Trivia / Halloween (2007)

• Approval of God: Not of the movie itself, but of Rob Zombie opting to make it in the first place. Carpenter encouraged Zombie to make it his own. He later changed his tune, however (see below).
• Contractual Purity: Not that the Halloween franchise was ever family-friendly, but Danielle Harris opted to appear nude specifically because Halloween fans still saw her as a little girl, and this would allow her the chance to be seen as an adult.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Danielle Harris (Annie Brackett) was 30, playing a teenager. Harris is petite and young looking, though, so it works. In fact, she continued to play younger than her actual age even as she entered her forties.
  • Kristina Klebe (Lynda Van Der Klock) was 27 playing a teenager.
  • Averted with Scout-Taylor Compton (Laurie Strode), who was 17 when filming started, and celebrated her 18th birthday on set.
  • Tyler Mane was 40 when he played the 27-year-old adult Michael Myers. However, given that it's hard to see his face in his few unmasked scenes due to his long hair, it's difficult to tell, though it's made obvious in the sequel where his face is unmasked more often (Mane is 42 playing Michael at 28 there, and while he looks good for his age, he appears closer to his mid-30s). Averted with Daeg Faerch (young Michael), who was 11 when production began (he turned 12 around a month after its release, just as Mike himself did in the film).
• Deleted Role: Adrienne Barbeau (John Carpenter's ex-wife and former scream queen) filmed a cameo role that was cut.
• Deleted Scene: A slew. Scenes not included in any of the two cuts include:
  • More scenes at the Rabbit in Red with Lou Martini.
  • A minor subplot of Deborah trying to get permission to take Micheal out of the sanatorium for a field trip.
  • A scene were Ismael chased violently chased off a reporter that pestered Deborah on her way home.
  • A subplot about Micheal being moved to a different hospital. These scenes involved Udo Kier and Tom Towles.
  • Deborah giving Loomis a Christmas present.
  • Guards watching Night of the Living Dead and then getting killed by Micheal.
  • Loomis having an argument with an adoption agent played by Adrienne Barbeau trying to find who adopted Laurie.
  • An alternative first meeting between Loomis and Bracket and the discovery of Judith's headstone being missing.
  • An alternative death of Bob, being killed in his truck.
• Disowned Adaptation: Years following the film's release, John Carpenter stated that he has a negative opinion of Zombie's version of his story, feeling that Zombie took away the story's mystique by explaining too much about Michael. He also complained about Michael being "too tall".
• Enforced Method Acting: The fight between Michael and Big Joe Grizzly took place in a real bathroom, and their actors genuinely wrecked its partition instead of just a prop wall.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The Weinstein Company secured the rights for the Halloween franchise shortly after Halloween: Resurrection tanked at the box office and managed to entice Rob Zombie to come aboard as a director after his success with The Devil's Rejects, giving him carte blanche to rebuild Halloween from the ground up. However, after the workprint only managed a middling response from test audiences (who felt that it took too long for Michael to grow up and get to his slasher roots), Zombie was forced to significantly recut the film and was given funds to shoot an entirely different, more ambiguous ending.
  • The original workprint did find its way online and has developed something of a cult following who prefer that it tells a more cohesive and contained story. It features an vastly different opening section (where the title credits don't roll for almost ten minutes, playing over Michael running away from a parent/teacher conference), spends more time with Loomis in the asylum, makes Michael more sympathetic during his escape (he notably doesn't kill the kindly guard played by Danny Trejo), and features an ending where Michael actually dies at the end while trying to submit to the police.
• In Memoriam: In Memory of Moustapha Akkad, the original producer of the whole Halloween franchise who was tragically killed in a terrorist attack in 2005.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Danny Trejo, mostly known for playing badasses, crooks, gangsters and assassins is the kindly janitor Ismael in the asylum holding Michael.
  • Similarly, Brad Dourif, who generally plays creepy villains, including Chucky, is the wholesome town sheriff.
  • Daryl Sabara, known for playing heroes like Juni or Rex, plays a vicious sadistic bully.
• Promoted Fanboy: Zombie’s take on the film was out of love and respect for the original film. He even asked John Carpenter for his permission before signing on.
• Puppy Love: Child actors Daeg Faerch (young Michael) & Skyler Gisondo (Tommy) both had these kind of crushes on Scout-Taylor Compton during shooting.
• Spared by the Cut:
  • The seedy new guard who Ismael is showing the ropes to dies during Michael's escape in the extended cut, but is absent in the original version.
  • The alternate ending has Michael gunned down by a crowd of cops he's about to submit to. In the final cut, he's shot once in the head by Laurie and the movie immediately ends. He's implied to be dead either way, but the final cut makes his apparent death less sympathetic and tragic since there's no sign of him trying to give in before he's put down, so what's spared by the cut here is the audience's heartbreak.
• Technology Marches On: Lynda was strangled with a telephone cord in the original, but since the film takes place in the late 2000's, she uses a cell phone when she talks to Laurie. This isn't a problem for Michael who just strangles her by putting her in a headlock.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before deciding to go with Rob Zombie's version, the studio was about to green light Halloween: The Missing Years, which would have been a prequel, set within Michael Myers's early days at the asylum.
  • This was originally going to be another sequel entitled Halloween: Retribution starring Lindy Booth, but the idea was scrapped and they went with Zombie's vision.
  • A young Emma Stone also auditioned for Laurie, but lost out to Scout-Taylor Compton.
  • John Hurt was considered for Loomis.
  • In the original work print version of the film, Michael did not kill Ismael Cruz, the one hospital staff worker who was nice to him.
  • The original ending would have had Michael being successfully convinced by Loomis to let go of Laurie, appealing to Michael's humanity. Unfortunately, Michael is shot dead by police officers when they mistake a sudden movement for him advancing towards the officers.
• Written-In Infirmity: William Forsythe actually injured his leg prior to shooting, which is why his leg is in a cast in the film. In the script, Ronnie only had an arm brace, but Forsythe's leg injury was also worked into the film.

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