflinching editorial candor have made him a highly respected luminary within the horror sphere.

With that, I’m thrilled to welcome Barton to HalloweenMovies.com as a guest writer, as here he takes an engaging look back at the iconic Halloween franchise, from its genre-defining beginnings to what lays ahead for those unfortunate residents of Haddonfield.

Sean Decker, Editor-in-Chief, HalloweenMovies.com

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Halloween: The Shape of Change

By Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton

For forty years the Halloween franchise has been scaring the hell out of audiences around the globe. Now a familiar chill is back in the air. Leaves are being blown softly down our streets… the scent of pumpkin spice is tickling our senses; decorations are being hung, both ghastly and cute; and the world is prepping for yet another night of tricks, treats, and thankfully… unstoppable… “evil.”

Back in 1978 Dr. Samuel Loomis warned us about a six-year-old child with a blank, pale, emotionless face and… the blackest eyes. The devil’s eyes. This October death is once again ready to come home in the fashion of Blumhouse’s Halloween; and as we all steady ourselves for what’s to come, the fanbase has begun swirling with anticipation and questions. This new iteration of Michael Myers isn’t very new at all. In fact, he’s the same one who gave us nightmares back in ’78 as he pursued Laurie Strode through her Haddonfield neighborhood, and that’s where our story begins. Everything from 1981’s Halloween II to Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (2009) has been entered into the history books, which is where all of those events will continue to thrive and haunt for years to come.

This latest Halloween instead picks up the plotline from John Carpenter’s original conclusion. No longer is Laurie Michael’s sister apparently. Jamie Lloyd was never born. This Shape was never led by an infamous man in black. He’s retained his head and has never haunted the halls of his home while a film crew scrambled to cash in on the horrors of days gone by. Conal Cochran, however, may still have unleashed a living hell on earth thanks to some intricate Halloween masks filled with all manner of ghastly flesh-hungry creatures, thereby making Season of the Witch a truer continuation of events than it has ever been before. I mean, surely something happened during the decades between Michael’s escape and eventual reincarceration.

Change has always been a big part of the Halloween franchise as it’s the only horror yarn that spins constantly in different directions, fostering a host of blood-soaked threads that we as fans have been following for decades. In anticipation of the new installment, let’s untangle said routes and see where each film lies within the franchise.

Halloween (1978) connects directly to Halloween (2018).

Forty years have passed since Michael Myers stalked Laurie Strode that fateful night in Haddonfield. Both Strode and Myers have been lying in wait for each other, and their final showdown will surely be epic to say the least. Who knows where the franchise will go from here, but one thing’s for sure… we will all be watching, even if some of you will be looking through your fingers.

Halloween (1978) also connects to Halloween II (1981).

At the end of John Carpenter’s original classic, we see that Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis, has bested The Shape. You see, Loomis shot him six times. Once in the heart. But it turns out that didn’t stop Michael. Nothing can. As the events continue, Strode, who is identified as Michael’s sister, is transported to the local hospital; and Myers is hot on her tail. Strode escapes again, but it appears as if Loomis and Myers have met their end together. Myers is shot in both eyes and is then burned (what we thought to be) to death in an explosion.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) connects to no other films in the franchise.

With Michael Myers either dead or incarcerated (choose your own adventure), Halloween takes on a disturbing new vision with warlocks plotting the mass killing of children via Silver Shamrock Halloween masks. It should be noted that the 1978 film can be seen playing on television during Halloween III as a nod to what came before this. The reasoning behind Season of the Witch was that a new Halloween-themed tale would be spun each year. With no Myers to be found, the fans balked for decades. Now, however, the film has become much loved and stands as a testament to 80’s horror at its finest.

Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) connect directly to 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

The audience was heard loud and clear… we wanted our boogeyman back, and Halloween 4 does a fine job of bringing back the principals for another round of mayhem in Haddonfield. It’s ten years after the night of the massacre that left several teenagers dead, and we find out that both Loomis and Myers survived the inferno at Haddonfield Hospital. It’s revealed that Laurie Strode has passed on, but her seven-year-old daughter, Jamie, is alive and well and has been adopted by the Carruthers family. Upon learning of the existence of his niece during a transfer between the Richmond Mental Institute to Smith’s Grove, Myers rises from his coma to take care of family business. Thankfully for the Carruthers family, Loomis, the ever-vigilant Ahab of this twist on Moby Dick, is not far behind. Upon the film’s conclusion Myers is shot an innumerable amount of times, blasting him backward down a well. Both Jamie and her stepsister, Rachel, have survived the night, but not without incident. Jamie – in a mental break – takes up Michael’s mantle, proving that there’s just something in the blood.

Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers connect directly to Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

After the events of the previous year, Jamie finds herself, much like her uncle, locked up in a hospital surrounded by other troubled children. After falling into the well, which was dynamited to seal it shut, Myers is revealed to have been washed ashore in a bunker of sorts, where he was cared for by a vagrant and his pet parrot, Snookie. Once the calendar strikes Halloween, he’s up and at ‘em, once again on the hunt for his niece, after dispatching Rachel of course because Myers is nothing if not thorough. After some truly bloody events, Jamie makes her escape and Michael is jailed… but only temporarily. He’s soon busted out by a mysterious Man in Black who shares the same Thorn tattoo as Myers does. Could there be some other connection between the two? Of course there is!

Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers connect directly to Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers and Halloween 6: The Producer’s Cut.

Change has never been more prevalent within the franchise than it is with Halloween 6. Famously, there are indeed two versions of the sixth installment, and both bring the Jamie Lloyd (played here by J.C. Brandy instead of the much beloved Danielle Harris) story arc to a close early on. The Man in Black is revealed to be Smith’s Grove head honcho, Dr. Wynn (whom we first met briefly in Halloween 1978). Wynn is also the head of the Pagan cult that is now controlling Myers, with varying degrees of success depending on which version of the movie you’re watching. Both versions of Halloween 6 also mark the final appearance of the character of Dr. Sam Loomis, who was played masterfully by Donald Pleasence. The differences between the two cuts of the film are pretty striking. Those looking for a more mystical take on the character of The Shape would be best served by the Producer’s Cut, and those with a preference for slaughter will get more than enough of the red with the theatrical version. See? Change and choice can be a good thing!

Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) connect directly to 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

With the irreplaceable Pleasence no longer with us to play Loomis, it was time for The Shape to have a new Ahab. Who better to bring back than Laurie Strode herself? Twenty years after the night He came home, Strode is living under an assumed name along with her son and is the dean of a private school located in Northern California. It may have taken 20 years, but Myers finally catches up with her, leading to a goosebump-inducing battle between the two that will always remain an incredible crowd-pleaser.

Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later connect directly to Halloween: Resurrection.

Much like both versions of Halloween 6 did with their main character of Shapes gone by, the Laurie Strode story arc is ended very early on, and Myers is free to go back home and dispatch a whole new generation of victims… but there’s a twist! Thanks to an enterprising entrepreneur, the Myers house has been outfitted with cameras and taken online so that the world can join in on an investigation of it. This would be the last time this very familiar Michael Myers would be seen on screen as the series was about to have itself both a reboot and a rebirth.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween hits the reset button.

It was the dawn of a new time in the Halloween franchise as big changes were once again on the horizon for The Shape as Rob Zombie adds his distinct flavor to the character of Michael Myers. In this film we get to explore what makes Myers tick and eventually snap. After a time jump midway through the film, we find Myers as a new, hulking freight train of carnage that’s just waiting to be unleashed; and once he breaks his chains, all hell breaks out with him. The second half of Zombie’s film reveres what Carpenter had originally created, and all the pieces were firmly in place for this new Shape’s saga to continue.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween connects directly to Rob Zombie’s Halloween II.

