Today brought some crushing news for horror fans, as Halloween Kills was delayed by a whole year. Instead of arriving this October, we’ll instead have to wait until fall 2021 for the next rematch between Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode and Michael Myers. To soften the blow, though, Blumhouse did release a teaser for the sequel to their 2018 reboot, which has given us a lot to chew on.
It seems likely that this clip is actually the start of the film, as it follows on directly from where we left the Strode women at the end of the last one – recuperating from their attack on the back of a truck. This is supported by the opening shot of the teaser, which appears to be a reference to the opening of the original Halloween sequel, 1981’s Halloween II.
This clip begins with a jack-o-lantern on the side of the road. It’s not an exact match, but the style of the carving is similar enough to the one featured in the opening credits of the 1981 movie that it must be a deliberate easter egg.
See for yourself with the comparison images below:
Blumhouse’s films have already continued the franchise’s tradition of beginning with pumpkins, as the 2018 flick started with a direct homage to the opening credits of the 1978 classic, except the familiar jack-o-lantern was initially rotting before it returned to life. This obviously represented the series being relaunched after years of laying dormant.
The HII references won’t stop there, either, as the behind-the-scenes reel we got during filming last year revealed that the characters will take a trip to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, which was the main setting of the first sequel. As painful as it is to have to wait a lot longer, maybe it’s for the best that Halloween Kills has been pushed back until 2021. Now it’ll arrive on the 40th anniversary of Halloween II. That’s pretty fitting, no?