The filmmakers behind this year’s Halloween took some drastic measures to course-correct the franchise, including ignoring the events of every sequel to the original 1978 film. Early plans for this film even included re-shooting the ending of the original to set up the events of this film by tweaking the official canon. While the film went the more traditional route for its opening scenes, one of the film’s producers detailed how one idea for the opening included killing an iconic character.
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The 1978 film ends with Michael Myers confronting Laurie Strode, only for Dr. Loomis to intervene, shooting Michael as he falls out of a window. When the two look down at his body, Myers has disappeared, implying that he lived to wreak more havoc.
“The first scripted opening was a re-envisioning of the finale of Halloween,” producer Ryan Turek shared on the Shock Waves podcast. “David wanted to f-ck things up, man. He wanted to just mix things up a little bit. So, initially, he had a scene in which we came in at the end of Halloween, and Loomis sees the screaming kids, comes inside, sees the struggle between Laurie and Michael. Michael puts his mask back on, Loomis shoots him, pushes Michael back through the doorway into the bedroom. Laurie is cowering on the ground, Loomis charges into the bedroom, where Michael gets the upper hand and jumps him. Loomis drops the gun and then Laurie is holding onto the gun, but she’s shaking so much she can’t actually pull the trigger.”
He added, “And then Michael chokes out Loomis, kills him, and then Laurie decides to pull the trigger and knock Michael back. So, we had that, and then…we were trying to figure out how to pull that off…and it was just crazy, you know…And I remember [original director] John [Carpenter] read that draft and he was like, ‘Uhhh, why would you want to change that? Why would you want to change my ending?’ And [sequel director] David [Gordon Green] took that to heart.”
As if Loomis actor Donald Pleasence having passed away more than 20 years ago didn’t cause enough complications, star Jamie Lee Curtis is 40 years older than she was in the original, which would have required body doubles and CGI to alter the way this showdown transpired.
This concept remained in the script long enough that the production recreated the house in which this showdown takes place precisely before the scene was ultimately scrapped. Interestingly, the set of this house was dressed differently and was used as Laurie’s house in the new film. This allowed the filmmakers to inject the feeling of familiarity into audiences’ subconscious during its climactic finale.
The new Halloween is in theaters now.
Would you have liked the new film to have opened with this scene? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
[H/T Entertainment Weekly]
