Taking Shape

by Dustin McNeill

  THE LEAKED SCRIPT

  On January 19, 2007, Eric “Quint” Vespe posted a blisteringly negative script review for Halloween ‘07 on AintItCool.com. Vespe lambasted the screenplay as fundamentally flawed and accused Rob Zombie of not understanding the character of Michael Myers. “I wanted this to work, but the script I read is a real disappointment. Hopefully there are some big changes from the draft I read. And I mean big. You can play around with a lot of things... setting, style, camera movement, and certain characters, but to mess with Michael Myers as a movie monster is unforgivable.” The script Vespe read turned out to be an early draft from the previous year. Halloween fans would soon be able to judge for themselves as the script would leak online in its entirety the following month.

  This primordial look at Halloween ‘07 marks another fascinating point in the remake’s development. Characters and situations are now presented in far greater detail than in the treatment. Unfortunately, many of that outline’s more sexually crude elements remain in place with some even expanded upon. Beyond this point, such cringe-inducing moments would begin to disappear from the screenplay as studio executives worked to reign in Zombie’s cinematic vision.

  Oddly enough, the 2006 script opens in similar fashion to an early draft of Halloween: Resurrection with old home movies of the Myers family. The camera focuses in on a young boy whom we recognize as Michael. Instead of appearing evil as in Resurrection, he seems innocent and child-like, shooting the camera a gap-toothed grin. The script then settles into the opening from the treatment wherein Michael masturbates to a homemade scrapbook. This introductory scene also finds him listening to audiotape recordings of his animal torture, which he narrates. The subsequent breakfast scene has Ronnie being crueler to Michael than in the film, even threatening him. (“See this hand? When it heals, I’m gonna break it again on your face.”)

  The script continues with the movie screening in the assembly hall – now changed to Forbidden Planet. Michael is again bullied, resulting in his mother being called to school. Loomis is now present for this meeting. Michael runs away and lures a nine-year-old girl – not the bully - into the woods to kill her. As with his animal killings, he captures the sound of her death on audiotape for his listening enjoyment and again urinates on her corpse. Later that night, Deborah drops Michael off at the school party, though he heads home as she drives away. Here he kills Ronnie, Steve, and Judith as in the film – except that he tape-records their final moments. (“This is Michael and this is the end of Ronnie.”) Michael is also far more brutal in his sister’s murder – stabbing her seventeen times and sodomizing her with a baseball bat. (Ugh. C’mon Rob.)

  Deborah returns home that night to find a blood-splattered Michael holding Boo on the front steps. The tape recorder by his side replays the night’s murders, horrifying his mother. Michael looks at her with a blank expression: “It’s over.” A newscast details the grisly events that have occurred. At Michael’s sentencing hearing, we learn that his full name is Michael Audrey Myers. (Recall that Michael’s middle name originated in the Richard Curtis novelization and was later incorporated into Halloween’s broadcast version.) The script then contains several emotional moments between Deborah and Loomis at Smith’s Grove that do not appear in the film. Loomis encourages her not to blame herself for failing to see Michael’s problems earlier. (“It is impossible for a mother to look deep into their child’s eyes and see them committing such a crime. No parent is capable of considering such a possibility.”) He also tells her that the sweet Michael she previously knew is effectively gone, that they’re now dealing with a “hollow shell of a person.” Even still, Loomis vows to do everything in his power to help the boy. (“If he’s in there, I’ll find him.”)

  Michael’s psychological deterioration in this draft is quite different than in the treatment and finished film. He disassociates and begins speaking about himself in the third person. When asked why he killed four people, he responds that he likes killing. (“Instead of hurting, I was hurting someone else. I liked it.”) When shown home movies of himself, he tells Loomis that he killed the boy known as Michael Myers in his head. Loomis then asks with whom he is now speaking. Michael’s reply is chilling, simply repeating the phrase “I know who I am,” over and over again.

