Laurie Strode

On February 1^st of this year, HalloweenMovies sat down with writer and director David Gordon Green and writer Danny McBride (two creatives and ex-college buddies whose past work lays primarily outside of the horror genre) on the set of Halloween in Charleston, South Carolina, in order to discuss their approach (along with co-writer Jeff Fradley) in bringing not only Michael Myers back to the screen, but in delivering a Halloween film which posseses direct ties in narrative and style to Carpenter’s 1978 classic.

“All of the films from the seventies: it’s truly a decade that I geek out about,” effused forty-three year old Green, whose most known for helming the comedic drama series “Eastbound & Down” starring Halloween co-writer McBride. “Suspiria and Halloween were the two films that really hit me in my youth. I always look at my age between eleven and seventeen, when I was just absorbing things and digging through things. Music to me was The Doors and movies to me were horror films like Suspiria, Halloween and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It was a time where I was so effected by the things I was seeing, and I’ve really retained them, even when I was in my twenties and even in film school, those early teen years meant so much to me.”

Meant so much that at one point, prior to director Luca Guadagnino’s helming of the upcoming 2018 remake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, that Green was enthusiastically attached to write and direct his own retelling of the giallo horror classic, of which he’d intended to be a faithful adaptation, complete with portions of the original score by Goblin which he’d prememptively licensed.

“Creatively, Suspiria was a big one,” Green said, “and that was very exciting. I actually I wrote it with our (Halloween) production sound mixer Chris Hubert, but our version was very expensive and never ended up getting made. But Luca has now taken it on and has made a nice name for himself as a director. I wrote him the other day and asked him when I get to see it, because I need a peek.”

The eleventh film in the long-running franchise, 2018’s Halloween is intended as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s seminal 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, the latter 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.

As for the trio’s scripted approach to the latest Halloween film, the first installment in nine years and the second time in the franchise, not counting Rob Zombie’s films, in which the narrative discounts the existence of previous sequels, McBride stated, “I think it’s kind of cool to see what different filmmakers will do with a property that is so well known. I would rather have that approach to Michael Myers than everyone just continuing some storyline and just trying to regurgitate these things. I think it’s more interesting to have someone like David or Rob Zombie to just come and put their own stamp on it, for better or for worse. I think that’s a more interesting way for a franchise to stay alive than to just continue to beat the same drum over and over again.”

With Marvel having successfully done the same quite recently with the Spider-Man franchise, and fans of it happy to accept the various director’s unique interpretations of that universe, will Halloween aficionados do the same? Green’s hopeful.

“We have so much respect for the entire franchise, and that went into what we’re trying to engineer; literally a love of horror movies and a love of every Halloween movie across the board,” said the director. “We were trying to come up with what our take would be and really just found an original path that more or less takes the first one as our reality, (and) how we meet our characters in a different phase of their life under the reality of this traumatic event, and (how they) have to come to terms with some of these issues. Horrifically, in many circumstances, and that’s kind of the fun of how we launch off. There’s a lot of things that we haven’t revealed. Obviously a lot of the fun is (in) those reveals, and seeing how these things unfold, how these characters interact with one another and who they have become, and hopefully to honor the franchise in what we’ve painted in our very unique portrait.”

Does this portrait address the fate of Dr. Loomis?

“It does, yes,” succinctly allowed Green.

Given the trio’s similar background in lighter fare (the previously mentioned series “Eastbound & Down,” McBride’s well known turns in the feature films Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express, and Fradley with the series “Vice Principals”), the conversation turned towards the similarity of scripted timing in both comedy and horror.

“We have talked about that a lot,” said McBride, “(and) that transition wasn’t that hard to make because I think with comedy you have to be very aware of where the audience is so you can decide what’s going to work next for them and what’s not going to work for them. I think when it came to pacing scares or even just the suspense or tension of a sequence, I think it’s very much engineered the same way. (You have to) have your finger on the pulse of exactly where you’re expecting the audience to be, so you can play with their expectations of where they think it is going to go next.”

With the latest Halloween revolving around three generations of Strode women (matriarch Laurie, daughter Karen and with focus high-school granddaughter Allyson), McBride offered, “I think that came up organically the very first time David and I talked. With the first Halloween, no one had been in a situation with Michael Myers before, so there’s this innocence, so I think by having multiple generations, we were able to cast a teenager who can give us that. (She’s) never seen violence like this so she has been able to have a normal life (and) have friends and not be constantly afraid, so I think it was a way to keep what was cool from the first Halloween, that sort of innocent ‘in’ to the story.”

While freeing themselves from any responsibility to the loose continuity of the previous sequels’ story-lines (from Halloween 4, 5 & 6’s The Curse of Thorn concept to Keri Tate’s dispatch of Myers…er, an EMT in H20/Halloween: Resurrection to Rob Zombie’s 2007 reboot and 2009 sequel), the trio do plan to pay homage to the series as whole.

