Halloween is a 2018 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green, who co-wrote it with Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride. It is the eleventh installment in the Halloween film series and a direct sequel to Halloween (1978), ignoring the events of every other film in the franchise. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode. James Jude Courtney portrays Michael Myers, with Nick Castle returning to the role for a cameo appearance. Halloween also stars Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Haluk Bilginer, and Virginia Gardner. Its plot follows a post-traumatic Laurie Strode who prepares to face an escaped Michael Myers in a final showdown on Halloween night, forty years after she survived his killing spree.
After the release of Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the 2009 sequel to the 2007 remake of the original, another follow-up went into development from former rights holder Dimension Films, but did not come to fruition. As a result, the studio lost the rights to the intellectual property, which were later obtained by Blumhouse Productions with John Carpenter's involvement. Carpenter, who disagreed with the remake's portrayal of lead killer Michael Myers, planned on helping the studio to make the next Halloween film into what he believed to be more terrifying than the preceding sequels. Filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, who were already fans, proposed their vision to Blumhouse and Carpenter. It was accepted and developed into a sequel to the original.
Halloween was filmed from January to February 2018 in Charleston, South Carolina, before reshoots took place that June. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018. It was theatrically released in North America on October 19, 2018, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics with praise for Curtis' performance, Green's direction, scares, and tone, with many deeming it both the best Halloween film since the original and a return-to-form for the series. It was a box office success, grossing over $259 million worldwide on a $10 million budget. Upon its release, Halloween became the highest-grossing slasher film in unadjusted dollars, breaking the record Scream had previously set in 1996, as well as setting several other box office records. The film was followed by two sequels: Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022).
Plot On October 29, 2018, infamous serial killer Michael Myers, who has been institutionalized at Smith's Grove Psychiatric Hospital for 40 years following his killing spree in Haddonfield, is being prepared for transfer to a different facility named Glass Hill. True crime podcasters Aaron Korey and Dana Haines visit the hospital, where Aaron displays Michael's mask to him, to no effect.
In Haddonfield, Laurie Strode still lives in fear of him, drinking heavily and rarely leaving her heavily fortified house. She has a strained relationship with her daughter Karen, whom the state took away from her when Karen was 12. Allyson, Laurie's granddaughter, tries to maintain a relationship with her grandmother. The night of October 30, as Michael is being transferred, the bus crashes and Michael escapes after murdering two people and stealing their truck.
On the morning of October 31, Michael sees Aaron and Dana visiting his sister Judith's grave. He kills them both, as well as a mechanic for his overalls, before recovering his mask from Aaron's car. Laurie learns of Michael's escape and attempts to warn Karen, but Karen dismisses her concerns, urging Laurie to move on.
That night, Allyson finds her boyfriend, Cameron, cheating on her at a party and leaves with his friend Oscar. Allyson's best friend Vicky and her boyfriend Dave are both killed by Michael. Deputy Frank Hawkins, who arrested Michael in 1978, and Laurie overhear the incident on radio and go over to the house. Laurie sees Michael for the first time in 40 years and shoots him before he flees. The police take Laurie, Karen, and her husband Ray to Laurie's home for protection.
Dr. Ranbir Sartain, Michael's psychiatrist and former student of Dr. Samuel Loomis, persuades Sheriff Barker to help in the hunt for Michael. Michael kills Oscar, but Hawkins and Sartain rescue Allyson. Deputy Hawkins incapacitates Michael and tries to kill him, but Dr. Sartainwho has become obsessed with Michaelattacks and leaves Hawkins for dead. It is revealed that he orchestrated Michael's escape to study him "in the wild". Dr. Sartain heads toward Laurie's home with an unconscious Michael and Allyson locked in the backseat together. Michael wakes up and kills Sartain while Allyson flees. Michael then kills the two police officers stationed outside Laurie's home and strangles Ray to death.
In Michael's showdown with Laurie, he stabs her and pushes her over a balcony. When he goes to check her body, he finds it missing, reminiscent of their first encounter decades earlier. Karen shoots him in the cheek before Laurie traps him inside the safe room with Karen and Allyson's help. The trio sets the house ablaze, and Laurie says goodbye to Michael before she faints. As her family takes her to the hospital, a final shot of the burning basement is shown, with Michael nowhere in sight. In a post-credits scene, Michael's breathing is heard, indicating that he has survived.
Cast
In addition, P. J. Soles, who played Lynda Van Der Klok in the original 1978 film, has an off-screen voice cameo as Allyson's English teacher.
