Taking Shape

by Dustin McNeill

  What kinds of challenges did you face cutting the remake together?

  The biggest challenge was getting it to a manageable length because there was so much story crammed into that hour and fifty minutes. There were other complications, though. We shot the ending as Rob first conceived it, then the Weinsteins wanted to up the drama, so we went back and shot more material. Incorporating that new material was a challenge. Then again, so was Michael’s time at Smith’s Grove. Rob shot so much fascinating stuff there that you could almost do an entire movie out of just that. He was really interested in showing this child’s descent into madness. Trying to pare that part of the film down to a manageable length was complicated.

  It was also tricky getting Michael’s escape from the asylum just right. We had shot a different version of that, the rape escape, which the Weinsteins weren’t a big fan of. They thought that scene was too far over the line and actually convinced Rob to shoot an alternate version of that.

  The remake’s original ending saw Michael gunned down police. Whose decision was it to nix that for a longer finale that included an additional chase through the Myers house?

  That was something Bob Weinstein was really concerned with. The ending you’re referring to is the one Rob originally conceived for the film. There are times where Rob will look back on that ending and go, ‘That’s where it should’ve stopped. We should’ve ended it there.’ But I’ll always bring up how Michael taking the boards and smashing through the ceiling to find Laurie – that’s a great dynamic sequence. And he’ll admit that it is. He just feels it was a little bit of a hat on top of a hat, if that makes sense.

  Your Halloween had an unfinished workprint leak online a week before the release. As someone so vested in making sure the film looks good and is quality, what was that like?

  We were all very concerned by it. We later found out that workprint had leaked from Bob Weinstein’s office. He had a copy of the film sitting out on his desk and an assistant of his decided to upload it onto the internet. I believe that assistant is no longer working in the industry and never will again. But it’s heartbreaking. You want people to see your movie in its finished state. We were also very concerned that it might affect the theatrical release, that people would go, ‘Oh, I don’t need to see the movie since I just saw it on the internet.’ For whatever reason, it didn’t seem to affect the box office since our Halloween still holds the record for Labor Day weekend.

  Rob’s made no secret of the struggles he encountered with the Weinsteins on Halloween. How often did they send notes regarding the film and how heavy handed were they?

  The Weinsteins have a certain way that they like to work, which has served them pretty well. But Rob is a filmmaker with a singular vision. It’s sort of a tricky thing because you’ve got two very strong personalities working together. I do think that Bob Weinstein respected Rob and wanted him to be happy. The biggest issue was that there were changes Bob very much wanted. Rather than just telling Rob what these were, he had someone cut together what he felt was a better version of the film. Upon delivery, Rob was so angry that he decided to quit the film. They could release it as Alan Smithee’s Halloween because it wasn’t going to be Rob Zombie’s Halloween.

  To Bob’s credit, he immediately called Rob after that and apologized. After talking for quite some time, he ended up getting Rob to come back onto the movie. It was an error in judgement. I don’t think Bob meant to offend Rob, but he definitely did. Aside from runtime and ending, Bob was also concerned with the gore factor. Even though Rob’s movies always feel very extreme, he tends to not glorify the violence. The violence in Rob’s movies is sickly and sickening. Bob was interested in upping the gore, which Rob was amenable to, though it wasn’t something he was really wanting to do.

  Rob made it clear he had no intention of ever returning for another Halloween, yet he did just that. Do you know why he had this change of heart?

  I know that he always wanted it to be a trilogy, but it was such a hard process working with the Weinsteins on his first Halloween. I think he was initially unsure about returning, but he had a multiple-picture deal with the studio that he had to fulfil. Doing the second Halloween allowed him to finish out that contract. But I also think Rob’s main reason for doing Halloween II was that he found it interesting to explore the trauma that Laurie and her friend had endured in their encounter with Michael Myers.

  How, if at all, was editing Halloween II different than editing Halloween?

