After 40 Years, Evil Returns Home in “Halloween”
Universal Pictures and Blumhouse resets the timeline to bring Halloween to a new generation. Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.
Master of horror John Carpenter executive produces and serves as creative consultant on this film, joining forces with cinema’s current leading producer of horror, Jason Blum (Get Out, Split, The Purge, Paranormal Activity). Inspired by Carpenter’s classic, filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride crafted a story that carves a new path from the events in the landmark 1978 film, and Green also directs.
Reflecting on his creation with co-writer Debra Hill, Carpenter understands why audiences continue to be terrified by this embodiment of fear. “Michael Myers, with his mask and his gas-station attendant’s uniform, is a character who is between a human being and the supernatural. He is the ultimate force of evil. He is ruthless, and there’s no reasoning or praying to God to save you. He has a single purpose, and that’s to kill you. Michael Myers is a relentless force of nature. He’s just coming, and you got to get out of his way.”
A massive fan of the first Halloween, Blum feels that it’s one of the most perfect horror films ever made…and had no interest in developing the project without running it by the director who’d inspired much of his own career. “Getting John Carpenter’s blessing was a prerequisite for Blumhouse being involved in this movie,” Blum reflects. “I wasn’t going to pursue making a Halloween movie without him. So, the first person I went to was John. I asked him, ‘Do you want to jump in?’ He happily agreed to do just that.”
Blum promised Carpenter—who calls Blum “the LeBron James of horror cinema”—that they wouldn’t move forward until he was happy with the director they had in mind…as well as the script that was being developed. To that end, Blum knew one filmmaker he thought might be interested. What he found was that David Gordon Green would not only want to helm Halloween, he’d want to collaborate with his longtime writing partners to craft the screenplay.
For Blum, it is the not knowing the why behind Michael Myers’ motivation that is so terrifying. He also wholly agreed with the collaborators’ idea that this should be Laurie’s final confrontation with Michael, and that the film would reset the series. “This was 100 percent their pitch to me. The idea I brought to the filmmakers was to make a new Halloween movie. I told them they should imagine what would excite them and what they would most like to see. It was their idea to make this movie a continuation of the first Halloween.”
Green recalls that hearing from Blum was one of the more pivotal episodes of his career. “I remember that moment vividly, getting up in the morning and seeing this email from Jason asking to have me in the Halloween franchise. I immediately felt strange, like when you’re standing on the edge of a cliff and your legs start to give out. It triggered a lot of my enthusiasm from when I was a kid and would sneak into movies I shouldn’t have been watching. Halloween was the pinnacle of all of them.”
The producer shares that the matchup between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode is one for which audiences have waited a long time, and Green surpassed his expectations. “You go to a movie for an absolute thrill ride and for the surprise. The journey, particularly in this one—and this confrontation that has been brewing for 40 years between these two—upon his release is very satisfying.”
In Philippine cinemas October 17, Halloween is distributed in the Philippines by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/
