Dustin McNeill - Taking Shape: Developing Halloween From Script to Scream

By Dustin McNeill & Travis Mullins

Edited by Natalie Tomaszewski

This book is dedicated to the memory of Halloweens Godfather.

Moustapha Akkad

1930 - 2005

And to screenwriter Larry Brand, who passed away shortly after our interview. Larry looked back fondly on Halloween: Resurrection with a mix of humor and humility. Rest in peace, good sir.

Copyright 2019 by Harker Press

ISBN-13: 978-0-578-58681-6

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Any unauthorized duplication, copying, distribution, exhibition or any other use of any kind may result in civil liability, and/or criminal prosecution.

This book is an independent editorial work and is not authorized by or affiliated

with Trancas International Films, Miramax Films, Dimension Films, Blumhouse Productions, or any other entity related to the Halloween series.

Contents

FILM: HALLOWEEN

HALLOWEEN. To trace the holidays origin, you would need to journey back thousands of years to modern-day Ireland. To trace the origin of the film franchise, you need only go back to northern Italy in the year 1976. The Milan Film Festival had just concluded and film producer Irwin Yablans is headed back to the United States. He would spend the long flight home brainstorming his next project, which was to be a horror picture. Yablans formulated a rudimentary premise about a slasher that targets babysitters in a quiet suburban community. This plot was assigned a lurid working title The Babysitter Murders . Though he had few specifics beyond these, Yablans knew he wanted John Carpenter in the directors chair. The up-and-coming filmmaker had just finished Assault on Precinct 13 , which Yablans Compass International Pictures had picked up for distribution.

The producer soon approached Carpenter with the idea, who expressed interest in helming the production. Carpenter would agree to a modest salary of $10,000 to write, direct, and score the project. There were several conditions to his involvement, however. First, he would have complete creative control over the film. Second, he would receive above-the-title billing. Third, his then-girlfriend Debra Hill would be hired to co-write and produce. These were rather bold demands given Carpenters relative inexperience as a director and Hills complete inexperience as a producer. Even so, Yablans took a leap of faith and agreed to all conditions.

Yablans next pitched The Babysitter Murders to business partner Moustapha Akkad, who agreed to finance the production for $300,000. Though he would later take an active role in developing the sequels, Akkad was essentially a silent partner on the original Halloween . He would spend most of its production overseas prepping his own directorial effort, a Libyan historical epic entitled Lion of the Desert. Akkad would forego executive producer billing on the film, opting for a Presented By credit instead.

Having already written two self-directed features, Carpenter was a rising talent. Debra Hill, on the other hand, had shown promise as a script supervisor but lacked any screenwriting or producing experience. In this sense, The Babysitter Murders would be an enormous proving ground. Carpenter and Hill began work on the project by crafting a list of scares they hoped to feature in the movie. They next penned a basic outline together that could incorporate these gags. The filmmakers were initially unsure who to feature as their storys masked killer and considered using a neighborhood parent or school teacher in the role. Though Carpenter retained full creative control, Yablans was allowed to give story notes, several of which were incorporated into the script. One formative suggestion was to condense most of the films action to a single night as a cost-saving measure. Another was to feature the Halloween holiday. Yet another was to change the films title from The Babysitter Murders to simply Halloween. (To everyones surprise, this title had yet to be capitalized on by a motion picture.)

Carpenter was forced to step away from Halloween s development early on to direct Someones Watching Me , a television movie about a voyeuristic stalker in a high-rise. A decent thriller in its own right, Someones Watching Me makes for an interesting lead-in to Halloween . (Fans take note: Charles Cyphers co-stars as a character named Gary Hunt.) In Carpenters absence, Hill wrote a first draft of Halloween based on their initial outline. Upon wrapping production on Someones Watching Me , Carpenter made his own pass at the script. According to production lore, the script was finalized in a matter of weeks.

THE NIGHT HE CAME HOME

Halloween opens on the titular holiday in 1963 within the quiet town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Dressed as a clown and armed with a kitchen knife, six-year-old Michael Myers murders his older sister Judith in her upstairs bedroom. The film then jumps ahead fifteen years to find the boys longtime psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis, driving to Smiths Grove Sanitarium on a stormy night to transfer his patient to a court hearing. We learn that Michael was immediately institutionalized in a catatonic state, unable to offer any explanation for his crime. Upon arrival, Loomis is alarmed to find the hospitals patients freely wandering the grounds. Amid the chaos, Michael steals the transport vehicle and escapes into the night. Just as Loomis suspects, Michael heads home to Haddonfield, murdering a mechanic for his jumpsuit along the way.

The following morning finds seventeen-year-old Laurie Strode dropping off a key at the old Myers house for her realtor father, wholly unaware that the returned killer is watching her from inside. From this moment on, Michael fixates on Laurie, whom he stalks throughout the day along with her friends Lynda and Annie. Concerned over his patients escape, Dr. Loomis travels to Haddonfield to warn Sheriff Brackett of the approaching danger. Meanwhile, Michael robs a local hardware store, stealing a white mask, rope, and two kitchen knives. As night falls, Brackett and Loomis find unsettling evidence that Michael has indeed returned home. They stake out the old Myers place hoping to catch the escaped killer. Loomis struggles to convince the sheriff that his patient is not mentally ill but pure evil and quite dangerous.

Halloween night finds Laurie babysitting two children, Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace, while Lynda and Annie engage in more carnal activities. Michael soon murders both girls along with Lyndas boyfriend, strategically displaying their corpses inside the darkened Wallace home. Unable to reach her friends by phone, a concerned Laurie puts the children to bed and goes across the street to investigate. She is horrified to discover her murdered friends inside. Michael attacks a terrified Laurie, slashing her arm and pushing her down a flight of stairs. She escapes back to the Doyle household, though her attacker follows. Laurie and Michael engage in a series of violent confrontations until he finally gains the upper hand by choking her. Tommy and Lindsey run screaming from the house, which catches Loomis attention.