Editorials
Everything We Know About David Gordon Green’s ‘Halloween’
“It’s not a reboot. It’s not gonna be a rehash. It’s a continuation of Michael Myers.” – Danny McBride
Let’s attempt to paint a clear picture of what we should expect next year, shall we?
On May 23, 2016, the bombshell announcement dropped that Blumhouse, Miramax and Trancas International Films were partnering to bring the Halloween franchise back from the dead in the wake of Dimension losing the rights, with John Carpenter on board as executive producer, creative consultant and potential composer.
“38 years after the original Halloween. I’m going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all,” Carpenter said at the time. “Halloween needs to return to its traditions. I feel like the movies have gotten away from that. Michael is not just a human being; he’s a force of nature, like the wind. That’s what makes him so scary.”
Cut to February 9, 2017, when it was announced that a writing/directing duo had been brought onto the project. On that date, we learned that David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) would be directing the new Halloween film, with Gordon Green and Danny McBride (Alien: Covenant) together writing the Carpenter-approved script.
It was also announced on the same day that the movie would be arriving October 19, 2018, which remains the film’s release date.
“So you say you want a revolution? You want to shake things up and bring back Halloween and make it rock again? Well so do I,” Carpenter said in a Facebook statement back in February. “David and Danny both came to my office recently with Jason Blum and shared their vision for the new movie and… WOW. They get it. I think you’re gonna dig it. They blew me away.”
McBride even chimed in about the project for the first time on that very same date, assuring that the film would be a huge departure from his comedic roots.
“David and I are thrilled to step outside of our comedic collaborations and dive into a dark and vicious horror,” said McBride. “Nobody will be laughing.”
Naturally, the horror community was abuzz that whole week, as we all began speculating on the concept that made Carpenter so excited about the Halloween franchise for the first time in so many years. Many assumed Gordon Green was intending on remaking the original classic… but those rumors were quickly shot down.
“You know, it’s not a remake. It’s actually, it’s gonna continue the story of Michael Myers in a really grounded way,” McBride told CinemaBlend back in February. “And for our mythology, we’re focusing mainly in the first two movies and what that sets up and then where the story can go from there.”
In the same interview, McBride echoed Carpenter’s comments that the new film would get back to the “simplicity and efficiency” that made the original so effective. And during a chat with Empire Film Podcast around the same time, McBride strongly suggested that Michael Myers will not be a supernatural being in he and Gordon Green’s vision.
“I think we’re just trying to strip it down and just take it back to what was so good about the original. It was just very simple and just achieved that level of horror that wasn’t corny and it wasn’t turning Michael Myers into some supernatural being that couldn’t be killed,” he noted. “I think it’s much more horrifying to be scared by someone standing in the shadows while you’re taking the trash out as opposed to someone who can’t be killed pursuing you.”
Additionally, McBride seemed to even suggest earlier this year that making Michael scary again may mean erasing his familial connection to Laurie Strode.
“The moment that they made Laurie and Michael Myers siblings – it also makes it not quite as scary,” he said on the Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show. “So all that kind of stuff to us… those are the things that took an amazing idea and took it somewhere it wasn’t quite as effective.”
Alas, even when we learned all this exciting new information about the project, it was still unclear exactly what McBride was saying in regards to the plot. The assumption was that the new film would be picking up sometime after the events of Halloween 2 (1981), essentially proceeding as if the original franchise never continued past that point.
Of course, we were hit with another massive bombshell just last week, which seems to have confirmed that Halloween 4 through Halloween Resurrection never happened in this particular version of the timeline. Jamie Lee Curtis will be reprising the role of Laurie Strode in the new film, revealed to simply be titled Halloween.
“Same porch. Same clothes. Same issues. 40 years later. Headed back to Haddonfield one last time for Halloween,” Jamie Lee Curtis tweeted this past Friday.
A press release sent out over the weekend also gave us our first plot details, along with a first-look photo at Curtis back in the outfit she wore in 1978…
Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.
Even more interesting was this tidbit in the aforementioned press release…
“Inspired by Carpenter’s classic, filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride crafted a story that carves a new path from the events in the landmark 1978 film.”
So then, what do we make of all this? Well, it seems clear that the main goal from everyone involved is to evoke the spirit of Halloween 1978 with the 40-years-later Halloween 2018, which aims to be simple, terrifying and free of the silliness that tanked the franchise as it grew longer in the tooth. Oh and there’s still a good chance John Carpenter is scoring the film, though nothing has been confirmed yet.
As for the story, Halloween ’18 will seemingly be set in Haddonfield on Halloween in the present day, centered on the final clash between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers.
And if the new movie is indeed “carving a new path from the events of the 1978 film,” it seems safe to assume that only the original Halloween happened in this alternate timeline. This would explain how Laurie Strode is still alive (she died in Resurrection, after all), and it also lines up with McBride’s previous suggestion that he and Gordon Green have erased Halloween 2‘s reveal that Michael and Laurie are siblings.
My best guess, based on everything we know? It would seem that they’re continuing the story 40 years after the original movie… and disregarding everything that came after.
What has Laurie been up to since 1978? We’ll find out on October 19, 2018.
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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