Yesterday we got a look at the first poster for Blumhouse Productions' upcoming "40 years later" HALLOWEEN sequel, which revealed the aged, wrinkled mask that will be worn by iconic slasher Michael Myers in the film. Coinciding with the unveiling of the poster, Yahoo published an interview with returning HALLOWEEN heroine Jamie Lee Curtis, who said
I’ve seen a trailer and I’ve seen some footage, and it’s terrifying. They went full-tilt boogeyman. And I’ve never said that in my life, and I will say full-tilt boogeyman for the rest of the year as I go around talking about this."
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Now, the fact that something terrified Curtis really doesn't mean a whole lot. If you've watched the special features on the home video releases of the original HALLOWEEN, you're probably aware that – even though she had her acting breakthroughs in the genre – Curtis is not a fan of horror, and is one of the biggest scaredy cats ever. She couldn't even see THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS until after a friend had given her a cheat sheet telling her when to expect the biggest frights and gross-outs. So fans might not find the footage as terrifying as she did. Still, "full-tilt boogeyman" is a great term.
Curtis even went on to say that she won't be watching the new film on the big screen this fall:
For people who like that sort of thing, I think it’s going to be really fun for them to experience. For me, that just doesn’t hold any interest to me. Because I’m frightened enough about all [today’s political climate]. So the idea of now paying money and sitting in a dark theater with a bunch of people and watching something really scary doesn’t really do much for me. But there are a lot of people who love it, and they’re gonna love this movie."
While the story that director David Gordon Green has crafted with co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley is being kept under wraps, there has been some sense that this HALLOWEEN is going to be something like the STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS of the franchise, telling a new story while being very reminiscent of the original film. Curtis seems to confirm that's the case:
…as soon as I read what David Green and Danny McBride had come up with … and the way that they connected the dots of the story, it made so much sense to me that it felt totally appropriate for me to return to Haddonfield, Illinois for another 40th-anniversary retelling. There was the idea of, ‘What do you call it?’ If I had had my druthers, I probably would’ve called it HALLOWEEN RETOLD. Because it’s being retold. It’s the original story in many, many, many ways. Just retold 40 years later with my granddaughter."
Instead of HALLOWEEN RETOLD, it looks like this sequel – which ignores the events of every HALLOWEEN film except John Carpenter's 1978 original – is just going by the title HALLOWEEN.
Curtis is reprising the role of
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.
She is 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; Diva Tyler as a caretaker; and stuntman James Jude Courtney and original Michael Myers performer Nick Castle as the masked boogeyman.
Supposedly both terrifying and déjà vu-evoking, HALLOWEEN is scheduled to be released on October 19th.
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