Editorials
The ‘Halloween’ Reboot Could Kickstart a Slasher Movie Revival
Is a slasher movie resurgence on the horizon? We have a good feeling about this.
If all goes according to current plans, director David Gordon Green and co-writer Danny McBride’s new take on the Halloween franchise, described as more of a continuation of John Carpenter’s original vision than a full-on reboot of the series, will arrive in theaters on October 19th, 2018. At that point, it’ll be the first time Michael Myers has appeared on the big screen in just under 10 years, which needless to say makes it one of the most hotly-anticipated horror movies on the release schedule.
As exciting as the movie itself are the sub-genre’s future prospects.
We expect that Gordon Green’s Halloween, given the franchise’s proven track record (as well as Blumhouse’s ability to keep costs low and profits high) will do pretty well at the box office next Halloween season, and we can’t help but wonder just how influential the film’s box office success could be on the future of the horror genre as a whole. The new Halloween will be the first true slasher movie to arrive in theaters in many years, so it could indeed be the catalyst for a whole new wave of slasher flicks.
At the very least, it’ll test the current popularity of the sub-genre.
What’s interesting about this (hopeful) thought, of course, is that it wouldn’t be the first time Halloween has kick-started an American slasher movement. John Carpenter’s Halloween, an independent film released in 1978, may not have been the first slasher movie (the sub-genre’s origins date back much further, with Black Christmas notably influencing Carpenter to make Halloween), but it’s undoubtedly the one that opened the floodgates and allowed for subsequent franchises like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street to arrive on the scene.
And when the slasher remake craze took hold one decade ago, do you remember which of the aforementioned three preceded the others? Yup, that’d be Halloween, Rob Zombie’s remake of Carpenter’s classic. True, the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) came first, but the financially successful Halloween (2007) was directly followed by remakes of both Friday the 13th (2009) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) – as well as attempted revivals of other slasher franchises such as Prom Night and My Bloody Valentine. I suppose you could say that Michael Myers (indirectly) created Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger and also helped bring them back from the dead years later. And he could do the very same thing in the coming years.
Just how likely is a slasher movie revival? Well, if you look at recent horror series’ on the small screen, you could argue that we’ve been slowly heading towards that inevitable resurgence for many years now. Shows like “Bates Motel,” “Scream Queens” and especially “Scream” have proven that audiences still have an interest in the hack ‘n slash sub-genre, so it’s seemingly only a matter of time before masked killers start spilling blood on the big screen again. The sub-genre isn’t dead, as recent movies such as The Final Girls, Cub and this year’s Lake Bodom are evidence of, it just needs a kick in the pants on a grand scale. All it’s really going to take is one big box office hit to once again break open those floodgates. Enter Michael Myers.
If there’s one thing studios pay attention to its what makes money, and if Halloween makes a killing, I can’t imagine long-gestating reboots of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street will be far behind. Keep in mind that the very reason Paramount recently pulled a new Friday the 13th film from their schedule was because another franchise horror film, this year’s Rings, didn’t perform as well as they hoped. It’s a bummer, but that (often incredibly flawed) way of thinking goes both ways. In other words, if Halloween dominates the box office in 2018, you better believe that whoever owns the Friday the 13th rights at that time will be itching to bring Jason back to life. And the same goes for Freddy.
After all, it happened in 2007.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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