How Halloween Kills Director Crafted Immersive 1978 Flashbacks

After being delayed a year due to the pandemic, Halloween Kills finally hit theaters and Peacock this weekend. So far, the movie has been met with mixed reviews, earning a 42% critics score after 104 reviews and a 76% audience score after 500+ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. However, fans of the original film have been enjoying the many callbacks to the original 1978 movie. Not only does Halloween Kills feature Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers, Charles Cyphers as Leigh Brackett, and Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, but there are also some neat flashbacks to the original film. During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Halloween Kills director David Gordon Green explained how they crafted the immersive 1978 flashback. 

"Stylistically, it's a little different, lighting's a little different, camera, attitude's a little different," Green explained. "So our production designer Richard Wright and our art department just did an incredible amount of research on the original sets in terms of measurements. And I mean, they went and visited the practical locations and put the architecture together based on exact size and scale of the original home. And then our director of photography Michael Simmons, talked to Dean Cundey and got tips on how to light and what the technical conversation of the camera and the characters would be. So, and even editing is a little different. So we just tried to respect, homage Carpenter's work and his team's technical design. And then have that juxtaposed the 2018 filmic look, which is slightly different." 

During a recent Halloween Kills screening at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles, Green also talked about what it was like working with Curtis on the new trilogy. 

"It's amazing. I mean, a title like this is obviously very intimidating. And as, before the show, that provocative letter was exposed. But it was like a physical feeling because of what the original film meant to me in my childhood. And it disturbed the f*ck out of me. And I wanted to make sure that I did something that was appreciative of that heritage, but also had my own signature because I want that as well. And then having a collaboration of Jamie Lee, which is amazing, and a wonderful... As you saw on screen, and on stage, compelling force of nature. Charming, fun, motivational, brave. And John Carpenter who's very challenging, and supportive, and inspiring in so many ways. And so having those legacy realities, with their voices in the mix, just made it a pleasure."

Halloween Kills is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock.

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