The new trailer for the “Halloween” reboot/sequel has a clever way of giving us the story so far: Treat it like a true crime show. Rather than a routine cheesy flashback to the original film, the trailer delves into the tale of Michael Myers’ first killing spree 40 years ago, which left Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode as horror’s first major Final Girl.
Remember: This new Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by Danny McBride, isn’t a standard reboot. It isn’t even a standard sequel, but a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 original. That means it ignores all the events of the seven sequels, which ran from 1981’s Halloween II through 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection. (Rob Zombie’s intense reboot/remakes, from 2007 and 2009, are excellent, by the way.)
Of course, since it’s a sequel it shouldn’t be called simply Halloween, should it? That means the first film and its 40-years-later sequel have the same title. Kind of weird, right?
Anyway, that means Laurie isn’t dead. For another, it means she’s not Michael Myers’ sister, as revealed in II. It’s like the multiverse of Rick and Morty: In one dimension, Laurie was killed; in another, she grew into a gray-haired lady still dealing with her trauma.
That also makes the true crime portion of the trailer even more unnerving: In this dimension of the Halloween-verse, Michael Myers is some half-forgotten killer with a grotty William Shatner mask — just one of the untold serial killers people learn about while binge-watching the True Crime channel. Don’t they know he’s a monster on par with Freddy Krueger, who’s also returning to screens next month.
Halloween hits theaters on October 19, while the classic original will be re-released in 1,000 theaters on September 27.
