2018’s Halloween breathed new life into Michael Myers, making for a critical and box office smash that took the franchise in a fresh direction while paying tribute to its past. Buoyed up by its success, Blumhouse have commissioned back-to-back sequels: Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. They’ll be released around Halloween 2020 and 2021, but have both been shooting over the last few months. And making his debut in the franchise with these films is The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep star Robert Longstreet, who’ll play Lonnie Elam.
Longtime Halloween fans will remember Lonnie from the original movie, in which he bullies Tommy Wallace, who Laurie Strode was tasked with babysitting. Later in the film, he was dared to enter the Myers house, where he would probably have met a gruesome end if Dr. Loomis hadn’t scared him away. Since then, the character hasn’t turned up in the franchise, but he’s set to make a comeback in Halloween Kills.
Longstreet recently spoke to Bloody Flicks about the role, where he said how exciting it was to be involved and that this might be the most nasty entry yet:
“I don’t think I can say anything about HALLOWEEN KILLS except it might be the nastiest of all of them. It has some terrifying scenes in it.
Lonnie is a complicated, troubled guy who is haunted by his past. Particularly chickening out on going into Michael Myers’ house when he was a kid. I think this broke something in him that fucks with his manhood. … The Elam family is very unorthodox. They love drugs and alcohol more than most. David [Gordon Green] said a funny thing to me about that. He said ‘Lonnie knows his wines.’ Ha!!!”
He was then asked what the best thing about being in the film was, and gave an answer that should ring true for any horror fan:
“The best part of HALLOWEEN KILLS for me was sitting in a makeup trailer next to Michael Myers. That is a full-circle moment that had my inner teenager doing backflips. I had the same feeling in the HILL HOUSE mansion set and the overlook hotel sets on DOCTOR SLEEP.
I got to inhabit my childhood nightmares and become a small part of the mythologies I idolized so long ago and still to this day. What a gift. It’s hard for me to get my mind around it. I’m just grateful as hell.”
He concluded by saying where he ranks Michael Myers in the horror pantheon:
“Michael Myers is up there with Dracula for me. He is on the very shortest list of iconic villains. A silent remorseless destroyer.”
Damn right. October 16th, 2020 can’t come fast enough.
