Development After directing the 2007
Halloween reboot,
Rob Zombie was hesitant to return for
Halloween II and announced that he would not return to direct another sequel while promoting it in an interview on
MTV. Nevertheless, two days after its release,
The Weinstein Company announced that a sequel entitled
Halloween 3D would be released in the summer of 2010.
Patrick Lussier and
Todd Farmer were hired as the film's director and writer and the studio planned for filming to begin in
Shreveport, Louisiana, in November 2009. The film was to pick up where the final frame of its
2009 predecessor left off and would pay homage to the original version of
Michael Myers from
the 1978 film. It would have involved
Laurie Strode being committed to a
psychiatric hospital after murdering Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett and Michael tracking her down there one year later.
Tyler Mane would have reprised his role as Michael Myers from the first two films and
Tom Atkins would have been cast as a psychiatrist, but
Scout Taylor-Compton did not plan on returning as Laurie Strode. In 2012,
Siren screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski
pitched their take on a reboot of the series, simply entitled
Halloween. By 2013,
Josh Stolberg was tasked with revising a 2004 draft for
Halloween: Asylum, previously written by
Mirrors 2 scribe Matt Veene. According to Stolberg, the script was a direct continuation of
Halloween: Resurrection, and featured Myers breaking free from
death row. In May 2014, development on
Halloween 3D was revived for one final time with Taylor-Compton agreeing to appear in the film. As a result of the profitability of the
Paranormal Activity franchise in the 2010s, Weinstein insisted on making
Halloween 3D a
found footage film, and Farmer pitched a
mockumentary about a series of murders by a deranged fan taking place during the making of an
in-universe film based on Lussier and Farmer's original script. In February 2015,
Patrick Melton and
Marcus Dunstan were reported as writing a new
Halloween film, described as a "recalibration" rather than a
reboot, which Malek Akkad and Matt Stein were producing. On June 15, 2015, The Weinstein Company was reported to be moving ahead with another
Halloween sequel, tentatively titled
Halloween Returns, with Dunstan directing. It would have been a standalone film set to reintroduce audiences to Michael Myers years after his initial rampage from
Halloween and 1981's
Halloween II, as he was confronted by a new generation of victims while on death row. The film would have been set in 1988 and involved Michael Myers escaping his execution from a power surge and going on a rampage in the town of
Russellville, Illinois. On October 22, 2015, producer Malek Akkad revealed that the production of
Halloween Returns had been postponed, citing "issues with studios and different variables", and stating that the extra time would result in a better film. Akkad later revealed that he had postponed production because the studio insisted on shooting the film in
Serbia, which he believed would be a poor fit for Haddonfield. In December 2015, it was announced that
Dimension Films no longer had the filming rights to
Halloween, after
Halloween Returns failed to go into production on schedule. The film's cancellation was confirmed at the same time. The rights then reverted to
Miramax. On May 24, 2016,
Blumhouse Productions and Miramax were announced to be co-financing a new film, with
Universal Pictures distributing through the studio's output deal with Blumhouse. Blumhouse CEO
Jason Blum called the original
Halloween a milestone that had influenced the company to begin making
horror films, "The great Malek Akkad and
John Carpenter have a special place in the hearts of all genre fans and we are so excited that Miramax brought us together". The rights specifically went to Miramax and Tarik Akkad, who sought out Blum because of his success as a horror film producer. That same month,
Mike Flanagan was being courted to direct the film with a set release date for 2017. Flanagan would ultimately pass on the offer and likened his pitch to his own film
Hush.
