What Another HALLOWEEN Reboot Needs To Succeed

HALLOWEEN, 1978

I think it's safe to say that another reboot of the immortal classic "Halloween" is inevitable. Now in 2007 and 2009, Rob Zombie's vision ("Halloween", "Halloween II") of the classic served its purpose. Love them or hate them, his films do exist and are now apart of the historic franchise. But with this new trend of horror reboots like "Texas Chainsaw 3D", "Evil Dead", "Scream 4" and even the forthcoming "Poltergeist" re-do, studios are finally realizing that a series can be rebooted without going down the remake road; a reboot can exist that acknowledges the events of the original film(s).

I've thought about this a little bit, and I guess you can say Steve Miner attempted this sort of reboot back in 1998 with "Halloween: H20", a sequel that was meant to be a direct sequel to the 1978 original, although it ultimately had to be a sequel to "Halloween II" due to the brother-sister relationship and not mention that the sequel takes place on the same night as the original. And although "H20" can be written off as a financial success, it was more or less a critical failure.

Shortly after Zombie's "Halloween II" was released, Dimension Films was quick to green light a third entry, this time to be directed and written by the gloriously-wonderful "My Bloody Valentine 3D" team of Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer (Lussier originally found fame editing the "Scream" trilogy, Farmer wrote "Jason X"); but ultimately, plans fell through the project never came to fruition. Fast forward a couple years and we're still no closer to a new "Halloween" film than we were then.

You smell that? That's the sweet smell of a reboot being conceived...hopefully, anyway.

But the real concern is: what do we want in a new "Halloween" reboot?

HALLOWEEN, 2007

The main thing we need: the boogeyman...Michael Myers. Yeah, he has to be in it, but not too much; take this thing back to its roots and put Myers back in the shadows until the third act like the shark in "Jaws". Something we don't nessesarily need: an origin story. Maybe a little backstory, but not too much, keep it short and sweet. This thing really needs to hit the ground running.

Obviously the story needs to be solid as well as a strong cast to bring it to life. We don't really need a Laurie Strode, per se, but some innocent youth who is willing to fight back when the time comes. This new story will needs its Ahab, but again, it doesn't have to be a Sam Loomis...just some protagonist who willing and able to stand up for everything good, at any cost.

The last thing this 3.0 version needs: a cliffhanger ending. John Carpenter's 1.0 original had an excellent cliffhanger, yet you sensed it coming at the same time, and it was purely excellent. In Zombie's 2.0 remake, the cliffhanger ending wasn't there, absent. So naturally, in this 3.0 version, we need a cliffhanger ending that we do NOT see coming.

So that's it. That's what I believe this new, inevitable, "Halloween" reboot needs to succeed, both critically and financially.

Article originally published by Nick Meece on the Indianapolis Movie Examiner.