Halloween producer Jason Blum recently spoke about the baggage that comes with making the 2018 movie, as well as how much money the sequel cost. It’s been 40 years since the original Halloween was released, and though there was a direct sequel - as well as a number of further installments in the franchise - this new movie operates as a different followup to the original film.
Although there are a lot of Halloween movies, this one forgets everything but what happened in the first movie. In that movie, Michael Myers escaped from a mental facility and terrorized teenagers in the small town of Haddonfield. One of those teenagers was Laurie Strode, as played by Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis will return for 2018’s Halloween to reprise the role of Laurie, but Laurie is now an adult and better prepared to end Michael Myers once and for all. John Carpenter also returns to the franchise after three decades away from it as a writer, producer and score composer.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Blum spoke about how it felt a little overwhelming in tackling the Halloween franchise, which has an overall total of 10 films.
Although Laurie has died twice over the course of the franchise’s history, the only movie that matters before the 2018 film is the 1978 Halloween. Everything in between is now officially forgotten in Halloween 2018, leaving the producers and writers a basic concept after the first movie: What would happen 40 years later? Blum called this the “biggest storytelling rule” that his team used when working on the new film.
“Well it came with a lot of baggage. We never worked on a project that there have been this many of [laughs]. Paranormal Activity I think was the most there were only five before. In Halloween there were like nine, depending on how you count. So I think there was a whole lot more emotional baggage and weight to it. So that made it more fraught and more fun.”
Another critical factor in making Halloween 2018 was budget: Blumhouse Productions generally works with conservative budgets. But Blum stated that the company will spend a little more on sequels, although it’s still nothing like the kind of money that goes into other similar big movies.
A trailer for Halloween 2018 released earlier this year, highlighting a Laurie that is more than prepared to take on Michael Myers after he escapes from prison. The trailer sets up the story, explaining details from the 1978 movie, as well as makes sure that fans know this is a direct sequel. The trailer also changes one detail from a previous film about how Laurie and Michael were siblings as it states explicitly this was only a rumor.
“Well our rule is… not to split hairs. But our rule is on originals it’s $5 million or less. But on sequels, we tend to spend $10 or $15 million, which is still low budget by Hollywood standards, but big budget for us. So technically Halloween, Spawn, Five Nights at Freddy’s, the additional Purge movies those are all really kind of sequels. So we spend a little more money there than we do typically. Although it’s still very low. We still take no money up front.”
It is easy for fans of the original movie to forget all the movies that came after it and let go of that baggage mentioned by Blum. Halloween 2018 looks as thrilling as the original. It’s also nice seeing Curtis go from terrified teenager to determined grandmother with a shotgun ready to take down the man responsible for her greatest fears.
More: Halloween Reboot: Trailer, Cast, Every Update You Need To Know
- Halloween Release Date: 2018-10-19
