Tag: Halloween

V/H/S Halloween Poster

Indie Horror Darling Sarah Nicklin Talks V/H/S Halloween Segment “Home Haunt”

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Indie horror star Sarah Nicklin (Popeye the Slayer Man, The Black Mass) really wanted a role in the latest V/H/S installment, V/H/S Halloween, to the point she almost landed a smaller role in another segment. Eventually, directors Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman cast her as Nancy, a mom whose husband and son bring home a cursed L.P. that transforms their home haunt into a murderous and blood-thirsty scene. “Home Haunt” closes out the anthology, and it’s one of the strongest segments, complete with 80s Halloween vibes and killer set designs.

Recently, for 1428 Elm, I interviewed Nicklin about her relationship with the horror genre and her part in V/H/S Halloween. You can read the full interview here. I included some of it below. V/H/S Halloween is currently streaming on Shudder.

How did you become involved with V/H/S Halloween?

Sarah Nicklin: The directors of my segment are Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman. I’ve been friends and fans of theirs for a long time. They did a short film a couple of years ago called Grummy that’s absolutely incredible. Besides loving them as people, I wanted to work with them.

They were selected as some of the directors for a segment. They said that they had in their script a role for a mom that I could potentially be a fit for. I was super excited. I also tried to hedge my bets a little. Just because they say they want you for something doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. The producers might want something specific or someone else. Things happen.

In this case, when they said they wanted me, it actually came through and worked out really well. I think that says everything about who they are as people. They’re very loyal and generous people. It also says a lot about the producing team of V/H/S. They trust the directors.

I did also audition for a different segment before I even realized it was V/H/S Halloween. On the audition notice, it just said the name of the segment. I did book a smaller role in a different segment. They treat each segment as their own movie. When I found out I had booked that first one, a couple weeks before “Home Haunt,” which was the last one to be filmed, I had to turn that one down before I had gotten the official offer for Nancy, which was really scary. As an actor, you never really want to turn down work. Luckly, it all came through the way it was meant to. I got to work in the role and segment I really wanted

You have an impressive list of horror movie credits. Other than the anthology format, what makes V/H/S Halloween different than your previous projects?

Sarah Nicklin: V/H/S is different because it has a big following. There are fans who really love these series of films, which I’ve learned since becoming part of it and going to conventions. There’s a good amount of pride and also pressure that comes with that to ensure you’re doing a good job, not that I didn’t want to do a good job on previous projects. It’s one of those things where you know there will be eyes on it. Other films I’ve done were very indie. They don’t have a name like Shudder behind them. You hope they’ll get picked up and be seen, whereas this one is coming out on Shudder no matter what. There was definitely some pressure that went into that.

I also think doing the found footage format is more unique, as opposed to other films, like Popeye, that are more standard. With found footage, even though you know where the camera is going, you have to be on all the time. The camera moves around so quickly and it can catch you when it’s not really meant to. It’s almost more like you’re doing a play and you forget about the camera. If the camera gets you, great. If not, you keep going. With other films, like Black Mass and Popeye, if you know you’re not on camera, you can dial it down a little bit. With this one, there wasn’t really an option to do that.

Your segment is about a family’s haunted house that comes to life and kills. What was it like walking through those haunted house rooms on set?

Sarah Nicklin: It was a dream, honestly. I’m a big fan of fantasy films. This felt like being in Labyrinth orThe Dark Crystal. I also felt like this really captured the essence of Halloween, but also that fantastical quality. There was a moment when I looked around and thought it was so cool and that it’s everything I ever wanted when I was little. It’s an incredible, magical set. I got to do a cool horror movie with people I really respect. That’s the dream. I loved every second of being there and working with the cast and crew. It felt so nostalgic, especially growing up in the 80s. It was a really special project for me in a lot of ways, especially to interact with those production designs.

I love the scene where your character takes an axe and then kills an executioner in one of the haunt rooms. What was it like filming that? Was it as fun as it looks?

Sarah Nicklin: It was very fun to do. I really like doing physical stuff, and any chance to fight monsters. is always great. All of that stuff was also very difficult, too. It’s very specific with found footage. With that sequence, they built a specific rig with the camera. It could be kicked on the ground and twisted to ensure it captured everything. All of our movements were very technical to ensure we were where we needed to be so the camera could catch it. There was also the strobing of the lights and carrying an axe, trying to make it look heavy. It was a foam axe. There was a lot of choreography that went into it.  

