WMG / Halloween (2018)

Pre-release theories

Jossed

Danielle Harris will appear in the movie

But she won't play Jamie Lloyd.

• Jossed. Danielle Harris said that she was in contract with the producers about a possible role in the film, but they weren't interested.

Halloween fan and film-maker Dave McRae will make a surprise cameo

Why not?

• Jossed — he doesn't appear.

The film will end with another child murdering his family

A new evil arises after the previous embodiment of evil is killed. It will be:

• Allyson Strode
• Vicky
• Jamie Lloyd, having revealed herself not to suffer from retcon and killed Laurie for abandoning her for 40 years.
  • All of the above — jossed. Michael kills Vicky, Allyson survives without killing anybody, and Jamie doesn't appear.

Scout Taylor-Compton will appear in the movie

But as a legacy character. Who will just happen to be called Laurie.

• Scout hasn't said anything about her appearing in the film, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be a surprise cameo!
  • She will also die in the real Laurie's arms, saying that she just wanted to be like her. Awwww!
• Jossed — she doesn't appear.

Karen will die.

• She barely appears in the trailer after the 'what crash?' scene and there's a scene in which Laurie says to Allyson to run as Michael's in the house, and they're alone, Allyson clearly distraught.
• It will most likely be used for dramatic irony, as Laurie has had a rocky relationship with her daughter, and they'll most likely end up making up... only for Karen to die by Michael's hand and ulteriorly motivate Laurie in her pursuit of Michael, leading to her actually taunting him, switching their roles of pursuer and pursued.
• Laurie says that she wished Michael could escape so she could kill him in the trailer, and that would be an expected Be Careful What You Wish For moment.
• Alternatively, Laurie will be the one to die and Karen, who initially appeared to be exhausted with her mother's paranoid and overprotective ways, will take on Laurie's role as the "protector" of Haddonfield, preparing for Michael to return once again so she can kill him and avenge her mother's death.
• Jossed — she survives, though she meets her end in the next film.

The guy who shows Michael his mask is related to Dr. Loomis

• Jossed — they're completely unrelated.

Paul Rudd and Busta Rhymes will cameo in this movie...

But won't play their respective roles from Halloween 6 and Halloween Resurrection. Instead they will be teachers at Allyson's school, Busta teaching Media Studies as a reference to the theme of Resurrection and Rudd teaching molecular science as an Actor Allusion to his role in Ant-Man.

• Okay, sorry, I was thinking too hard into that one. Sorry everyone!
• Jossed — neither appear.

Laurie will once again be the sole survivor of the attack.

• Jossed — all three generations of Strode women survive.

Scout Taylor-Compton will cameo in a flashback to 1978 playing Laurie Strode

Because why not!

• Jossed — she doesn't.

The Michael we have seen so far has been a copy-cat killer

• Jossed — he's the real deal.

Michael will speak at least once

• Jossed, but not for a lack of trying on the podcasters' account.

Laurie and Michael will meet their ends in this movie

John Carpenter has confirmed that this will be the end of Laurie and Michael's arc, so unfortunately, this may be possible.

• Jossed: The movie ends with Laurie (and Allyson, Karen) alive and Michael left to die, albeit never shown dead...

Laurie will suffer another archive-footage nightmare

This film is going to reference the past movies, isn't it?

• Jossed — there is a flashback to Judith's murder, but it's not clear if it's archive footage or a recreation.
  • It's footage from the original; the actress who played Judith is mentioned in the end credits.

There will be some form of cameos by both Sheriff Leigh Brackett and Sheriff Ben Meeker.

Sheriff Brackett will most likely appear in a flashback, probably in the beginning, as Myers' arresting officer seeing how it's been stated that Michael immediately got caught by Haddonfield Police after getting shot by Loomis. After all, his daughter Annie was one of Michael's victims and he'd have personal reasons to.

• As for Ben Meeker, it's possible that he'll cameo either as one of Brackett's deputies in said flashback or it could stated by Sheriff Hawkins how after Brackett retired after '78, Meeker became sheriff during the 80's and 90's. His picture and plaque along with Brackett's could maybe show up in a theorized scene taking place at Haddonfield sheriff's department.
  • Bonus points if one of them is played by David Arquette, not only as an Actor Allusion, but as a way of concluding the Scream-Halloween references that have started since Scream all the way back in 1996.
• Jossed for both — neither appear in the film.

The journalists' role in the film

The role of the journalists are to serve as the catalyst for Michael's escape.

• Jossed — they're not the cause of his escape, as he was already being transferred to a new facility when they got to him.

William Shatner will have a Death by Cameo

Pleeeeaaase! It's long past time for him to appear in a movie starring the killer who wears his face!

• Jossed — he doesn't appear.

The film will be a sequel to H5, but ignore H6.

