The only entirely new scene finds Keri and Will carving a pumpkin on Halloween night. Knowing she’s stressed but not sure why, Will goes into guidance counselor mode and shares a personal story about growing up with an abusive father in hopes she’ll open up about her own past. Keri replies, “Families are tough.” This leads into the theatrical scene in which she dishes about her own past as they make out on the couch. (Way to kill a mood, Keri.)
Charlie’s death is slightly extended as we see the Shape slowly approach as he tries to free his hand from the disposal. Like the opening with Marion and her neighbors, John and Molly never discover the bodies of Sarah and Charlie. Unlike the opening, however, they are most assuredly dead. Rather than turning the corner and finding Sarah’s mutilated corpse, John and Molly instead see the Shape hanging out in the kitchen, which begins the chase. The Shape no longer stabs John in the leg, which makes his subsequent limp a little strange.
The scene in which Keri tries to escape in her SUV contains more footage of the Shape approaching while John and Molly panic. Similarly, we get several more shots of Keri and Michael stalking each other prior to their one-on-one confrontation. The biggest change to the ending, however, involves the fate of Ronny the security guard. Theatrically, Ronny miraculously reappears to drag Keri to safety just as she’s about to go all stabby on her unconscious brother. We soon learn that Will’s bullet only grazed Ronnie and that he’ll be okay. The broadcast version changes all of that. The previous scene instead abruptly cuts away on Keri staring down at her brother before she raises the knife, meaning Ronny never swoops in to stop her. He’s also missing from the very next scene in which Keri steals the fire axe and coroner’s van. Given this, the only logical conclusion is that Will’s bullet was indeed a kill shot. Rest in peace, Ronny.
INTERVIEW: Robert Zappia
(Robert Zappia: Writer - H20)
How did you make the jump from writing sitcoms to feature films on Halloween 7?
I was working in television at the time writing for sitcoms. I had written for Home Improvement and had finished work on a short-lived sitcom starring David Chapelle called Buddies. During that hiatus, I wrote a spec sci-fi feature called Population Zero. Writing feature films was always my ultimate goal, so every hiatus I would write a new spec with hopes of selling it. And while Population Zero didn’t sell, it did catch the attention of a Dimension exec named Richard Potter.
My agent arranged an interview with Richard. I remember sitting in the Miramax/Dimension lobby waiting for the meeting to start – I was sitting there for nearly forty-five minutes and seriously thought about leaving. I had been on so many of these general meetings that never amounted to much more than a handful of compliments about my writing. Boy, am I glad I didn’t just get up and walk out!
So Richard came out and apologized for being behind and we talked about the spec script and such. I clicked with Richard from the minute we started chatting. Just a really good, down-to earth exec. He said they’d really like to work with me but the only assignment they had open was a direct-to-video release of Halloween 7, would I be interested? Would I be interested?! Uh, yes….yes, I would! I was a huge fan of the original Halloween and any chance to be a part of that franchise was such an exciting thought, whether it was released theatrically or not!
Tell me about the next step in Halloween 7’s evolution as Kevin Williamson came on. What was your impression of his treatment?
Let me back up to the beginning before Jamie Lee was involved. I completed the first draft of Two Faces of Evil and turned it in. The next thing I knew my agent called and said Bob Weinstein was thrilled with the script and wanted to meet with me. It was in that meeting that he told me he had personally spoken to Jamie Lee Curtis and she agreed to the do the film for its twentieth anniversary. He said they loved the boarding school idea and asked my thoughts regarding working her into the current story. I suggested she be a teacher or headmistress at the school. The first draft I turned in with Jamie was called Halloween: Blood Ties. The proceeding drafts were called Halloween: The Revenge of Laurie Strode. I’m a big Star Wars fan and I remember when Return of the Jedi was originally called Revenge of the Jedi. I always preferred that title, so I had fun with the idea of Halloween 7 being called The Revenge of Laurie Strode. The strange thing is I had no idea Kevin had even written a treatment until months after turning in my revised draft. I don’t even know what Dimension told Kevin – in regards to my involvement – or the existence of the draft I wrote. They could have suggested the prep school idea to him.
