Interviews
David Gordon Green Says ‘Halloween Ends’ Script Is Complete and Awaiting John Carpenter’s Notes [Interview]
Halloween Kills arrives in theaters and on Peacock on Friday, October 15, picking up immediately after the events of 2018’s Halloween. Michael Myers escapes the blazing basement where the Strodes left him to die and resumes his killing spree across Haddonfield. It rips open old wounds from Haddonfield’s previous encounter with the boogeyman.
Director David Gordon Green, who co-wrote with Danny McBride and Scott Teems, ensured that this sequel emphasizes the title’s “Kills.” That became a natural result of Michael Myers’ mindset at the start of this. Speaking with Bloody Disgusting, Green explains: “Like any movie, you want to up the ante, and you want to see what the villain is capable of. We reestablished in the 2018 version the scenario with Michael and Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), and I felt like there was a very satisfying sigh of relief type of conclusion in that film.
“Then as a writer, it becomes your objective of, what are we going to do? How do we get them out? What’s he like when he is out? Through our creative conversation, we just assumed that he would be really pissed off. So, the movie is his pissed-off journey through the rest of that evening.”
Michael Myers (aka The Shape, left) in Halloween Kills, directed by David Gordon green.
The body count and extreme violence of the kills paint a clear, gory picture that Myers is indeed angrier than ever before. When asked about the insane body count and creativity of the kills, Green responded, “It surprised me with where we landed in terms of its aggression. I wasn’t intending that. Although I intended for it to be an aggressive and chaotic chapter, I never intended it to be this vivid. Yet I just was drawn to it in the editing room, and Tim Alverson, my editor, and I talked a lot at length about what’s too much and where crossing the line is. Did we step over it? And maybe we did.”
Without delving into spoilers, Green makes a very daring choice with Halloween Kills’ conclusion. Of the bold swing, he shared, “That ending, that wasn’t how the script ended. So, we got a little weird and came up with that at a point when we were about to lock picture. I was excited to take that kind of nail-biting risk as a filmmaker. I like to feel like I’ve connected with the crucial moments of the movie with an audience and seen how they’ve read it and how they interpret it, and do they like it? Do they hate it? What am I in for? That was an interesting one where we just said, let’s do it. We just jumped in. So, we’ll see. Time will tell how that ending survives the court of public opinion, but we feel good about it.”
What might this mean for the final entry in the planned trilogy?
“Halloween Ends is complete, and actually, I’m getting John Carpenter’s notes on the new draft later. So, I’m excited about that. There is resolve. Like any trilogy, you want it to have a beginning, middle, and end. We had a concept of the ending, and two years ago, we wrote the first draft of it. So, we had it all mapped out before we went into production on Kills. We knew where it was going, and we wanted Kills to be a symphony in the middle of the book of the Strode saga.”
Michael Myers’ rampage unleashes on October 15, when Halloween Kills arrives in theaters and on Peacock.
Halloween Ends is currently set for release on October 14, 2022.
As the inaugural season of Apple TV+’s stellar new series “Widow’s Bay” barrels toward its finale in two weeks, the latest episode gives Kate O’Flynn the spotlight as her character revisits her trauma with the Boogeyman.
“Your Baggage“, directed by Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), sees O’Flynn’s scene-stealing Patricia once again renew her fight with the Michael Myers-like stalker that slaughtered her peers during her adolescence. Thrillingly, it makes for one extended chase sequence that sees Patricia trying to warn others, while evading the undead killer.
In short, this episode’s incredible riff on Halloween and the slasher subgenre transformed Patricia into a fierce Final Girl.
“Well, that felt like a bucket list that I didn’t know was on my bucket list until I did it, but when I did it, I just lapped up every minute,” O’Flynn tells Bloody Disgusting of her triumphant turn this episode. “It felt fantastic for her to get that moment where she is becoming a badass. That was amazing.”
The actress turned to a few notable references for her performance. “Horror-wise, I go back to my youth, which was referenced in some of the episodes: Wicker Man, Carrie, and Rosemary’s Baby, that sort of thing is my kind of vibe.”
O’Flynn also notes how the series’ unique tone allows for so much creative freedom to make bold swings. “There’s something very freeing about it. Every moment is up for grabs, so it’s like we don’t have to totally land in one direction or another. It keeps it alive.“
Patricia is the eccentric assistant to Matthew Rhys‘ Mayor Tom Loftis, who’s at the forefront of trying to solve the island’s pesky curse predicament. Rhys felt the same about “Widow’s Bay” and its rare ability to make you laugh and scream in equal measure, stemming from series creator Katie Dippold.
“The mandate was, ‘It’s a real world with real people. You play for real.’ There’s no playing for comedy or horror,” Rhys echoes O’Flynn’s sentiments on how freeing the series’ tone has been.
New episodes will release every Wednesday through June 17 only on Apple TV+.
Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.
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