Sarah Nicklin in V/H/S Halloween Promo

How much say did you have over your costume design, and did you push to have the puffy 80s hairdo?

Sarah Nicklin: The look of everything was really Micheline’s vision. She has a wonderful eye for aesthetics and for detail. With the hair, she said she wanted me to have an 80s perm. She found a wig she wanted me to wear. That was all her.

We did do a series of costume fittings. A lot of the costume options for me were actually from Micheline’s personal collection. She really wanted it to be period accurate. She has a lot of her own vintage clothing from that time. We did go through a couple of different outfits. I did get to have a little bit of say in terms of what I was wearing. The sweater that I’m wearing with the hair feels very 80s mom. They went ahead with the pants that were the most 80s. [Laughs]. You had to go with the 80s mom jeans and the waist all the way up.

What’s next for you, and what keeps you coming back to the horror genre?

Sarah Nicklin: I really love horror because it’s such a great community of people. When I first wanted to be an actor, I didn’t set out specifically to work in horror. That just kind of happened. Horror is so loyal, and there’s such a community around it. That kind of snowballed, and now, I’ve been working in horror for a long time.

I go to other sets, and I feel out of place. I’ve been to sets where people look down on horror. They say it’s gross. I think that’s the most fun part, getting to do all the gore. Horror sets are the most fun. With horror sets, because such gruesome stuff happens in front of the camera, the sets are very lively. The people love the genre and put their hearts into it. I like to work in that kind of environment.

Why the Wolf Man (1941) remains a sympathetic symbol of otherness

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***This essay was first published at 1428 Elm. You can read it in full here.***

While other Universal Monsters have sympathetic stories, especially Frankenstein’s Monster, few convey otherness as much as Larry Talbot, also known as The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.). With Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man set to howl in theaters this weekend, now’s a great time to revisit the 1941 film and explore its themes of otherness, including the impact of WWII on its writer, Curt Siodmak, a Jewish man who fled to the U.S. to escape persecution.

From the outset, the parallels between what Jewish people faced in Nazi Germany and Larry’s plight are evident. The film opens with a close-up of an ancient text detailing the mark of the werewolf. It includes a five-pointed star, similar to the Star of David. When Larry is bitten early in the film, he eventually bears the mark on his chest, making him an outcast and drawing the townspeople’s suspicion.

Even prior to the bite, Larry is associated with the symbol. While flirting with his love interest, Gwen (Evelyn Ankers), at an antique shop, he purchases a cane with the wolf symbol. Gwen warns him that the image is associated with the werewolf, but he doesn’t care and dismisses it.

The Wolf Man‘saddress of otherness is no coincidence. Siodmak’s New York Times obituary includes a quote from him that states, “I am the Wolf Man,” before adding, “I was forced into a fate I didn’t want: to be a Jew in Germany. I would not have chosen that as my fate. The swastika represents the moon. When the moon comes up, the man doesn’t want to murder, but he knows he cannot escape it, the Wolf Man destiny.”

Siodmak’s quote is interesting because it depicts the Wolf Man as both victim and murderer. Larry Talbot can’t escape his fate, nor can he quell his murderous impulses. Even before he transforms into a wolf, he kills a Romani fortune teller named Bela (Bela Lugosi) by brutally bludgeoning him with the cane, which causes the bite. To be fair, Bela was in wolf form, but the scene is prolonged and quite shocking.

Unfortunately, there is no escape for Larry Talbot. His story begins and ends in sorrow. He only returns to his family’s estate because his older brother died in a hunting accident, so the care of the estate falls upon him. At one point, Gwen’s actual fiancé, Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles), notes that there’s something very tragic about Talbot. He also refuses to shake his hand, again othering Larry, before he tells Gwen that he couldn’t help but notice the wolf handle and star on Larry’s cane.

Larry’s fate only worsens when the townspeople hunt him down in the woods, in true Universal Monsters fashion. He dies at the hands of his very own father (Claude Rains), who doesn’t know that the Wolf Man is his son. Larry’s struck down by the same cane that he used to kill Bela. It’s a haunting, poetic, and sad ending for one of Universal’s most well-known monsters.

