The first trailer for the new Halloween dropped this morning and, for many, it was their first realisation of what this new movie is. It’s a sequel, yes, but also a reboot in that it ignores every single other Halloween movie except the 1978 John Carpenter original.
Michael Myers has been waiting 40 years to kill again in the new Halloween. Photo: Universal
In this new Halloween, Michael Myers was captured after falling out of the window in the first film. He was put into a mental institution and there he waited for 40 years. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) waited too, convinced the demonic killer from her high school years would return. And then, of course, he does.
Fans of the Halloween franchise may be a little confused by this approach, which wipes away almost 20 years of sequels. But the filmmakers had very good reasons for wiping the slate clean.
“I feel like it’s almost one of the things like Batman or something,” co-writer Danny McBride said to Coming Soon.
“You see these different artists take on these iconic characters so I think it’s kind of cool to see what different filmmakers will do with a property that is so well known. I would rather have that approach to Michael Myers than everyone just continuing some storyline and just trying to regurgitate these things. I think it’s more interesting to have someone like [director] David [Gordon Green] or Rob Zombie, these filmmakers that just come and put their own stamp on it for better or worse. I think that’s a more interesting way for a franchise to stay alive than to just continue to beat the same drum over and over again.”
That means, as you can tell in the trailer, that Laurie Strode is no longer related to Michael Myers, which was one of the revelations from the later films.
“I was pushing for that removal right off the bat,” McBride said.
“I just felt like that was an area where he wasn’t quite as scary any more, it seemed too personalised. I wasn’t as afraid of Michael Myers any more because I’m not his fucking brother so he’s not coming after me. Also you’ve seen it, so wouldn’t it be interesting just to see what would happen if it wasn’t that, and what does that open up for us if it wasn’t this random killing that has affected this character, so it just seemed like new territory to bite off.”
However, the trailer acknowledges this change in history – and the rest of the film will, similarly, pay homage to the sequels fans love while also forging its own story.
“Anyone who’s a fan of any of these films will find nice little Easter eggs acknowledging our salute to the filmmakers that have preceded us in the stories and mythologies as they have unfolded,” Gordon Green said.
“For us, it was a clean slate type of opportunity, where if there was a little inspiration or mirror image of something it’s very subtle in the movie because we want to start fresh for a new generation but with great appreciation for the previous.”
You can read more about the Halloween reboot at the below link. The film opens October 18.