David Gordon Green’s divisive sequel trilogy is getting an extensive behind-the-scenes look in Halloween: The Official Making of Halloween, Halloween Kills & Halloween Ends. Comedy veteran Green made his horror genre debut with 2018’s revival of the John Carpenter-created franchise, acting as a direct sequel to his 1978 original with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode having to face the demon of her past as Michael Myers escapes and goes on another murderous rampage through Haddonfield.
While 2018’s Halloween scored rave reviews from critics and audiences alike, its sequels — 2021’s Halloween Kills picking up right from the end of its predecessor, and 2022’s Halloween Ends, which sees Michael return one final time three years later — were met with progressively lower reception. Despite this, the trilogy proved generally financially successful, securing Green’s relationship with Blumhouse heading into The Exorcist: Believer.
Ahead of the book’s release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with author Abbie Bernstein to discuss her Halloween trilogy making-of book, how it evolved from covering the 2018 movie to its follow-ups, and geeking out while interviewing Jamie Lee Curtis.
Abbie Bernstein On Halloween: The Making of Halloween, Halloween Kills & Halloween Ends
Screen Rant: I am very excited to chat with you about this book, I haven’t finished it yet, but from what I’ve read so far, I am hooked, as I’m a big fan of the Halloween franchise. Where did the journey to put this book together begin for you?
Abbie Bernstein: Well, for me, the journey actually began before I became involved, because most of these, or at least all of the making-of books that I’ve been involved with, begin with the publishing company making a licensing deal with the licensor, which I have nothing to do with, that’s above my paygrade, literally and figuratively. So that happens, and then the publishing company, who I had worked with often before, approached me and said, “Do you want to do this?” And I said, “Of course!” At that time, it was only going to be a book about the first film, because nobody, including the filmmakers, knew [it would become a trilogy]. I think there was an expectation it would do well, I don’t think there was an expectation that it would just blow up the way it did. In terms of making sequels, the main thing that happens is that it blows up financially, which it did. So, I had actually written the entire first movie book, and then it became a franchise, so it was, “Well, can you squash that down to a third of the book, and then we’re going to make a book about the trilogy?” So I had interviewed everybody after the first film, then they reshot the ending, and I interviewed a bunch of people about the reshoot. Then, after they made the second film, I interviewed everybody again, and after they made the third film, I interviewed everybody again, so that’s how this happened. Do you want my five-minute course on how you do one of these books?
I’d love it!
Abbie Bernstein: Okay, once you have gotten the assignment, you talk to your editor, you read the script. Usually, you do not get to hang on to the script, in the case of this, I literally sat in the Blumhouse office for three hours, and made longhand notes about each scene, and each character, and what the location is, if there’s anything special that people are wearing, what the characters are doing, what they seem to be, what their personalities seem to be like, etc, etc. Then you type up these notes so that you have them, and your editor has them, so you both know you’re talking about the same thing, because whether or not the editor has read the script, they probably don’t have the same note. So, you can refer back to, “Okay in this scene,” and then you discuss with your editor, “Okay, how do we want to break up the book? Do we want to break it up by scenes? Do we want to break it up by locations? Do you want to break it up by characters? Do we want to break it up by locations and characters? Are there sections like, for example, the introduction where we’re going to cover it up through pre-production, because that won’t apply to the other things?” So you have that discussion with your editor, and once you’ve had that discussion, what I do is I make Word files for each of the sections that we’re going to do. Then, as I interview people, and I transcribe the interviews, it’s like, “Okay, we’re talking about this location here, so copy and paste that into that folder,” and “Talking about this character here, put it in that folder,” and, “It’s not necessarily their character, it may be what they have to say about working with Jamie Lee Curtis, so all of that would go in the Jamie Lee Curtis folder, or the Laurie Strode folder.” Then, once you’ve completed all of the interviews, and the folders have got everything they’re gonna get, you go through each folder, go, “What’s the best order to put these things in? What do I want to keep? What do I want to eject? What do I want to keep, but have to eject to make the word count?” And then you do that, and when you’ve done all of that, you’ve got the draft of the book, and you send it to your editor.
Now I’ve got the formula down, in a way, my OCD brain appreciates all the organization that you just laid out for me! So with taking on the assignment to write this book in comparison to pitching it to a publisher or licensor, had you been a fan of the franchise prior?
Abbie Bernstein: I am a fan of Halloween, but in a way, that’s like asking if you’re a fan of gravity, because it’s like, whatever you think of gravity, whether or not you think about gravity, we would be living in a very different world without it.
That’s very true, and a world without Halloween, I don’t think is one I would want to live in.
Abbie Bernstein: It would be really weird, because it’s so foundational, and so much of the horror that has come after it — it’s like trying to imagine the world without gravity.
Yeah, just better to not imagine it at all. So with that said, then, in approaching the people you were interviewing, obviously, you’ve done many of these books before, so you have a method to how you interview, but was there a part of you that had to kind of fight yourself to not geek out with everybody that you were talking to for this trilogy?
Abbie Bernstein: Well, most of the people I didn’t geek out. Jamie Lee Curtis, I got so nervous that I said Jason instead of Michael at one point, and she was like, “Breathe.” [Laughs] Because the first interview with Jamie Lee Curtis was in person, and I was like, “I’m talking to Jamie Lee Curtis.” [Chuckles] And then Ryan Turek I actually knew, although I never knew before that was his surname. Because he used to be an entertainment journalist, so I knew Ryan, but then when I walked into Blumhouse, it’s like, “Wait, you’re Ryan Turek?!” [Laughs] So that was fun, and I don’t think I’d interviewed anybody else involved in this before. But I think Jamie Lee Curtis was the only person that I really sort of like, “Ah!” and I think I wasn’t aware how nervous I was until I said, “Jason,” which is inexcusable, but anyway. Otherwise, I’m always happy to talk to makeup effects people, my lifelong love from childhood is Planet of the Apes, the original. So, John Chambers actually made me up as an orangutan for a charity event that we both went to at one point, and that was a big thrill of my adolescence. But because of that, I’ve always been keenly interested in makeup effects, so that’s something I was very happy to talk to Chris Allen Nelson and Vincent Van Dyke about.
I love how in this Halloween trilogy, in particular, the makeup effects feel very subtle, but also lend a lot of layers to the characters, especially Michael and Laurie. I’m curious, with that passion for makeup effects and love for the franchise beforehand, if there was anything that you learned in your chats with Nelson and Dyke that maybe surprised you?
Abbie Bernstein: There were a few things that I learned that I hadn’t known before, including the division of the actual makeup and the facility in which people wear the makeup that came from Chris Nelson’s department, in which people came from Vincent Van Dyke’s facility, and how that all worked together. But the one thing I really learned because Christopher Nelson, bless him, made himself available by email throughout the process, so when I was sent photos for captioning, I was able to email him and go, “Okay, who am I looking at here? What am I looking at here?” There is a photo in the book of a set of facial appliances, I think it’s for Halloween Kills, with the guy who goes out the window, where there are some staples and some push pins holding the appliance to a blob. I was like, “What is this?”, and he said, “Oh, that’s just how we package it for shipping.” I realized, “Oh, wait a minute, every set visit I’ve ever done has been in Los Angeles, or the greater LA area, where the appliances would be driven from wherever they were made to the set. They were never shipped there, because the facilities and the set are in driving distance of each other.” So I’ve never seen it where it’s been shipped, and so that was like, “Oh, so that’s what they do when they ship it.” For them, it’s not a new experience, it’s just when I have seen appliances, when you see them in the film, obviously, they’re on whoever they’re on. When you see them in the making of that, if you do see them in the lab, you see a lab, and then you see them on the person. But, obviously, you never see them being prepared for shipping, because I think everybody thinks, “Well, this isn’t particularly exciting.” When I’ve seen [effects] on set, I’m in the same county where the appliances were made, but they make prosthetics and makeup for films that are made all over the world.
So, you mentioned set visits, and that was actually something I was very curious about with this book is that the obviously Kills had its release delayed due to the pandemic, and were very tight-knit about everything, whereas Ends was kind of near the tail end of major lockdowns for productions. Did you get the chance to visit either set since, like you say, the plan changed for this book to go from just 2018 to the whole trilogy?