There was some dispute regarding credit. I know Dimension wanted Kevin to be credited with story by. The credits went to WGA arbitration where an independent panel reviewed all the material anonymously (e.g. Writer A, Writer B, Writer C). After the panel reviews, they determine final credit. Everyone who has a stake in the game has their own opinion of who deserves what credit, which is why it’s so important to have a non-biased independent panel review it all. The original pitch and subsequent versions were crafted by myself (along with input from Moustapha, Paul Freeman, and Malek Akkad). Later, Kevin Williamson was brought aboard as a producer. I had one notes call with him on a first or second draft of the film. Moustapha was heavily involved with the concept. He really had an affinity for the franchise and Michael. He was incredibly protective of the characters and the franchise as a whole.
Fans and critics have noted H20’s Scream vibe for better or worse. What are your thoughts on this? Does the film owe anything at all to Scream?
Scream was such an influential film and definitely redefined the horror genre. And having just been released to huge success the same year I started writing Halloween 7, I can see why Dimension wanted to draw upon its success. I can’t speak for Matt, but the fine edge I tried to walk was honoring the tone of the original Halloween while bringing some of the fresh approach of the Scream films to it. Unlike Scream, I didn’t want it to be a wink-wink to the audience the way that series so artfully did. Although, even watching the original Halloween, Carpenter had a pretty effortless and breezy dialogue style of his own. Personally, I don’t care for self-aware (referential) humor or references in pure horror films. It all boils down to opinion, but I like my horror films straight up! It dilutes the scares. In some way, it pulls me out of the story and reminds me that I’m just watching a movie. Just give it to me straight!
The original Halloween was so pure in its conceit. So terrifying in the thought that this could happen anywhere at anytime. Michael Myers was the perfect embodiment of our fears. We could impose our own fears on that expressionless, emotionless mask. It’s a blank screen where we project our worst nightmares.
How did you initially view Jamie Lee’s big return to the franchise? And did this at all complicate your work on the screenplay? Did she have any input or notes?
I was thrilled! The project literally went from a small direct-to-video seventh installment to a major theatrical event. Did it mean more laborious hours at the keyboard for me? Absolutely. Did I care? Absolutely not. I honestly don’t know if I was more excited as a fan or as the writer.
I believe it was Jamie Lee herself who had strong ideas about where the character would be emotionally after twenty years of dealing with her tormented past. The functioning alcoholic angle, while not wholly original, certainly was believable. Before it was determined there would be no reference to Halloween 4 thru 6, I attributed much of her pain to the fact she thought by staging her death she was protecting her daughter, Jamie. Of course, Michael found his niece and the rest was history. But even without this backstory, having gone through the terror of Halloween night twenty years prior was certainly enough to drive her to drink.
Jamie Lee was also so gracious. When I visited the set one day she asked if I’d seen any of the dailies. When I said I hadn’t, she invited me to watch some of them in her bungalow. Another surreal and very memorable moment! I first saw the complete film at the premiere in Westwood. My wife and I sat behind Jamie Lee, Tony C
urtis, and Janet Leigh! Watching the film was and still is one of the highlights of my career. I was extremely proud of the end result. And all that everyone in that theater contributed to the final product!
Your H20 script contained a detective subplot right up until filming began when it was cut out. As the shortest entry in the series, do you wish they had kept that role in the film?
The detective character worked well when the film was more of an ensemble. He nicely filled the unfillable-shoes of Donald Pleasence. But once Jamie Lee signed on, I just found myself wanting to get back to her story. My father, Marco Zappia, was an Emmy award-winning editor. I had grown up in an edit bay watching him craft story in the edit room. In many ways I credit those experiences to my seemingly innate ability to write screenplays that are tightly woven and are always driving the story forward. In this case, the detective scenes seemed to get in the way of what I wanted to see as fan…Laurie Freakin’ Strode! So on the chopping block they went!
