For the love of the Boogeyman: 40 years of Halloween (2018)
Director: Paul Downey
Writer: Paul Downey
Stars: Dave McRae, Jack Norman, Troy Escamilla, Nathan Thomas Milliner, J. Blake Fichera
This documentary is by fans and for the fans, chronicling why John Carpenter’s classic has stood the test of time. Bringing together some of the brightest voices from independent horror we will explore what makes the film so special. From the music, the mask to Michael Myers, everyone has their own take on Halloween, and why it is the blueprint for slasher horror and in our humble opinion, has never been bettered.
Date & Venue: Saturday 12th January 12:30pm
Park Inn by Radisson Palace Southend-on-, Church Rd, Southend-on-Sea SS1 2AL, UK
For the love of the Boogeyman: 40 years of Halloween is a new short horror documentary from writer-director Paul Downey, which has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. I got a chance to ask Paul Downey a few questions about what we can expect from the film.
Q. For the love of the Boogeyman: 40 years of Halloween has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
This is very much a look at the legacy of the original John Carpenter classic Halloween from a fan perspective. We wanted to try something new that hadn’t been done and we thought focusing solely on the original would be a good starting point.
Our producer and editor Dave Hastings, a massive Halloween fan also suggested doing some original cut scenes to mix it up between segments and he was able to turn these around in a few days with a small crew.
Q. Why did you feel now was the right time to do a fan made documentary on the original Halloween (1978)?
The 40th anniversary was a no-brainer and it didn’t seem like we were gonna get a retrospective from the original studio. So, I talked to a few people in the independent horror community early this year to see if it had legs and pretty much everyone, I talked to wanted to do something for it.
It was difficult to cut down to just 43 minutes as we had hours and hours of footage and some of the stuff that hit the cutting room floor is really good but is replicated in other areas.
Q. You have a lot of filmmakers who were interviewed for the documentary. What was the process for selected who you wanted to include and what was the process for getting them involved?
Some I approached directly knowing they had a love for the Halloween franchise and others approached me through the Bloody Flicks site or on social media through sheer word of mouth. It was the perfect storm as it snowballed quite nicely and very quickly.
Q. In addition to discussing the original film, the documentary includes a new Halloween sub story. What was the inspiration for developing your own homage to the original film?
Again, this was the producer Dave Hastings idea, as we wanted something to be going on between the segments or it would become quite repetitive and dull. As big fans of the franchise we added in plenty of Easter eggs for beady-eyed fans and in true Halloween fashion, it was a short, sharp take which I feel adds another touch of originality to the documentary.
Q. Did you experience any issues when trying to bring the documentary together?
Editing the documentary together was difficult as it could have been 2-3 hours easily if we included everything but my vision from the start was to have something at least under an hour so we didn’t outstay our welcome.
As some of the work was done remotely it can be tricky to get everyone’s schedules aligned but I’m extremely proud of what our team has put together.
Q. Why do you think For the love of the Boogeyman: 40 years of Halloween will appeal to horror fans?
I think some of the opinions will be very relatable to horror fans as everyone who is part of the doc is a big Halloween fan and some do touch on themes that haven’t been explored in previous docs about the film which is nice to have fresh angles.
Q. If you had the opportunity to do a similar documentary about any other horror film, what would you choose?
I’d love to do something about an obscure or under-appreciated horror maybe something like Exorcist III or Maniac Cop, a film with a great cast and tonnes of social commentary going on.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
I have a concept for a new project which I’m hoping to get off the ground in the New Year, but I can’t say too much about it right now….
The horror documentary For the love of the Boogeyman: 40 years of Halloween will be playing it Horror-on-Sea before the feature film  (2018)
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
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