As the fall season comes around once more, horror movies are coming back into the proper spotlight. “Halloween,” the classic horror movie series that has been around since 1978 is getting its tenth sequel.
Originally, Dimension Films held the rights but failed to make another movie for the franchise in time, leading to the loss of those rights.
Blumhouse Productions (the same company that produced “Get Out” and “Insidious”) obtained it with the original co-creator John Carpenter’s involvement. For this movie he was the executive producer, a creative consultant and the composer.
Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role as Laurie Strode while Nick Castle, the original Michael Myers, will appear as a cameo for one scene. Myers will be played otherwise by James Jude Courtney.
The principal photography began on Jan. 13 and finished on Feb. 19. The audience of the Toronto International Film Festival were the first to witness the movie in full on Sept. 8. “Halloween” will come to theaters for the United States on Oct.19.
The plot focuses on the present time of 2018. Forty years have passed since Laurie Strode’s fateful encounter with Michael Myers on Halloween night. Now, on that same fateful date, the sole survivor of that night and the killer will have their final encounter.
Tying in with the movie taking places 40 years after the original, the franchise has also been going on for equally as long. “Halloween” hasn’t been restricted to film, however.
There are also novels, comics and online stories that feature Michael Myers and a plethora of new cast members for him to torment.
Along with this is a video game that was released on the Atari 2600 in 1983, just five years after the original film’s release. While the game was named after the movie, all the references to it are outside of the game itself as there are no mentions of Michael Myers or any of the other characters.
Looking back on the other films from the franchise, there is a different director for each version (except for “Halloween II” (1981) and “Halloween: Resurrection” which are both directed by Rick Rosenthal). The release dates have tended to be rather close together with the original’s direct sequel being produced only three years later.
The lore of Michael Myers and the franchise as a whole has been built up over the last four decades, leading to some confusion on what is right when it comes to directors retconning (retroactive continuity, a literary device used to adjust, erase or otherwise change previously known information) parts of it in the movies that come after.
One example of this comes from the idea that Laurie Strode is the sister of Myers, making for some weird issues in later films within the franchise before it’s ultimately retconned multiple times over to fit the story better.
Oddly enough, “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” has nothing to do with Michael Myers. While apart of the series, it completely ignores the previously established details in favor of a different route altogether. It entirely follows another set of characters and a plot that diverges heavily from anything the viewers of the first two movies has in it.
For all the 40 years of content that has been delivered for this franchise, “Halloween” has kept up its reputation as a classic slasher film well. Michael Myers is a known name and a cornerstone of American horror and the reviews for this sequel are already generally positive.
The critical consensus from the website Rotten Tomatoes stats that “Halloween largely wipes the slate clean after decades of disappointing sequels, ignoring increasingly elaborate mythology in favor of basic – yet still effective – ingredients.”
While this may not be an opinion shared by all, “Halloween (2018)” is sure to enter the record books in some shape.
Erika Brandenburg
Arts and Entertainment Editor