  They’re both very different movies, of course. That’s partly why Rob wanted to do the second one. Halloween II is much more a stream-of-consciousness story that gets into the psyches of the characters. He was really interested in the idea of us not being sure what was real and what was not. He also wanted to examine whether or not Laurie was a bad seed because of her relation to Michael Myers. It’s a much more abstract kind of film than your typical horror film. The ending is almost Kubrick-like.

  Halloween II did feel darker than the first one. Rob’s movies are dark but he himself is not. He’s actually a very smart, intellectual, joyful person. Working on his movies is therefore joyful and not dark. But at the same time, when you’re editing a scene, you have to get inside the character’s heads. When you’re dealing with someone like Laurie Strode, whose lost her friends and family at the hands of her psycho brother, it’s dark and twisted. That can be hard to go home with at night.

  Acknowledging that Halloween II isn’t at all your typical horror film, what was your impression of how it was received upon release?

  I think a lot of people didn’t like that it was so abstract with things like the ghost of Michael’s mother. It’s not at all your classic horror film. It’s much more like a Roman Polanski kind of horror. I don’t think people knew what to make of our Halloween II when it first came out. I also think more and more people have started to reexamine it over time and even appreciate it. There is a huge shock on seeing this film for the first time, but people tend to appreciate it more the more times they see it. There was a lot of craftmanship and love that went into making Halloween II.

  I have to bring up the most crushing scene in the film where Sheriff Brackett finds his daughter’s dead body. That scene just wrecks you to watch it. Where did the idea to incorporate old home video footage of Danielle Harris come from?

  That’s just part of Rob’s visual style. He likes to show memory as old home movies, often in Super-8 but here in videocassette. He did it at the end of both The Devil’s Rejects and Halloween. In fact, he did it earlier in Halloween as well when Michael’s mother kills herself. There’s something about that old home movie footage when life was so perfect and you had so much hope. Back then, it seemed like you had your whole life ahead of you. There’s something powerful about seeing that. Seeing Sheriff Brackett with his daughter is so gruesome. He’s practically slipping in blood. Having the home video footage juxtaposed in, it really gets to the heartbreak of losing someone you love.

  Halloween II is unique for not featuring the classic Halloween theme until the very end. Was that a conscious decision beforehand or was there simply no place in the film where it fit?

  There was really nowhere it seemed appropriate. Rob did try it in several different scenes and it never worked. There’s just something about that original score that feels so different than the movie that Rob made. It just didn’t feel right when we’d juxtapose it against certain moments. That movie is very melancholy and the Halloween theme is not melancholy. It’s driving and exciting and suspenseful. That seemed to really work at the end because that’s when Laurie is now changed and possibly now embraced who she is. It’s a nice twist at the end to bring back the theme. It just didn’t feel correct for the rest of the movie.

  FILM: HALLOWEEN 2018

  The franchise was in an arguably strange place after Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. That sequel was predictably savaged by critics with ReelViews’ James Berardinelli remarking, “If this one represents Rob Zombie’s vision, then
he’s blind.” Financially, the film hadn’t exactly been a failure with a worldwide gross of $39 million. That total may have bested every sequel except Halloween H20, but it was roughly half what its predecessor had earned. A similar falloff in ticket sales would prove to be an issue for a possible Halloween III on the same budget.

  The sequel’s box office take also suggested that Michael Myers might not be able to slay the competition as he once had. Halloween II opened toe-to-toe against The Final Destination and lost. The Final Destination would debut in first place with a $40 million opening weekend, which is more than what Halloween II would earn in its entire theatrical run. 2009 wasn’t a bad year for horror either with the original Paranormal Activity reigning king at the box office. It also wasn’t a bad year for slashers with remakes of Friday the 13th and My Bloody Valentine both earning over $90 million worldwide. Jason Voorhees had bested Michael Myers before, but Harry Warden? That was a new defeat.

