David Gordon Green’s Halloween is doing all the right things to please longtime fans of the venerable horror franchise.
First and foremost, we’ve got Jamie Lee Curtis stepping back into the shoes of Laurie Strode – the original scream queen. But Curtis isn’t the only performer from the 1978 original returning to the movie. In a heartwarming twist, the original Michael Myers actor, Nick Castle, will be donning the rubber mask for a few key moments in the film. Stuntman James Jude Courtney will be playing Michael for the majority of the pic, but it’s a really nice touch that they invited the 70-year-old Castle back, too.
Now, to mark his return, the Halloween Convention has re-staged a famous behind the scenes shot from the original in which Castle holds up his Michael mask and fixes the camera with a stare that’s half intimidating and half kinda goofy. The shot also gives us another great look at the mask for the new movie – the design of which was decided on after finding out how latex masks from the 70s actually aged.
Aside from playing one of the most iconic villains in horror in an all-time classic of cinema, Castle also co-wrote Escape From New York with John Carpenter, developed the script of Steven Spielberg’s Hook and had a consistent directing career on TV films up until his retirement in 2006. Now, he’s come full circle to his most famous role, and I can’t wait to start figuring out exactly which scenes he appears as Michael in.
This new Halloween is easily one of my most anticipated films of the year, too. I’m an enormous fan of John Carpenter’s original (if you haven’t seen it then go and watch it now!) and that trailer indicated that this is going to be the best installment in the franchise since 1978. Or at least, that’s my hope. We’ll find out if that’s the case on October 19th.
