The ending of 2018’s David Gordon Green’s Halloween proved the Halloween night when Michael Myers returned isn’t over yet.
Minutes after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) left masked monster Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) caged and burning in Laurie’s basement, Laurie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, believing she finally killed her lifelong tormentor.
But when Michael manages to free himself from Laurie’s trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights through her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster.
The Strode women join a group of other survivors of Michael’s first rampage who decide to take matters into their own hands, forming a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt Michael down, once and for all declaring…
“Evil dies tonight.”
The Koalition spoke to Jamie Lee Curtis and Andi Matichak about returning for Halloween Kills, Jamie’s predicament in Kills, the passing of the “scream queen” torch and more.
“It was it was a really fun jump to go directly from the 2018 movie directly into Halloween Kills [because] there wasn’t much time lost. You immediately pick back up and you’re starting at like 150 miles an hour and you just kind of keep your foot on the accelerator all the way through. I’m fortunate I had a director like David Gordon-Green [who] was able to guide me through these transitions that happened so quickly for a young person like Allison; to be literally in school that afternoon and then picking up a gun and going to hunt Michael Myers down and how to make that honest and true and grounded in a way that that felt accessible and real,” said Andi.
“I’m in a damn hospital gown for half the movie,” Jamie declared. Thank you very much. I do not look good in it, nobody looks good in a hospital gown, it’s the truth and so it was very frustrating and difficult for me because I had to restrain [myself]. It’s a restrained time [because] she was a warrior and now she is rendered impotent and it was challenging for me. It was also frustrating because everybody else is having these this experience out in the world and I don’t leave the hospital. I’m in the truck and then I’m in the hospital the rest of the movie so it was challenging for me. It was challenging,” Jamie finished.
Equal parts champion and protector of Laurie Strode, Jamie sees herself as Laurie’s guardian angel. Embracing and carrying the heroine’s mantle for more than four decades, Jamie as Laurie fought back and survived. “For Laurie, her journey was complete,” says Jamie, who also serves as an executive producer on Halloween Kills “She gave it all in the first movie. Her heart, soul, blood, courage, strength, wisdom: her everything. She was a warrior.”
While it took the majority of 2018’s Halloween for anyone to believe Laurie that Michael Myers had returned and was coming for her, Laurie’s decades of preparation for that night allowed her and her family to trap him in a basement prison and burn him alive. Unfortunately, at the beginning of Halloween Kills, Haddonfield’s well-meaning fire-and-rescue force arrive on scene just a little too early for the job to be finished.
“Audiences got to feel that sense of satisfaction that Laurie had won at the end of Halloween,” Jamie says. “But in order to continue the story, that satisfaction has to be defeated and that bubble has to be burst—because Michael survived.”
“The beauty of movies is the past is irrelevant, you’re so in the present moment each moment leads to the next moment and I just don’t think there’s [any] time for thinking for anybody. It is 0 to 60 and it’s 60 for the rest of the movie. It feels very high octane, very frenzied and I just don’t think you’re carrying the past with you. The shock for Laurie is that Michael’s not dead is so palpable and real and Anthony is so great in that scene; he’s such a terrific actor and he brings this raw rage to this. [It reflects on the] scene where he was a little boy and I was his babysitter and he says, ‘you protected me, I will protect you. What do [is] we fight,” Jamie said.
Andi chimed in with, “I think part of what made that a little bit easier is the fact it’s one continuous movie, it’s basically a four-hour movie more or less and if you look at it that way, then you’re picking up at Halloween Kills at the climax and that’s what reads as [an] intense act. I think there also was so much change that did happen and that is lasting and you see them as a united family for the first time. You get a glimpse of it at the end of the 2018 movie but it’s really nice to get to see these women genuinely leaning on each other in the back of this truck and inspiring each other. Allison definitely picks up the torch and goes out there because she’s inspired by her grandmother and she wants to do it right and and do it when Laurie can’t.”
As Laurie lies (reluctantly, and then defiantly) in a hospital bed, she gradually comes to the realization she’s not going to be able to fight him alone. “The last movie was Laurie’s story,” Jamie says. “This movie is the town’s story with Laurie in the center of it wondering what the fuck happened. It’s a refrain she uses over and over again. ‘How did this happen? How did this happen?’”
With limited options because of her injuries, Laurie must pass all her strength and survival skills to daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson. “Laurie has transmuted, transferred the passion, the advocacy, the fierceness into the last minute of the first movie,” Jamie said. She’s turned her daughter and her granddaughter into warriors. They now believe her. They now are on the same path that she is. The “final girls” torch is being passed.
“I never went to film school, I’m not a film nerd, I’m a film fan but I’m not a fan of the genre, so I’m not knee deep in it. I just participate in it and prior to making these new Halloween films I had a couple years before I heard the word ‘final girls.’ I didn’t understand there are textbooks that talk about ‘final girls’ and chainsaws and I didn’t understand really what that meant. Back in 1978 Laurie just survived. I didn’t know she was a ‘final girl.’ I didn’t know what that meant and now of course that term has taken on big significance and it’s about survival and it’s about the tenacity of women to survive because the truth is women have survived through a lot not just in horror films in life. I think the badge of honor of being a final girl is a badge of survival.”
Jamie admired how Andi took on a new energy and power in their role from the first film. ‘[She is] extraordinary, and [she] is going to just rise up,” Curtis says. “This is very much their movie. It’s exciting to see because this two character [was] just doing their daily life, like Laurie was doing her daily life in the very first Halloween.”
“To all of the people that love these movies, I say, ‘Happy Halloween,’” Jamie declared. “I hope you don’t come to my house, because I won’t open the door. I leave a bag of candy out in front, and usually it’s all there at the end of the night. I think that means nobody knows where I live, which is good. I wish you a happy one and a safe one, and I thank you for my life.”
To learn more about Halloween and the from the cast watch our full interview in the video above.
