With the notable exception of Rocky Balboa’s acclaimed return to form in Creed, not many franchises manage to recapture the magic of their original installments 40 years down the line, but the unlikely duo of David Gordon Green and Danny McBride pulled it off with 2018’s Halloween, which ignored the events of the previous nine movies and acted as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s all-time classic.
Not only did it score the best reviews that any of Michael Myers’ murderous sprees had enjoyed for four decades, but it also became the highest-grossing installment in the series by some distance, earning over $170 million more at the box office than Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake, which had previously held the crown.
Follow-ups Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends were swiftly announced, although fans will have to wait a little longer to see how the trilogy pans out after both were delayed by an entire year as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Everyone involved in the production from the returning cast to producer Jason Blum has been teasing a bigger, badder and better outing for the iconic slasher franchise though, and in a recent interview, Carpenter himself once again expressed his enthusiasm for what Green has in store this time around.
“It’s the quintessential slasher film. It is so intense, oh my god, it even stuns me how incredible it is. David just did a great job. Can’t wait to have you see it.”
While the 72 year-old remains heavily involved with the franchise as the composer and executive producer and is hardly going to disparage the latest movie, being called the quintessential slasher by the person who not only directed the original but is also responsible for the entire genre’s popularity and continued influence is very high praise indeed, and only makes it all the more frustrating that Halloween Kills is still almost fourteen months away.