Besides Larry’s association with otherness, there’s also the depiction of the Romani people. As soon as they’re introduced, they’re linked to the Old World and superstitions. In fact, the set design changes from city streets to a foggy landscape with gnarled trees and stunning gothic backdrops. Larry then meets Bela and his mother, Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), who eventually explains the werewolf curse.

Like Larry, the Romani people are scorned by some townspeople, who decry their traditions. Similar to the Jewish people, Nazis targeted the Romani people for extermination. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, a resource of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, beginning in 1933, the Nazis started persecuting the Romani people in Germany, forcing them into internment camps. It’s estimated that the Nazis murdered at least 250,000 European Roma, but the number could be as high as 500,000.

Considering these facts, it’s no surprise that Siodmak created Romani characters and used them as an integral part of the story. Larry Talbot eventually has more in common with them than his flesh-and-blood family. He learns the full extent of the curse and his otherness through them. Meanwhile, Maleva, more than any other character, tries to protect and save Larry, giving him a pendant at first to break the curse before encouraging him to run. She understands the danger Larry poses but also how their society shuns anyone deemed different.

Lon Chaney Jr.’s performance as the Wolf Man remains a horror staple because he’s a tragic figure who embodies otherness. The film works well because it draws upon Siodmak’s lived experience as a Jewish man living during World War II. Larry Talbot’s story and curse is heartbreaking, and Chaney Jr. plays it perfectly with great pathos.

In Honor of John Carpenter’s Hollywood Star

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Recently, for 1428 Elm, I made a list of my favorite John Carpenter films in honor of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, coming next year. This got me thinking a lot about Carpenter, who has pretty much stopped directing (I don’t really count that Suburban Screams episode last fall as a proper return) to record music and still score some films. He also plays a lot of video games now, apparently. Still, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a director who has had more impact on the horror genre than Carpenter, other than maybe James Whale, Wes Craven, and Hitchcock.

If you asked me, I couldn’t tell you which Carpenter film I saw first. Was it Halloween? Was it The Thing? Was it The Fog? Most likely, I first viewed his work with my dad, who made a habit of renting horror movies with me when I was a kid, and I’m fairly certain that’s when I first encountered the maestro’s work, likely when I was 10, 11, or 12. Years later, in college, my friends and I had horror movie marathons at least once a month. Carpenter’s work factored heavily into our screenings, and it’s then I encountered some of his lesser-known work, like Princess of Darkness and Assault on Precinct 13.

The older I get, the more I’m drawn to some of these less-revered films, especially the later parts of what Carpenter described as his “apocalypse” trilogy. This trilogy began with The Thing in 1982, but I find myself rewatching Prince of Darkness (1987) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994) more. Because I’ve taught Halloween so many times in my horror film/literature class and because The Thing is so revered, and rightfully so, I’ve taken a pause from those classics in part because they feel so inescapable.

Prince of Darkness caught my attention in the last year or two because that film, while incredibly eerie, also has such a profound sense of dread to it. In short, there’s nothing optimistic about Prince of Darkness. It’s incredibly freakin’ bleak. Even though Childs or MacReady may be infected at the end of The Thing, the last shot shows them sitting around a fire, trading a bottle of whiskey back and forth. You hold out hope one of them will survive the night. There’s no chance for that at the conclusion of Prince of Darkness and you start to think that yes, the world may end, after graduate students and scientist unleash a strange goop from an ancient canister that ushers in Satan. Hey, I didn’t say the plot was perfect. Oh, and did I mention that Donald Pleasance plays a priest, and there’s a cameo by Alice Cooper?!

In the Mouth of Madness is Carpenter’s last truly big film, and he really went crazy with it. The film stars Sam Neill, who plays an insurance investigator sent to solve the mystery of Sutter Cane’s disappearance. Cane is a horror novelist whose work is similar to Lovecraft and whose pages start to become real. This film is all out bonkers, and it’s so much fun to see Neill return to the horror genre after the massive success of Jurassic Park. For me, this one has plenty of rewatch value because of Neill’s performance and for what it has to say about mass marketing, consumption, and even the publishing industry itself. It’s also a fitting conclusion to the apocalypse trilogy. It’s also a thrill ride to see a Lovecraftian Carpenter film.

