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'Halloween Ends' star Andi Matichak fills in Allyson's missing four years after 'Kills'
SYFY WIRE interviewed Matichak about her time playing Laurie Strode's granddaughter over the last three Halloween films.
Halloween Ends is about to stab its way into theaters and on Peacock, and it will give us the final showdown between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers — a prospect that's both a trick and a treat. Laurie, however, is far from the only person whose life has been upended by Michael. Laurie’s granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), has had more than her fair share of tragedy and trauma from Michael’s knife.
SYFY WIRE talked with Matichak about her time playing Allyson over the last three Halloween films. Read on for that discussion, where she shares how Allyson is faring at the beginning of Ends, how she as an actor handles all the gory practical effects, and what she took home from set as a memento.
This movie has a four year time jump from the first two films in the trilogy, and a lot has happened since then. Could you talk how your character handled her trauma over the last four years.
[Halloween Ends director] David Gordon Green and I spent a lot of time and put a lot of care into crafting what that downtime was. Something I did to fill in the gap was spend a lot of time journaling. I would just journal as Allyson almost every day for a year leading up to production to figure out the flow of what she did to heal, or what she's trying to do because it's a lot of trial and error when you're trying to heal from a traumatic event.
She and Laurie have both really focused on family and turning inwards to each other, and using each other as support. They just formed their own little family and had a lot of therapy. It’s funny because in the first scene, you notice there's some therapy speak between the two of them because clearly they've had to figure out a way to communicate and make it work.
I know you've said in previous interviews that the practical effects in the Halloween movies was something you had to get used to. How was it this time, the third time around?
I felt a little bit better when I was on set because I was a little bit more prepared. However, when I saw the movie yesterday, I saw it with David Gordon Green in a theater, just the two of us. And I looked at him part way through and I was like, “This is gorier to me than any of the previous ones!” And it was so unsettling and so well done and [makeup and VFX artist Chris Nelson] is just a genius with it. I think the fans are going to be really happy — they want a slasher and they're going to have those elements baked into a really fun story.
Has anything changed for you with how you view horror over the experience of doing these three films?
What was really special about doing three films was the fact we did it with the same crew, so it was like coming back to summer camp every year. There's a shorthand and an ease to this film because it's been established in the previous two. One of the things that was really unique to this film that we didn't have much on the other two, was we were able to rehearse quite a bit. We went down to Savannah quite early and were able to run through every scene prior to shooting it that week. And we would then do rehearsal on the weekend for the upcoming week. It gave us a lot of room to explore and play and break the scenes apart so that on the day, we could figure out a way to build it back up in a in a more original way.
Is there any particular scene or sequence that was particularly memorable for you?
One of my favorites to shoot of everything I've shot as an actor was probably the dance sequence. That was so much fun — there's so much story and care that went into designing the dance and choreographing the dance. It’s very broken down and we spend a lot of time doing it and that to me was so much fun to work on.
From an emotional standpoint, the last day of filming was the thing that probably still makes the hair on my arm stand up. They call cut and we all look around and were like, “That’s a picture wrap on Halloween.” We were done and this has been such a journey with all of us and we've created such a family.
What was the last scene you did? If you don’t want to get into spoilers, can you share if it was a messy scene, so to speak, or not?
It was towards the end of the movie and it's a messy scene. Everyone that needed to be present was present. It was very communal.
You now have these three horror films under your belt — are you interested in doing more horror?
One of the beauties of being an actor is you see what comes your way and what projects really speak to you. This day and age, with with how great a lot of horror is, it would be silly to say I'm never doing another horror movie. I will say it would be nice to do something a little bit lighter after the work of these last three films.
What do you hope people who see Halloween Ends walk away feeling or thinking?
I really think and I feel in my heart of hearts that people are going to walk away really satisfied with with what they have gotten. This is a been building for 44 years, and it's the epic final battle that they wanted and that they get.
Did you have any mementos or anything you took from set to remember your time there?
Chris Nelson did give me something because he knows I'm obsessed with his work. He gave me part of a Halloween costume that I wear in this film.
What was it like shooting with Jamie Lee Curtis in this film, especially since the relationship between your two characters faces a lot.
There are so many complexities and layers to every relationship, especially a relationship that has been very tried and tested throughout the years. We were given a lot of rehearsal time and space to really delve in. Because Laurie and Allyson appear together more in this film, I was able to spend more time with Jamie and got to be a fly on the wall of her world, which is incredibly special given this is a thing that she's lived with — she is Halloween in so many words. It was really special getting to be a part of this last chapter alongside her.
Halloween Ends premieres on Oct. 14 in theaters and on Peacock.
Meta’s Messenger, Instagram, Horizon Worlds, and Creative Shop have also teamed up with Universal Pictures’ Halloween Ends to provide one lucky fan the opportunity to attend the first-ever virtual meet ‘n greet with Jamie Lee Curtis in a custom-built Halloween Horizon World. Fans can join the final fight today by building their own custom #KillerReels on both Messenger and Instagram. To enter, head to the @HalloweenMovie Facebook page and click ‘Send Message,’ or send a DM to @HalloweenMovie on Instagram and follow the prompts from there!
