Halloween (2018 film)

Halloween
A woman with a worried face looks ahead, with the face of Michael Myers closely near her.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Gordon Green
Written by
Based on
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMichael Simmonds
Edited byTim Alverson
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
  • September 8, 2018 (2018-09-08) (TIFF)
  • October 19, 2018 (2018-10-19) (United States)
Running time
106 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million[2]
Box office$259.9 million[3][4]

Halloween is a 2018 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green, and co-written by Green, Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride. It is the eleventh installment in the Halloween film series and a sequel to the 1978 film of the same name, while disregarding all previous sequels.[5] The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis who reprises her role as Laurie Strode. James Jude Courtney portrays Michael Myers, with Nick Castle returning to the role for a cameo. Halloween also stars Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Haluk Bilginer, and Virginia Gardner. Its plot follows a post-traumatic Laurie Strode who prepares to face an escaped Michael Myers in a final showdown on Halloween night, forty years after she survived his killing spree.

After the release of Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the 2009 sequel to the 2007 remake of the original, two consecutive follow-ups went into development from former rights holder Dimension Films, respectively, but neither came to fruition. As a result, the studio lost the rights to the intellectual property, which were later obtained by Blumhouse Productions with John Carpenter's involvement. Carpenter, who disagreed with the remake's portrayal of lead killer Michael Myers, planned on helping the studio to make the next Halloween film into what he believed to be more terrifying than the preceding sequels. Filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, who were already fans, proposed their vision to Blumhouse and Carpenter. It was accepted and developed into a sequel to the original.

Halloween was filmed from January to February 2018 in Charleston, South Carolina, before reshoots took place that June. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018. It was theatrically released in North America on October 19, 2018, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics with praise for Curtis' performance, Green's direction, scares, and tone, with many deeming it both the best Halloween film since the original and a return-to-form for the series. It was a box office success grossing over $259 million worldwide; it is the highest-grossing slasher film in unadjusted dollars, breaking a record that Scream had previously set in 1996 as well as setting several other box-office records. The film was followed by two sequels: Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022).

  1. ^ "Halloween". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference BOProjections was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Halloween". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  4. ^ "Halloween (2018) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  5. ^ Bierly, Mandi (November 13, 2017). "Danny McBride on 'Halloween': 'I just hope that we don't f*** it up and piss people off'". Yahoo Sports. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017. Retrieved November 14, 2017.