Unlike the original Halloween II, which picks up the action immediately after the first film, a year has passed since Myers would once again begin his deadly pursuit of his sister, Laurie. Zombie expands on the world he’s built with his first film in every conceivable way and in the process delivers an extreme and unique spin on the horrors of Haddonfield. This Myers is not only haunted, but he’s also enormous, chaotic, and as brutal as can be. Zombie’s Halloween II will probably remain the most violent entry into this storied and multi-faceted franchise.

And with that, this history lesson is officially over. One franchise that is home to five distinctive storylines and worlds. Blumhouse is set to deliver its own spin on Halloween by ignoring everything that transpired after the original 1978 film. Forty years have passed, and now Laurie is back, as is Myers. But this Shape is of no relation to her. This Shape is nothing but pure, driven evil. The kind that had Sam Loomis frightened and desperate beyond words. The horrors that began on Lampkin Lane in 1963 are about to begin again. Despite the quintet of plots, one thing has always remained the same: Death is once again coming to a little town, and it can’t… no, it WON’T… be ignored.

My Favorite Horror Movie: Our Editor-in-Chief on John Carpenter’s Halloween

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With director David Gordon Green’s 2018 feature Halloween fast approaching, we thought it time to further celebrate John Carpenter’s 1978 classic of the same name via a series of essays on the subject.

Culled from the 2018 Amazon best-selling book My Favorite Horror Movie, which features 48 essays by horror creators on the films which shaped them (from Fangoria’s revered Michael Gingold to Contracted star Matt Mercer, and beyond), these essays will be published bi-weekly here at HalloweenMovies.com leading up to the October 19th release of the series’ latest chapter, in an effort to explore just why 40 years later, The Shape still terrifies.

First up, the essay which I contributed to the book, and an insight into why this once Star Wars-obsessed kid jumped out of light speed and put down stakes in Haddonfield.

HALLOWEEN
by
SEAN JAMES DECKER

In October of 1978, like most eight-year-old American boys of the time, and well before it would become a hip moniker to attach to one’s self, I was I suppose what people would consider a “film nerd.” I inherited this gene from my father, who had spent his own adolescence religiously attending matinees at the Bayview Theatre in San Francisco, ingesting a steady stream of serials, cartoons and 1950s sci-fi, horror and westerns, which he then imparted to me via network (at the time, we hadn’t yet purchased that very expensive new thing called a videocassette recorder) and local television, the latter portal consisting primarily of horror host Bob Wilkins’ KTVU show Creature Features. (A year later, I’d go on to innocently hold hands with my first girlfriend, the daughter of John Stanley, the latter who had taken over hosting duties of the show: she soon broke up with me for my obsession with her father and his extensive horror collection, but that is another story).

As much as my own father was excited to share with me the films he’d grown up on, from Universal’s classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon to that wonderful giant ant film Them!, he was also as equally concerned at guarding my innocence. When George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead made its television premiere on Wilkins’ show, I wasn’t allowed to watch it, although my parents were more than happy to take me to multiple screenings of Star Wars, and to support my interest in all things pop culture related via subscriptions to Marvel Comics titles (I remember fondly the brown paper mailing sleeves they’d arrive in), a million Legos bricks, Mego Dolls (I wonder whatever happened to my glow-in-the-dark Human Wolfman), Hardy Boys books, and much, much more.

R-rated horror films though? They were strictly off the table, no matter how I pleaded.

That was until my father’s dad (who I referred to as “Papa,” as we all did), who I spent every other weekend with, often flying the skies above Half Moon Bay in his Cessna when not attending Saturday Mass or the San Francisco Zoo, offered to take me to see a revival screening of 1974’s Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla, playing in a single screen movie house in the city. Gleefully, I took the street car with him to the theatre for some kaiju G-rated fare, and arriving early, he bought us both popcorn and Cokes and suggested we sit down to watch the end of whatever was playing in anticipation of the Big G’s onscreen arrival.