In both Two Faces of Evil and your original H20 script, there are scenes involving a retractable gym-floor pool. Did you have a traumatic incident involving such a pool?
(laughs) No traumatic incidents I can recall, at least none involving a retractable gym-floor pool. It actually comes from one of my favorite holiday films It’s A Wonderful Life. I remember seeing that film as a kid and thinking, ‘Whoa! There is such a thing as a pool under a gym-floor? Cool!’). So yes, in one draft the floor of the gymnasium opens up to reveal a pool, Michael crashes the dance, and Laurie impales him with a javelin. He falls into the pool as the floor closes above him. Sounds crazy, right? But in the context of the draft it was a lot of fun!
Another ending involved Laurie driving a bus from the school full of students trying to escape Michael Myers. He makes his way onto the bus, it crashes and teeters on the edge of cliff. Laurie gets all the students off the bus and leaps to safety as the bus falls hundreds of feet with Michael dangling from the bumper to his death. And I know we had one ending that involved a helicopter decapitating Michael Myers, a version of the teetering bus scene. That was our Mission Impossible style ending. Way too pricey for the for the folks at Dimension.
INTERVIEW: Patrick Lussier
(Patrick Lussier: Editor - H20)
First and foremost, I know you started editing for shows like 21 Jump Street and MacGyver, so I’m curious - did you sort of fall into horror or have you always been a fan?
I’ve always been a fan of horror. Horror, as a kid, was forbidden fruit. It was what I was not allowed to go see. You know, I remember not being able to see Doug McClure’s The Land That Time Forgot because I was told it would be too scary – rubber dinosaurs and all. But my sister, who was eight years older than me, would go see everything and I would go into her room and she would tell me about the movies [she had seen] the next day. I remember her telling me The Exorcist in detail, everything single thing that happened. Movies like The Parallax View or The Omen or Logan’s Run or Three Days of the Condor – and I became fascinated. And she was a huge reader and she gave me a copy of [Stephen King’s] Salem’s Lot, when I was probably twelve or thirteen. And that really locked me into the genre, as something I always liked.
As I was finishing up MacGyver as a film editor, Wes Craven was coming to Vancouver to do a pilot for a little show called Nightmare Café. He wasn’t actually coming up, he was working on The People Under the Stairs at the time, but he had written it with Tom Baum based on a story by his son, Jonathan Craven. Phil Noyce was directing it and Richard Francis-Bruce was the co-editor. I went in and cut that with Richard and had an amazing experience. And they came back to do five episodes of which Wes was going to direct one. I later cut Wes’ episode, which was a little ditty called “Aliens Ate My Lunch.”
After that, he and I just hit it off and he said, ‘I would love you to cut my next feature,’ which was two years later. We stayed in touch and that was Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. And in the middle there, there was almost Village of the Damned when they were going to make that with Linda Hamilton until she passed on it. They had a very different version than what John Carpenter later made, script-wise. That went to John and [Wes] went on to do New Nightmare. And then from there, Vampire in Brooklyn and Scream and then a host of other movies in-between… some genre, some not. Although I do think D3: The Mighty Ducks is one of the scariest movies I’ve ever worked on.
That is definitely my generation.
I remember reading a thing about having seen D2: The Mighty Ducks and thinking, ‘Oh, this movie’s pretty … not for me.’ And then seeing that they were making D3 and thinking, ‘Whew, I pity who’s ever cutting that movie.’ And then six weeks later, it was me. (laughs) [I was] very grateful to have the job, it was a good little job and, you know, I had played hockey as a kid so it was a good fit, but it was… quite different than working for Wes.
Not to go off on a tangent here but what was it like working with Wes?
I did a lot of films working for Wes in a variety of capacities, mostly as a film editor. It was all sorts of things. It was incredibly educational, wonderfully entertaining, and you worked at the feet of a master. You got to learn so many things from the esoteric ‘Where did these ideas come from? How do they work?’ to always having a shot list that you share with everybody because everybody needs to know you have a plan to get them home at the end of the night. And we would talk about everything, all day long. We just got along really well. So that was a great relationship for a lot of years, and I feel very lucky to have worked with him by his side for so long on so many significant films of that era.
