STACK #169 Nov 2018

CINEMA

FEATURE

them,” notes Blum. “They don’t completely pretend that they don’t exist, which I think is satisfying for fans who are familiar with all ten movies in the franchise.” A Halloween film without Jamie Lee Curtis is like an Alien movie without Sigourney Weaver, and fortunately, the actress returns as survivor Laurie Strode, who is still struggling with the trauma from that infamous Halloween night of 40 years ago. Blum says that while Curtis took a certain amount of convincing to return to the role, it was Carpenter’s involvement along with some persuasion from another actor that ultimately got her onboard. “The thing that really did it is her godson is Jake Gyllenhaal,” reveals Blum. “Jake had just done a movie with David called Stronger , and he highly recommended David to Jamie Lee Curtis and that really helped us a lot. And David and Danny’s idea really put it over the line – she loved the idea and she was in.” Then of course there is the other character synonymous with Halloween – the masked maniac Michael Myers. One of the great things about the new film is that it restores his status as the ultimate screen boogeyman. “It restores his mystery,” agrees Blum. “There’s no backstory or explanation, he’s just pure evil, which I think makes him much scarier than when you try and explain it.”

things fell into place – John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis… three generations of women overcoming the most evil man in the world. It’s also a movie that looks at what happens to trauma 40 years after the traumatic event, as opposed to most horror movies which are about that event. All these great things happen as a result of starting with that idea, so I feel very lucky about that.” While technically the official Halloween 2 , the new film also pays subtle homage to the Halloween mythology. “I think it’s great that David and Danny tipped their hat to the other movies, even though storytelling-wise, they don’t reference

Jason Blum’s top five favourite horror films…

Halloween is in cinemas now

Psycho (1960)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Freaks (1932)

Coming from Blumhouse in 2019

“We have Glass in January, which is M. Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to Split and Unbreakable . We also have the sequel Happy Death Day 2U in February. And in March there’s Jordan Peele’s new movie Us , which is his follow-up to Get Out . That’s a good line-up!”

The Shining (1980)

The Birds (1963)

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