  The script jumps ahead seventeen years to find Smith’s Grove closing and a bulked-up Michael approved for transfer to a minimum-security facility. The Ismael Cruz character is present in this draft, though he’s known as Marshall. It’s a concerned Marshall who phones Loomis at home with news of Michael’s transfer, which prompts his return to Smith’s Grove to intervene. Ellen Loomis also carries over from the treatment as the doctor’s wife. We find her venting to a friend about the unwanted fame Michael has brought her husband over the years, ignoring the fact that he wrote several books on his former patient. A friend mentions having seen tacky merchandise for sale such as WWMD t-shirts (What Would Michael Do?) in the vein of the old WWJD craze. (Rob Zombie would recycle the WWMD t-shirts years later in Halloween II as part of his unflattering commentary on hardcore Halloween fans.)

  Prior to leaving for Illinois, Loomis tells a friend his theory about Michael’s obsession with masks: “There was no conventional form of communication left. All there was were those fucking masks. Michael created hundreds of them, each slightly different. It became his only form of expression. He’d wear one mask when he was hungry, one when he was tired, one when he had to shit, one when he was just staring off into space. That boy was the great failure of my career.” While in flight, Loomis suffers a nightmare in which an adult Michael has murdered his wife and friends in their home. In reality, Michael has escaped Smith’s Grove thanks to the two rapist-orderlies who bring a female patient into his room. Hospital administrators try to blame Loomis for not sufficiently warning them about Michael, but he angrily rebuffs their charges.

  As in the treatment, Michael spends Halloween afternoon stalking Laurie and her friends. He also stops by Haddonfield Cemetery to steal Judith’s headstone. He’s caught in the act by the groundskeeper, whom he beats to death with a rake. Police arrive to investigate this murder just after nightfall, which is where Loomis first encounters Sheriff Brackett. Meanwhile, Michael attacks Laurie’s parents, her two friends and their respective boyfriends. The Strodes originally survived in Zombie’s treatment, but not here. Only Sheriff Brackett’s daughter, Annie, lives to tell of her encounter with pure evil.

  This original draft also featured a subplot centered on Loomis and Brackett’s search for Laurie’s whereabouts. In this version of the story, Brackett was unaware that Laurie Strode was, in fact, “the Myers baby.” The two men hustle their way into the home of Aaron Kramer, a drug-addled man from the Haddonfield adoption agency. Leveraging Aaron’s illegal drug use, they’re able to search through adoption records to find that Angel Myers became Laurie Strode. Much of this, including the Aaron character, was cut and revised prior to shooting.

  The screenplay’s finale plays out similar to the theatrical film with the exception of its final moments. Sheriff Brackett discovers his daughter near-death. Michael kidnaps Laurie to their old family home and attempts to connect with her. Two police officers try to help Laurie but are immediately killed for their efforts. Loomis crashes the sibling reunion and shoots his former patient until he falls motionless to the ground. He starts to leave with Laurie, but Michael regains consciousness and takes her hostage outside the Myers house. Brackett and his officers arrive, resulting in a standoff. Loomis begs his former patient to release Laurie: “Please, Michael. It’s not her fault. Let her go.” After a tense moment, Michael releases her but makes a dive towards Loomis. With this hostile movement, police open fire on the slasher, killing him. He falls onto his back, bleeding out from his many wounds.

  The screenplay details a final overhead shot of police surrounding Michael’s body in slow motion. We hear an old audio recording of young Michael singing to his mother. He sings her a cheerful song about things he like
s – candy, cake, ice cream, his dog, and playing outside. At the song’s conclusion, he asks her what she thought of it. She responds, “Perfect.”

  THE WORKPRINT

  It was unfortunate for Halloween ‘07’s filmmakers that an early script had leaked months before the project’s release. It was even more unfortunate that this draft no longer reflected the film being made. Such leaks typically happen, if at all, months or years after a film reaches audiences, seldom before. But the remake’s misfortunes weren’t over yet. An early workprint was also leaked roughly a week before the film’s August release date. That a workprint leaked out was not unusual for this series. Halloweens 6, 7, and 8 all had early cuts circulated amongst the fanbase. The difference was that none of these happened online nor prior to their theatrical rollouts.

