Forget what you know about the Halloween franchise up to this point. This October, history will be rewritten as Michael Myers makes his second and final return to Haddonfield to settle unfinished business with the only remaining member of the Myers family– his little sister Laurie.

I am a big fan of the original eight films. Although Halloween 3 served as more of a 90-minute ad, bridging development between Halloween 2 and Halloween 4, I have always felt that the story maintained a decent amount of its logical structure. With that being said, I did not like the way things ended between Michael and Laurie in the eighth installment. Laurie’s comical fate in the original run’s conclusion left me feeling unsatisfied; I’m sure I’m not the only one. Not only did fans want to see Laurie finally squash her sadistic brother like a bug, but we at least wanted the final encounter to be a memorable one. Not to worry. This fall, we wipe the slate clean of seven films to see what will happen upon Michael’s return home 40 years after Halloween night of 1978.

If you are newer to the franchise and wondering why I have not addressed Halloween (2009) or Halloween 2 (2011), this is because these films are remakes that are entirely separate from John Carpenter’s original work of art. I will leave my thoughts on Rob Zombie’s adaptations for another post, but in short, these two films would have been better suited under another name. Like most remakes, these films instituted too many changes to the original story, straying from the unique novelty of the Halloween films. One of the most chilling things about Michael Myers is the fact that his madness cannot be explained. To the audience, he was purely evil. His doctor could not offer any context to his behaviors, and we liked it this way! In essence, Rob Zombie focused too much of his time developing Michael’s past and background, giving motivation for Michael’s actions. Sorry, Rob, it was much more sinister before! We have plenty of serial killers wielding excuses — Ghostface and his “mommy-issues”; Leatherface and his bullying/”mommy-issues”; Freddy Krueger and his lust for revenge — it was nice to have one escaped maniac whose killings could not be explained.

The upcoming film aims to toss aside several years of cinematic history, so Halloween (2018) will be a direct sequel to the first original film rather than a reboot. Jason Blum, head of Blumhouse Productions, one producing company for the film, calls the anticipated blockbuster a “reinvention” (1). In discussing the nature of the film, Blum states that “the way to get people interested is to not reboot.” Blum and his accompanying crew claim to have approached the film as they have approached such films as Get Out (2017), as well as the Paranormal Activity and Insidious franchises. Blum describes his promising approach as “mixing genres,” saying “Jordan Peele was not known for horror before Get Out.” It appears the film intended to mix different genres of people with the original straightforwardly-scary chemistry of the film to reinvent the film’s storyline.

The gist of the film is quite simple: Laurie comes to her final confrontation with her brother Michael Myers, the masked serial killer who has internally haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night 40 years ago. John Carpenter returns as the creator, score composer, and executive producer for the film, while Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprise their respective roles as Laurie Strode and Michael Myers. Significant contributions to the film are made by Judy Greer who plays Laurie’s daughter Karen Strode, Danny McBride who co-writes the script, and David Gordon Green who will direct.

The film is slated for release this fall on October 19th, so if you are a fan of the original franchise make sure you get to the theatre this Halloween to experience the final confrontation between Michael and Laurie as it should be!

Check out a trailer for the chilling, prospective release at https://www.halloweenmovie.com/.

Photo courtesy of denofgeek.com.

1. Lammers, Timothy. https://screenrant.com/halloween-2018-reboot-sequel-producer-jason-blum/. Screen Rant. July 4, 2018. Accessed 9 July 2018.