John Carpenter’s Halloween was made 40 years ago, but the filmmaker still remembers one moment from making the film with star Jamie Lee Curtis as vividly as it it happened yesterday.
One scene from the iconic horror movie had Curtis hiding in a closet while Michael Myers was trying to kill her. While directing her, Carpenter said something that made her laugh while making one of the film’s scariest moments.
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“I remember directing Jamie Lee inside the closet, and I was sitting in there with the camera and she was in there, and I remember directing her,” Carpenter told TheWrap Thursday. “This was happening and this was happening and I said, ‘Pick up the knife and stab the son of a b–!’ So we had to do the take again. She said, ‘Can you please not say that? I am going to laugh!’ I remember the look on her face — we had a great time.”
Curtis reprised her role as Laurie Strode in David Gordon Green’s new Halloween, which is now in theaters. Carpenter did not have anything to do with most of the Halloween sequels, but he gave Green’s film his seal of approval as an executive producer and music composer. The plot finds Laurie seeking out Michael Myers for revenge.
Carpenter said he thought Green’s film is “terrific” and a “standalone fabulous slasher film, and I love that about it.”
Carpenter had one piece of advice for Green.
“It has to be simple — simple and relentless. That’s it. That’s the secret to really getting to an audience,” the Escape From New York director said.
Carpenter’s film had to be simple out of necessity. The original film was made on a shoestring budget, so Carpenter had to make the most out of what he had.
“When I made the movie in 1978, I was just trying to make a low budget exploitation movie where I could show off my stuff and maybe get another job,” Carpenter told TheWrap. “It was always about getting another job. I threw in everything I wanted to see in a horror movie. I never ever expected it to be anything like this.”
The new Halloween has already grossed $103 million worldwide, including $87.2 million domestically. According to Variety it is tracking for another week at number one, since its only major competition is the Gerard Butler-Gary Oldman thriller Hunter Killer. If Halloween drops 50 percent at the box office, it will still make around $38 million.
Photo credit: Compass International Pictures/Getty Images
