The Halloween film franchise consists of several different continuities at this point in time. As such, there are various different fans with various tastes when it comes to the iconic film series. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to please everyone, and we especially saw that with the release of last year’s Halloween Kills. Many fans either felt extreme negative or extreme positive reactions to the film. Now Halloween Kills director David Gordon Green has opened up about the backlash that the 2021 sequel faced.
As revealed in an interview with SFX via GamesRadar, David Gordon Green noted that Halloween Kills was about “unraveling things and not resolving things.” This, he explains, is why he felt so many fans were disappointed with Halloween Kills. It was a film about setting up questions that Halloween Ends would later answer.
Here’s what he specifically had to say about the Halloween Kills backlash:
“To me, psychologically, the whole point of that movie is kind of unraveling things and not resolving things.”
“There’s a lot of people that when they see an ending like that, or that kind of unresolved chaos, they get frustrated as a moviegoer. For me, that’s just part of the fun, and then we get to come in and tidy it up with the last one. So any frustration that was expressed about the last one, I kind of just smile and say, ‘Hold tight, here we come.'”
He further explained how difficult it is to make these movies based on what people want. Because there are so many fans with so many different opinions – it’s difficult to please all of them. And, furthermore, some of them want to see a film that just can’t be made the way they want.
“It’s funny, because it’s so subjective what people want to see with these movies. Some people just want to literally watch the original film. You’re not going to remake that; you have to do something different. Some people say they want X, and then when you literally sit down with your co-writers and are thinking about what that would be like, well, that’s not really a movie, or that’s not enough to sustain my interest, or that’s not enough to go back and actually go to the emotional and logistical effort of making a movie. So what is the story we want to tell? What is the atmosphere and the vibe that we want to experience that makes each of our three contributions to the franchise very different?”
With that in mind, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not this year’s Halloween Ends can remedy these problems. After all, if the film is good enough, it could help more people retroactively appreciate Halloween Kills. We’ll just have to see what that upcoming sequel has in store for fans of the franchise. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for additional updates as we have them.
David Gordon Green returned to direct Halloween Ends, following his work on its predecessors, Halloween and Halloween Kills.
The cast for the new sequel includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, and Kyle Richards. James Jude Courtney will return to play the role of The Shape alongside original Michael Myers actor Nick Castle.
Fans will be able to see Halloween Ends later this month on October 14, 2022.