Why Halloween 2018 Ignores The Original’s Sequels

Danny McBride explained why 2018’s Halloween removed the reveal of previous sequels that Michael Myers and Laurie Strode were siblings. The original Halloween essentially created the slasher subgenre and followed an emotionless killer as he escapes from a mental asylum and returns to his hometown to cause more bloodshed. He stalks a luckless teenager named Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) throughout the story, and the movie ends with Michael’s doctor shooting him six times – only for his body to vanish.

After Halloween became a major hit, pressure was put on creator John Carpenter to make a sequel. Carpenter felt the story had been told, but reluctantly penned a script and produced the follow-up. For the sake of adding some spice to the story, he included the reveal that Laurie and Michael Myers were actually related to provide the killer with a motive. Later movies in the series kept this twist, including Rob Zombie’s remakes, but it was always a slightly controversial element among the fanbase, with some feeling it removed some of Michael’s mystique.

Related: Halloween Trailer Confirms Major Michael Myers Retcon

The Halloween franchise is no stranger to retconning or rebooting, but the latest sequel takes things a step further by ignoring all previous movies bar the 1978 original. This includes the revelation that Michael and Laurie were brother and sister, and in a new interview with Nerdist, co-writer Danny McBride has explained the logic of making them strangers again.

I was pushing for that removal right off the bat. I just felt like that was an area where he wasn’t quite as scary anymore, it seemed too personalized. I wasn’t as afraid of Michael Myers anymore because I’m not his f***ing brother. [We thought] wouldn’t it be interesting just to see what would happen if it wasn’t that? What does that open up for us if it was just this random killing that has affected [Laurie Strode] for all these years?

McBride makes a good point that by removing the sibling reveal, it allows Halloween to explore a fresh angle. Other movies in the franchise – namely Halloween H20 and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II – have already mined the family side of their relationship, so making them strangers again gives the filmmakers some new territory to explore. The trailer for 2018’s Halloween even makes a joke about the idea of Laurie and Michael being related, writing it off as a rumor.

The trailer for Halloween makes it appear Laurie has now stepped into the Dr. Loomis role from the original, who is waiting for Michael’s inevitable return and doing her best to save lives once the killing begins. Given that the project will be a one off for many involved – including Jamie Lee Curtis – there’s even the possibility the film could take the bold step of killing Michael Myers for good, as Carpenter himself intended with the fiery climax of 1981’s Halloween II.

More: Every Halloween (2018) Update You Need to Know

Source: Nerdist

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3499 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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