UPDATE: Mere moments after the publication of this article, news came from David Gordon Green and John Carpenter that the release of Halloween Kills has been pushed back a year to 2021 due to the current cinema situation. The original story continues as follows.
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If all goes to plan and cinemas are able to fully re-open in time, this Halloween will see the return of, er, Halloween – with writer-director David Gordon Green and co-writer Danny McBride presenting Halloween Kills, the first of two back-to-back sequels to their 2018 Halloween. As you’ll remember, that one was a direct legacy sequel to John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween (are you keeping up?) and saw Jamie Lee Curtis return as a grizzled, tooled-up Laurie Strode, ready to face Michael Myers again on the 40th anniversary of his original attack.
In the Big-Screen Preview issue, Empire spoke to Green and McBride about how Halloween Kills fits into their trilogy, set to conclude in 2021 with Halloween Ends. “It takes place the same night, picking up where the last movie ended,” Danny McBride confirms. As those who saw 2018’s Halloween will know – SPOILER ALERT – Laurie, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) managed to trap and 'kill' Myers in a burning basement. Except, some familiar post-credits inhalation indicated that the boogeyman is, indeed, not actually dead. “Events in the film bring together a lot of characters who were in the 1978 film who we didn’t see last time,” McBride continues. “They gather to try, once and for all, to take down Michael, to stop this madman.”
As for thematically, this second instalment has a different aim. “This first one was more about Laurie’s life of isolation after Michael and her attempts at revenge. It was personal,” explains Green. “This is more about the unravelling of a community into chaos. It’s about how fear spreads virally.” And after seeing how gung-ho Curtis was in her return to the iconic scream queen role, Green knew he could push the boat out this time. “We learned that Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie is capable of anything! We didn’t know what to expect working with her,” he admits. “The fact she could do her own stunts, kick everybody’s ass and be a joy to work with – that definitely meant re-evaluating what we wanted to do with the next chapter of the story. We were excited to write without limitations about what Laurie can do.”
Read the full story in the Big-Screen Preview issue of Empire, on sale Thursday 9 July and available to order online now.