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'Halloween' and the Return of the Original Slasher

What does David Gordon Green's 'Halloween' mean for the franchise and the future of horror films? Let's dive in, shall we?

By Patrick SullivanPublished 6 years ago 2 min read
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This October we get to see the return of one of horror film's greatest evils, The Shape! Now you may be looking at the photo above and be thinking "Um, that's Michael Myers though," and I'd tell you you're right, but before the countless sequels that followed the original Halloween film, there was just The Shape. That was all that was left of that little boy who murdered his sister on Halloween night. David Gordon Green's Halloween film will not only be the first new film in the franchise since 2002's Halloween Resurrection, but will basically cancel out every film that followed the first film, essentially bringing the character back to his original roots.

“Michael Myers hasn’t evolved as a character in any way, shape or form [since 1978]; he’s the essence of evil,” Green told the LA Times. “He has no character. He has no personality. He has no interests. He never has. He’s someone that is moving forward and reacting to the world around him, but not with any sort of conscious objective. And how the world around him reacts to his behavior is where our story comes to life.”

This brings a whole new dynamic to the story, but at the same time like I mentioned before, brings it back to it's roots. No longer is Michael the deranged brother out to kill his young sister, but a being of pure evil returning to finish what he started 40 years ago, and you better believe they're both prepared for the long night to come. In the trailer for the film we see Laurie training with what seems to be a small arsenal, and has even converted a basement into what looks to be a panic room. Michael on the other hand has just been standing idly by for 40 years, waiting to be free once again to continue his killing spree.

Not only is this film bringing back such an iconic character, but it's looking to be the return of the slasher to the big screen. Before getting more into this, it should go without saying that there are still plenty of great slasher films in the indie film circle, however the big screen has definitely been lacking ones that evoked the same feelings we had when we watched the classics. The biggest cause of that I'd have to say would be that the right people weren't really at the helm of those films. 2017's Leatherface for example; it was very unnecessary and felt it was just made for the sake of being made because they owned the rights. That's a sure case for a dud.

The hope is that production companies who own the rights to some of our favorite franchises and characters will care more for the source material and give us better films. Universal and Blumhouse did a real service by not only bringing Jamie Lee Curtis back, but also the original Michael Myer's actor Nick Castle and even John Carpenter to do what we're all expecting to be an amazing and haunting soundtrack.

Halloween releases in theaters on October 19. The 1978 Halloween film will be releasing for the first time in 4K on September 25th in the US and Canada.

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