Books
‘Halloween Kills’ – What Can We Expect from the Extended Cut? The Novelization May Answer That Question
Ahead of the January 11, 2022 release on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD (plus a Best Buy Steelbook!), David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills will be released Digitally on December 13, 2021, with an “Extended Cut” of the movie being previewed by Amazon. In all likelihood, this new extended version of the sequel to Halloween 2018 will be available digitally and physically.
But what can we expect from the “Extended Cut”? We have no official details at this time, but David Gordon Green did recently tease that an extended version of the movie with an alternate ending was on the way. That reveal came in a chat with Collider last month.
Gordon Green explained, “There’s an additional scene that we filmed that was scripted. And actually I think is a pretty brilliant scene. So we’re going to do an extended version on the DVD, just so people can see an extended ending that’s different and cool.”
“We ended up lifting it when I became more confident of where we’re going to pick up in the next movie; it didn’t feel authentic to where we’re going to go,” he continues. “It’s part of the movie. It’s just not part of the appropriate momentum of… knowing where we’re going to pick up in [Halloween Ends], which, you’ll know in a year, it wasn’t the right look in the eye that we needed to give the audience.”
In the version of Halloween Kills that’s now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock, Michael survives a seemingly un-survivable assault from the residents of Haddonfield, massacring the mob and returning to his childhood home. In his deceased sister Judith Myers’s old bedroom, Michael seems to kill Karen Strode, and the film cuts to black from there.
As David Gordon Green notes, an “extended ending” was not only filmed but also originally scripted, and that last bit is interesting to note because writer Tim Waggoner based the official Halloween Kills novelization – which is now available – on the movie’s script. And wouldn’t ya know it, the novelization indeed does have an extended/alternate ending.
Waggoner recently explained to Bloody Disgusting’s Jason Jenkins, “The ending is the same as in the movie, except in the script it goes on just a touch longer. It doesn’t change anything about the ending at all. It just is a little different. It’s just like they ended thirty seconds early or something. Maybe that’ll show up on the special features of the DVD.”
Here’s how the novelization ends, after Michael kills Karen Strode…
Laurie turned and slowly walked toward the front of the recovery room. On the way, she stopped at her bed, reached beneath the blanket, and withdrew the knife that Allyson had left for her. Its solidness felt comforting, reassuring. Holding the blade tight, she continued toward the room’s entrance. A hospital phone was mounted on the wall next to the door. She lifted the receiver, tucked it between her cheek and shoulder, and began pressing digits. She knew Karen’s cell phone number by heart.
*
The Shape stands at his sister’s window as he did so many years ago, blood-splattered mask reflected in the glass before him. He does not see himself, though. He sees something else. Something beyond… something greater. He sees-
A series of musical tones plays then, distracting him. He turns toward the sound, sees the woman – Her daughter – lying dead on the floor, Christmas sweater in tatters, her chest a ragged mess of blood and torn meat. The music is coming from one of her pockets. The Shape tilts his head to the side, considers. The he kneels, reaches into the front pocket of the woman’s jeans with his three-fingered hand, and pulls out her phone. He stands, looks at the display, pushes a button, and raises the device to his head.
*
Laurie was relieved when the call was answered. She was about to speak when she heard heavy breathing on the other end, sick and distorted, as if whoever it was had been seriously injured. This wasn’t Karen. She knew that breathing, knew it as well as her own. She felt a tearing sensation deep inside then, as if a vital piece of her had been suddenly, violently ripped away.
Karen…
Her hand trembled, but when she spoke her voice was as cold as a windswept Arctic plain.
“I’m coming for you, Michael.”
Why would this extra little moment – Laurie declaring that she’s coming for Michael – not fit where Gordon Green is going next with Halloween Ends? Well, that could be because the next movie in the trilogy is going to jump ahead four years, so perhaps Gordon Green felt it best to not set the stage for that final battle so many years before it actually does take place.
This is all speculation on my part, of course, but it seems pretty clear at this point that the extended ending in the book is indeed also the extended ending in this new version of the movie that we’re going to be treated to on the road to Christmas. Which then begs the question: Will the Extended Cut feature even more new footage that we haven’t yet seen?
For starters, we’re hoping to see an additional shot of Michael Myers that was cut from the theatrical/streaming version, notable because it features ’78 star Nick Castle as The Shape.
Chuck Tingle‘s writing is embedded with a particular tonal trick that makes him perfectly suited to horror. “Propulsive” is the first word that comes to mind when I think of Tingle’s energetic prose, and when his books start wrapping themselves around characters and digging through their various complexities, it’s easy to be pulled along, absorbed in the feeling that an old friend is simply telling you a story.
Then Tingle will drop one of the single creepiest bits of imagery you’ve ever read, and you’re right back in the horror space. It’s not always a jump scare, but it is always a pulsing feeling of dread that keeps you hooked through the rest of the book.
Fabulous Bodies, Tingle’s latest horror novel, carries on these gifts, and the promise Tingle showed on books like Camp Damascus and Bury Your Gays. His fiction’s growing ever more confident and precise, and his eye for horrific detail hasn’t dimmed in the least, making this a summer reading delight for horror fans.
Poppy is a single mother determined to make a better life for her daughter, particularly after growing up in group homes and foster systems. By day, she works hard to keep up the flow of upbeat, enthusiastic content as a fashion influencer, and while that’s going well, it’s not yet making ends meet. To make up the difference, she moonlights as a grave robber, lifting bodies from morgues and funeral homes and selling their pieces on the black market. It’s grueling, dangerous work, and it’s about to pay off big. Out of the blue, Poppy gets a call to transport the newly dead body of her musical hero, the legendary Eddie Michaels. It’s a weird gig, but the payout is big enough that she could walk away from her macabre side gig forever. Poppy takes the job, and things get complicated when Eddie turns out to be, well, only mostly dead.
From the moment Eddie’s corpse enters the picture, Fabulous Bodies takes on the vibe of a road novel, as the grave robber and the undead rock star make stop after stop, and Poppy tries again and again to wrap her mind about what she’s gotten herself into, and how she might get herself out. It’s a delightful premise, and Tingle never loses his grip on the fun of it. No matter how dark the novel gets, and it does get quite dark, the narrative keeps barreling forward, delivering macabre laughs and moments of beautifully gruesome invention along the way.
Because he’s set his protagonist up as a fashion influencer, Tingle has lots of room to play in the space of how we view human bodies, both alive and dead, how we use them, and what we value in them. This is the emotional core of Fabulous Bodies, and while it’s sometimes overshadowed by the runaway train of the plot, it remains a potent source of thematic exploration throughout the book, and it gets more complicated when you consider certain gifts Eddie’s been granted in his strange supernatural state.
In essence, we’re looking at a story about a grave robber who discovers a body that not only fights back, but takes control of any given situation. That throws Poppy for repeated loops and keeps the plot moving, but it also makes us consider on a deeper level exactly what we value about our own physical form, and what might happen when we lose our grip on it entirely.
The book’s themes and emotional concerns hum through the whole narrative, but the overwhelming impression I got while reading Fabulous Bodies was just how much damn fun this book is. I couldn’t stop reading it, not just because it’s so filled with sudden swerves and ghoulish setpieces, but because Tingle has honed his horror storytelling down to a fine, very sharp point. Fabulous Bodies moves like a roller coaster, complete with a tension-filled ramp-up and a finale that’ll leave you breathless by the time the ride is over.
If you haven’t been reading Chuck Tingle’s horror work up to this point, it’s time to get on board, because he’s just getting started, and he’s already mastered the art of the scary page-turner.
Fabulous Bodies is available now.
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