Production Development
After directing the 2007 Halloween reboot, Rob Zombie was hesitant to return for Halloween II and announced that he would not return to direct another sequel while promoting it in an interview on MTV. Nevertheless, two days after its release, The Weinstein Company announced that a sequel entitled Halloween 3D would be released in the summer of 2010. Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer were hired as the film's director and writer and the studio planned for filming to begin in Shreveport, Louisiana, in November 2009. The film was to pick up where the final frame of its 2009 predecessor left off and would pay homage to the original version of Michael Myers from the 1978 film. It would have involved Laurie Strode being committed to a psychiatric hospital after murdering Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett and Michael tracking her down there one year later. Tyler Mane would have reprised his role as Michael Myers from the first two films and Tom Atkins would have been cast as a psychiatrist, but Scout Taylor-Compton did not plan on returning as Laurie Strode. After disagreements over the budget and concerns that the film was being made too quickly, Bob Weinstein delayed pre-production until after Lussier and Farmer finished their work on Drive Angry.
In June 2011, development resumed with a planned release date of October 26, 2012, but was again delayed when Lussier, Farmer and Weinstein decided to prioritize a Hellraiser reboot. In 2012, Siren screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski pitched their take on a reboot of the series, simply entitled Halloween. By 2013, Josh Stolberg was tasked with revising a 2004 draft for Halloween: Asylum, previously written by Mirrors 2 scribe Matt Veene. According to Stolberg, the script was a direct continuation of Halloween: Resurrection, and featured Myers breaking free from death row. In May 2014, development on Halloween 3D was revived for one final time with Taylor-Compton agreeing to appear in the film. As a result of the profitability of the Paranormal Activity franchise in the 2010s, Weinstein insisted on making Halloween 3D a found footage film, and Farmer pitched a mockumentary about a series of murders by a deranged fan taking place during the making of an in-universe film based on Lussier and Farmer's original script. According to Farmer and Taylor-Compton, none of the cast and crew involved liked the concept, and the film was ultimately scrapped.
In February 2015, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan were reported as writing a new Halloween film, described as a "recalibration" rather than a reboot, which Malek Akkad and Matt Stein were producing. On June 15, 2015, The Weinstein Company was reported to be moving ahead with another Halloween sequel, tentatively titled Halloween Returns, with Dunstan directing. It would have been a standalone film set to reintroduce audiences to Michael Myers years after his initial rampage from Halloween and 1981's Halloween II, as he was confronted by a new generation of victims while on death row. The film would have been set in 1988 and involved Michael Myers escaping his execution from a power surge and going on a rampage in the town of Russellville, Illinois.
On October 22, 2015, producer Malek Akkad revealed that the production of Halloween Returns had been postponed, citing "issues with studios and different variables", and stating that the extra time would result in a better film.Hamman, Cody (October 22, 2015). "The next Halloween Film Has Been Delayed for Refiguring." JoBlo.com. Retrieved November 14, 2015. Akkad later revealed that he had postponed production because the studio insisted on shooting the film in Serbia, which he believed would be a poor fit for Haddonfield. In December 2015, it was announced that Dimension Films no longer had the filming rights to Halloween, after Halloween Returns failed to go into production on schedule. The film's cancellation was confirmed at the same time. The rights then reverted to Miramax.
On May 24, 2016, Blumhouse Productions and Miramax were announced to be co-financing a new film, with Universal Pictures distributing through the studio's output deal with Blumhouse. Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum called the original Halloween a milestone that had influenced the company to begin making horror films, "The great Malek Akkad and John Carpenter have a special place in the hearts of all genre fans and we are so excited that Miramax brought us together". The rights specifically went to Miramax and Tarik Akkad, who sought out Blum because of his success as a horror film producer. That same month, Mike Flanagan was being courted to direct the film with a set release date for 2017. Flanagan would ultimately pass on the offer and likened his pitch to his own film Hush.
Writing and pre-production
When John Carpenter, who had co-written the first two Halloween films with Debra Hill and directed the original, signed on as an executive producer in 2016, he described his intention: "Thirty-eight years after the original Halloween, I'm going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all." He discussed his reasoning for revisiting the series for the first time since producing 1982's Halloween III: Season of the Witch in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, "I talked about the Halloweens for a long time, the sequels — I haven't even seen all of them [...] But finally it occurred to me: Well if I'm just flapping my gums here, why don't I try to make it as good as I can? So, you know, stop throwing rocks from the sidelines and get in there and try to do something positive." When the rights were acquired by Blumhouse, filmmaker Adam Wingard discussed making a new Halloween film, but ultimately dropped out after being sated by an email of encouragement from Carpenter, "I kinda walked away from it like, I just got everything I wanted out of this job. 'This is about as good as it gets.'" On February 9, 2017, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride were announced as handling screenwriting duties, with Green directing and Carpenter advising the project. Carpenter said that he was impressed with the pitch presented by the co-writers, solicited by Jason Blum, proclaiming that "They get it." Green and McBride brought along their UNCSA colleague Jeff Fradley to co-write the script alongside them.