HALLOWEENTOWN, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Every day this month, resident horror movie enthusiast and 828newsNOW staff reporter Pruett Norris is recommending a Halloween film for your macabre amusement.
Whether they be monster movies or fearsome family films, demonic possessions or slasher sensations, this exercise hopes to encourage spooky seasonal “scream”ings at home or in cinemas.
As the old saying goes, “trick or treat, trick or treat, give me something good to…watch.”
Day 20: HALLOWEEN (2018, 106 min., directed by David Gordon Green)
With only 11 days left to go this Halloween season, it is high time we grapple with a prevalent theme in modern horror cinema: the legacy sequel.
Legacy sequels, or “lega-sequels,” are movies that take place decades after their original, typically ignoring the films that came before it in favor of creating a new through-line from the original to itself.
A strange flourish of lega-sequels is that they often take the title of their original, even though they themselves are advertised and serve as sequel to those films.
Recent examples of this copycat naming include 2022’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Scream,” 2021’s “Candyman” and 2018’s “The Predator” and “Halloween.”
The latter film is a textbook example of a lega-sequel, but also the rare instance where the sequel is done well. David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” is an innovative send up of John Carpenter’s original slasher.
In “Halloween” 2018, a 60-year-old Laurie Strode is reunited with villain Michael Myers, but with a twist: this time, Strode has been preparing for Michael’s return for 40 years.
Jamie Lee Curtis gamely reprises her 1978 role as Strode, and the film weaves together loving easter eggs to the “Halloween” franchise with legitimately scary thrills. Michael Myers had never been more intimidating.
With a return to the original, the long-running franchise had, ironically, a new life.
Green immediately squandered this potential with his 2021 and 2022 follow-ups “Halloween Kills” and “Halloween Ends.”
But if you think about it, that’s keeping with horror sequel legacy, too.
“Halloween” is available to stream with a Netflix and Peacock subscription.
Looking for more October movie recommendations? Read the rest of the 828boosNOW archive:
DAY 1: BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
DAY 3: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS
DAY 5: SCOOBY-DOO! AND THE WITCH’S GHOST
DAY 7: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
DAY 8: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
DAY 14: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE