While San Diego Comic-Con gets its name from graphic novels, the annual event has transformed into something much bigger in the past few years. Trailers and big announcements have become commonplace at SDCC, with this year including the upcoming Halloween movie from Blumhouse. And it did not disappoint. While the fandom was eager to see Jamie Lee Curtis' new version of Laurie Strode, the new trailer made one thing clear: Michael Myers is taking no prisoners, and is still the thing of nightmares.
The new Halloween trailer opens with a long shot of Michael Myers, presumably after his escape from Smith's Grove Sanitarium. Back home in Haddonfield, we watch as the iconic killer brings chaos and death back to the sleepy Illinois town.
One thing that Jamie Lee Curtis hammered home during Halloween's comic-con panel is that Michael is a living, walking, random act of violence. The new trailer footage just that, as he wandered around Haddonfield, seemingly picking new victims on a whim. He goes from house to house, dispensing death and mercy for unknown reasons.
The scene opens with a nod to John Carpenter's original Halloween movie. After bumping into a few trick-or-treaters and scaring the crap out of them, Michael wanders into the backyard of an unnamed Haddonfield resident. Grabbing a hammer from the garage, he slowly and methodically begins entering homes, and murdering their residents with his typical brutality.
Michael's violence is visceral and shocking, although you shouldn't expect the gorefest that Rob Zombie brought with his two Halloween remakes. His first murder in the trailer happens just off camera, allowing tension to grow instead of being unnecessarily bloody. But when you finally see Michael take up a butcher knife and stab a victim, it's unlike any of his myriad kills from the previous films. As a hardcore horror and Halloween fan, even I was shocked. And you should have heard the audience reaction in Comic-Con's Hall H.
But Michael wasn't the only badass in the trailer. Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode has been waiting 40 years for her attacker to return, and spared no expense. She's got a giant weapon cache, floodlights, and a state of the art security system. While this likely won't stop Michael from getting in and meeting his sole surviving victim face-face, Laurie is nothing like the helpless teenager we met in the original. She's not a victim, and she's not going down without a fight.
In addition to a new trailer, Halloween also debuted a fantastic new Michael-centric poster that some lucky fans will be able to take home from Comic-Con. You can check that out below.
Blumhouse's Halloween will arrive in theaters on October 19th. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