And it was then that my life was forever changed.

In that darkened theatre and through my boyhood fingers, raised in an effort to shield my eyes from the utter terror which was unfolding before them, I watched as a plucky young girl named Laurie crossed a tree-lined street before entering a structure similarly darkened. Up the stairs she went, and fearfully I went with her, into a dimly-lit bedroom where a woman lay splayed out dead on a mattress, a flickering jack-o-lantern next to her and a tombstone above with the inscription “Judith Myers” cut into it. And soon other things would also be cut into, by a methodical, shambling shape with a massive butcher knife, who stalked our unfortunate heroine from room to room and house to house, and who while seemingly in the finale was brought down by gunfire by an elderly man in a trench coat with a curious penchant for scaring trick or treaters, would ultimately disappear into the very night, and into my very psyche.

Silent. Unstoppable. Ghostly. For me, without context, and now existing behind every fence in my suburban neighborhood. As for the following screening of director Jun Fukada’s Godzilla film? I don’t recall it. What I do recall are the nightmares scored by that 10/8 piano composition that plagued me in the ensuing weeks, of which I’d wake from, drenched in sweat and screaming, comforted by my concerned parents who were none too happy that my grandfather had taken me to, “That Halloween movie” (they themselves made a trip to the theatre shortly thereafter, more than likely in an attempt to understand what emotional trauma their previously unsullied son had endured).

Marvel Comics didn’t interest me much after that, although EC Comics did. And while I was certainly excited to see the follow-up to that Star Wars movie, I was more thrilled to watch the slasher flicks on Laserdisc which one of my schoolyard chum’s father had amassed (a format now primarily residing in landfills alongside that Bakelite phone which Michael used to strangle Lynda Van Der Klok), when we were left to our own devices. Sean Cunningham’s gory take on Halloween, Friday the 13th, was one of them, but in my mind, nothing could compare to the sheer ferocity of Carpenter’s film.

I was hooked, and it was merely the beginning. Unbeknownst to my parents, Curtis Richards’ novelization was hidden beneath my mattress (I still have that paperback, dog-eared and rag-tag from countless readings), and while I was allowed to see the television cut of Halloween when it premiered on NBC in 1981, I had to sneak into a theatre to see Carpenter’s follow-up, Halloween II, that same month. Thrilling, yes, but for me even then, it failed to replicate the visceral, German Expressionism-influenced elegance of the original (not that I knew what German Expressionism was at the time, or a Panaglide for that matter).

That first iconic film, written in just ten days and shot for a mere $320,000, featuring a killer in a modified William Shatner mask purchased for a buck ninety-eight at Bert Wheeler’s now defunct magic shop on Hollywood Boulevard, coupled with my parents’ encouragement of my early interest in writing, would lead to just that, from my beginnings as an editor two decades later at Universal Studios’ Horror Online, to eight years as a writer at the beloved Fangoria, to a decade of journalism at Dread Central, with a few produced films and screenplays peppered throughout.

As for Halloween and my continued fascination with it, over the course of my career I’ve had the distinct honor of meeting Carpenter himself, as well as that young, plucky babysitter, and the knife-wielding madman who assailed her. In fact, in my possession at the time of this writing is a vintage Lamson butcher knife, signed by all three. (Curtis’ written-in-Sharpie signature and message of “Happy Halloween” is still to me is as surreal as the moment in which she signed it, although no more so than when John did the same in his living room, while allowing me to prattle on to him about his film’s resonance, as if he were unaware). And in 2015, and in an interesting turn of events, I nearly portrayed the iconic killer in a proposed San Diego Comic Con teaser for filmmaker Marcus Dunstan’s aborted Dimension feature, Halloween Returns.

