'Halloween' has to prove itself to the franchise and the genre

Blumhouses's direct sequel to John Carpenter's original cult-horror flick has to prove its worth to both a tired franchise and a genre which is delivering the best competition for years

'Halloween' (Universal Pictures/Comcast Corp./Blumhouse Productions)

by Jack Linsdell

Today sees the release of Jamie Lee Curtis's 'Halloween' in the UK, which is being marketed as the direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original by the same name and although being film number 11 in the franchise, the horror flick is retconning the continuity of all the previous sequels, acting as a standalone sequel 40 years after the original debuted. 

Now, the David Gordon Green-directed and co-penned horror sequel earned $7.7 million on Thursday night previews last night in North America, which makes it the third-highest preview for an r-rated horror film behind only 'IT' and 'Paranormal Activity 3'. For reference, The Conjuring Universe's latest prequel/sequel 'The Nun' opened with $2 million less from its Thursday night previews than the Jamie Lee Curtis-chiller and that film bagged a $53.8 million opening weekend despite negative reviews. Therefore, this positions the Blumhouse flick to earn a very impressive American debut - even more so considering its $10 million (!?!) budget - and perhaps give the franchise one of its best critically and commercially successful offerings.

I haven't seen it yet (I plan to go this week during the half-term), however the reviews seem positive and seems like it isn't just fans of the franchise and/or genre that are impressed. But, the point is that the film is under enormous pressure.

It's widely know that the Blumhouse Halloween franchise has to really got started ever since the break out success of the original telling of Mike Myers. Indeed, none of the 7 sequels after 1978 managed to beat the $70 million worldwide gross of 'Halloween' until Rob Zombie's (yes, that is his name) 2007 sequel - another film in the series called 'Halloween' - which earned $80 million in global box office receipts. The story critically hasn't been any better for the franchise, with most of the sequels being panned or out-right boycotted by fans. Therefore, for Universal/Comcast Corp. to successfully sell another film in the franchise called 'Halloween', to fans and audiences after so many misfires I can imagine is a hard task. However, when casting aside the difficulties in marketing, the film's quality (which will ultimately influence its commercial and critical success) has something to prove to a franchise that has suffered from a lack of originality and (like it or not) filmmakers who have not made decent-enough quality horror flicks for fans and audiences alike. If this film is poor, the franchise will end up officially dead and will die having been the one that started with a successful original and since then has offered nothing of similar quality. 

However, the pressure is also on for the horror flick to prove itself in one of Hollywood's most up and coming and commercially successful genres at the moment. The last few years have brought numerous examples of high-quality horror films. The standout success on everyone's mind is obviously Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc.'s Conjuring Universe, which has proven (with the exception of 'The Nun' and 'Anabelle: Creation') to give audiences high-quality horror flicks that are both refreshingly unique, yet delivering all the "scary" elements fans expect. However, commercially the franchise is a billion-grosser on a peanut-sized overall budget. Other successes are Paramount/Viacom's 'A Quiet Place', in which the John Krasinski-directed and starring breakout horror success which earned rave reviews and over $334 worldwide, immediately forcing the studio to greenlight a sequel. Jordan Peele's "racism exploration disguised as a horror" flick, 'Get Out' had a very leggy box office run and earned a deluge of award nominations including it's Oscar win for best Original Screenplay for Peele. The point here is that 'Halloween' is debuting in a genre that has rapidly developed since the franchise's last offering premiered, with the horror genre giving audiences a series of commercially and critically successful, high-quality flicks, some of which have made it to the award's ceremonies. Critics and audiences (deliberately or not) will be comparing the Jamie Lee Curtis sequel to these recent leggy flicks and if the film doesn't deliever, that will make it crash.

If this is all sounding rather pessimistic then, I always find its better to explore the notions of films underperforming so that if/when they do exceed our expectations, the success-story feels that much more deserved. I will publish my review when I've seen it and discuss further once we know the debut weekend box office globally, however for the moment there is a lot of pressure on a horror flick that comes from a franchise that's scared many away (pun very much intended) and a genre in which audiences have been chilled and frightened to much higher quality flicks (?).

As ever, we'll see.