“Anyone who’s a fan of any of these films will find nice little Easter eggs acknowledging our salute to the filmmakers that have preceded us,” stated Green. “For us (though), it was a ‘clean slate’ type of opportunity, where if there was a little inspiration or mirror image of something, it’s very subtle in the movie because we want to start fresh for a new generation, but with (still a) great appreciation for the previous.”

(Writer’s note: check out mark 2:06 in the film’s trailer for such an example, and you’ll spot trick or treaters sporting Silver Shamrock masks from 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch).

The subject of onscreen violence is broached, in that while Green’s Halloween is intended to serve as a direct sequel in tone and style to Carpenter’s nearly bloodless classic, the slasher subgenre as a whole has historically ramped up the savagery, often is its hallmark, as the years have progressed.

“It’s something we’re really monitoring and playing with in production until we get into post,” communicated Green. “We’ve got Chris Nelson (see our interview with him here), who’s an incredible makeup and effects artist, so right now as were filming we’re keeping in mind first and foremost tension and anxiety, which I think are the greatest elements this film can offer. Even the scene we’re working on today, we’ll do takes where it’s less blood and more blood just to see how it unfolds in the editing process. For me, the original Halloween was my first horror film, and it means a lot to me, just in terms of my enthusiasm for the genre. From a splatter-slasher film to a psychological thriller, I love all those elements, so I’m learning every day and exploring every day, and I’ll know a lot more in a couple of months when I start to put the footage together to see the degree of gore, but we are in certainly very capable artistic hands.”

As for executive producer Carpenter’s guidance, “His advice was brilliant: ‘Make it relentless,’” said Green. “He had notes, which is something I was extremely nervous about. We worked very hard on the script, and we were all very excited. It’s one thing for three movie nerds, me, Danny and Jeff (Fradley), to geek out over the opportunity of maneuvering within this property, (and) another to basically go kiss the ring of the godfather and see how that goes. I was sweating bullets.”

“It’s very similar to how we do the TV show,” opened up Green of their scripting process. “We sit in a room, and luckily we’ve all known each other since college so we don’t get tired when the other person speaks, and we will just outline and discuss and talk about it, and get an outline we like. Then we just divide the outline up. Everybody takes chunks and so by the time the script is finished you have no idea what you wrote (or) what somebody else wrote. It’s all just one cohesive thing.”

Pertaining to their script, and in particular to the character of Myers, “I’d like to know as little about him or his history and abilities as possible,” the director offered. “I think there was a reason he was called The Shape (in the original) because in some ways he’s more of an essence than he is a traditional character. (It’s in) finding that line between natural and supernatural worlds, and (in a) mysterious and un-verbalized (way) as we can. In some ways it’s like a film like Jaws. There’s not a lot of personality in the shark. Technically he’s very elusive, and we’re trying to keep that as our framework and not get too much into who he is (or) why he is (or) what he’s been doing.”

McBride chimed in, “I was pushing for the removal (of the familial mythology set up in Halloween II) right off the bat. I just felt like that was an area where he wasn’t quite as scary anymore. It seemed too personalized. I wasn’t as afraid of Michael Myers anymore, because I’m not his fucking brother so he’s not coming after me. So it just seemed like new territory to bite off. Maybe we’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, it was such a mistake not to make them siblings,’ but I don’t know, it seemed as opposed to just duplicating it, would be cool to see if it gives us something else.”

Michael’s sister or not, within the new narrative Laurie’s been training for a showdown with Myers for some time, and Green was asked, ‘How are you going to refrain from turning her into Sarah Connor?’

“Did we?” laughed Green. “Jamie just started (shooting) this week, and we’ve been sculpting the character for months and months with her, and coming up with something that we thought would be fun. We’ll find that physicality as we go. We haven’t filmed the climax yet so we’ll see how badass she gets.”

As for the level of scrutiny by the fan community the project has been under since its initial announcement, Green stated, “You know, I think the most pressure I have is wanting John (Carpenter) to be involved and enthusiastic and (to) see what we’re doing and appreciate what we’re doing, and to support in those collaborative elements. At this point, creatively, for my own protection, I have to acknowledge my collaborators. Everyone on this set is working out of passion for this movie, and that’s interesting, because you don’t often see a passion project as a low-budget horror film. But this particular one is, and we’re really lucky to have the people that we have: intelligent, technical and creative minds all around us. So I’m looking at that as my shell, my place to hide and to create, and the support of these dozens of voices is incredibly gratifying, but also a bit overwhelming. If I was to, at this point in the creative process, to assume the worldwide enthusiasm for this franchise, I’d probably be very uncomfortable with that.”

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