Halloween (2018) will be very similar in tone to the original film, according to returning Michael Myers performer Nick Castle. The original Halloween was a landmark movie in the horror genre, and gave birth to the slasher movie boon that lead to Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm St. The movie’s success naturally lead to sequels, but despite the relatively simple premise of the first movie, the continuity of the follow-ups became increasingly messy.
The Halloween franchise has rebooted itself several times over the course of ten movies, and various sequels introduced outlandish plot twists like Michael being cursed by an ancient cult. None of the sequels was able to recapture the atmosphere of the original, but director David Gordon Green’s latest sequel is hoping to do just that. It will ignore every other film apart from the original, with Jamie Lee Curtis and franchise creator John Carpenter also returning to help make it a true follow-up.
Related: Jamie Lee Curtis Calls New Halloween ‘Astonishingly Scary’
Also returning is Nick Castle, who played Michael in the original Halloween. Castle’s eerie performance is part of what made the character so terrifying, but later sequels tended to cast lumbering stuntmen in the part. Castle recently spoke with Halloween Daily News about the forthcoming reboot, revealing he never expected to reprise the role – much less 40 years later:
Well absolutely not. No. I didn’t even know this was a movie until probably five months ago or something like that, so not really. I’m not doing any movies in general, but since I do this kind of work (conventions), it was interesting to keep abreast of what the franchise is up to.
He also revealed the new film will tap into the creeping sense of dread found in the original:
Yes. And it’s very neighborhood-centric, you know, like the first one. It feels a lot like [the first film]. There are a lot of things coinciding [in the new film] that feel like clever ways to introduce a kind of déjà vu of the first one, without feeling like it’s being copied. The script had some very clever people working on it.
When you say that question, what comes to mind is the opposite of that. This was a remark that Jamie had and I had at the same time almost, we were going, ‘God, this feels so much like the first movie. It’s like everyone is in a family here’. [They are] young people – they’re not quite as young as we were when we did that, but pretty close – and they all worked together from film school, they have connections [with each other] and it feels like they have a very cohesive group.
The new Halloween is one of the most anticipated horror films of the year, and will hopefully give fans a worthy sequel after years of disappointment. If the film is a success, it could also lead to the resurrection of other horror icons like Freddy Krueger, Jason, and Pinhead, whose respective franchises have all been trapped in some form of limbo for years. The genre has been mainly dominated by ghost stories and the supernatural in recent years, but IT proved there’s still an audience for a horror movie with an iconic monster at its core.
Blumhouse is also producing this new Halloween, and have gone all out to make sure fans are happy. The project will likely be a one-off for the crew involved too, leading to speculation the film could take the bold step of finally killing Michael Myers off once and for all.
More: Halloween (2018) Could Kick Michael Myers For Good
Key Release Dates
Halloween (2007)
Release Date:2018-10-19
