David Gordon Green and Danny McBride‘s Halloween will bring back elusive boogeyman Michael Myers’ mystery when the sequel to the 1978 original slashes its way into theaters this October.
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“I’d like to know as little about [Michael Myers] or his history and abilities as possible,” director Green, who co-wrote Halloween with Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley, told Halloween Movies.
“I think there was a reason he was called The Shape because in some ways he’s more of an essence than he is a traditional character. Finding that line between natural and supernatural worlds, and mysterious and un-verbalized as we can. In some ways it’s like a film like Jaws. There’s not a lot of personality in the shark. Technically he’s very elusive, and we’re trying to keep that as our framework and not get too much into who he is, why he is, what he’s been doing.”
Bringing back Michael Myers’ unexplained bloodlust meant doing away with the familial relationship between the masked murderer and sister Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) first established in 1981’s Halloween II.
“I was pushing for the removal right off the bat,” McBride said.
“I just felt like that was an area where he wasn’t quite as scary anymore. It seemed too personalized. I wasn’t as afraid of Michael Myers anymore, because I’m not his f—ing brother so he’s not coming after me. So it just seemed like new territory to bite off. Maybe we’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, it was such a mistake not to make them siblings,’ but I don’t know, it seemed as opposed to just duplicating it, would be cool to see if it gives us something else.”
In the wake of Halloween II, franchise sequels Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers centered around plots where Myers relentlessly pursued potential victims with whom he shared blood ties.
First it was niece Jamie Lloyd — daughter of Laurie Strode, who was killed off-screen in a car accident before Halloween 4 — and then Jamie’s baby who were terrorized by Michael Myers.
In Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and Halloween: Resurrection, Michael again went after Laurie and her only son, John, in a timeline canon that acknowledged only Halloween and Halloween II.
Rob Zombies’ decade-later unconnected reboot series, Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009), doubled down on family ties and Michael again found himself obsessed with little sister Laurie (played in that iteration by Scout Taylor-Compton).
With the newest incarnation of Halloween, Michael is reverted to a senseless killer without any blood relation to Laurie Strode, who is depicted now as an obsessive and damaged recluse who has spent four decades traumatized and ready for an opportunity to kill the boogeyman should he ever escape and make his inevitable return to Haddonfield.
Halloween opens October 19.