  By this point, the series lacked a clear narrative direction as Halloween II had not ended on a cliffhanger. Theatrically, only Laurie Strode survived the film’s events. Per the director’s cut, Laurie, Loomis, and Michael all seemed to perish in the finale. This begged the question – was a Halloween III in this continuity even warranted? Rob Zombie had once again ruled out the possibility of returning to helm another chapter. Cast members such as Scout Taylor-Compton confessed a reluctance to return to the Halloween-verse without Zombie’s involvement.

  The more important question – did audiences even want to return to this continuity? Regardless of its merit, Rob Zombie’s Halloween had divided the fanbase with an abrasive tone and aesthetic unlike anything they’d seen before. Zombie’s Halloween II further divided an already fractured audience by pushing the film further into grindhouse-surrealist territory. Simply put, the Halloween franchise no longer looked like Halloween.

  DIMENSION’S FINAL STABS

  The cinematic road to Halloween 2018 is a long and winding one. The odds of this particular sequel ever coming together in this way were incredibly slim. Not unlike Thorn, it required a precise and unexpected aligning of celestial bodies. That the writer/director/composer and star of the original Halloween would ever return for a new film was considered highly unlikely at the time. Neither had ever minced words about not wanting to revisit the franchise. But in 2009, Halloween 2018 was still nine years away.

  Development on the eleventh Halloween started quite early, even before Rob Zombie’s Halloween II had finished filming. Dimension executives initially aimed to have the next installment in theaters by October 2010, which would necessitate a rushed development and production schedule. (It’s a shame Moustapha Akkad wasn’t around to remind everyone how this hadn’t turned out so well on Halloween 5 back in 1989.)

  On September 12, 2009 – less than a month after Halloween II hit theaters – Dimension execs fielded a sequel pitch from screenwriters Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier. This duo had provided the script for 2009’s My Bloody Valentine 3D, which had been a rousing success. In addition to having directed MBV 3D, Lussier was also an editor on Halloween H20 and well regarded at Dimension. Studio head Bob Weinstein liked their pitch and ordered them to expand it into a full screenplay that Lussier would direct.

  Titled Halloween 3D, Farmer and Lussier’s story picks up from Halloween II’s theatrical ending. In that film’s finale, we witnessed Michael stab Loomis to death in the shack. We now learn this was a hallucination and that it was Laurie doing the stabbing. Michael and Laurie manage to escape the shack and a hellzapoppin chase unfolds across Haddonfield. By night’s end, Sheriff Brackett is dead, Laurie wounded, and Michael missing, the latter once again presumed dead. The story then jumps forward a year with Laurie institutionalized on an all-female wing of the J. Burton Psychiatric Hospital. Still traumatized, she struggles with an identity crisis of good and evil – is she Laurie Strode or Angel Myers? Authorities begin to notice disturbing signs that Michael has somehow returned for another night of terror. Associates of the late Sheriff Brackett and Dr. Loomis vow to protect the hospital, but is the real threat already in their midst? By story’s end, Laurie will have to choose between the light and the dark.

  Pre-production on Halloween 3D roared to life even as the first draft was still being written. Farmer and Lussier secured return commitments from Tyler Mane and Scout Taylor-Compton. They also cast Halloween III star Tom Atkins in a new role as Laurie’s doctor. Gary Tunnicliffe, returning from Halloweens 6 and Resurrection, signed on to handle the film’s special effects. Location scouting quickly began in Shreveport, Louisiana for a November shoot.

  The screenwriters submitted their first full draft of Halloween 3D on September 26, 2009. Yet two days later, the project was suddenly canceled by Bob Weinstein with no official reason given. Rumors of another Halloween III would circulate across the next several years with the official Halloween site even announcing such a project in the spring of 2014. Malek Akkad would announce that iteration as being dead in October of that same year.

  On June 15, 2015, Dimension officially announced Halloween Returns, which was to be written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan with the latter also directing. Melton and Dunstan were then best known best known for having co-written Feast along with the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh entries in the popular Saw franchise. Their story would not continue in the continuity of the remake timeline, but instead carve out its own path. Widely referred to as a “recalibration” of the franchise, Halloween Returns was billed as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original and would therefore serve as an alternate Halloween II.