Writing and pre-production When John Carpenter, who had co-written the first two
Halloween films with
Debra Hill and directed the original, signed on as an executive producer in 2016, he described his intention: "Thirty-eight years after the original
Halloween, I'm going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all." He discussed his reasoning for revisiting the series for the first time since producing 1982's
Halloween III: Season of the Witch in an interview with
Rotten Tomatoes, "I talked about the
Halloweens for a long time, the sequels — I haven't even seen all of them [...] But finally it occurred to me: Well if I'm just flapping my gums here, why don't I try to make it as good as I can? So, you know, stop throwing rocks from the sidelines and get in there and try to do something positive." When the rights were acquired by Blumhouse, filmmaker
Adam Wingard discussed making a new
Halloween film, but ultimately dropped out after being sated by an email of encouragement from Carpenter, "I kinda walked away from it like, I just got everything I wanted out of this job. 'This is about as good as it gets.'" On February 9, 2017, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride were announced as handling screenwriting duties, with Green directing and Carpenter advising the project. Carpenter said that he was impressed with the pitch presented by the co-writers, solicited by Jason Blum, proclaiming that "They get it." Green and McBride brought along their
UNCSA colleague Jeff Fradley to co-write the script alongside them. Rather than
reboot the series again, they initially chose to focus primarily on continuing the mythology of the first two films when developing the story, with Danny McBride stating, "We all came to the decision that remaking something that already works isn't a good idea. So we just have a reimagining instead." The pitch was created by the writers specifically to present to Carpenter, as they were self-described fans of the original
Halloween. The story was eventually fleshed out so that all of the sequels were ignored from the new film's
continuity, and the ending of the first film was
retconned in what McBride likened to an
alternate reality. However, he later said that the film still pays tribute to the other follow-ups, despite sharing no continuity, "you know like there's so many different versions, and the timeline is so mixed up, we just thought it would be easier to go back to the source and continue from there. It was nicer than knowing you're working on
Halloween 11, it just seemed cooler, 'we're making
Halloween 2. For fans, we pay homage and respect to every
Halloween that has been out there." Despite Green and McBride's comedy roots,
Halloween was distanced from the comedy genre. McBride further elaborated that "I think there was, like, maybe one joke on the page, but the rest is straight horror." Displeased with
Rob Zombie's
re-imagining and added backstory of murderer Michael Myers, Carpenter wanted to take the character back to his more mysterious roots, describing him as "a force of nature. He's supposed to be almost supernatural." McBride detailed his approach as humanizing the character, "I think we're just trying to 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 turning Michael Myers into some being that couldn't be killed. I want to be scared by something that I really think could happen. I think it's much more horrifying to be scared by someone standing in the shadows while you're taking the trash out." Early on, the script for the film had Laurie's daughter
Jamie Lloyd from the original continuity's
Halloween 4 and
Halloween 5 appear alongside Laurie for the first time. However, subsequent rewrites changed her to 'Karen'. Even before those early plans were publicly known,
Danielle Harris, who played Jamie, objected, feeling strongly about Laurie having a daughter that was not Jamie, but her appeals to the production company were dismissed. Another early draft included a reimagining of the original film's ending where Laurie shoots The Shape off the balcony after he murders Loomis. However, Green would ultimately back down from the decision. Altogether, the writing team wrote eighty drafts of the script over the span of eight months, with rewrites taking place up until the last week of filming.
Casting reprises her role as Laurie Strode. In September 2017, Jamie Lee Curtis confirmed that she would reprise her role as Laurie Strode. In contrast to the character's
final girl role in the original film, Laurie armed herself and prepared extensively in the time period between films in case Michael Myers returned. Although
Halloween II and its later installments have portrayed Myers as a
familicidal killer and Laurie as his sister, the writers felt that the added motive made him less frightening as a killer. As such, they intentionally ignored that aspect of the lore. In the film, Laurie's granddaughter Allyson explains how her life has been impacted by Michael's homicidal rampage 40 years earlier. When a friend hints that he had heard Michael was Laurie's brother, Allyson replies, "No, it was not her brother. That was something people made up." The writers did not originally know if Curtis would be willing to return, according to McBride, so they "busted [their] ass on this script to really make that Laurie Strode character something she wouldn't be able to say no to." Curtis had previously returned as Laurie in the sequels
Halloween II (1981),
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and
Halloween: Resurrection (2002). The following October,
Judy Greer entered negotiations to play Laurie's daughter, Karen Nelson. On December 7, 2017,
