Michael Myers will be going back to basics in the upcoming Halloween reboot. By growing and changing along with its audiences, the slasher genre is perhaps one of the more deceptively simple genres in horror. And while films like those that make up the Scream franchise or even 2011’s The Cabin in the Woods have grown in popularity through their efforts to poke fun at the genre’s silly “rules”, it’s easy for many to overlook a time when slasher horror was straightforward and as simple as a lunatic with a knife, hunting his prey.
It was this sort of simplicity that afforded John Carpenter’s Halloween films a dignity and respect from horror fans that still exists to this day. The films gave audiences Michael Myers – a merciless killer whose somber white mask reflected the character’s stripped down tendency to kill without magic or mysterious otherworldly abilities. But after 10 Halloween movies, Michael Myers has gone through numerous changes and now with a new Halloween film on its way, some of that original terror is being sought out by Danny McBride and David Gordon Green as they write the script for the upcoming reboot.
In an interview with Danny McBride on the Empire Film Podcast, the Alien: Covenant star explained how this new version of Halloween will get back to what is actually scary about Michael Myers and forgo any attempts at making the notorious killer either supernatural or invincible:
The idea, it seems is to strip away anything and everything that has risked making the story of Michael Myers “corny” over the years and instead highlight the sort of killer who lurks in the shadows.
“Look at where the Halloween franchise has gone. There’s a lot of room for improvement. David and I are coming from it as, we are horror fans, and we are humongous fans of John Carpenter and of what he did with the original Halloween, so I think from watching this and being disappointed by other versions of this series, I think we’re just trying to strip it down and just take it back to what was so good about the original. It was just very simple and just achieved that level of horror that wasn’t corny and it wasn’t turning Michael Myers into some supernatural being that couldn’t be killed. That stuff to me isn’t scary. I want to be scared by something that I really think could happen.”
This news will undoubtedly come as a relief for those fans of Halloween who have longed for a return to what the franchise was, back when John Carpenter had a more central role, through directing and/or writing. There has been plenty of concern since this new film was announced, a reaction that is typical whenever classics are taken on yet again. But David Gordon Green has consistently proven himself a formidable director and any collaboration with Danny McBride is bound to yield some interesting results (though it’s probably best to forget about previous Green/McBride collaboration Your Highness).
Both Green and McBride are proud horror fans who, judging by this latest statement, appreciate the subtleties of horror. It’s exactly the quiet and subdued moments like someone standing in the shadows while you take out the trash that can really provide chilling, compelling horror. Shrouded in this sort of style, the duo’s efforts to revitalize the slasher for a new generation might just make all the difference in the world.
Next: Why A Halloween Sequel is Better Than a Reboot
Source: Empire Film Podcast
