Nick Castle: New Halloween will evoke deja vu, but isn’t a copy

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I've been wondering what the story of Blumhouse's upcoming HALLOWEEN sequel will be, and really all we can do at this point is wonder, since the official synopsis doesn't offer any real details about what writer/director David Gordon Green and co-writer Danny McBride have in store for us. Of course, it will boil down to "Michael Myers stalks and kills people in Haddonfield", but what I'm really curious to find out is how the film, which ignores the events of the previous sequels (but will have nods to them), is going to explain why Myers was out of the game for 40 years. My assumption is that it's going to re-use the "Myers escapes from an asylum" set-up of the original (as HALLOWEEN 4 did)… but if it does that, will it also be packed with scenes that are just repeats of what was done in the original?

Original Michael Myers performer Nick Castle put on the mask again for the new movie, and immediately after his work on the film was done he went to meet fans at the Mad Monster Party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. That's where HalloweenDailyNews's Matt Artz caught up with him, conducting an interview in which Castle confirms that there will be familiar moments in the sequel, but also gives assurance that it's not just a carbon copy.

…it’s very neighborhood-centric, you know, like the first one. It feels a lot like (the first film). There are a lot of things coinciding (in the new film) that feel like clever ways to introduce a kind of déjà vu of the first one, without feeling like it’s being copied. The script had some very clever people working on it. 

They were very clear on wanting to find the tone that was in the first one. It was the first thing out of their mouths really: ‘We want to do it like John did it.’

They had a lot of practical challenges making it 40 years later, in terms of where people were, what they’re doing, the kind of assumption of the interim period, and I think a lot of that went towards deciding when to start the film, in a way disregarding the subsequent sequels. It’s a difficult thing they’re trying to do. It is difficult. When you’re given a project that has within it certain limitations of what went on before, you have to follow a trail through that, it can get very – it can plod along and it can be just about plot.

What I like about this (new film) is they’ve got some really good young actors. They fleshed out their roles. They fleshed out the relationship of Jamie’s character with her daughter and her granddaughter, so you’ve got that whole generational thing going. And they made some choices that I think are really bold choices about who these people are and why they are the way they are now. So I’m really looking forward it. I have high hopes."

I have high hopes as well. I was a huge fan of the HALLOWEEN franchise at one point, but recent additions and re-evaluations of past installments have largely turned me away from it. I would love for this new film to be a great one that can make me care about the series again.

In Blumhouse's HALLOWEEN, Castle's HALLOWEEN co-star Jamie Lee Curtis 

returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

They are joined in the cast by Judy Greer as Laurie's daughter Karen; Andi Matichak as Karen's daughter Allyson; Miles Robbins, Virginia Gardner, Dylan Arnold, and Drew Scheid as Allyson's Haddonfield High classmates; Will Patton and Rob Niter as police officers; Rhian Rees as a character named Dana; and Diva Tyler as a caretaker. Stuntman James Jude Courtney also portrays Michael Myers in some scenes.

John Carpenter is executive producing the film and is also expected to provide the score.

The latest HALLOWEEN is set to reach theatres on October 19, 2018.

He’s at it again! pic.twitter.com/uixZ2f2YDC

— Nick Castle (@ncastlez) February 8, 2018

Look familiar? pic.twitter.com/Tm4dbwGNCB

— Nick Castle (@ncastlez) February 12, 2018

His shadow pic.twitter.com/zXG1YtGWS3

— Nick Castle (@ncastlez) February 10, 2018