  “It sucked,” Zombie told Fangoria of the leak. “It wasn’t a workprint. I hate that term. I don’t even know what it was. Somebody, at some point, stole something from the editing room. I don’t know what version it was. You’re editing a movie, and so you generate a different version every day because you’re still working on it. I never saw it, so I don’t know.”

  Rendered on 5/18/07, the workprint is notable for pre-dating two formative events in the remake’s production. The first was the initial round of test screenings, which provided important actionable feedback to the filmmakers. The second was a series of reshoots that occurred eight weeks before the release date. This additional photography added several new deaths and drastically reshaped the film’s ending. That this leaked version of the remake was cut together so early in post-production makes for a considerably different presentation of the film.

  For starters, the workprint contains an entire subplot missing from both official versions surrounding the inept administrators of Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. These scenes involve Udo Kier’s Morgan Walker and Clint Howard’s Dr. Koplenson. In the final film, Walker and Koplenson appear only briefly as Loomis storms out of Smith’s Grove following Michael’s escape. In the workprint, however, they appear in several scenes together. Koplenson argues that Michael is no longer a threat but an unnecessary tax on an overburdened system and should therefore be freed. Walker disagrees and denies such a release at Michael’s hearing. The workprint later features a much longer scene wherein Loomis chews out both men for essentially allowing their most dangerous patient to escape. On the subject of Smith’s Grove, this cut also contains additional therapy sessions between Loomis and young Michael. This includes a moment where Loomis tells Michael he won’t be going home anytime soon. The boy replies, “Then I have nothing left to say.” (This line, while so very effective, is unfortunately absent from both official cuts of the remake.)

  Per the treatment and early script, Michael escapes Smith’s Grove when two orderlies bring a female patient into his room to rape her. This would suggest that his escape was not planned, but purely one of opportunity. (Might Haddonfield have enjoyed a quiet holiday had these orderlies chosen a different venue? Or maybe just not raped anyone at all?) Zombie is careful not to misrepresent Michael’s intentions in the sequence. He doesn’t intervene in the rape because he feels badly for the girl being assaulted – he appears indifferent to her plight. He only gets involved once one of the orderlies messes with his mask collection. That, it would seem, is an unforgivable offense. It’s also worth noting that Michael kills only the two rapist orderlies here whereas other versions have him also killing Ismael Cruz and several security guards. In a moment exclusive to the workprint, we see Michael walking freely out of Smith’s Grove a short time later. He pauses on the front lawn, gives a slow look back at the facility, and continues off into the night.

  Rob Zombie’s Halloween curiously re-envisions the Lynda character for modern audiences. In Carpenter’s original, Lynda was “totally” ditzy and free-spirited. In Zombie’s film, she is a raging super bitch. The workprint contains an additional moment of this new characterization as Laurie and Lynda are leaving school. While complaining about being suspended from the cheerleading team (“I’m like the fucking hottest cheerleader they’ve got.”), she sets her sights on two nearby girls whom she believes are laughing at her. (“What the fuck are you two bitches laughing at? You think it’s funny?”) Lynda then confronts them further by pouring a drink over one of the girl’s heads and stealing her textbook, all as Laurie apologizes and tries in vain to calm Lynda down. (The reason for her cheerleading suspension? Suggesting they cheer naked and “flash their snatches” so that people won’t notice they’re doing old cheers. Classy.)

  As in the early script, the workprint finds Loomis and Brackett first meeting at Haddonfield Cemetery. (In the final film, they first meet at Haddonfield Burger instead.) The workprint is also notably missing an important exchange between the two men wherein Brackett reveals how he knows Angel Myers was adopted by the Strodes. Here he simply tells Loomis he’s “about to break a promise I made a long time ago” in performing a welfare check on the girl.

