As I understand it, some of your original Halloween 6 pitch was trimmed off and saved for a possible Halloween 7. Tell me about that.
This stemmed from the original treatment I wrote for Halloween 6. Giving that treatment to Moustapha was really a do-or-die moment for me. I was worried that if it didn’t blow his mind that I would never get the job, so I put everything but the kitchen sink into my pitch. It was a crazy story, probably a $20 million film at the time. Moustapha called me the next day and said, ‘Daniel, this is all beautiful and brilliant, but it’s too much. We have Halloween 6 here and the beginning of Halloween 7. I love the direction but I want you to focus on making the first part of your treatment into Halloween 6.’ So that’s how the movie was conceived. I never actually wrote a script for Halloween 7 because Halloween 6 didn’t turn out like any of us thought or hoped it would. I just didn’t think they were going to follow through with the rest of my vision. But for a brief moment, the second part of my treatment was going to become Halloween 7.
I do remember the thing Moustapha really liked about my idea for Halloween 7. Had I done that film, it would have ended with the entire town of Haddonfield being part of the cult. It was very much inspired by Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery. I didn’t see it as a cult but more of a secret society that felt a sacrifice had to be made for the greater good. They were so vested in this tradition of murder that they felt it was the right thing to be doing. The ending was very much like that of The Wicker Man. Moustapha loved that but still insisted that we make Halloween 6 smaller and focus on a smaller group of people. We would’ve gone bigger in Halloween 7.
There was a twist in my Halloween 7 where Laurie Strode would have shown up at the end to save Jamie Lloyd’s life. That was from my original treatment before we had to kill Jamie off. I envisioned Laurie watching everything happen throughout the film but from the shadows, kind of like the Stranger from Halloween 5. Then she would step in to save her daughter’s life at the last moment. But Moustapha told me, ‘Jamie Lee is a big star now. She’ll never do one of these movies ever again.’ Famous last words, right?
So you didn’t write a full Halloween 7 script, but you did write a pitch for Halloween 8 that eventually became a comic by the late great Phil Nutman, correct? How closely did the comic follow your original sequel pitch?
The comic wasn’t exactly the same as my treatment but it was roughly the same story. I wanted my Halloween 8 to be like Halloween II was to Halloween and continue the story that began in Halloween 6. It would’ve begun with what I originally wrote as the ending to Halloween 6 with Tommy, Kara, and the kids at the same bus depot from that film’s opening sequence. Tommy is calling for help when he hears a scream from the bathroom. He then finds Kara bleeding on the floor and the kids are gone. The police get involved and Tommy becomes a fugitive. My Halloween 8 would’ve then become a road movie where Michael is still killing but Tommy is being blamed. And in the final act, we’d reveal that the entire town of Haddonfield was in on it. I thought that story would’ve been a great way to continue our story and not let it die on the vine as the films did. Not that I blame them for that on Halloween H20. I get why they did it.
The comic adaptation of your Halloween 8 ended with Laurie having gone crazy and taken up the mantle of her dead brother, even wearing his mask and costume. Was that your idea?
Yes, that was mine. I loved that the late Phil Nutman, who was a good friend, included that in his adaptation. I remember Moustapha telling me that they had Jamie for one scene in Halloween 8. I said, ‘If you’ve only got her for one scene, make that the best scene of the movie. Put her right at the end and don’t tell people she’s even in it.’ That’s the story I pitched them instead of Halloween Resurrection. I said, ‘You guys ended H20 with her breathing just like the Shape. That was the final moment of that film. So have her go nuts and become the killer this time.’ But absolutely no one wanted to do that, so they made Resurrection instead like that was a better idea.
Much of the reshot material on Halloween 6 was written by Rand Ravich. Did you ever work with Rand or talk to him about his contributions?
Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. No, I never had any interactions with him. I just know that, as a favor to Bob Weinstein, he wrote some pages for the reshoots. I was off writing pages too, but they wanted to get some fresh concepts. I can remember a Dimension executive handing me his pages and saying, ‘Here’s some ideas you may want to use.’ I read them and immediately went, ‘This is all so silly.’ There were scenes of Kara, Tommy, and the children running down these long hallways pursued by the voice of a Druidic God. His voice was so loud that it was causing earthquakes. That was goofy to me and not at all grounded in what these movies were about. I also think Rand is where the idea of the baby lab came in, which did make it to the big screen. Fortunately, the was no pressure on me to use his pages. They just said, ‘Here’s some ideas. Take them or leave them. If you like them, great. If not, we move on.’
Help me understand something if you can. In the producer’s cut, Michael needs to kill Jamie’s baby for his curse to end. Danny then needs to kill Kara for his own curse to begin. But in the theatrical cut, both Danny and Jamie’s baby are suggested to be Michael’s successors. Isn’t that conflicting? How does one make sense of that?