Wes was very professorial. He could be very funny. He was interested in nature and science and there was a whole thing about bird calls. ‘Scream 2 was shot in this location and at night, it wouldn’t be this kind of bird that would make this kind of sound. It would be THIS kind of bird that made that sound so let’s make sure we have THAT bird.’ And even at Wes’ memorial service, the people who spoke – Michael Apted, Jonathan Craven, and even Bob Weinstein – were also joined by one of his close friends from the Ottoman Society who actually played bird calls at the funeral, which I know Wes would have absolutely loved.
Todd Farmer mentioned that you had sort of saved Wes’ job on Scream. Is that true?
Here’s what happened. The first five days of dailies were the Drew Barrymore sequence. The Weinsteins HATED the dailies. They were sending him dailies from other movies. They were sending him dailies from Ole Bornedal’s Night Watch and saying, ‘THIS is how you direct a movie. What you’ve done is nothing better than what a TV director would do.’ They were so on him and just seemed to be utterly disappointed. I got the dailies and cut them together, sent the videotape of the cut to Wes because that’s what you did back then. And then we conformed it on film and sent it to New York. They watched that thirteen minutes and said, ‘Oh my god, we were SO wrong. This works so amazingly well. It’s so terrifying. This was everything we were hoping it was and better. What do you need? What can we give you? And we apologize,’ which, for those guys, was a rarity. That wasn’t usually part of their M.O. They ended up using that thirteen minutes to promote the film at colleges and things like that when they decided to release it at Christmas of that year. And editing that thirteen minutes is what gave me my whole career working for Miramax and Dimension, at that time, on the numerous films I cut for them and then ultimately directed for them and then, otherwise, to other places to direct. All came out of that thirteen minutes.
It wasn’t about doing much to the footage, it was just interpreting it. That was ’96. I started cutting for Wes in ’91. I just knew how it was supposed to go together which I don’t think they could see. We were told we weren’t allowed to use any orchestral scores or anything of that, so I was literally taking scores and cutting together single piano notes and created all the soundscape for it. I don’t know. I just watched it and understood what it was he wanted. That was a frequent occurrence with us over the years. Like sort of an intri
nsic, ‘Oh yeah, I get this. I know what it is.’ I don’t know if that speaks to just Wes and I being on the same wavelength and being able to sort of climb into his imagination and see what it was he was going for in a practical storytelling sense, as opposed to the studio executives and the suits who couldn’t see it. They couldn’t astroproject what it was supposed to be. (laughs)
What is your relationship to the Halloween franchise?
I remember not being allowed to see it in the theatre when it first opened, but then seeing it on TV and again on VHS and I think I owned Laserdiscs of it and DVD of its and Blu-Rays of it. Being a huge fan before I even saw it, mostly because of the music and then finally getting to see it, it was everything that I had hoped for. It was on TV just before Halloween II came out in theatres and that’s where they added all of the sister stuff into the TV version. I remember seeing it on that and then going to see Halloween II and being hooked on it at that time. And then of course, Halloween III: Season of the Witch – the unsung classic that’s completely unrelated to Michael Myers but is beautiful in and of itself due to the wonderful Tom Atkins.
And then I sort of lost touch with the franchise through Halloween 4, 5 and 6, which I eventually watched before going into to edit Halloween H20, and got back into it at that point. When I finished cutting Scream 2, I did another little favor for Dimension on a terrible film I can’t remember the name of. And then they asked, ‘Don’t go work with anybody else. We’ll overpay you to cut Halloween H20.’ I met with Steve Miner who I’d got along with really well. I thought it was fun movie and it was great finishing a job knowing you had another job. And the fact they were bringing Jamie back was, I thought, a great thing and I was very excited to be part of that.
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