It’s just an extremely powerful film with a beautiful blend of authentic naturalistic characters from within Appalachian culture, to the movie stars that inhabit the marquees. Of course, I’d heard, “Squeal like a pig,” and some tropes from the film, but didn’t understand the reality of what I was getting into, and then ended up seeing this study of masculinity that has affected me so vividly to this day. It was a movie that I thought was going to be some sort of Burt Reynolds adventure film.
I remember vividly the first time I saw it – probably too young, I was probably 14 at the time. Here, he talks about why the movies mean so much to him, and discusses the challenges of creating all that Halloween Kills carnage and how he plans to close out his current horror trilogy. Given his history of playing in different genres, it was perhaps unsurprising that when Green sat down with Rotten Tomatoes to talk about his own favorite movies, the choices were diverse: an iconic Western here, a classic sports comedy there, plus, of course, a few journeys to the dark side. It’s an interesting evolution for the filmmaker who, until 2018, was mostly known for an eclectic mix of stoner comedies ( Pineapple Express, Your Highness) and wrenching dramas ( Joe, Stronger). Green is becoming one of horror’s hottest commodities – it was recently announced he would next develop a rebooted Exorcist trilogy and he is set to produce a Hellraiser TV series. (Seriously, don’t even try to keep count of the bludgeoned/stabbed/impaled/twisted bodies Michael leaves in his wake this time – we ran out of fingers and toes in the first third, as did a few of his victims.) Kicking off moments after the events of the first film, Kills sees Michael Myers surviving Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) fire trap and beelining to Haddonfield for a killing spree like no other we’ve seen in this franchise – or any other.
With Halloween Kills, his sequel to 2018’s critically acclaimed – and box-office–slashing – franchise reboot, Halloween, director David Gordon Green has made a horror film aimed squarely at the blood-thirsty hearts of true horror fans.