John Carpenter Says David Gordon Green Knows Halloween Better Than He Does

When you’re trying to deliver a worthy follow-up to one of the most renowned horror movies of all time, it helps to know the original inside out, and according to Halloween 1978 director John Carpenter, his successor David Gordon Green had been incredibly thorough with his homework.

Returning to the long-running slasher franchise to provide the music for the latest Halloween, Carpenter was able to follow Green’s activity closely, and in an interview with Consequence of Sound – who’ve named Carpenter their “Composer of the Year” – the legendary genre filmmaker was all praise for the Stronger helmsman.

“I liked what David Gordon Green did with it,” he said. “I thought he did a fantastic job. The style of the film I liked a lot.”

What’s more, Carpenter could see that the director had studied the original Halloween closely, claiming that Green knew the first movie even better than he himself did.

“Well, he knew what he wanted and where,” Carpenter added. “So, he knew he wanted some of the old stuff from the movie, and he knew the movie really well, that was the one thing. It was kind of, uh, eerie. He knew it better than I did. And, so he knew where he wanted the main title, for instance, and where he wanted something new.”

All in all, Carpenter claims to have enjoyed his return to the series, and especially appreciated the opportunity to rework his old pieces using modern technology.

“Look, the whole thing was fun, but working on the soundtrack was really, really fun. It was great to go back and revisit the old score and update it, you know, bring it into this century a little bit.”

Carpenter apparently liked working on the new Halloween so much that he and his team have already said that they’re down for providing the score for the next film. That being said, while co-writer Danny McBride mentioned a couple of months ago that sequel talks are already happening at Blumhouse, it’s unclear who else will be returning for the follow-up.

As of last week, actress Jamie Lee Curtis reportedly hasn’t been contacted yet about the possibility of reprising her role. The involvement of Green himself, meanwhile, remains similarly uncertain, though the director has at least hinted in the past that his latest film plants the seeds for future developments.

There’s still a lot to be learned about the future of the franchise, but in the meantime, you can catch the newest Halloween on digital from December 28th, and on Blu-Ray and DVD from January 15th.