It’s unclear if Carpenter will ever direct a full-length feature again. He’s stated in the past he wants to, but regardless, his legacy is secured. Halloween and The Thing especially are essentially inescapable classics at this point, referenced in countless other films. Yet, for as much as I love those two works, I find myself returning to Carpenter’s mid-career films much more, appreciating them years later.

In Defense of Halloween….6?!

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Photo Courtesy of Dimension Films

Few films in the Halloween franchise are as maligned as Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), well, other than Halloween: Resurrection (2002) or maybe Rob Zombie’s two entries. The sixth entry, which also marked the beginning of Dimension films, is weird, for sure. It includes a cult that tries to control Michael Myers, and it attempts to tie up the loose ends of the woeful Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), which underperformed at the box office to the point that it took six years to make another sequel. Hear me out, however. Halloween 6 is a DECENT installment. It makes Michael Myers scary again. It has teenagers that are likeable, and director Joe Chappelle’s direction has a beautiful Gothic aesthetic.

The film picks up some years after Halloween 5’s conclusion. Michael’s niece, Jamie Lloyd (J.C. Brandy), is pregnant, and based on the opening, we can assume she’s carrying Michael’s seed. She’s strapped to a table, surrounded by robe-cladded monsters. Are they Satanists? Who knows exactly! I said the film is weird. A nurse helps Jamie escape, but it doesn’t take long before Myers tracks her down and kills her. Her death is one of the most brutal takes in the Halloween franchise. The scene is important for a few reasons. It shows that the franchise is done with the Jamie storyline of the previous two installments. She’s killed off in about 15 minutes. Further, her death sets the tone for Michael’s kills for the rest of the movie. They’re bloody and gruesome. Additionally, the aesthetic of the shot is stunning in a Gothic kind of way. Rain pounds outside the barn where Jamie hides. Thunder cracks. Michael finds her and approaches from the shadows. There’s a blue light cast on him, not too dissimilar from Carpenter’s shots in the original film.

The rest of the film has several other nods to Gothic horror films. Two of the film’s most likeable teens, Beth (Mariah O’Brien) and Tim (Keith Bogart), dress up as The Bride and Monster for Halloween. In one of the film’s last sequences, the film’s final girl of sorts, Kara Strode (Marianne Hagan), wears a long white robe similar to the one that Elsa Lanchester wore as The Bride.

Photo Courtesy of Dimension Films

Myers’ house, meanwhile, is occupied by Kara’s family, but it’s the neighborhood spookhouse. It LOOKs run down and dilapidated, and kids mount cardboard cutouts of Michael Myers. It is a looming presence in the film, something that continues drawing Michael back to Haddonfield, a place that’s familiar to him. In fact, some of the best kills happen in the house, and one echoes P.J. Soles’ death in the original.

It’s impossible to talk about the sixth installment without mentioning two of its main characters, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) in his final performance and Tommy Doyle, played by Paul Rudd in his FIRST major performance. Pleasence really leans into the mad aspects of the character, thus furthering the film’s Gothic underpinnings. At the start of the film, he’s retired, hauled up in a cabin, working on a book. His burn scars from the second film’s conclusion are even more grotesque. He spends much of the film chasing Myers one last time, while ranting about all the years he spent trying to understand “evil.”

Photo Courtesy of Dimension Films

Doyle is one of the film’s most interesting characters. His trauma from being terrorized as a kid in the first film manifests itself into an obsession. He has pictures of Myers tacked up in his bedroom. He peers through a telescope at his neighbors, and he rarely smiles. Loomis has always been obsessed with Myers. Doyle, however, takes it to another level. It consumes him, and Rudd does a good job in the role.

Lastly, and this is a BIG spoiler alert, the film corrects the mistakes of the previous installment. In one of the bloodiest scenes, Michael kills off every single member of the cult, thus erasing that absurd ending of part five. You can’t help but cheer when he does this. It’s an attempt to right the franchise going forward; unfortunately, the next sequel, just might be the WORST Halloween of the bunch.