Why me, you ask? Because as Dunstan was gleefully aware, for the past half a decade, each year on Halloween, I’ve donned a custom-made, screen quality jumpsuit and mask, and to the delight and often sheer terror of those evening’s trick or treaters, stalked Orange Grove Avenue in West Hollywood: the very street which Laurie traversed on the flickering screen in that San Francisco cinema so many years ago before my terrified, eight-year-old eyes.

After all, everyone’s still entitled to one good scare.

_ _ _

TAKEN FROM THE BOOK
MY FAVORITE HORROR MOVIE
© 2018 CHRISTIAN ACKERMAN/BLACK VORTEX CINEMA
MYFAVORITEHORRORMOVIE.COM

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Trancas International Films or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Series Producer Malek Akkad Talks the Past, Present & Future of Halloween

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Back on February 1st of this year while on the Charleston, South Carolina set of director David Gordon Green’s forthcoming feature film Halloween, HalloweenMovies.com had a chance to sit down with one of the film’s producers, Malek Akkad, in order to discuss the much anticipated series relaunch, as well as the future of the franchise itself.

The first film in the series in nine years, the simply titled Halloween was written by Danny McBride, Jeff Fradley and David Gordon Green (the latter who also directs), and is intended as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 film of the same name. Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and returning series star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

Having joined us between takes in the small living room of a house being used for principal photography, we dove right in, asking Akkad (whose life from a young age has been intertwined with the franchise), ‘How did the partnership come about with Blumhouse on this eleventh film in the series?’

“Well, that’s a complicated question,” replied the forty-nine year old filmmaker. “We had done the previous five films with the Weinsteins (who we had) parted ways (with) about two years ago,” and acknowledging Harvey Weinstein’s legal woes added, “(which) some might say was very fortunate timing, and we were then with the original Miramax again. So we started looking at who would be a good partner for this, not only from Miramax’s point of view (in order) to help finance and distribute the film, but also to bring some new life into it. Blumhouse just seemed like a natural fit, and they’ve been great.”

John Carpenter and Malek Akkad

As for what direction Akkad – who has served as producer on six of the Halloween films – had intended the series to take, “Over the seven years since the last installment, I think there’s been dozens of different takes and pitches and starts and stops,” he recalled. “At one point after Halloween II, we were right back in development on Halloween 3D,” an iteration which was slated to be tackled by Drive Angry’s Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier, “and a couple (of other) different incarnations.”

“The last go around was Halloween Returns,” he continued, which was to be a feature ‘recalibration’ scripted by Feast and The Collector’s series Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan and slated to be helmed by the latter, but which failed to materialize due to the expiration of rights then held by The Weinstein Company’s Dimension Films, “so there’s probably about four movies that could have been done in that time, but I think it was all for a good reason and the result, as you guys will see, is really great.”

As for series originator John Carpenter’s return to the fold here as an executive producer and composer, “As soon as we did part ways with The Weinstein Company, the first call I made was to John, and I just said, ‘You know, there’s no way we’re going to do one without you,’” said Akkad.

“It’s huge, to be here working with John, and Jamie (Lee Curtis) and all of those guys that who did the first film,” he continued. “I was an eight year old kid at the time (the original was made). It’s been a huge part of my life, and I can honestly say (that) no one would be happier than my father to see what we’re doing with it. He was the biggest champion of the franchise there was, (and) he kept it alive through many periods where it could have easily gone another way.”

Moustapha Akkad and Jamie Lee Curtis

Of Akkad’s late father Moustapha, who served as an executive producer on the first eight Halloween films, the elder Akkad was also a celebrated director in his own right, having directed 1980’s Lion of the Desert and 1976’s controversial Anthony Quinn starrer The Message. The latter, a historical epic banned in Arab territories for the past forty-two years, recently received a 4K restoration spearheaded by Malek and a subsequent world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival. Now playing in wide release across the region, the championing of his father’s work can be seen not only in this film (and in the documentary he’s making about the process of restoring and releasing it), but in the care Akkad is taking as well in this latest entry in the Halloween franchise.