Abbie Bernstein: Well, Kills wrapped right before the COVID lockdown, as you may know, they delayed release for a year because of the COVID lockdown. I don’t believe I have ever done a set visit for any of the books I’ve done. They usually don’t even hire you until after the film has wrapped, and nobody has time to talk to you while they’re shooting. So, with something like this, they don’t send you to set, usually the whole agreement to even do the book comes after they’ve wrapped, and also, they were shooting on the East Coast, so it would have been pretty expensive for whoever was footing the bill to send me there and then find lodgings for me and send me home again.
Okay, I was curious if, with the plan change, they maybe they tried anything differently. Another thing I’ve always been curious about with making-of books is authors sometimes write ones for movies that came out 40 years ago, and then write ones for movies like this, where it’s within the past five years. With you having written multiple making-of books, do you find it easier or more challenging when it’s a recent release in comparison to something older?
Abbie Bernstein: Well, except for the authorized biography of Mick Garris [I did], which was for a different publishing company where that was going back into Mick’s childhood, apart from that, all of the stuff I’ve been hired to do is for current stuff. So, when you are covering older stuff — and even in this book, Malek Akkad and Jamie Lee Curtis talk about the first film, but you’re basically depending on people’s recollections, whether they’re talking about something they just did, or something that they did 45 years ago now. Often, their recollections are clearer on the more recent stuff, although certain things are, I’m sure, burned into their brains, and they talk about them that way. So, since I haven’t done a fully retrospective book, and with Mick it was like talking to him and going, “Okay, who else do you think I should talk to?”, so they refer you to people. So, I don’t believe it would be more difficult, as long as I was talking to the right people, but in fact, I haven’t really done that.
Fair enough! One thing I’ve loved about your book so far is how much I can feel your voice in the telling of this trilogy’s history, rather than a basic delivery of facts. You told me how you organize quotes and sections, but how do you go about making sure your voice feels as prevalent as the facts themselves?
Abbie Bernstein: Oh, well, I don’t think that’s a conscious thing. I think I’m trying to kind of make it entertaining, I’m not covering something tragic, you know, I’m not like covering 9/11 or something. So, it’s okay to be somewhat humorous, so I try to be funny, I try to go through and make sure I’m not repeating word choices, so that it doesn’t read repetitively. I actually will even, if I’m going, “Did I use this recently?”, I’ll even use the Ctrl+F to search and make sure that that word is not popping up every other sentence. But apart from that, I’m not [consciously doing anything]. I mean, I’m glad to hear that, I don’t think that’s a conscious thing. I’m just trying to make it fun to read and also, obviously, coherent, so that, you know, “Do you understand that this happened because of this, or that happened after that, but before this?” Also, if you haven’t read the photo captions, they very kindly let me do the photo captions on this. The photo captions include quotes that, for space, I couldn’t include in the body of the text, so there’s a lot of extra stuff in the photo captions.
I actually did notice that! Now, in talking about not having enough body space in the graphs, you mentioned earlier figuring out what to whittle down, and what you need to keep in the book. What was the hardest thing that you had to either leave out entirely or whittle down to be able to fit into this book?
Abbie Bernstein: Oh, my God, there was so much, I wish it could have been like a 250,000-word book. But then nobody would be able to pick it up, probably. My joke about the book is that if you don’t like it, you can always use it as a deadly weapon and hit somebody in the head — which, really, anything affiliated with Halloween ought to have extra uses of deadly weapons. [Chuckles] A lot of the stuff Andi Matichack had to say, and Rohan Campbell had to say about their scenes together, because there was so much that they did, and so much of it that they either improvised or did in a bunch of different ways. So, a lot of that had to get whittled down. I cannot remember if it made the book or not, where Rohan Campbell was riding the motorcycle in the car repair yard, and hit something and did a header over the handlebars. Everybody was like, “Oh my God, is he injured?” Then he popped up and jumped back on the bike, and Andi Matichack was like, “W were so afraid!” [Chuckles] I can’t remember if any of that made it into the book, and I know that didn’t make it into the film. They were apparently trying to see if they could somehow edit it in, but it just didn’t fit anything. There was a lot more about the original ending of the first film, and how everybody felt when they were shooting that first ending, and then how everybody felt when they were shooting the second ending. I think a lot of it did make it into the book, but Jamie Lee Curtis and James Jude Courtney talking about the scene where Laurie kills Michael, and there was that transference which, in the original ending, was complete. In the final film, Allyson comes in and prevents [that], but they both felt very, very strongly and very emotionally about that. And then I’m not even sure if the rats are in the movie at all anymore, but there were trained rats in the third film, and how all of the rats had names, except two of them, and Rohan Campbell felt bad that the two rats didn’t have names, even though they were actor rats. Ryan Turek was so great and enthusiastic with talking about how everything was shot, and that all had to get whittled down. And Atilla Yücer, he’s one of the producers, but he was also the first AD, and just had these wonderful stories about some crazy stuff that — some of it I knew was not going into the book anyway. But just some wonderful stories about when things would get crazy. Well, I think it is in the book that there was a little bit of a car accident when they were shooting at the diner, because there were looky loo drivers, and somebody banged into somebody. The people who had the accident were not part of the film company, they were just passersby. And [there was] a lot of stuff about the locations, and searching for the locations, and what they had to do to the locations with the production designer, where he went into much greater depth than I got to include because of space.
