Halloween Kills is fast approaching – and the masked visage of Michael Myers isn't the only familiar face making a comeback. Along with Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Laurie, Charles Cyphers is back as Sheriff Brackett, Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers, and Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, one of the two children Laurie found herself looking after on that fateful evening in 1978.
Another key character returning to the franchise, though not played by original actor Brian Andrews, is Tommy Doyle – the second of Laurie's young wards.
"It's plugging into so much history. To play Tommy Doyle was really a thrill," says Anthony Michael Hall who, armed with a baseball bat, buzzcut and determination to take Michael down, looks significantly more intimidating than he did during his Breakfast Club years. "One thing which was interesting, is that threat of 'you can't kill the boogeyman' – I think that starts with Tommy Doyle. There's a really interesting level of conflict that happens early on. It's very intense, and really ramps up."
Doyle was previously played by Paul Rudd in 1995's The Curse Of Michael Myers, one of the actor's earliest roles. Director David Gordon Green, who previously worked with Rudd on Prince Avalanche, even approached the Ant-Man actor to reprise his role in Kills. Scheduling prohibited what Green calls a "novelty" idea, but Rudd did pass a message along to his successor.
"A couple of weeks into production David called me and said he had just spoken to Paul Rudd," Hall recounts.
"I admire Paul's work a lot, so he gave me his blessing on the film, which was nice of him to do. But my take [on the character] is quite separate."
Despite Doyle's comeback, the much-maligned Cult of Thorn won't be making an unwelcome return in Halloween Kills. On the contrary, Green and co-writer Danny McBride have been determined to avoid any explanation of Michael Myers, supernatural or otherwise, from the start. "You don't want to reveal too much," Green says. "I don't want to know Michael's psychological backstory. I feel like the mystery is best left unsaid. I don't want to see too much of him. I want to be very specific about how he's lit. The mystique of Michael, I'll say, is extremely important to preserving what's scary about him."
For more on Halloween Kills, pick up a copy of the new issue of Total Film magazine when it hits newsstands in stores and on digital retailers from Friday, July 23.
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