Right now they're kind of in a bind, as every previous film has featured Sam Loomis or Laurie Strode, keeping the series more tightly bound to its first installment than most other slasher franchises, and the audience seems to have lost their taste for remakes. Donald Pleasance is dead, and Jamie Lee Curtis was furious about H20 not being the end of the franchise, so she probably won't want to return either. That leaves Danielle Harris as their best option for a survivor from the previous movies, bringing Jamie back to face her uncle.

The dynamic will be distinguished from H20 primarily because of the age at which Jamie previously faced Michael. Laurie, as traumatized as she was, faced Michael in her late teens and was at least able to understand him as a human, if a far from normal one. To Jamie, though, who faced him as a child, Michael is the devil, and her encounter with him never let her grow up. On the one hand, Michael will have a much greater intimidation factor on her than he had over his sister. On the other hand, Jamie will be Crazy-Prepared because she always knew he'd return.

• Vetoed by writer-director David Gordon Green. It's going to be a direct sequel to Halloween II, a la H20. My personal theory is that'll it take a similar approach to Halloween IV. A sequel set some decade later with a mostly new cast focusing either on Michael somehow returning from the dead, or a copycat killer (who may be a returning character, say Tommy Doyle). It's the best way to keep the feel of the original without screwing up continuity and pissing off the fanboys.
  • Alternatively, they could adapt Carpenter and Dennis Etchison's unused Halloween IV script.

• Jossed. Halloween (2018) is a direct sequel to the original 1978 film only.

Mike Myers will have a small part as a victim of Michael.

• Jossed. But that would've been funny though.

Confirmed

The film's title will be:

• Just simply...Halloween
  • Confirmed
• Halloween H40: 40 Years Later
• Halloween: Retold
  • This is a fan title thought up by Jamie Lee Curtis herself!
• Halloween: The End
• Halloween: The Final Chapter. Which then will lead to the film not being the “final chapter”.
• Ha11oween
  • Because why not?
• Halloween 11: The Closing of Michael Myers, as a homage to Halloween 4, 5 and 6 having similar titles.
• Halloween Returns
• Haddonfield
  • We’ve had too many Halloweens. >X3
• Michael Lives
  • Alternatively, Laurie Lives.

The Silver Shamrock ad will play in the movie

But it will do jack-all and harm no-one.

• Confirmed, partly — the Silver Shamrock does appear, but not in an ad.

The opening sequence will be:

• A recreation of the original Halloween credits. This is going to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original film after all.
  • Confirmed — it's a plain black background with orange text beside a Jack-O-Lantern, albeit one that's reverse-decomposing.
• A recreation of the Halloween: 20 Years Later credits, with the narration being either some of Laurie's original lines from Halloween (1978) or it will be the opening scene with Michael in the institution.
• Alternatively, it opens up to the immediate aftermath of the original films ending where, after getting shot off the balcony by Loomis, we see Michael attempting to flee like in Halloween II only to get caught and apprehended by Sheriff Leigh Brackett and Haddonfield Police.
  • While this is Jossed, this appears to have been the original plan for the opening, only scrapped at the end due to budget concerns.

Post-release theories

Possible sequel theories

This film will resurrect the slasher genre and leave many reboots of classic horror movies in its wake

And it would be a Heartwarming Call-Back to when the original Halloween resurrected the horror genre all the way back in 1978.

• Bluntly, for all the horror franchises that got stalled or got off on new tangents that want to be back in the game some level of this movie is going to be needed. I know it sucks we lost some chances for sequels when certain people were still alive or in better health. They need someone to call the shots and pick a new direction and run with it. This is horror movie territory if some of those choices are mistakes you can retcon them later but there's a bunch of characters who've been on the sideline that could totally get a spark back into the game.

The sequel will focus on Allyson and Karen Strode

Danny McBride (one of the writers for this movie) has said that he and David Gordon Green were originally going to pitch two Halloween films to be shot back-to-back, before deciding against it and waiting to see this film's reaction. If the film goes well, we could see a sequel, but it wouldn't focus on Laurie, or even Michael for that matter! Instead, Halloween 2 will focus on Allyson and Karen Strode trying to recover from the first film's events.

The sequel will focus on Allyson and be set immediately after the previous one, a la Halloween 2 (1981)

The sequel has already been written and it was meant to be shot back to back with Halloween (2018), so it makes sense that they want to keep as much continuity between movies as they can, which might mean an Immediate Sequel. Allyson has also been confirmed as the new Final Girl, which means she'll be in this one, dealing with what is most likely the loss of everyone she knew, as her friends, her parents and grandmother are likely to be killed in Halloween (2018).

Halloween (2018) will begin a Star Wars-esque sequel series

The originally planned anthology nature of the franchise will be reintroduced

That said, it will still share continuity with this film, with characters returning while new elements are introduced into the universe. Perhaps one of these new elements could be masks that can make peoples heads explode.

