During the upcoming season of spooks and haunts, look out for the horrifying homecoming of slasher icon Michael Myers in the new Halloween. Although the masked figure has starred in ten other installments, this one will bring him face-to-face with a woman he has terrorized before, Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode. The upcoming horror film is direct sequel to the 1978 classic, focusing on the vengeful return of an older and wiser scream queen, while also paying tribute to John Carpenter's original film. How will a 2018 audience fit into the retelling and continuation of a 40-year-old story? Director David Gordon Green explained:
What the audience can bring to it in terms of what's going on in the world, I think, is extraordinarily complex and is going to add to a very simplistic experience. Michael Myers hasn't evolved as a character in any way, shape or form [since 1978]; he's the essence of evil. He has no character. He has no personality. He has no interests. He never has. He's someone that is moving forward and reacting to the world around him, but not with any sort of conscious objective. And how the world around him reacts to his behavior is where our story comes to life.
Michael Myers is exactly as you remember him, maybe even more so if your memory serves you well. What's changed is everyone else involved; the present day world, this time with the potential ability to take him down. The focus of Halloween is on an older Laurie Strode, who has been tortured with the thought that the murderer would come back one day and she wants to be ready for him. Based on director David Gordon Green's comments to the Los Angeles Times, Myers is more of a symbol of the relentlessness of evil onto the world and the struggle for people to be a victim or survivor in its wake.
Halloween is drawing heavily on the 1978 slasher classic by drawing close parallels and references to the original to faithfully continue the story decades later. So the reunion between Laurie and Michael Myers will feel genuine, despite such a gap between the encounters. However, Laurie has been preparing for years for his return and has lived a live greatly affected by her brush with death. Having Myers vastly similar from his original iteration allows for the interest to move away from the vile killer, and towards the people who will be and have been affected by his chaotic nature.
Halloween will come to theaters on October 19 and is expected to do well opening weekend, thanks to plenty of fans ready to see Laurie Strode and Michael Myers face-off again.