I don’t think anybody on the film knew what was happening with the story. That all came from some very dark times during the making of Halloween 6, which are now legendary in fan circles. I can tell you it’s all true. I still remember the day that Moustapha, Malek, and Paul Freeman walked out like they were striking. I was left standing there in the hallway with Joe Chappelle. We were then told that Miramax was taking over the movie and that the Akkads were out. That began the process of those unbelievable reshoots. I think Joe stayed on because he had to. I still don’t know if he was in support of what was going on. I think he was probably just trying to fulfil his contract. He also had a lot of friends at Dimension and was trying to stay in their good graces. I don’t blame him for that.
But no one knew how to end the film. I spent an all-nighter trying to generate pages, brainstorming with Marianne and Paul Rudd. That’s how ragtag the whole thing was. This was all complicated by the fact that Donald Pleasence had passed on by then. I was hoping the reshoots would augment what we had already filmed, not replace it. We could’ve made the film better by adding in what had been cut out. Little did I know they were going to create this bizarre X-Files type of ending that made no sense. They completely gutted our original concept, which was already tampered with to begin with.
There was a day early on when Bob Weinstein called about the reshoots. I could hear his voice screaming through the phone. ‘Get rid of those fucking coven robes!’ So suddenly there was no coven and no cult. Suddenly, they’re all doctors in a hallway. Why? I don’t know. I was reporting everything I was seeing back to Malek, who was not involved. I was kind of like a spy, honestly, but I had so much loyalty to those guys. We all felt like Miramax was gutting our movie. Paul Rudd felt that way as well. We were all confused and morale was dropping.
What was your initial reaction to the new ending of the theatrical cut?
I thought it had to be some kind of joke. In the script, Tommy Doyle was supposed to wrap Michael Myers in chains and hoist him up, hanging him. You can see the chains in the film just dangling there. But the last night of filming went into double overtime at like three in the morning. Suddenly, they just said, ‘We don’t have time to shoot this, so here’s what we’ll do. We’re going to put the mask on the floor and a hypodermic needle next to it and that’s how we’ll end the movie.’ And I stood up and said, ‘You can’t end the movie like that.’ And they came back with, ‘That’s exactly how we’re going to end the movie.’ It drove me crazy. I was really upset over it because I knew it was a disaster. I went through my own stages of grief, but I came to accept it.
Nowadays, I mostly just remember the good from Halloween 6. I remember being
young and having so much fun with the cast. We made it as good as we could. In the end, I got to write a Halloween movie. How many people can say that? Yeah, there was some frustration, but I got to be part of one of the coolest horror franchises ever made. I also think there are things about Halloween 6 that are better than the other sequels. I’ve gotten e-mails on a weekly basis from people who still like it. A lot of fans tell me that Halloween 6 was their first Halloween, the one that got them excited about the series. To me, that’s a win. I take a lot of pride in that.
Again, it’s great that you look back on it so fondly because there are definitely Halloween fans out there that appreciate it and continue to preach the gospel of Halloween 6. I think fans really love that the producer’s cut is now officially available to own.
And that is so great that people connect to it in some way. If it inspires someone to become a filmmaker or just make their own fan film, then I did something cool. The fact that it lives on makes me feel very proud. I know that I speak for all of the cast when I say that we were all over the moon just to be involved. It wasn’t like being hired to do Leprechaun 8. This was Halloween. I hate the words “iconic” and “classic” because they get thrown around way too much, but Halloween is a true classic. It’s not even a cult classic. It’s a full-on classic. To be a part of that film’s legacy is just the best. And to have Donald Pleasence there with us, the elder statesman of the franchise – we were just in awe of him. Despite its flaws, I consider Halloween 6 to be the last true Halloween because it had him in it. That’s what made our film just a little more special than all the ones that will come after it.
I saw Paul Rudd a while back on a flight from LA to New York and his mouth dropped open when he saw me. He turned to his wife and went, ‘This is Danny! He wrote my first movie!’ He couldn’t have been cooler and more thoughtful, even though he’s a big star now.
It would be nice if Joe Chappelle looked back as fondly on Halloween 6 as you do. The guy seems to have really distanced himself from the franchise.
Joe gets so beaten up so badly about Halloween 6, which is unfair. I can tell you he was in it to win it, especially at the beginning. Joe went in with high hopes like all of us. He wanted to make something really good and really scary. Unfortunately, I think his hands were tied much of the time. I do think he made some missteps as a director. Not creatively, but in terms of not fighting for what needed to be fought for. I just don’t think he was equipped yet emotionally to question Bob Weinstein or Paul Freeman. But look at him today now that he’s had a successful career in television. Joe and I always got along. I never hated Joe or wanted him fired. I just wanted to say to him, ‘Joe, stand up! It’s your movie. You’re the director. Why are you not fighting for whatever scene they’re cutting right now?’ I felt like he never rose to that occasion to fight for the movie. The old-timer brigade stepped all over him and the film. If I ever had frustration with Joe, it’s that he didn’t stand up.
It does seem that Joe Chappelle gets a lot of blame for what happened on Halloween 6.