Paul Rudd will reprise his role as Tommy Doyle (from The Curse of Michael Myers) in a sequel

Because why not? Even if the 2018 film disregards every film after the original, that doesn't preclude Rudd from playing Tommy again. (Example: Judi Dench reprised her role as M in the James Bond series even after they pulled a continuity reboot during her tenure.) And Rudd has already worked with director David Gordon Green before, too.

• Jossed. Anthony Michael Hall of The Breakfast Club and Dead Zone fame will be taking over the role in the next film.

The next film(s) are going to revisit previous timelines for each film.

This is supposed to be the Grand Finale of Michael and Laurie's story, and what should be noted for this theory is that both previous timelines ended on some cliffhangers before being retconned. I can at the very least see Jamie's timeline being revisted considering how popular Jamie was with the other half of the Broken Base regarding Michael and Laurie being siblings (not to mentions Danielle Harris' interest in returning. Perhaps focusing on a grown up version of baby Steven from Curse as the new protatonist with Michael as his great uncle and Archnemises Dad. It would also be a way to revisit and fix Michael's Villain Decay from that timeline.

In a way this revisits the anthology feel, but not exactly since Michael is still the face of the franchise.

Allyson will follow in Michael's footsteps

The last scene of the Strode girls shows Allyson still holding the knife she stabbed Michael with, despite being out of danger. While the main page notes that it's a Mythology Gag to the first movie when Laurie thought she was safe after stabbing Michael, it could instead be a reference to the end of Halloween 4, where Jamie stabs her mom and appears to take up her uncle's mantle. This hints at the possibility of Allyson snapping and become a deranged killer just like the Shape.

Laurie will suffer from Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome or be Killed Offscreen

It's unlikely that Jamie Lee Curtis would want to return for a second movie after this one was basically the magnum opus for Laurie's character finally killing Michael and it would cheapen her character to have to face Michael again after all she went through. So she'll either be written out in a way where Michael doesn't kill her, like a sudden heart attack from all the stress, or they'll just get a body double that Michael kills from behind.

• Curtis has stated that she'd be willing to come back for another Halloween film, as long as David Gordon Green is the director.

Jamie Lloyd still exists.

She could still be Laurie's daughter, conceived not long after the events of the first movie and then given up for adoption because Laurie was too traumatized to take care of her. Or Laurie isn't related to Laurie at all, but still have something to do with Michael Myers (maybe even be his daughter rather than his niece).

Much like the first Halloween 2, the sequel following this one will pick up right where the last one left off.

It's been stated that McBride and Green both pitched this recent Halloween as a two-part film that would be filmed back to back. Seeing with a large amount of callbacks to the sequels, it would make sense that for the next Halloween film, it picks up right where the last one left off.

What Michael will look like in the sequel.

Keeping in line with this film's realistic angle, Michael will be horrifically burnt and his mask will be fused to his face; his old age and getting immolated will physically affect him as he goes out to get revenge.

If and when Michael is finally Killed Off for Real, he'll be unmasked first

Whoever the Final Girl is might be Genre Savvy enough not to repeat Laurie's mistake from Halloween: Resurrection and, after finding a way to cripple Michael, will pull off his mask to make sure it's really him. We will get a clear, focused view of Michael in all of his mundanely creepy glory...as a tired, pathetic old man who can be brought down like anyone else if you simply treat him like one. If Laurie is present, this will have the added benefit of giving her some peace, as she can rob Michael of his last bit of power over her by seeing him as just a man, and nothing more. She will then blow his brains out. Also, if she makes a last attempt to get him to say something, Michael will simply spit in her face.

A retired Sheriff Brackett will return...as a secondary villain.

Michael murdered his daughter 40 years ago. Something he wouldn't forget, and when the news breaks that he's escaped and killing again, he descends on Haddonfield to get some long awaited revenge. However, forty years of fermenting bitterness has warped the former sheriff's heart, and his pursuit of Michael turns him into He Who Fights Monsters, obsessively stalking Michael's movements across Haddonfield. In his increasingly unhinged mental state, he does increasingly ruthless things to trap Michael such as using civilians as bait or killing people in a position to kill Michael so he can do it himself. This would also make him an Evil Counterpart to Laurie, as they both lost something to Michael, but Laurie at least knew where to draw a line before becoming a monster herself.

• At the beginning of the third act, Brackett will successfully capture and restrain Michael. Echoing characters from the previous movie, he says he isn't interested in making Michael talk, but will gladly try to make him scream. He then promptly strips Michael of his mask...then put it on himself, so it will be the last thing Michael sees before he dies. He then tortures Michael in an effort to make him scream, which naturally doesn't work, but his desire for sadism will give Michael time to discretely undo his restraints and turn the tables on Brackett. Brackett will naturally not survive the encounter, and Michael will still be a viable threat, but Brackett will have crippled Michael so badly that the Final Girl will stand a fighting chance against him.