  The workprint’s final act contains a slew of differences. For starters, Lynda’s boyfriend is killed in his van while getting a beer – not stabbed against the wall as in Carpenter’s original. Compared to the final film, the workprint’s climactic chase is also shorter. The two cuts diverge entirely as Michael drags Laurie from the police cruiser. Theatrically, this moment leads to another chase through the Myers house. The workprint, however, follows the original script with Michael taking Laurie hostage as police arrive on the scene. An emotional Loomis begs his former patient to spare Laurie’s life. (“It’s not her fault. It’s my fault. I’m the one who failed you. Please let her go. I failed you, Michael.”) Per the script, Michael releases her and drops his knife. As originally written, the slasher was to “dive” at Loomis, prompting police to shoot him. Here he merely takes a single step, calmly and without aggression, and police shoot him anyways. The final overhead shot of Loomis mourning Michael’s death features vintage audio, not of Deborah and Michael, but of Loomis and Michael in their first therapy session.

  To paraphrase Zombie’s own observations, Halloween ‘07 is a bloated film, cramming two film’s worth of story into one. The remake is a constant battle of narrative direction – is this a tale about a doctor failing to help his patient or a murderous psychopath trying to reconnect with his sister? Given this struggle, the film’s final moments are enormously important in contextualizing everything we’ve seen thus far. Per the workprint, Halloween ‘07 is about Loomis and Michael. The final shot reinforces this as we see a broken psychologist kneeling over the patient he was never able to reach. Loomis doesn’t plead with Michael solely to save Laurie – he does it in a continued effort to save Michael as well. And himself.

  THE THEATRICAL VERSION

  Ideally, a film’s theatrical and director’s cuts are one and the same. Not so on Halloween ‘07. The remake’s theatrical presentation was widely influenced by focus group feedback and studio notes that were often counter to Rob Zombie’s vision. In certain respects, the theatrical cut is an improvement over the workprint. In others, it’s neither better nor worse – just different. The hospital administrators are all but absent in this version. Michael now kills Ismael Cruz during his escape in a shocking turn. As with the original Michael, this boogeyman is without mercy, even to those who show him kindness. Sid Haig now appears as the cemetery groundskeeper in place of Ezra Buzzington – and survives. Zombie has reshaped the final act to more closely resemble Carpenter’s original by introducing Bracket earlier, having Lynda call Laurie prior to her death, stabbing Bob against the wall in a new kill scene, and having Loomis notice the children fleeing the Doyle house. Lynda’s bratty behavior is also toned down from the workprint.

  One criticism leveled at both the workprint and director’s cut is that Michael’s first seven kills are all personally motivated in some way. The bully was cruel, Ronnie was abusive, Steve stole Judith’s affection, Judith wouldn’t take him trick-or-treating, the nurse made a disparaging comment, and the two rapi
st orderlies encroached upon his turf. This makes him seem less like a boogeyman and more like a dude that doesn’t take shit from anyone. The theatrical cut changes this ever so slightly. Previously, the nurse’s comment on young Michael’s photo of Boo is, “Cute baby. Couldn’t be related to you.” Theatrically, her line is shortened to “Cute baby,” which would suggest her murder was not personally motivated. The murder of Ismael Cruz in this version also helps to dispel any perceptions that Michael only kills out of vengeance.

  Among the more notable differences in the theatrical cut is Michael’s escape from Smith’s Grove. The remake’s producers were eager to drop the originally filmed “rape escape,” particularly after it tested poorly with audiences. Zombie begrudgingly captured a replacement escape during reshoots that saw Michael break free while being transferred by four security guards, all of whom he brutally kills. (Fun fact: While Tom Towles’ administrator role was cut from the theatrical version, he does still appear in Halloween ‘07 as a guard during this new escape.) Unlike the original sequence, this reshot scene would seem to suggest that Michael’s breakout was planned and not entirely one of opportunity.

  Loomis and Brackett now meet not at the cemetery but at Haddonfield Burger before continuing their conversation at the sheriff’s station. Among the reshot material is the much-needed moment where Brackett, while en route to the Doyle house, reveals to Loomis how he took baby Angel Myers to a hospital hoping she could escape the stigma of her family name. This still doesn’t explain what Brackett meant about breaking a promise he made long ago or if the Strodes knew about Laurie’s family history – seemingly not. Speaking of the Strodes, we see Cynthia murdered in this cut, something that was only implied in the workprint.