Halloween director discusses the new sequel’s title

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Some fans find the fact that Blumhouse Productions' upcoming HALLOWEEN sequel is simply titled HALLOWEEN to be somewhat confusing, but according to director David Gordon Green they decided to call it that because it was considered to be the least confusing and most accessible option.

Since this film is ignoring the events of every HALLOWEEN film other than John Carpenter's 1978 original, they couldn't just put a number on it (counting all previous sequels, the Rob Zombie remake, and Zombie's sequel, the new HALLOWEEN is the 11th film in the franchise), leading to what Green calls "a weird discussion" about the title.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he said, 

You know, do we call it THE SHAPE? Do we call it HALLOWEEN RETURNS? What do you call it? Technically, it’s the third HALLOWEEN II. It kind of got to the point where we were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to not invite anybody. We don’t want someone who is unfamiliar with the previous films to think, well, I need to catch up.’ So then we just thought, for simplicity, let’s just call it HALLOWEEN.”

Titles in a franchise can be tricky to keep track of these days. In a world where the Rambo series has the titles FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, RAMBO III, and RAMBO, and where a sequel to THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS can differentiate itself from the first film just by dropping the THEs, I'm fine with a HALLOWEEN sequel being called HALLOWEEN. It doesn't matter that much, and I guess in conversations we'll be referring to it as "Blumhouse's HALLOWEEN" or "HALLOWEEN 2018".

Jamie Lee Curtis stars in the new film, reprising the role of 

Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

Her co-stars include Judy Greer as Laurie's daughter Karen; Andi Matichak as Laurie's granddaughter Allyson; Miles Robbins, Virginia Gardner, Dylan Arnold, and Drew Scheid as Allyson's Haddonfield High classmates; Will Patton and Rob Niter as police officers; Rhian Rees as a character named Dana; Toby Huss as Ray; and Diva Tyler as a caretaker. Original Michael Myers performer Nick Castle and stuntman James Jude Courtney both wore the mask of the boogeyman this time around.

Executive produced by Carpenter, who also composed the score with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, HALLOWEEN is scheduled to reach theatres on October 19th.

You can read Chris Bumbray's review of the film at THIS LINK.