Andi Matichak was cast to play Laurie's granddaughter Allyson. Danielle Harris, who played Jamie Lloyd in the original continuity's
Halloween 4 and
Halloween 5, contacted Blumhouse with the offer to reprise her role in some way, but the studio went with a different daughter character. Harris and certain horror publications expressed their disappointment: "I was okay with it when she had a son [...] but they're saying it's the last one and [...] she has a daughter. And it's not Jamie. It's just kind of a bummer, I guess." reprises his role as Michael Myers for the first time in forty years. On December 20, 2017, it was announced that
Nick Castle, who had portrayed Michael Myers in the original film, would reprise his role, with actor and stuntman
James Jude Courtney set to portray Myers as well. Courtney was suggested to Malek Akkad and David Gordon Green by stunt coordinator Rawn Hutchinson for his ability to do both physical stunts and genuine acting, auditioning afterwards and receiving a phone call in December 2017 affirming that he had landed the role. Green explained to him his vision for Myers's mannerisms, an amalgamation of Castle's original performance and the addition of an efficient
cat-like style of movement. Courtney tailored his portrayal to those specifications from observing an actual cat, "I think cats are the most perfect hunting machines on the planet. And the beauty of it is we don't judge a cat for what a cat does. So I sort of carried that movement and the non-judgmental approach to the way I moved as The Shape, which I learned from my cat Parcival." He referred to collaborating with Castle as an "honor", while Castle described it as a "passing of the torch". Courtney used John Carpenter and Castle's work on the original film to determine how the 40 years that transpired between the events of the films would inform the character over time. The December 2017 announcement of Castle's participation was widely reported as his retaking the role of Myers he originated, with Courtney only doing additional work as the character. On January 13, 2018,
Virginia Gardner,
Miles Robbins,
Dylan Arnold and Drew Scheid were confirmed to play Allyson's friends. On January 16, 2018,
Will Patton was publicized to have joined the film's roster. He was later joined by
Rob Niter, both actors being announced to portray
police officers, as well as British actress Rhian Rees, who was cast as a character named Dana. Speaking of the cast, Castle stated that "What I like about this (new film) is they've got some really good young actors. They fleshed out the relationship of Jamie's character with her daughter and her granddaughter. And they made some choices that I think are really bold choices about who these people are and why they are the way they are now." On July 27, 2018, it was announced that a sound-alike actor would provide a voice-over for
Dr. Sam Loomis, who was originally portrayed by
Donald Pleasence in the original film,
Halloween II,
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988),
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989),
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), before his death in 1995. In the film, the voice of Dr. Loomis is heard giving advice that Michael be executed, claiming that Michael needed to be killed because there was no point in keeping evil alive. Loomis is featured in a vocal cameo when Aaron and Dana listen to a recording of Loomis, made three months after the events of the original film. Loomis is voiced by sound-alike
stand-up comedian Colin Mahan, who was used to do Donald Pleasence
impressions. Mahan was hired after one of the film's executive producers heard him by chance and suggested him for the part. At Carpenter's suggestion, Green, McBride and Fradley initially wrote some drafts where Loomis was more involved in the story, appearing onscreen at the beginning of the film, with the trio devising to cast their
art director Sean White as Loomis due to his
look-alike resemblance to Pleasence, but the idea went unused for it. The sequel,
Halloween Kills (2021), ended up incorporating this concept, but with Tom Jones Jr. instead for that film's 1978 flashbacks. Additionally,
P. J. Soles, who had portrayed Lynda van der Klok, Michael's final victim in the original film, had cameo appearance as a teacher.
Filming Principal production was originally set to start in late October 2017. It got delayed until January 13, 2018, and began in
Charleston, South Carolina. Michael Simmonds served cinematography duties, with Paul Daley and Stewart Cantrell operating the camera. the make-up and
visual effects were provided by
Christopher Nelson. with the remaining principal photography concluding on February 19, 2018. Response to the film's first
test screening led the filmmakers to schedule reshoots beginning June 11, 2018. Filming once again took place in Charleston. Courtney had a week of rehearsal before filming began. Nelson used a
life cast of his face to construct the Michael Myers mask and other prosthetics worn by the actor.
Music After previously providing the score for the original
Halloween,
Halloween II, and
Halloween III: Season of the Witch, John Carpenter confirmed in October 2017 that he had made a deal to score the 2018 release. Regarding his take on the sequel, he said, "I'll be consulting with the director to see what he feels. I could create a new score, we could update the old score and amplify it, or we could combine those two things. I'll have to see the movie to see what it requires." The album was released on October 19, 2018. ==Release==