Filming has officially wrapped on Blumhouse’s eagerly awaited Halloween sequel. The Halloween franchise has been in limbo for years now, following the mixed reception to Rob Zombie’s 2009 sequel to his own remake. A direct sequel to Zombie’s film called Halloween 3D would have seen Michael stalking his sister Laurie Strode in a mental asylum, but production on the film was postponed in order to develop the script. That version was eventually cancelled, and instead, another sequel dubbed Halloween Returns was put in development.

In keeping with the franchise’s ever-twisting timeline, this sequel would have followed the events of the original two movies but ignored everything else. The story would have seen the grown child of one of Myers’ victims coming to witness his execution – only for the killer to escape and go on a new rampage. Returns was due to shoot in 2016 but was scrapped when Dimension lost the rights to the series. Blumhouse soon acquired the franchise, signing David Gordon Green to direct and Jamie Lee Curtis returns once more as the original Laurie Strode.

Various set photos from the new Halloween have been revealed throughout filming, and now Ryan Turek - VP of Feature Film Development at Blumhouse – has confirmed the sequel has wrapped. The story of the new film will find Laurie, her daughter and granddaughter having to deal with the reappearance of The Shape (AKA Michael Myers) over 40 years after his original massacre.

The continuity of the Halloween series has become increasingly tangled over the decades, with certain sequels ignoring one another; the events of Halloween IV-VI, for example, were completely ignored by parts 7 and 8. Halloween: Resurrection even killed Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, so instead of having to deal with the franchise’s convoluted mythology, Blumhouse’s Halloween will ignore everything bar John Carpenter’s original.

Halloween helped kickstart the slasher subgenre, which lead to the creation of other famous movie monsters like Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, Chucky and Jason. The popularity of this subgenre eventually waned, with the horror genre focusing more on ghosts and supernatural threats over iconic bogeymen. The success of IT and the popularity of Pennywise may have changed that, and if Halloween is a hit, it may lead to the revival of other long-dormant series like A Nightmare On Elm Street or Friday The 13th – Jason Blum has even said he’d love a chance to tackle the later franchise, if he got the chance.

More: Halloween (2018) Could Kill Michael Myers For Good

Source: Ryan Turek

  • Halloween Release Date: 2018-10-19