Following the success of Halloween 2018, which retconned prior sequels, it’s about time for other horror franchises to take the same approach. More than most genres, horror tends to live and die on the back of its ongoing franchises. Even before it became as in fashion as it is today to make constant remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, and spinoffs, horror was full of long-running properties that fans tended to eat up for years on end.
The Halloween franchise was definitely one such property, dominating the 1980s alongside slasher contemporaries A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. While the original Halloween released in 1978, four sequels would be released in the 1980s, along with five Nightmare movies, and a whopping eight Friday the 13ths. The 1980s were arguably horror’s last great golden age of mass popularity, and franchises like these were big reasons why. That said, all three franchises did eventually lose steam, and see diminishing returns.
The vast majority of film franchises tend to get worse as they go on, and this can often be doubly true for horror, which tends to rely on duplicating a strict formula each time out. Plus, as more and more entries emerge, the continuity tends to get harder and harder to follow, as more convoluted layers are added. That’s one thing that made Halloween 2018’s fresh start approach so interesting, and it’s one other big horror series could put to use.
Other Horror Franchises Should Copy Halloween 2018’s Approach
Outside of the decently well-received Halloween H20 in 1998, it’s been a pretty bad last few decades for Halloween. 1995’s The Curse of Michael Myers is the butt of constant jokes, Halloween: Resurrection was just abysmal, and Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies proved extremely divisive. Halloween had been on ice since 2009, but Blumhouse’s approach to rebooting but not entirely restarting the franchise worked like a charm in 2018. By being a sequel only to the first film, they were able to bring back Michael Myers’ deceased nemesis Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), and undo every cringe-worthy plot twist injected into the Halloween mythology since. No more “Laurie Myers,” no more Cult of Thorn, no more Busta Rhymes spinkicking Michael, and no more of Rob Zombie’s hobo-esque Myers.
Going back to what made John Carpenter’s Halloween successful worked like a charm, with new sequels Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends on the way. So, this begs the question: why can’t other franchises pull off this same creative revival? It’s time for a new Nightmare on Elm Street that brings back Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and Robert Englund as Freddy. It’s time for a new Friday the 13th that gives the Tommy Jarvis vs. Jason storyline its proper conclusion. Or a new Hellraiser with Doug Bradley back as Pinhead, and Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) returning as his foil. While we’re at it, why not make that Aliens sequel Neill Blomkamp developed, instead of another misguided prequel? Assuming the needed actors are up for it, there’s no end to the amount of horror franchises that could be revitalized by going back to before things got so bogged down creatively.
More: Halloween 2018’s Doctor Twist Is The Reboot’s One Big Flaw
