John Carpenter urged the filmmakers behind Halloween 2018 to make the new sequel "relentless." Carpenter has directed plenty of genre classics over the course of his career, including The Thing and Escape From New York, yet Halloween is often considered his finest hour. Despite the movie's tiny budget, the director was able to skillfully build tension to a breaking point, before unleashing a terrifying finale where final girl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) faces off with relentless serial killer Michael Myers.
Halloween soon became a massive hit, so producers pressured Carpenter into making a sequel - despite the director feeling there was no more story to tell. He passed on directing it, but wrote the script and produced it. Carpenter also made sure to kill Michael Myers off in the finale, and when the studio requested another sequel, he attempted to turn the franchise into a horror anthology with 1982's Halloween III: Season Of The Witch, which told an original, Myers-less tale. The movie failed at the box-office, and every subsequent entry has featured Michael as the lead villain, even the Rob Zombie films.
Related: Halloween Writers Almost Pitched TWO Sequels
Carpenter has essentially steered clear of the series since then and turned down a chance to direct Halloween H20. The makers of Halloween 2018 convinced him to be involved though, and in addition to composing the score – as he did with the classic theme of the original – Carpenter acted as executive producer on the movie. Now director David Gordon Green has discussed the simple advice the legendary director gave him about the sequel during a conversation with Cinema Blend:
His advice was brilliant: make it relentless. He had notes, which is something I was extremely nervous about, we worked very hard on the script, we were all very excited. It's one thing for three movie nerds to geek out over the opportunity of maneuvering within this property, another to basically go kiss the ring of the godfather and see how that goes.
Carpenter always felt the original was a self-contained story and spoke of how he had to down a six-pack of beer every night while writing Halloween II to get inspiration. That's also why he tried to kill Michael at the end of the sequel, but once later sequels brought the character back, he decided to leave and has admitted he hasn't even seen all of the other sequels. That said, it sounds like he was very hands-on with Halloween 2018, and worked with Green and the producers to make it the scariest sequel yet.
Blumhouse is producing Halloween 2018, and are ticking all the boxes so far when it comes to pleasing fans. In addition to bringing back Carpenter and seeking his approval for key creative choices, they've also brought back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and original Michael Myers actor Nick Castle to reprise the role for a few scenes. Anticipation for the new Halloween is sky high among horror fans, so hopefully, it will be able to deliver the goods this coming October.
More: Halloween (2018) Trailer
Source: Cinema Blend
