Rob Zombie’s two-movie run in the Halloween franchise may not have been to everyone’s taste, but the films still had their fans and fared well commercially, giving Dimension Films reason enough to keep the saga going with a third installment, named Halloween 3D. Though Zombie had left the series following an unfavorable experience working on Halloween II, Drive Angry helmsman Patrick Lussier was on board to direct the 3D threequel, but ultimately, the project never made it into production, and for actress Scout Taylor-Compton, the cancelation came as a relief.
Speaking to SyFy Wire, the star who played Laurie Strode in 2007’s Halloween and 2009’s Halloween II recalled the messiness that unfolded in the wake of Zombie’s departure, lamenting the all-round lack of direction for Halloween 3D:
“And Rob wasn’t gonna be part of it. And they pretty much cut funds in half. It was the strangest phone call I’ve ever gotten in my entire life. When I heard that Rob wasn’t gonna be a part of it, I called Tyler [Mane] and I talked to him. And he said that he had gotten the same offer. We were so hesitant on doing it. And we saw the media, all the different directors that they had attached to it and all this stuff. I was indifferent with what I wanted to do; it seemed so unorganized and so up in the air.”
Taylor-Compton went on to explain that it was only out of a sense of loyalty to the character that she decided to stick with the series, but was ultimately glad that the third film didn’t happen:
“But then I was like, ‘Well if I don’t do [the movie], they’re gonna get someone else to train what I’ve worked so hard on.’ But I’m kinda glad that it didn’t happen, because the way that the offer came in, it was not from loving hands.”
Say what you will about Zombie’s Halloween movies, but no one could accuse him of being an anonymous director for hire, with the filmmaker’s distinct personality oozing from both works. Meanwhile, from its gimmicky name onwards, it sounds like Halloween 3D may have seen the franchise devolve into relatively passionless and by-the-numbers slasher fare, suggesting it was likely for the best that Zombie’s reboot series ended where it did.
Of course, after hibernating for a few years, the Halloween franchise came back big last year with David Gordon Green’s commercially successful, critically acclaimed soft reboot. As for Zombie, the director is currently working on a third installment for his own horror series, with Three From Hell due for release later this year.
