After nine years away from the screen, the Halloween franchise is set to return on its 40th anniversary with a new movie to be released in October. That unkillable boogeyman Michael Myers will be back once again and, best of all, so will Jamie Lee Curtis as his perennial would-be victim Laurie Strode.
But the news of this sequel has got many scratching their heads as they try to work out how it will fit in with previous movies. Long running horror franchises are often hard to keep up with for even the most ardent of fans, but Halloween‘s history is more convoluted than most. Simply put, the ten films so far split up into five different categories. There’s the original duo, the lone spinoff, the Michael Myers trilogy, the revised sequels and then the remake and its follow-up.
It’s a lot to keep track of and with how confusing things have gotten over the years, we wouldn’t even blame you if you hadn’t seen all of the Halloween movies yet. In fact, you’d be in the same boat as John Carpenter himself. The iconic director recently sat down to talk about his beloved franchise with Rotten Tomatoes and admitted that he hasn’t even watched all the sequels.
“You know, you know I talked about the Halloweens for a long time, the sequels — I haven’t even seen all of them. I don’t even know what really was there — but finally, it occurred to me: Well if I’m just flapping my gums here, talking about it, why don’t I try to make it as good as I can? I could offer advice. I could talk to the director. I like the director very much. I like the script. So, you know, stop throwing rocks from the sidelines and get in there and try to do something
Given that Carpenter wasn’t involved with most of the films that came after his, we suppose it makes a bit of sense that he hasn’t seen them. Still, that being said, you’d think that after having given birth to a classic franchise you’d want to see what other directors do with it once you step back. Then again, maybe he just doesn’t care?
Anyone can tell you that Carpenter’s entries into the series were by far the best and mostly everything that followed paled in comparison. With that in mind, maybe he wants to remember Michael Myers as he knew him, before other filmmakers messed with the character and his mythology and damn near ruined the entire franchise? Whatever the case may be, it’s definitely interesting to hear that Carpenter hasn’t seen all of the sequels yet.
One sequel that he will see, however, is the upcoming one from Danny McBride and David Gordon Green. Set to hit theaters this October, the new Halloween will be scored by the legendary director, while he’ll also be giving some creative input to McBride and Green as they go about crafting a new entry into the franchise. As such, we expect the film to be a real return to form for the series and can’t wait to see how it turns out.
