While reboots and remakes have been pretty standard for the movie industry over the past decade or more, there are also the rare franchises that just keep moving forward, finding new life without starting from scratch. That’s especially the case with the horror genre, where beloved movies like Halloween and The Craft are being kept alive to tell stories to a new generation of viewers, without throwing out the original films in their respective series.
In 2018, Halloween hit theaters as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 original film of the same name–and there’s two more on the way. What’s more, The Craft: Legacy picks up nearly 25 years after the 1996 original Craft film, following a new group of young witches as they tap into their dark sides. Either of these movies would have been easy to imagine as a reboot, and in Halloween’s case, that’s already happened once before–lest we forget that franchise’s ridiculous complicated timelines and the two Rob Zombie movies many of us would rather forget.
But for the founder of Blumhouse Productions, the company behind new installments of those franchises, that was never an option.
Speaking to GameSpot about Amazon Prime Video’s Welcome to the Blumhouse films, Jason Blum spoke about the importance of honoring the legacy of the iconic horror franchises his company oversees. “I think it’s crucial. I think otherwise, what’s the point? I hate the idea of, ‘Yeah, that old one worked. Let’s call the new one that,'” he explained. “I think you have to respect what existed before you if you’re going to continue it. I think we did that with The Craft[: Legacy].”
That’s especially the case with Halloween. The next film, Halloween Kills, will arrive in theaters next year, once more with original series creator John Carpenter involved as a producer.
“John Carpenter created the whole f***ing thing. I think to erase him from that as you went forward on Halloween, I don’t know, I thought that was a weird thing to do,” Blum said. “I always said, if we were going to do it, we had to do it with him. And I’m glad I said that. I’m glad we did.”
Fans of Halloween are glad he did, as well. The 2018 Halloween was a critical and commercial success, and managed to bring Jamie Lee Curtis back to the franchise. Now we just have to wait a year to see what happens next in the series. Based on the new trailer for Halloween Kills, it’s going to be a bloody and disturbing journey when the sequel hits theaters on October 15, 2021.