‘Halloween’ Fan Film ‘The Spirit of Haddonfield’ Teaser Revealed [Exclusive]
Writer and director Rene Rivas is about to unleash a new tribute to John Carpenter’s Halloween and the Michael Myers franchise it spawned with his upcoming fan film The Spirit of Haddonfield, and we have your exclusive first look at the first teaser and plot details revealed.
Rivas spoke exclusively to Halloween Daily News about the fan film, which he wrote, shot, and completed before letting anyone outside of the production know what he was up to.
“For just shy of six months I was working on this thing”, Rivas said. “It was a secret passion project. I didn’t tell anybody about it. In April (2018), we made the announcement that ‘Hey, this thing’s done, this is what we’ve been working on’.
“I just thought it would be cool for the fans if not only are we going to get a feature from Blumhouse coming out soon, but we’re also going to have a little appetizer before that.
“Vincente DiSanti (who wrote, directed, and stars as Jason Voorhees in the 2017 Friday the 13th fan film Never Hike Alone) is playing The Shape, and he’s co-producing.  I presented my script, and he had some definitely great ideas to contribute to it.”
Though fan films cannot legally be monetized, Rivas says there is no better time to celebrate the influence of Carpenter’s 1978 classic, and this project was never about money anyway.
“In all reality”, he said, “when people ask me why I did this now, I’m going to tell them all the same thing: There couldn’t be a better time to do this. It’s the 40th anniversary of the original, and the new Blumhouse film is being released soon. I just wanted to jump on it. John Carpenter’s Halloween is my all time favorite horror film, and it has influenced me in so many ways. I have been thinking about doing a project like this for quite some time now, so I just decided to go for it.
“It’s an homage piece, but it does have flares of originality in it. It was a small cast and crew of 11 of us. I’m just thrilled with how it turned out.
“It’s going to be released for free (on YouTube). It’s a not-for-profit, no budget project, just to make art. I just wanted to make this just to release it for free. I’m excited.”
We also asked Rivas where his film takes place within the Halloween mythology, and what he could tell us about the plot.
“This story would fall canon into an alternate H20 universe”, Rivas tells Halloween Daily News. “My story takes place 20 years after the events of Halloween H20. Let’s say if The Shape wasn’t decapitated at the end of H20, this is the story that would have subsequently happened.
“It’s a self-contained short film. It’s basically a third act cat and mouse short film. We are going to have a pursuit. We are going to have our protagonist bump into The Shape at some point. It escalates, and then she’s put in situations where she has to defend herself and stand up to adversity. Our main character’s name is Hannah, and she is 17 years old.
“It’s a pretty fun little piece. It’s a simple story. It’s what we’re all familiar with, it’s just that I put my own flare on scenes and shot it a unique way.
“We’re stepping into familiar territory, but I’m putting my Rene Rivas twist on it.“
You can watch the exclusive premiere of the first teaser for The Spirit of Haddonfield fan film, including the release date announcement, below.
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