Halloween returned on Tuesday night for the premiere of the next installment in the classic Michael Myers saga: Halloween Kills.
Dressed for a full-fledged costume party, the cast and creators arrived at Hollywood’s landmark TCL Chinese Theater to celebrate the film’s debut — an occasion that was delayed a full year due to the pandemic.
Prior the start of the screening, star and executive producer Jamie Lee Curtis welcomed the audience: “Happy Fucking Halloween!” she cheered. Audience members were provided with Michael Myers masks of their own, as Curtis encouraged everyone to don the masks for a photo with the crowd.
Since Myers’ debut in 1978, the masked man has become an iconic horror figure, terrorizing Laurie Strode (Curtis) and the town of Haddonfield, Illinois for decades. After the initial reboot of the series in 2018 — 40 years after the original slasher film — the story continues on with Kills.
Curtis arrived on the carpet dressed as Marion Crane from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho — an homage to her mother Janet Leigh, who played the character in the 1960 film.
For Halloween Kills, Curtis took on the role of not only starring in the film, but also executive producing.
“My job is being head cheerleader,” Curtis said of the filming experience. “As the sort of face of the franchise, my job is to make sure people know that I appreciate them. Every person on the crew, the actors, I’m a cheerleader. I’m not an executive in the sense that I’m not the one making big decisions.”
As for the new heights that Halloween Kills achieves, Curtis confirms that “it’s next level, which fans of this franchise want and need.”
“It’s faster, it’s louder, it’s gorier, it’s scary,” Judy Greer, who plays Strode’s daughter Karen, added. “I’m actually gonna try not to cover my eyes tonight.”
Dressed in an Annie Hall costume, Greer expressed her support for the ongoing negotiations of IATSE union workers for better work conditions and higher pay, with a possible strike now set for Monday if an agreement is not reached. “I wanted to wear an IATSE pin on my costume,” Greer said, although she admits that she forgot to do so while rushing out the door. “I’m in a union, I support unions. I also work in this business very regularly and I know it’s really hard on us actors and we work half as much as they do and we get paid so much more. There’s a real imbalance, and so, I really support it, I want everyone to feel taken care of.”
“The crews deserve anything and everything they can pry from the studios,” added Nick Castle, who originated the role of Michael Myers, or “The Shape,” in John Carpenter’s original film. “They do such an amazing job. I’ve never been on a set — and I’ve been doing this for 40 years — where these guys don’t take their jobs so seriously. They work unnecessarily long hours and it can be dangerous, so I hope they win.”
“I’m behind these guys 100 percent,” James Jude Courtney, who embodies Myers in Halloween Kills, agreed. “We can’t do what we do if we don’t have 70, 80, 100, 120 of these people on the set, working longer hours than we work. Truly, they are the backbone of what we do.”
Producer Jason Blum also made an appearance on the carpet dressed as Curtis’ Laurie Strode from the first film, complete with a blonde wig and all.
“It’s great to have movies back in theaters, but I’m also very happy that it’s on Peacock so that any and all Halloween fans can see the movie,” Blum said of the decision to do a simultaneous release, both at-home and theatrical. “Fans can get to the movie right away, which makes me very happy.”
Kills executive producer Ryan Freimann agreed. “This movie is meant to be seen on the big screen,” he said. “I’m thrilled that we’re finally getting it out, even though we’re doing day-and-date with Peacock. There’s a portion of the audience that don’t feel comfortable going to the theaters. I think it was about finding the balance. It’s fan service… so allowing both sets of audiences to see it at the same time — it’s a huge plus.”
As for the future of the franchise, director David Gordon Green went into this reboot with a trilogy in mind. Dressed as an old-fashioned movie theater usher — a nod to his former job before getting started as a director — Green confirmed that the script for the final installment of the trilogy is ready to go.
“It’s called Halloween Ends and hopefully we just say ‘night, night,’” Green said ominously, in regard to the completion of Strode and Myers’ journey together.
“With the boogeyman, you never know where he’s gonna be,” Freimann added. “The Shape’s always around.”