“You’re always wondering what the fans reaction to that is going to be,” Akkad mused regarding Green’s now well-established relaunch in narrative, one which picks up directly where Carpenter’s 1978 classic leaves off.

To a large extent, it’s a clean slate, and from a director not known for their work within the genre.

“When you hear it from filmmakers like Green and McBride, that’s what makes you feel comfortable in doing it,” continued Akkad. “For me, from the get go, what was really important was (that) this franchise should be able to attract an A-list director. That was kind of the mandate, and Jason Blum really agreed and championed that idea as well, and I give him credit for bringing in a filmmaker like David.”

Does Akkad miss any of the series’ previously established narrative threads, ala Halloween 5 & 6’s “The Curse of Thorn,” which have now subsequently been abandoned?

“You know, there’s been so many left turns,” he answered. “One of the films I did not work on was Halloween 5, and that ending for example is so out of left field and to be honest, they didn’t even know how they were going to answer that: the man in black thing.”

“At one point,” Akkad continued, “We were working on Halloween 9, and there were so many loose ends after Resurrection. (It was) a huge puzzle to solve and my father, God bless him, was working with us on that. After he passed away we were going to start fresh (and) that was Rob Zombie’s (2007 film). He got to take his crack at that apple. (But) there are so many arcs in (the series) that you can never satisfy them all, and I think what David and Danny and Jeff have done has really cracked it, in a way that the fans are going to love. All the homages they’ve put in this film: there are just so many little Easter Eggs and touches to the original. Ultimately, we want to do something that the fans will love, and we also want it to be fresh.”

Regarding the always fervent Halloween fan-base and its response, “You’re always going to have people who are supportive (and) people who are not,” he said. “For example, when we did the (2007) remake I knew that was going to cause quite a stir, and it did. The only thing you can say is, ‘Well, if you want the original you’ve got the original,’ but I think this film is doing it in a way that will satisfy and really engage viewers, and hopefully be a really satisfying movie for the fans. Having done so many of these (films) at this point in time, I’ve never been more excited and more confident in that what we’re doing here.”

Image Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Much like the varied narrative threads which run throughout the series, the iconic killer’s mask has also differed from entry to entry, sometimes to the chagrin of fans. The original and regarded stemmed from a mold taken of William Shatner’s face for the 1975 Robert Fuest-directed horror film The Devil’s Rain in which he starred, which then served as the impetus for the Captain Kirk masks produced by Don Post Studios. In 1978, it was this Captain Kirk mask which the Halloween production picked up for a $1.98 at Burt Wheeler’s now defunct magic shop on Hollywood Blvd., and then modified. The result became the ghostly visage which has haunted theaters-goers for the past four decades.

Akkad was asked if Shatner has ever commented on this.

“Not to me directly,” stated the filmmaker, “and from what I hear he doesn’t really acknowledge it. I think he makes light of it. We actually have one of the original impressions of Shatner in our office in L.A., so obviously we’re really grateful to him, and in certain ways we’ve tried to reach out to him (to) maybe do an appearance? Lord know he’s busy enough with Star Trek stuff…but you never know.”

As for the production’s approach to creating the mask on display in this latest Halloween film (see our in-depth interview with Academy award winning FX artist Christopher Nelson here), Akkad stated, “Chris is an amazing artist. We’re super lucky to have him. There’s this love for this franchise that fortunately attracts great talent like that, and it’s also gone on to launch a lot of great talent, but Chris, David and I, we collectively conceptually wanted this mask to be special. Where would it be in the timeline of these events? And how would it look? It’s always been a difficult thing to get the mask right. As you know, there’s been hits and big misses. But what Chris has done is fantastic.”

In this continuity and with the character of Michael Myers turning sixty-one years old this year in it, the subject of not only the character’s age came up, but of the longevity of the franchise itself.

