Halloween: 40 Years Later

The Halloween franchise is returning to the big screen this Autumn with a whole new entry directed by David Gordan Green, who got the project thanks to actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Taking a page from Toho, producer John Carpenter, who co-wrote and directed the original 1978 slasher film, has decided to eliminate all but that production from canon, displacing even Halloween II, which many fans consider to be the second half of the original Michael Myers story.

To get an idea of what’s going on, it’s necessary to go back and retell some of the history behind the production of Halloween II and why Carpenter and his creative team behind the new movie have decided to do what they did.

In 1978, Halloween, which was produced for $325,000—a fairly small bit of change at that time, debuted in theaters and quickly gained acclaim, not to mention box office success with a box office gross of $47 million domestic and $23 million foreign, for a total gross of $70 million. Needless to say, the film was a huge hit, and helped spark a slew of imitators trying to capitalize on its success. These included the much lesser quality Friday the 13th franchise, which had a fair share of simulated blood and gore and gratuitous nudity.

Not to be outdone, bank-roller Moustapha Akkad wanted sequels with which to compete against the imitators, and went ahead with plans to produce one. Carpenter and Halloween co-creator Debra Hill were at that point done with the film and wanted to move on to other projects, but by 1981 it was clear that Akkad was going to do the sequel whether they wanted it or not. Unwilling to be cut out of their share of the profits, they agreed to come aboard the project, but relegated themselves to writing and producing, handing the directorial reigns to Rick Rosenthal.

The intention was to officially wrap up the Michael Myers story and be done with it, and in fact, 1982’s Halloween III had a completely different story and characters with no apparent connection to the previous two films. Carpenter envisioned an anthology series centered on the holiday of Halloween, and for better or for worse, the failure of that at the box office led to the resurrection of Myers and his arch-nemesis Dr. Sam Loomis (played by the great Donald Pleasence) six years later.

For reasons that are still a bit murky, the decision was made to insert more blood, gore, and boobs than was in the original film, and on top of that, add the plot twist that made Jamie Lee Curtis’ character Laurie Strode Michael Myers’ sister, thus explaining his stalking of her and her friends and subsequent murder spree.

Carpenter and Hill were never thrilled with those decisions, which were made under studio pressure and displeased Halloween II director Rosenthal, who voiced his upset over re-shot scenes to put in more gore. So when the opportunity came up to start over with a new movie, Carpenter & Co. took full advantage.

The trailer and press interviews tell us a few things about the story:

The original Halloween II has been retconned out of existence, and so too has been the familial connection between Myers and Strode.

For some reason, Laurie Strode has spent the last forty years preparing for Michael Myers’ return, converting her home into a well laid trap for the homicidal maniac.

Also for some reason, a pair of documentary film-makers investigating Myers’ 1978 rampage for a new project visit him at the mental institution and in the preview, hold his mask up to him (an act that causes a great disturbance in the yard among inmates and guard dogs alike).

Yeah, thanks for giving me my mask back, posh British documentarians (and keeping it so well preserved).

Now, ordinarily I’d protest against the exclusion of 2-6, because it happens that I had a big crush on actress Danielle Harris from 4 and 5 and I never liked how those three films were so disrespectfully eradicated from canon when Dimension decided to do its twenty-year reboot in 1998. But with John Carpenter involved and guiding things behind the scenes, well, I have to admit I’m curious to see exactly what he and director Green do with the story. Curtis says that the new movie lives up to the original, but then, we got that sort of spin twenty years ago and the final product turned out to be less than stellar. So we’ll see.

Anyway, what do you think? Let me know in the comment section, and while you’re at it, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and become a patron for extras and to help us improve the quality of our webcasts. Thank you.