There are plenty of other reasons to watch Halloween 6. I already mentioned the kills. The film’s blue and dark tones are a visual delight, too. The cinematography will put you in just the right kind of mood. And thankfully, there is NO character as annoying as Halloween 5’s Tina (Wendy Kaplan).

The Curse of Michael Meyers has a lot of flaws, for sure. Most of those have to do with the silly storyline about a cult that the previous installment introduced. Curse does its best to right these wrongs, and the result is a decent sequel, nearly 20 years after the original film. At the very least, watch the film for its cinematography, Gothic aesthetic, decent kills, and Paul Rudd’s first big film gig.

A Dark Ink Reading

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If you’re looking for something fun and unique to do this Halloween season, then let me suggest joining some contributors of Dark Ink: An Anthology Inspired by Horror for a poetry reading.

The event will take place on Zoom on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 7 pm Eastern Time/4 PM Pacific Time. Dark Ink was initially published in 2018 by Moon Tide Press. Most of the initial readings took place in California, since that’s where the press and most of its writers are based. This Zoom reading will allow other contributors to share their work and celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.

For more information about Dark Ink, check out this interview I did with Eric Morago, editor of Moon Tide Press, for Horror Homeroom.

Halloween Streaming Season (Pt. 3)

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My recommendations for horror movies to stream continue this week with my top picks for Hulu. This year, the service even has a special section entitled Huluween, where you can find plenty of horror genre staples like Hellraiser, Saw, A Quiet Place, Child’s Play, and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” However, per usual, I’m going to recommend some lesser-known content.

Little Monsters (Directed by Abe Forsythe): I have no doubt that this film and One Cut of the Dead will make my best-of, year-end horror movie list. Both are incredibly earnest, heart-warming films that do something unique with the zombie narrative. In this case, Lupita Nyong’o plays a preschool teacher who has to protect her class from the dead on a farm. Need I say more?

Ghost Stories (Directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman): This was one of my favorite horror films from last year, a three-story anthology with a wrap-around that deals with skepticism and the supernatural. Generally, this is for fans of slow-born horror, so if you like that, then check this out.

 

“Intro the Dark: Culture Shock” (Directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero). Hulu’s original series “Into the Dark” has far more misses than hits, but “Cultural Shock,” which debuted on July 4, is the exception. This is one of the strongest political works of horror from this year, following the story of a young Mexican woman who seeks the American dream and risks her life to reach the border. At a film festival Q and A, director Guerrero called the situation at the border “everyone’s horror story.” Pay attention to her because she’s a name in horror to watch.

 

Check out my Netflix recommendations here and my Shudder recommendations here.

Next up, I’ll offer my recommendations for Amazon Prime. Happy spooky streaming!

Fall Poetry Events

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This week, I’m taking a brief pause from posting horror movie recommendations to share some upcoming poetry events that I’m partaking in with other writes. Check them out if you’re so inclined! One in particular is a special Halloween-themed reading.

Monday, October 21 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Lower Macnungie Library Coffee House

Reading and craft talk with Robb Fillman, David Bauman, Eric Chiles, and I.

Open mic to follow

Lower Macungie Library, 3450 Brookside Rd., Macungie, PA

Image may contain: 5 people, including David J. Bauman and Robb Fillman, beard and text

Tuesday, October 29 7-9 p.m.

Poems at the Pub

I will be the featured reader. An open mic will follow. Costumes are encouraged!

Dugan’s Pub, 385 Main Street, Luzerne, PA

Check out the FB event page for more details.

Saturday, November 16 7-9 p.m.

Writer’s Showcase at the Olde Brick Theater

I will be co-hosting this event with Dawn Leas. Featured readers include Dan Pape, Marcie Herman Riebe, Brianna Schunk, Chris Eibach, Tara Lynn Marta, and Robb Fillman.

126 W. Market Street, Scranton, PA

Time to Cue Up the Horror Flicks

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Happy October! It’s that time of year when everyone is looking for that one good horror recommendation. First, let me state that if you want some solid suggestions, check out Horror Homeroom or Signal Horizon any day of the week for some of the best insight on contemporary horror.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll offer some suggestions for the major streaming networks. I will keep each list fairly short and try to offer recommendations beyond the usual mainstream fare. First up, I’m focusing on Shudder, the all-horror streaming network owned by AMC and also available through Amazon Prime.

