As Halloween Kills turns 5 this week, the 2021 American slasher film still has fresh details for horror fans. Directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by Green, Danny McBride and Scott Teems, it is the sequel to Halloween (2018) and the twelfth installment in the Halloween franchise. Its path to the screen very nearly took a different shape.
Kyle Richards hid a broken nose
Kyle Richards reprised her role as Lindsey Wallace from the original film. While filming an action sequence with Michael Myers, she broke her nose. Richards kept the incident to herself so she would not be replaced by a stunt double.
Two sequels were nearly shot back-to-back
In June 2018, Danny McBride confirmed that he and David Gordon Green originally intended to pitch two films that would be shot back-to-back. They decided against it, waiting to see the reaction to the first film. As McBride put it, ‘Let’s learn from this, and see what works, and what doesn’t.’
The studio mapped out a trilogy
On July 8, 2019, Bloody Disgusting reported that the studio was considering filming two sequels back to back and releasing both in October 2020. Green had worked with McBride and co-writer Jeff Fradley to map out two films before realizing they had enough material to make a trilogy. Universal Pictures later revealed the titles and release dates of two sequels.
Paul Rudd almost returned as Tommy Doyle
Anthony Michael Hall joined the cast as Tommy Doyle, a character portrayed by Brian Andrews in the original Halloween film. Paul Rudd, who played Doyle in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, was approached to reprise his role, but declined because he was unavailable due to his commitments to Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
The Carpenter trio returned to score
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies returned to score Halloween Kills after previously scoring Halloween (2018). Much of the film’s score was completed before the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was released on iTunes on October 14, 2021, and on all digital platforms on October 15.
Ghost sang the end-credits song
The album was led by three singles: ‘Unkillable,’ ‘Rampage’ and ‘Michael’s Legend.’ A separate end-credits song, ‘Hunter’s Moon,’ was performed by the Swedish rock band Ghost and released as a single, but not included in the soundtrack. The album debuted at number 9 in Billboard Top Album Sales for the week beginning October 23.
The finale used a rotating stage
The final confrontation where Michael murders the mob formed by Tommy Doyle was filmed on a ‘lazy susan’-esque rotating stage that circled around the camera. Principal photography took place in Wilmington, North Carolina, beginning September 16, 2019, and concluding on November 3, 2019.
It streamed on Peacock for 60 days
Halloween Kills premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 8, 2021. Initially set for October 16, 2020, the film was delayed to October 15, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 9, 2021, it was announced that in addition to theatres, the film would stream on paid tiers of Peacock for 60 days.
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Facts from Wikipedia: Halloween Kills, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.