This year marks the 40 year anniversary of one of the classic horror movies, ‘Halloween’, which was one of the earliest in the “slasher” genre.  To honor that, a new ‘Halloween’ movie is being released and although it is the eleventh movie in the decades-long franchise, this will essentially be a clean new start.  But while this film is expected to relaunch a brand new franchise, it isn’t negating its mythology as Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle are both returning.  In case you didn’t know, Castle was the original Michael Myers, while Curtis played his one surviving victim, Laurie Strode in the first two movies.  Castle shared the role of Michael Myers with James Jude Courtney.

The new movie was directed by David Gordon Green, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Danny McBride, with whom Green collaborated on the TV series ‘Eastbound and Down’ and ‘Vice Principals’.  Green chose not to simply stack on the first ten movies but rather chose to tie into the first movie and go from there.  (Basically, they’re ignoring the sequels and the Rob Zombie-led reboots.)  This is similar to the approach taken to the new ‘Terminator’ movie which is picking up directly after 1991’s ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ and pretending the movies that came after in that franchise never happened.  As McBride said, “We all came to the decision that remaking something that already works isn’t a good idea. So we just have a reimagining instead.”

In the new movie, Judy Greer plays Karen Strode, the daughter of Curtis’ Laurie Strode, while Andi Matichak plays Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson.  In the original movie series, Laurie had two children, Jamie Lloyd played by Danielle Harris and John, portrayed by Josh Hartnett.  But because this is, in a sense, a reboot, it appears those offspring have been deleted from the new canon.

The cast of the new ‘Halloween’ also includes Dylan Arnold, Omar J. Dorsey, Virginia Gardner, Rob Niter, Will Patton, Rhian Rees, and Miles Robbins, Drew Scheid.

Just in time for the Halloween holiday, the new film opens on October 19, 2018.