David Gordon Green’s 2018 reboot of theHalloweenfranchise — which kickstarted Michael Myers’ most polarizing run in the series — is now available to stream on Netflix. 2018’sHalloweentakes place 40 years after John Carpenter’s groundbreaking 1978 original and ignores every other sequel that came in between. It catches up with a post-traumatic Laurie Strode, who’s now a mother and grandmother and has been nervously awaiting Michael’s return for four decades. While being transferred to a maximum-security prison, Michael escapes and heads back to Haddonfield for another gruesome killing spree on Halloween night.
When it arrived in theaters in 2018, theHalloweenreboot was praised asthe bestHalloweenmovie since Carpenter’s original. Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance was widely acclaimed and Green’s direction of the tone and atmosphere was similarly lauded. Plus, it became a massive box-office success. But looking back on it now,2018’sHalloweenis best remembered as the beginning of the most controversial era of the franchise. It was a pretty satisfyingHalloweenrevival on its own, but it ended up launchingHalloween’s answer to theStar Warssequel trilogy.
The First Movie In David Gordon Green’s Halloween Trilogy Is Now Streaming On Netflix
2018’s Halloween Started A Trend Of Horror Legacy Sequels
The first installment in Green’sHalloweentrilogy, simply titledHalloween, is now streaming on Netflix. 2018’sHalloweencombines two of Hollywood’s biggest recent trends: legacy sequels and the horror of trauma. LikeCreed,Ghostbusters: Afterlife, andStar Wars: The Force Awakens, it introduces the next generation of heroes following in the previous generation’s footsteps, and uses the events of the previous films as an in-universe metaphor to explore the franchise’s standing in pop culture. And likeSmile,The Babadook, andHereditary, it uses horror tropes and motifs to depict the devastating impact of unresolved trauma.
Why David Gordon Green’s Halloween Movies Are So Divisive
Green’s Halloween Trilogy Overcomplicated The Franchise
Thetrilogy that followed 2018’sHalloweendivided the fan base. For starters,it was questionable whether theHalloweenreboot even needed a whole trilogy. The trilogy model is great for franchises likeStar Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth saga, which all tell epic, expansive stories with a massive cast of characters. ButHalloweenis a franchise that revolves entirely around a notorious serial killer going on various murder sprees in a small town. It doesn’t have the scope or depth of narrative that requires franchises likeStar Warsand Marvel to tell their stories in trilogies.
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By the time it ended, Green’sHalloweentrilogy had seriously run out of steam. The first movie worked fine as a standalone story. It saw Laurie confronting her inner and outer demons 40 years after their initial showdown. This time, she was ready for Michael and ended up trapping him in the basement and burning him alive, literally locking away her trauma and destroying it. That alone could’ve been a satisfying conclusion to theHalloweenstory, but the producers kept it going for another two movies.
It was an interesting approach to explore the notion of mob justice, but the sequel’s message that everyone else is just as bad as Michael ultimately didn’t land, because it felt disingenuous.
In 2021’sHalloween Kills, Michael effortlessly escapes from the burning basement and the townspeople all come together to kill him once and for all. In theory, it was an interesting approach to explore the notion of mob justice, butthe sequel’s message that everyone else is just as bad as Michael ultimately didn’t land, because it felt disingenuous— and it was underwhelming to see aHalloweenmovie where Laurie spends most of the runtime confined to a hospital bed.Halloween Killsdrags out for much longer than it should, and its climactic beatdown disappointinglyconfirms that Michael is 100% supernatural.
Was Halloween Ends Really That Bad? Re-Examining The $105M Disappointment, 1 Year Later
Halloween Ends is one of the most controversial entries in the beloved horror franchise, but looking back on the film, is it really that bad?
2022’sHalloween Endsset out to be theAvengers: Endgameor theStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerof theHalloweenfranchise. But again, this isn’t the kind of franchise that needs a big, epic finale as the culmination of the entire saga. And as long as theHalloweenproducers were doing anEndgame-style finale, they should’ve focused onLaurie’s longstanding feud with Michael. Instead,Halloween Endsgoes off on its own standalone storyabout a babysitter who’s mistaken for a killer and goes on a dark path. Laurie and Michael’s final showdown is crammed into the last few minutes.
What’s Next For The Halloween Franchise After The Recent Trilogy
Although Halloween Ends Was Conceived As The Final Chapter, There’s A TV Show In The Works
AlthoughHalloween Endswas conceived as the final chapter of the series,the next installment in theHalloweenfranchise is already in the works. There’saHalloweenTV show in developmentat Miramax that will serve as a complete creative reset on the franchise. Like Green’s trilogy, the new TV series will ignore all the previous sequels and connect only to the original film.Halloweencontent is so popular — and so cheap to produce — that, much like Michael, this franchise will probably never die.
Halloween
Cast
Halloween is the first film of the David Gordon Green-directed sequel trilogy to the 1978 original horror/slasher film. Having been institutionalized for forty years after the events of the original Haddonfield murders, Michael Myers escapes during a prison transfer to pursue his original target, Laurie Strode. Having lived in fear of his shadow for years, Laurie learns of his return, setting the stage for war while trying to protect her daughter and granddaughter from her masked tormentor.
