Recently while participating in an interview on the Shock Waves podcast, BEYOND THE GATES director Jackson Stewart announced that his next project will be another horror feature as he plans to helm THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN. While talking about the film, Stewart commented that “It’s basically what happens to the ‘final girl’ after the end of a slasher movie,” which is sure to be music to the ears of fans who adore that particular sub-genre. Stewart also reveled to Shock Waves that the movie “moves into a kind of weird metaphysical direction that I don’t think people would really expect from this type of movie, but it should be fun.” Sweet. Having just come off of watching Alex Garland's ANNIHILATION for the first time, I'm feeling a little metaphysical myself, this afternoon.
In THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN, a character named Alice Caldwell, the sole survivor of a Halloween night massacre, soon finds herself under intense scrutiny from the local media. As she struggles with the traumatic aftermath, a mysterious presence begins brutally murdering anyone who’s wronged her. While this sounds like a classic setup for sure, Stewart, who co-wrote the story with Stephen Scarlata (BEYOND THE GATES) hopes to present audiences with more than a few surprises as Alice's journey goes from bad to worse.
While on the Shock Waves podcast, Stewart also confirmed that he is now in the scripting process for BEYOND THE GATES sequel. In the original film, actors Graham Skipper, Chase Williamson, Brea Grant, Barbara Crampton, and Jesse Merlin explored a VCR board game that held a connection to a man's disappearance. In talking about that project, Stewart told the outlet “Brian and I and Steve have just sort of kicked the tires on that story over and over again,” said Stewart. “It’s a lot of inversions on the themes of the first movie and moves into a sort of medieval RPG (role-playing game) element a little bit.”
What do you think about the premise for THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN? Have you seen BEYOND THE GATES? Let us know what you think about both in the comments section below.