Shudder

One Cut of the Dead (2019/Directed by Shinichiro Ueda) This Japanese flick is one of the most creative films available anywhere. Even offering too much of a description will give too much away. That said, it rewrites everything you think you know about the zombie narrative, and the closing minutes are one big kiss to independent film-making. It also begins with a 36-minute long continuous shot. Stream this now!

Tigers Are Not Afraid (2019/Directed by Issa Lopez) This Spanish film is beautiful, heartbreaking, and terrifying in its depiction of gang violence in Mexico. The child actors are simply phenomenal, and the fairy tale-like quality is reminiscent of early Guillermo del Toro. This is a must watch and will probably end up on several best-of lists at the end of the year.

Body Bags (1993/Directed by John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Larry Sulkis) This is  a rare anthology featuring three separate stories loaded with celebrity cameos, including Sam Raimi, Wes Craven, Tom Arnold, and John Carpenter as a wise-cracking mortician. Shudder is most likely the only place you’ll be able to watch this, so check it out while you can. It’s a fun horror comedy perfect for this time of year.

Incident in a Ghostland (2018/Directed by Pascal Laugier) This French film by the director of Martyrs is imperfect, especially in its portrayal of trans people, which, in this case, happens to be a one-dimensional central villain. While Incident in a Ghostland may not be as haunting or horrific as Martyrs, it still has a lot to say about trauma and fractured memory. The plot is simple: a mother and her two daughters suffer a terrifying home invasion during the first night in their new home. That story-line, coupled with the visuals, make this a must-watch. Laugier is one of the most interesting directors working in the genre right now.

The Old Dark House (1932/Directed by James Whale) When it comes to Universal’s first golden age in the 1930s, The Old Dark House is sometimes lost in the conversation. Everyone talks about Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and the Universal Monsters in general, but this is one of my favorite films from that era. Whale’s direction here is stellar in creating a creaky old house that travelers stumble upon. Then, they encounter a family with dangerous secrets. There is plenty of subtext to unpack here, and as usual, Karloff is phenomenal. Between Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, Whale created another horror masterpiece.

Other contemporary films to stream: Satan’s Slaves, The Witch in the Window, Terrified (a must see, one of the best of 2018), The Taking of Deborah Logan (Odd, creepy, unsettling, unique for the found footage genre), Hell House, LCC.

Classics to stream: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, Zombi, The Changeling, Deep Red, Hellraiser, Re-Animator, Phantasm, Henry, Black Christmas

TV shows to stream:

  • “Creepshow” Yes, the reboot is really that good! A new episode will air every Thursday through Halloween. Horror lovers shouldn’t miss this.
  • “Dead Wax” This is such a creative Shudder original about a record that kills people. Hopefully, it gets a second season.
  • “Channel Zero” This four-season series based on Creepy Pasta stories initially aired on the Syfy network  and was cancelled way too soon. The final season drops this month on Shudder.
  • “NOS4A2” A worthy adaptation of Joe Hill’s bestselling novel.

 

Up next, I’ll offer recommendations for HULU. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

Even MORE Halloween news

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After it was announced recently that Halloween (2018) is getting not one, but TWO sequels, “Halloween Kills” and “Halloween Ends,” more news has been trickling out. We already know that Jamie Lee Curtis will reprise her iconic role as Laurie Strode. Now it’s been reported that the original Shape, Nick Castle, will  also return. Castle was in a brief scene in the last film, but an important one, the moment when Strode first sees Myers, thus confirming her worst fears that he’s still alive. Additionally, it’s been reported that James Jude Courtney will return as the Shape, most likely for the duration of both films. This is positive news, as fans seemed to have enjoyed his performance.

Image result for Halloween 2018, michael myers in window

Nick Castle playing the Shape again in Halloween 2018

Even more interesting are the rumblings that the character of Tommy Doyle will return for “Halloween Kills.” Doyle was the little boy that Strode babysat in the first film. He returned as an adult in Halloween 6, played by Paul Rudd, but since Halloween 2018 ignores all of the other films, other than the original, it’s best to forget that movie.

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Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Tommy (Brian Andrews)

If Tommy Doyle is being written into the script, it raises a lot of questions.