  This new story told that Michael Myers did not travel to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital after being shot by Loomis – but was instead apprehended by police. The slasher would spend the next ten years on death row. Two teenagers sneak into prison on the night of his execution, which goes unbelievably bad, and results in his escape... just in time for another Halloween.

  Halloween Returns was originally set to begin filming in Louisiana one month after being announced, though cameras never rolled on the project. While the sequel did enter into pre-production, its first day of filming was pushed back several times. The filmmakers went so far as to cast several lead roles and audition multiple performers for the new Shape. Dunstan spoke publicly of the project still happening as late as September 2015. Unfortunately, behind the scenes drama at the studio level would soon derail the sequel altogether. In late October, Malek Akkad officially confirmed that Halloween Returns had been scrapped. More shocking news was just around the corner. In December, Bloody-Disgusting reported that Dimension Films had lost the rights to Halloween, ending their twenty-year reign over the franchise.

  To better appreciate this development, let’s review it in context. In 1979, brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein form Miramax Films, LLC. They grow their indie distribution venture into a highly successful operation throughout the next decade. Miramax is eventually purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 1993 for $60 million. Soon after this purchase, Miramax forms a sub-division for genre fare named Dimension Films. Through Dimension, Miramax releases Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20, and Halloween: Resurrection, all to varying degrees of success. 2005 sees a major shake-up, however. The Weinsteins part ways with Disney to form The Weinstein Company. Miramax and its vast library of films - including the three aforementioned Halloween sequels – stay behind at Disney. The Dimension label and its properties leave with the Weinsteins upon their exit to become part of their namesake company.

  As part of the 2005 agreement, Miramax licenses the Halloween sequel rights to Dimension, which they’re allowed to keep so long as they continue producing new installments. In the event they stop making new Halloween movies, the rights revert back to Miramax. The next two films in the franchise, Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II, are made in 2007 and 2009 by the new Dimension Films as owned by The Weinstein Company. In 2015, Dimension loses their claim to the series after failing to produce a new s
equel despite several contract extensions. The coveted Halloween rights now revert back to Miramax.

  That Dimension Films would forfeit such valuable sequel rights is curious, especially in light of what they have done in recent years to retain the rights to far less valuable properties. In 2010, the Weinsteins desperately rushed microbudgeted sequels to Hellraiser and Children of the Corn into production in order to keep from losing those franchises. The resulting films, Hellraiser: Revelations and Children of the Corn: Genesis, are among the worst reviewed chapters in either franchise, which is really profound when you think about it.

  MIRAMAX TAKES OVER

  Miramax execs David Thwaites and Zanne Devine immediately pounce on the opportunity to develop a new Halloween that might finally live up to the original. Studio lore tells that it was Thwaites who first suggested that the next iteration act as a direct sequel to the original, eschewing everything that happened in the sequels. This was similar to the approach suggested by Halloween Returns – except that Thwaites intended to pick up the story forty years later, not ten. Ideally, this would allow for the return of Laurie Strode. Devine soon reached out to Malek Akkad with the idea, who by now had grown frustrated with Dimension Films for allowing the Halloween franchise to languish in development hell. Devine assured Akkad that Miramax did not intend to do the same.

  Thwaites and Devine next turned to Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, to gauge his interest in producing a new Halloween. Blumhouse had amassed an impressive roster of horror hits across the past decade including box-office-topping franchises like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, and The Purge. This was due in no small part to Blum’s bold approach of empowering filmmakers with creative control on budgets of only a few million. This approach helped propel 2007’s Paranormal Activity to become the most profitable film of all time, horror or otherwise. Of his unique approach to filmmaking, Blum told The Hollywood Reporter: “The artists get so much more power and so much more say. And when you give them power, they want your notes; it’s not a fight. They get final cut. It’s fundamentally a very different way to make commercial movies.” (Fun fact: Jason Blum learned the movie business during a five-year stint as an acquisitions executive at Miramax Films.)