Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!! For my (possibly) final BTS post for Spooky Season, I wanted to pay tribute to one of the Halloween films. I decided on Halloween Kills this time because I’ll admit, it has really grown on me. It might even be my favorite in the new trilogy. So, grab your bat, stay away from the Myers home, and always remember, EVIL DIES TONIGHT!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com and IMDb.com)

(WARNING!! SPECIAL EFFECTS MAY BE GRAPHIC!!!)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie), Charles Cyphers (Leigh), Kyle Richards (Lindsey), Nancy Stephens (Marion), and Nick Castle (Michael) all returned for this sequel to reprise their original Halloween roles. The characters, Tommy Doyle and Lonnie Elam also returned for this sequel, but they were recast with Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Longstreet. Brian Andrews, who originally played Tommy, retired from acting in 2015. Brent Le Page, who originally played Lonnie, didn’t act in anything after Halloween.
• The film’s director, David Gordon Green stated that when they attempted to find a yearbook photo of one of Michael’s 1978 victims, Bob, he came across a yearbook photo of Bob Odenkirk. He thought young Odenkirk resembled Bob’s original actor, John Michael Graham, so he wanted to use the photo. The rights issues were resolved, so even though Odenkirk never appeared in the original film, he’s credited as Bob here.
• In the flashback scene to 1978, Michael (Airon Armstrong) attacked Deputy McCabe (Jim Cummings) with a rope. In the original film, Leigh responded to an alarm in a hardware store, and reported that a rope, some Halloween masks, and a set of knives were stolen.

• Twelve pumpkins are featured in the film’s opening credits, with the last one indicating that this was the 12th Halloween film. The multiple pumpkins also represent the mob mentality that we see in this film.
• In the flashback scene, behind young Hawkins (Thomas Mann) and McCabe, you might see the wagon that Michael stole from Dr. Loomis and Marion when he escaped the Smith Grove Sanitarium.
• This was Jamie Lee Curtis’s 6th appearance in a Halloween film. She now surpasses Donald Pleasence, who appeared in 5 Halloween films before his passing. She now holds the record for the most appearances in the franchise.

• The firefighters that Michael (James Jude Courtney) kills in the film were real firefighters from the Cannon Air Force Base Fire Department.
• Ross Bacon, who played Tivoli, the other escaped mental patient, passed away before this film was released.
• Andi Matichak (Allyson) stated that they were going to film this sequel and Halloween Ends back-to-back, but due to an intense schedule, they just couldn’t do it that way.

• The film’s producer, Ryan Freimann pushed for a Danielle Harris cameo, but it was vetoed.
• Paul Rudd was offered the chance to come back and play Tommy Doyle again. Due to scheduling conflicts with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, he had to decline.
• In this film, Laurie screams at the fire trucks to “let it burn!” as they headed to her house. This is a nod to a deleted scene in Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers. That scene was a flashback to Halloween II, where Dr. Loomis pleads with the paramedics to “let him burn!” after blowing up the operating room.

• Nick Castle stated that when he was recording the sounds of Michael’s breathing, he didn’t recognize his own appearance in the film.
• While rehearsing for the firefighter massacre, James Jude Courtney wore an eye patch for authenticity, since Michael was blinded in one eye after Laurie stabbed him with a clothes hanger.
• When discussing how to bring back Dr. Loomis for the flashback scenes, they considered voice only, then using CGI. However, they realized that their construction coordinator, Tom Jones Jr. bared an uncanny resemblance to Donald Pleasence. So, with minor makeup effects added to his brow and nose, they successfully completed the illusion, with Colin Mahan providing Loomis’s voice.

• In this film, a group of trick-or-treaters prank Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (Michael McDonald) by making them think the candy they provided had razor blades in them. This is a nod to Halloween II, where a little kid had to go to the hospital after biting down on a razor blade while eating candy.
• Will Patton (Hawkins) wasn’t expecting to come back because he thought his character died in the previous film.
• The three kids’ masks are of course a nod to the ill-fated sequel, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch. David Gordon Green considers it a very underrated sequel in the franchise and he personally enjoys it.

• When Leigh Brackett confronts Michael at the end of the film, it’s the only time in the franchise that Cyphers’ Brackett has physically seen Michael Myers. He never did in the first 2 films.
• Jamie Lee Curtis thought that Andi Matichak looked a lot like her own mother, Janet Leigh.
• David Gordon Green admitted that one of the most exciting and nerve-racking parts of making this film was showing it to John Carpenter.

• The phrase “Evil dies tonight” is said exactly 29 times.
• When talking about returning for this film, Kyle Richards stated, “It just felt so good, all these people from the original movie coming together again. It’s like, you never hear of this. It’s just not done.”
• In the scene where Tommy is outside the convenience store rallying up troops to fight Michael, there’s a bench in the background with an advertisement featuring Big John and Little John.

• The name on one of the firefighter’s helmet reads Gamby. Gamby was a character played by the film’s writer, Danny McBride in the TV series, Vice Principals.
• Although he wasn’t credited, Ross Bacon appeared as a clown in a flashback episode of Danny McBride’s show, The Righteous Gemstones.
• The filmmakers recreated Michael’s original mask from the original William Shatner mask for the film’s flashback scenes.

• When 1978 Michael exits his home and is surrounded by police, the filmmakers replicated the high angle crane-shot from the prologue in the original film.
• While filming her fight scene with Michael, Kyle Richards broke her nose. She wanted to finish the scene herself, so she didn’t tell anyone about it until later.
• Although Halloween II is no longer canon in this timeline, the clip from it where Leigh sees his daughter, Annie’s body on the stretcher was included in this film as a flashback. They had to do this because Leigh didn’t know his daughter was dead in the original film, and this was a way to sort of tie up that loose end.

• To taunt and lure Michael to the trap, Karen (Judy Greer) compared herself to his sister, Judith. Michael later kills Karen in Judith’s room, the same way that he killed Judith.
• The fast edits in Karen’s death scene was a nod to Janet Leigh’s famous death scene in Psycho.
• Michael McDonald is the only man who was killed by Michael Myers AND Mike Myers. He was killed by Michael in this film and he was killed by Mike in Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.

• This film has the highest body count in the entire franchise with at least 28 on-screen kills. The record used to be a tie at 20 between Halloween (2007) and Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers.
• Tommy stated, “If I’m going down, I’m going down swinging”. This foreshadows his fate as Michael later kills him with his baseball bat.
• David Gordon Green admitted that if they had more time, they would’ve killed off Lindsey in the film too.