  • How is this narrative actually going to work? Ignoring all of the sequels, and focusing on this timeline, it has to be acknowledged that Laurie and Tommy have not seen each other in over 40 years. How and why would they actually reconnect?
  • Will their meeting be organic? Let’s hope David Gordon Green and his screenwriting team don’t just thrust this character into the script for the sake of merely adding him and trying to please fans.
  • Will Tommy’s story focus on trauma? Halloween 2018 was about Laurie’s trauma and confronting/overcoming her past. Is it possible that a similar theme will be explored with Tommy’s character? How did that night in 1978 affect him?
  • Will Lindsey show up? Whatever happened to the other kid that Laurie babysat that same night, Lindsey, the one who had a crush on Tommy? Is she going to make an appearance?
  • Who will actually play Tommy? If the character is indeed part of the next chapter, who’s going to be cast? A few articles noted that Paul Rudd was approached but declined, due to a conflicting filming schedule.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Feel free to share your thoughts about the rumors that Tommy Doyle may in fact be part of the next Halloween sequel. How/why could it possibly work?

 

Some Questions Regarding Those Halloween Sequels

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Image result for Halloween, 2018, michael myers

Since Blumhouse’s reboot of Halloween earned over $250 million at the box office last year, it’s no surprise that the production company is bringing Michael back to the big screen for not one but TWO sequels.It was announced last week that Halloween Kills will be released in 2020 and Halloween Ends will be released in 2021. Jamie Lee Curtis will reprise her role as Laurie Strode, and writers Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, who also directed Halloween 2018, are also returning.  John Carpenter is staying involved, too, most likely to score both films.

The world could always use a little more Michael Myers, but there are some serious questions to ponder in the meantime:

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  • How is Michael still alive? Okay, okay, I know that Michael has survived many times before. Heck, at the end of the first film, he’s shot by Dr. Loomis before falling off of a balcony. Cue the famous end shot where he’s GONE. That said, Halloween 2018,  like the original, made Michael fairly human again. The last time we saw him, he was engulfed in flames in the Strode basement.

 

  • How does Michael reconnect with the Strodes? Like the original film, Halloween 2018 made it clear that Michael has no specific connection to Laurie. He is merely a ubiquitous presence and agent of evil. Laurie just happened to cross his path in 1978 and became an iconic Final Girl. The new film ignores all the sequels, especially Halloween II, that made them brother and sister. So in that regard, Michael really has no need to go after her or her daughter and granddaughter who featured prominently in the last film. It is possible and maybe likely that she hunts him, since that’s the role she assumed in the last film.

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  • What role will the other Strode women play? We know Jamie Lee Curtis is coming back, but what about Judy Greer, who played Laurie’s daughter, Karen, and Andi Matichak who played granddaughter Allyson? These three together on screen, especially in the closing 20 minutes, were a real highlight of the last film and there is SO much untapped story potential there. The ending of the film was poignant in so many ways. It featured the ladies working together to defeat the boogeyman, but it also had an interesting and ambiguous ending, featuring the women riding in the back of a vehicle, blood-soaked, after defeating Michael, with Allyson clenching the butcher knife. The last shot is a nice reference to both The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween 4, but that’s for another day. Let’s hope all three ladies will be together again to kick ass.

 

  • Will the sequels resonate? Halloween 2018 is really Laurie Stode’s story and how she’s processed what happened to her 40 years earlier. The film is rooted in trauma. What happens to the Final Girl after all of her friends are dead? The last film hit at the right time during the #MeToo Movement and only a few short months after the powerful testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during the tumultuous Kavanaugh hearings. Will the sequels also resonate? We’ll have to see. Sometimes, headlines make a film all the more powerful.

 

  • Who is going to play Michael/The Shape? The original Shape, Nick Castle, returned to the role just for a scene or two in 2018, but the Shape was mostly played by James Jude Courtney. No word yet on whether or not he’s returning.

 

Blumhouse is taking a risk launching two Halloween sequels, while also rebooting the Universal Monsters, with the first being an updated version of The Invisible Man. Halloween 2018 proved, however, that these iconic horror figures can still bring in the big bucks. Feel free to share your thoughts on the Halloween sequels and where you’d like the franchise to go from here.