Horror fans are well aware that they should have seen Halloween Kills by now but the highly anticipated slasher sequel was delayed a full year by Universal Studios amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and as of now is still scheduled to debut in October of this year. In the time since that movie was delayed though many studios have made their way into shifting films to a streaming debut, like all of Warner Bros. 2021 feature films. Speaking in a new interview, series creator John Carpenter was asked if he thought the new movie/the series could end up in the same boat as far as not being exclusive to theaters. Ever candid and honest, Carpenter disappoint in his response.
“Sure. Halloween may be shared that way because theatres are dead,” the filmmaker said in an interview with NME. “It’s just the reality right now. And it’s a tragedy, but it’s true. We just have to face it. The studio did contact David and I, and they had us put off the new one by a year in the hope that things got better. So we’re still hoping it will get better.” Earlier in the same conversation Carpenter talked about the delay, saying: “We’re just waiting on the world to be a little bit more sane and a little safer before we release it.”
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He also had more high praise for the movie, which he has previously called “brilliant” among other positive adjectives.
“It’s the ultimate slasher movie. It’s Halloween on steroids. It’s great,” he added. “The producer and owner of the Halloween franchise, Malek Akkad, says it’s the second-best one right after the first. So that’s from him. I think it’s a balls-out slasher movie. We haven’t had one of those in a long time.”
Carpenter also offered an update on the follow-up to Halloween Kills, the previously announced Halloween Ends, saying: “We’ve all read the script and we love it. So now we’ve just gotta wait until things are a little safer to make it…They will come and kill me if I try to tell you anything.”
Picking up from the fiery ending of 2018’s Halloween, Halloween Kills will continue the story that started there and feature the return of other franchise favorite characters alongside Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode including her co-stars from the original film Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, Nancy Stephens as Nurse Marion, and Charles Cyphers as Haddonfield sheriff Leigh Brackett.
Halloween Kills hits theaters on October 15th.