“It’s definitely something we talked about and thought about, and I think absolutely it’s a terrifying prospect,” Akkad coyly offered of Myers advancing years. “I mean, you can look at someone like Mickey Rourke, not that he’s terrifying, (but) someone who’s fit and that age, and I think it’s exciting because it gives us more options and things that we can do later, and hopefully this won’t be the last one.”

As for the longevity of the series, “My father used to always quote Donald Pleasance,” he continued. “He had asked Donald on the set of Halloween 6, ‘How many of these are you going to keep doing?’ and Donald said, ‘I’m not going to keep doing them, I’m going to stop at twenty two,’ and that was my father’s favorite quote. So as long as we’re doing something that the fans like, and there’s respect for the franchise, hopefully we’ll keep doing them.”

Green, McBride and Fradley’s new take on the material may indeed assist in that, given that in addition to showcasing an entirely new showdown between final girl Laurie and The Shape, it introduces two new generations of Strode women, Laurie’s daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson (portrayed by actresses Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, respectively).

Image Courtesy of Universal Pictures

“Jamie Lee is the greatest,” effused Akkad of the return of the series’ heroine. “She’s the best thing about this franchise, other than Michael, and we’re so honored to have her back, and I think what David’s done with the three generations of women has really kind of opened this up, where it’s not just the typical teenage victim (as it is in most slasher films). It’s broadened it. It’s a more mature (form of) storytelling, and again I think that just comes down to a filmmaker like David Gordon Green.”

Of that form of storytelling, Akkad was asked whether or not Green’s take on the subject matter will attempt a balance between the rather bloodless suspense of Carpenter’s original and the cinematic brutality as evidenced in Zombie’s remake – the latter something modern audiences perhaps expect.

“My personal taste is definitely for the former,” he replied. “More elegant. It’s what you don’t see and it’s the moments leading up to the kill that are more terrifying for me. It’s interesting because we had some sort of battles with Rob Zombie’s (films), especially the second one which became a very violent and bloody film. It’s a taste thing I guess, and that’s more of Rob’s style, and that certainly found an audience and people who liked that. Personally I like the more bloodless elegance, and I will say I don’t think anybody who’s into that, or the gore and special effects (for that matter) are going to be disappointed in this one, (because) David is taking both to a higher level.”

As for working with often horror hit factory Blumhouse (post Get Out and the accolades they’ve received for it) on Halloween, “Jason’s really cracked that Rubik’s Cube on how to do big, theatrical horror and we’ve never seen that on this scale,” Akkad offered. “So it’s a really exciting time for horror, and a really exciting time to be working with them, honestly. What I’ve noticed is that they’re an artist driven company, and that’s a very admirable thing.”

“It all goes back of course to what John did in the original,” he mused when queried on his thoughts pertaining to  the film’s legacy. “I think he disrupted the space so completely with this low budget film. It was so terrifying, and (he) created this iconic character in Michael Myers which has become part of the American lexicon. Now we’ve got an audience that spans generations. It’s crazy how long I’ve been a part of it (and) that’s exciting.”

Akkad concluded of Green’s Halloween, “I think this film will also broaden our audience even more, and there’s probably the younger generation who probably hasn’t even seen the original, or any in the franchise, and I think the beauty of this film is it will be a stand-alone piece of work by David that you can take on its own.”

Regarding the potential of an expanded Halloween universe, Akkad hinted at the property’s continuing spin-off into other forms of media (ala the asymmetrical horror survival video game Dead by Daylight which in 2016 added Myers as an antagonist), “This year there are going to be some big announcements to that effect, in looking at new forms of media. Attractions, videogames, VR, it’s all sort of being discussed so stay tuned, this year is going to be a big year for Halloween.”

And given the H40: 40 Years of Terror – The 40th Anniversary Halloween Event was recently announced, we believe him.

Halloween is set for release by Universal Pictures this coming October 19, 2018.

Writer’s note: this interview was edited and condensed for clarity.