Well it sounds like a lot of fascinating material, maybe if there’s a special edition we can get some of that, especially with Ryan Turek, sounds like he shared a lot of fun insight for you for this trilogy!
Abbie Bernstein: Yeah, he is a great font of enthusiasm, and he has forearm tattoos, one is Michael Myers, one is Jason Voorhees, so he actually has skin in the game.
I remember that line in the book, I really dug that one. So, actually on that note, most of the photos in this book, obviously, are related to the movie itself, did you ever toy with the idea of having a photo of his arm to pair up with the art?
Abbie Bernstein: In some books, I have done photo sourcing, on this one, I did not. My involvement with the photos was strictly — well, I think there were a couple of things of saying to my editor, “See if we can get a picture of whatever this is.” But it was mostly looking at the layouts and doing photo captioning, and sometimes having to email Ryan Turek or Chris Nelson, and going, “Hi, there’s a photo of this, and I recognize this person, but do you know who that person might be? They’re in this set. This is what’s going on.” So, I did not do any photo selection, so I think if they had wanted that included, they would have sent one.
For my final question, before I let you go you, we’ve talked about how you have a few of these books on your belt. This one’s coming out, and I’m excited that people are going to get to dive into it. Do you have any coming up in the future that you’re particularly excited about?
Abbie Bernstein: Well, I hope so. But, right now, I am assisting somebody with a nonfiction project that I’m not even writing myself, I’m getting paid to assist, but I was told I can’t talk about this right now. I’m working on some fiction, and I have a set visit article in this month’s Fangoria, do you know Anthony Ferrante?
The name sounds very familiar.
Abbie Bernstein: The Sharknado movies, this one is not funny like that. He did a movie called Dante’s Hotel, so I did get to do a set visit on that, and interview him, and Ted Raimi and Judd Nelson, and Moon Bloodgood, and the makeup effects people. Also, just got to be on set and watch them shoot, because that was one where there was enough time between, given how much was being shot that day, the actors did have some downtime, and I just interviewed Anthony separately once they’d wrapped.
Well, that sounds like exciting stuff!
Abbie Bernstein: One thing I must say I almost forgot, there is going to be a signing at Dark Delicacies bookstore in Burbank, on Saturday, October 21. I’m going to be there, Chris Nelson is going to be there, there may be some other surprise guests, or announced-between-now-and then-guests. [Chuckles] But I, Chris Nelson, the makeup effects creator for all three films, is going to be there, so if people want to buy the book and get it signed by us, they should come on by!
About Halloween: The Making of Halloween, Halloween Kills & Halloween Ends
Four decades after the original Halloween took the world by storm, Miramax, Blumhouse and Trancas bring a terrifying new trilogy of films to cinemas. The making of this new movie trilogy is covered in fascinating detail in this official companion book.
The creative processes behind the stunts, costumes, production design and make-up effects are revealed through interviews with cast and crew, while captivating on-set photography captures the shooting of the key scenes and action set-pieces. A must for all horror fans, Halloween: The Official Making of Halloween, Halloween Kills & Halloween Ends reveals the method behind the terror.
Halloween: The Making of Halloween, Halloween Kills & Halloween Ends hits shelves on October 17!