And I hate that. He was never out to fuck the movie and he’s not a bad person. I’ve directed some movies myself and I’ve since learned that you have to know when to pick your battles. Joe was so young and inexperienced on Halloween 6. To the people that would blame him, I would say that you don’t even know this guy. To vilify him is really unfair. He’s had a prolific career that speaks for itself. It troubles me that some fans just want to tear him apart. God forbid our movie had been made in the era of social media. We’d have been chewed up and spit out before breakfast. I felt for Joe in the months following the release of the movie. People don’t know what they’re talking about. I just want to go, ‘You weren’t even there. You weren’t there that day.’
It saddens me that fans come out with metaphorical torches. While I wasn’t thrilled that there were moments he could’ve stood up for more, I also don’t think it’s all his fault. Any young director in that uncomfortable position would’ve either done what Joe did or found themselves in the unemployment line. It’s just the reality of the business. I don’t think I helped the situation much because I was so vocal about the things I was seeing happen. Joe was frustrated like all of us. He would grumble like, ‘Dan, I’m not trying to gut your script. They’re telling me I can’t shoot Scene 22 or whatever.’ We weren’t on different sides of the fence. We were on the same team. He deserves a lot more credit than he gets.
FILM: HALLOWEEN H20
Heading into 1995, hopes were high that the recently filmed Halloween 6 would be able to reinvigorate the franchise both narratively and commercially. The future seemed bright as the series was once again backed by a major distributor with Dimension Films. Executive producer Moustapha Akkad was confident that the new Thorn storyline could resolve lingering plot issues from earlier films while also propelling the series forward across multiple sequels. Unfortunately, nothing on Halloween 6 went as planned. The project suffered a chaotic production only to underwhelm at the domestic box office, besting Halloween 5’s franchise low but failing to reach even Halloween 4’s modest gross. The sequel also garnered the worst reviews of any Halloween yet. As of this writing, it holds an astonishing 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. For comparison purposes, that’s lower than any single entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises.
Excusing the fact that Halloween 6 was marred by a meddling studio, it was also released at the end of an era in the horror genre. 1995 was an unusually dry year for slasher films with only two reaching the big screen – Halloween 6 and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, neither of which performed particularly well. Wes Craven’s Scream would debut the following year to huge acclaim and box office success, grossing more domestically than Halloween’s 2-6 combined. For Dimension, it would become a cinematic blueprint to guide the direction of future slasher films.
TWO FACES OF EVIL
Unbeknownst to many Halloween fans, the franchise nearly descended into direct-to-video hell following The Curse of Michael Myers. This decision was made not by the Akkads but by executives at Dimension Films, who began developing the project in early 1997. Within the horror genre, this downgrade is typically associated with a steep decline in both budget and quality. Consider Dimension’s own run of direct-to-video Hellraiser sequels, several of which began as standalone scripts that were later hastily rewritten to feature Pinhead. Few franchises have ever managed to bounce back from this fate. (Fun fact: The Amityville Horror is an exception, having begun as theatrical, gone direct-to-video, become theatrical again, and is now direct-to-video once more!)
For Halloween 7, Dimension executive Richard Potter took a chance on aspiring screenwriter Robert Zappia based on the strength of a spec script titled Population Zero. While Zappia had written for several sitcoms including Home Improvement, he had yet to earn his first feature-length screenwriting credit. As a professed Halloween fan, he jumped at the opportunity to pen the sequel, even if it was headed direct-to-video. His instructions were to take the series in a new direction rather than continue the storylines of the previous three installments. For Zappia, this meant having a mostly blank narrative slate. The first draft of his sequel script was dated July 11, 1997 and titled Halloween 7: Two Faces of Evil.
Set several days before Halloween, the new sequel opens in suburban Illinois with the murder of a teenage babysitter. The culprit appears to be Michael Myers – except that he’s been locked inside a maximum-security prison cell for the past three years. Suspecting a copycat killer, police focus their attention on a criminal-turned-magician who happens to be obsessed with Michael’s legacy. Later that night, the real Michael dies in prison under mysterious circumstances. His body is taken to a nearby morgue where it vanishes amid the murder of two attendants. With additional dead bodies piling up and Halloween rapidly approaching, police scramble to figure out whether a dead killer has come back to life or if it’s all the work of an obsessed fan. Either way, there’s yet agai
n a killer to be stopped on Halloween night.
Zappia’s script was quite well received by all parties though development soon halted as the production was cancelled altogether. As it turned out, studio execs had been secretly negotiating plans for another Halloween 7 that would restore the franchise to its former glory.
THE NIGHT SHE CAME HOME
Unbeknownst to Robert Zappia, original Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis was quietly plotting her return to the franchise as he toiled away at Two Faces of Evil. While the Weinsteins have taken credit for this momentous homecoming, the actress steadfastly maintains the idea was entirely her own. Curtis envisioned an anniversary sequel as a way to thank both the fanbase and genre that launched her career. Her initial hope was that John Carpenter and Debra Hill would also return to direct, produce, and co-write the new film. Curtis met with both filmmakers in late 1996 and found them amicable to reteaming on a new Halloween. Her agent then arranged a group meeting with Dimension’s Bob Weinstein to discuss the project.
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