In March, the next installment in the Scream horror series will stab its way into cinemas around the world. Trailers for the project have shown it takes place at Halloween, features the next Ghostface moving around crowds of people, and has given off vibes reminiscent of Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise. This may make some wonder if the two series are connected and if Scream is trying to take the Boogeyman’s place. Luckily, we break it all down below.
To begin with, the two series are not directly connected in any way. The Halloween movies take place in their own world in what is generally the Midwestern United States while the Scream films have primarily been centered around events in California with the exception of the second film’s location in Ohio and the upcoming piece moving the action to New York. As well, in Scream, the characters watch Halloween towards the end of the story and the Halloween movies generally make subtle references to other horror films, though in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, there is a moment where characters are watching Scream 2 on television.
The next question is, will Ghostface supplant Myers as the preeminent evil of the Halloween season in the coming years. The answer here, is, of course, debatable. While the Halloween franchise has had 13 films to date and has ran in theaters and yearly on basic cable for decades, the Scream franchise has been around since 1996 and five of its films have had a positive critical reception while only two of the Halloween films have. In this instance, it can be argued each franchise does its own thing and there is room for both and, when you consider the timeline of the Scream films, it appears they have never tried to ape their genre’s predecessor.
According to the official Fandom wiki for the franchise, all of the prior Scream movies have taken place in September, June, February, October and September, respectively. So, ultimately, the time does not matter as much in the movies as the narrative and it is likely the filmmakers are setting the coming release around Halloween in order to take advantage of masks in a public area.
Whatever the case, audiences will see more March 10. As for Halloween, while nothing has been confirmed at this time, franchise creator John Carpenter said in the lead-up to Halloween Ends that the series would go on as it continues to rake in money from fans.
