For most, October means dressing up in fun costumes and eating candy.
For the residents of Haddonfield, Illinois, it means facing Michael Myers again because he never seems to stop coming back every year. For actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Kyle Richards, Anthony Michael Hall and Andi Matichak, it means going back to work.
Halloween Kills is Curtis’s sixth Halloween movie as survivor Laurie Strode. Richards reprises the role she played in the 1978 movie as a child. Matichak returns as Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson from 2018’s Halloween and Hall takes over the role of Tommy Doyle, another survivor of the 1978 babysitter murders. The cast of Halloween Kills spoke to reporters in a Zoom session. The film is now in theaters and streaming on Peacock all October long.
Q: Jamie Lee, what is the journey and ride you’ve been on through these movies?
Jamie Lee Curtis: Well, you know, these movies and films have evolved like I have evolved as a human being. I’m 62. I was 19 when I made the first movie in 1978. And Laurie Strode has evolved. She’s evolved from an innocent to a victim of terrible violence. She got no mental health help and she bounced around the world like a pinball in her small town. It resulted in a child, it resulted in a grandchild but she was estranged and fractured from them because she had one mission and only one mission. Halloween Kills is a movie about the collateral damage that Laurie Strode suffered and certainly passed on into her daughter and granddaughter, the fantastic Andi Matichak. But also to the whole town, to all of the survivors. And I feel like it’s just a movie, series of movies that are very interestingly connected to the sign of the times. 2018 was about female trauma and violence against women and 2021’s movie is about a mob violence, a group of people, collateral damage coming together, saying, “We are as mad as hell. We are not taking it anymore. The system is broken. We are taking matters into our own hands’ and the collision of that as Michael Myers has transcended. So the violence is next level, the overarching story feels very next level mayhem, madness, chaos, maelstrom. And yet at the center of it are these three women and the power of female strength and empowerment, and the passing of the torch of the warrior to the warrior. It’s just brilliant.
Q: Kyle, in the years since the original Halloween, have you previously thought about what happened to Lindsay Wallace?
Kyle Richards: Yes, I did think that with all the times I thought are they ever going to bring Lindsay back? When are they bringing Lindsay back? So I did think about that many times. I thought about that when I accepted the role and had to figure out who I am and where I have been these last 40 years and why the heck hasn’t she left Haddonfield? I mean, they all stay in Haddonfield. Obviously, there’s a reason. They’re bonded over being terrorized by Michael Myers. It’s a weird juxtaposition of being terrified but yet bonded with these people who have all been through this together.
Q: What have each of you taken from these characters and their relationship?
Andi Matichak: One of the things that was so interesting to me is there’s so much tension between Karen (Judy Greer) and Laurie, but at the same time Karen stayed in Haddonfield. So there’s part of her that wants some type of relationship as a family. Karen is definitely, in a lot of ways, the person that grounds I think both Laurie’s kind of wild energy and Allyson’s wild energy that you see. Allyson and Laurie are quite similar. The more Allyson comes into herself, she sees herself I think in her grandmother and that’s part of the reason why she has to pick up the torch. When she does, she has to go for it the way that Laurie would which is I think where the bravery comes from in this movie. But without Karen being that grounding force and kind of the gatherer, I don’t think that they really would have much of a family at this point which is pretty spectacular to think.
JLC: I agree with everything she just said and she’s brilliant because she’s my granddaughter. The only thing I would add to is really I do think it’s a generation skipping warrior woman. I don’t think Karen by nature is a warrior. I agree with Andi. I think a generation skipped and I think Allyson is Laurie. Allyson becomes Laurie. Laurie is immobile, she is immovable, she’s wounded, twice. She is restricted from being the warrior that she wants to be. There is a moment in this movie where Allyson becomes Laurie. That, to me, when you talk about passing the torch, that to me is literally passing the torch. It’s really a powerful moment and you’re spectacular in the movie, love. I haven’t seen you since I’ve seen it and really been able to talk to you about it. Spectacular.
KR: If I’m coming back after 40 years and people haven’t seen me act for a while, I really wanted to really immerse myself in this role and do the best I could and show what I can bring to the table here. I really just was so excited with the script that I had to work with and the incredible director and cast and crew to be able to achieve that.
Anthony Michael Hall: For me, this was my first time at bat. There was such a swell of excitement, just from day one. When I got on the set I was really excited that I’d been chosen and I screen tested for the role. I just attacked the work. I just really wanted to make [direector] David happy, make sure he was satisfied at how I delivered it. It was just a real pleasure to be a part of.
Q: Does Tommy have survivor’s guilt for living through the 1978 murders?
AMH: I think that’s a great point. I think that can be fairly said if you’ve seen the film. I think that’s part of his arc and for all of us, that we make this decision to not just be survivors or victims but to really fight and to galvanize each other and the community to rise up. It feeds perfectly into this classic good vs. evil. It’s the Strode ladies vs. Myers once again so I just had a blast. I really just attacked the work and I just wanted to make Dave happy and make everybody proud.
Q: For Kyle, what was it like returning to Haddonfield and facing Michael Myers as an adult?
KR: As a little girl, she sees her babysitter get murdered, all the people around her being killed. Obviously that affects her, the character Lindsay, who she is as an adult. I really had to think about who is Lindsay now after all these years of surviving this and witnessing what she witnessed and still living in this town with these people that have all gone through this. So from a character’s perspective it was very different, but I just was so excited to be there and reprising this role and so grateful to David Gordon Green and Blumhouse for giving me the opportunity to go back to my first love, acting. Having them trust me to do this and to be able to work with some of the original people and then meeting all these new people that were in the movie, had obviously been a fan of Anthony’s forever so it was just really exciting.
Q: What is a favorite Halloween costume you’ve had in the past?
AM: I think my favorite costume was, so my sister and her group of friends were all being characters from The Wizard of Oz when they were probably in like second grade. And I wanted nothing more than to just be included in that group. There was only one character and nobody wanted to be this character which I still don’t get why was the scarecrow. So when I was in Kindergarten, my mom and I, on a lunch break, threw together this outfit where we took hula skirts and chopped them up. I used my dad’s flannel and we made a whole scarecrow that was so perfect. I wish I had a picture of that.
JLC: Well, I was a little Dutch girl when I was like eight. I had missing teeth so I had to be around eight because you lose your teeth at sort of seven. I just remember I thought I was hot. Like, I remember looking in the mirror. I had missing teeth and my hair was all akimbo but I do remember looking in the mirror in this little Dutch girl outfit thinking, ‘Damn, I look great.’ There’s something so wonderful about the feeling of putting on a costume. As the kids today call it, cosplay. Cosplay is a monster business. Cosplay events, people go in costumes of these characters from things. In fact, Ruby’s wedding is going to be a cosplay wedding at my house.