We'll finally get to meet Ben Tramer

And something bad will still happen to him. Much to Brad Jones' frustration.

One of the Strode women will meet their fate in the next film

Whether it be Allyson, Karen or even Laurie, one of them will die at the hands of Michael Myers.

Dr. Dan Challis from Halloween 3 will return

Tom Atkins has expressed enthusiasm at cameoing in Halloween Kills or Ends. The events of Silver Shamrock could also be referenced as something the corporation covered up after Challis ultimately succeeded in cancelling the final commercial. Having Challis fight Michael would serve to tie Michael to the same evil force behind Conal Cochran.

Michael Myers will have influenced a legion of wannabe-killers.

Dr. Sartain was only a preview of Myers' effect on people. The sequels will pit Haddonfield against not only Michael, but gangs of anarchistic psychopaths decked out in Halloween masks and homemade weapons, who view Michael as a savior-figure and his unstoppable evil as power and freedom. Think the Jokerz meets The Purge.

The sequels will have flashbacks to Michael's childhood

But unlike the Zombie duology, they won't show an abusive homelife or reveal that Myers was evil since he first drew breath. Instead little Mikey will be shown as an awkward, quiet, but normal young boy who slowly begins to hear voices telling him to do evil things. Michael would try to figure out just what is happening to him before he starts to realize Evil Feels Good.

General Ideas

All of the previous Halloween sequels are rumors in-universe

Similar to Allyson's explanation that people just made up the idea that Michael and Laurie were siblings to make the idea of his massacre easier to swallow, it's not hard to believe people made up other urban legends as well. Including conflicting reports of whether or not Laurie had a son or a daughter, explaining her disappearance as a car crash or an attack by Michael years later and talk of some sinister doctor within the Smith's Grove Asylum being part of a dastardly cult manipulating Michael to do evil. Not that the last theory is totally without merit...

• the Rob Zombie version is an in-universe, heavily fictionalized “based on a true story” film adaptation of the Haddonfield Massacre. It was heavily controversial (and possibly subject to a lawsuit or two from the Brackett or Strode families) for trying to humanize Michael and for spreading several misconceptions about the killings (Michael and Laurie were siblings, Michael was raised in an abusive household, jacking up the bodycount, etc.)

Karen's father was never in her life and wasn't listed on her birth certificate

There is no mention of him, only that she went into foster care. Usually the system would give the child to the other parent, unless he was also deemed unfit, but there was no mention of that. It's as if he never existed. Karen would have been born less than a few years after the events of the first movie, so maybe at a real low point due to the relative freshness of her trauma, Laurie had a fling that resulted in her daughter. The man in question might not even know that he's her father, or he stayed away to keep from being caught up in Laurie's madness.

Michael actually is a supernatural entity.

Aside from his usual unfeeling ruthlessness and sheer refusal to give up the hunt, Michael's iron body structure seems to have been exaggerated here. Besides all the injuries he took in the original film, this "normal" sixty-something man gets rammed with a car, has his fingers shot off, shot point blank with a rifle, stabbed in the shoulder, and finally is trapped in a burning house. And yet, he doesn't so much as yell in pain, and we're supposed to assume he's still alive at the end. My guess is he's the mortal incarnation of something that exists to cause bloodshed on All Hallows Eve every few years. Hence why he doesn't feel any pain, the man in the mask isn't his true form.

Some of the previous sequels still happened in a Broad Strokes fashion

Laurie having two ex-husbands could be a way for Jamie Lloyd and/or John Tate to still exist as Karen's siblings or half-siblings (one of them could even be an illegitimate child), and while Michael had been locked up since the original, he could have influenced some copycat killers the other characters previously had to deal with.

Michael has a Multiple-Choice Past as a Mythology Gag to the previous films.

His full origins are brushed off as being unknown, so nobody is sure what his relationship with Loomis was really like, whether he and Laurie are actually related, or if there is such a thing as the Curse of Thorn. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. The only thing certain about him is that he's a monster.

Karen's husband used to be part of Lonnie's gang in 1978

Ray (Karen's husband and Laurie's son-in-law) mentions that he and his daughter's boyfriend's dad Lonnie (who was the leader of that group of boys who tormented Tommy Doyle in the first film) used to do drugs in high school. Maybe they were close friends from childhood, and Ray might even have been among those boys who tormented Tommy and knocked him down on his pumpkin. That'd also give extra explanation on why Laurie isn't too fond of Ray, as he used to bully one of the kids she babysat, and Laurie seems to be stuck on the time she was attacked by Michael Myers, so she refuses to accept that he grew to become a decent chap.

Miscellaneous

Possible trailer ideas

• A "Flashback" teaser, showing scenes from the past Halloween movies, ending with the scene with Laurie shooting a mannequin.