In a move that comes as no surprise to anyone who's been following the production of Blumhouse/Universal's Halloween reboot, today brings word that the MPAA has given director David Gordon Green's film an R rating for "horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use and nudity." While even successful fear practitioners sometimes employ a PG-13 rating in order to court a wider audience, the recent mainstream successes of films like Get Out and IT: Chapter One have opened the floodgates for a new wave of creepers that refuse to pull their punches.
The trailer for Halloween exudes ultraviolence, and reports of additional footage out of San Diego Comic-Con and other significant festivals is already legendary. One scene in particular has been described in detail and features an unbroken sequence of "The Shape" dispatching multiple victims; one woman gets her skull pulverized with a hammer before another gets a kitchen knife pushed all the way through her throat. Then, there's the kill revealed by NECA's most recent Michael Myers action figure (also unveiled at Comic-Con) which includes a decapitated head carved up like a jack o lantern. Of course, there are also the details leaked from the test screening a couple month back, but we won't be touching those with a 10-foot pole!
"A British documentary crew comes to the States to visit Michael in prison for a retrospective of the maniac's night of terror - but their project becomes way more interesting when Myers escapes custody, retrieves his signature mask and seeks revenge on Laurie, with others naturally being part of his impressive career body count along the way. In the decades following the fateful Halloween night that forever altered the former babysitter's life, Laurie has armed and prepped herself for Michael's inevitable return - to the detriment of her family, including daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak)."Blumhouse's Halloween is slated to hit theaters on October 19th and reunites Jamie Lee Curtis with original Michael Myers actor Nick Castle (although the majority of The Shape's role was shot with stuntman James Jude Courtney). With the film being billed as an epic battle royale 40 years in the making, fans would probably have rioted had Halloween nabbed anything less that a juicy R rating. Laurie Strode has transformed from a shrinking violet to a no-nonsense survivalist with an arsenal at her disposal. In case you hadn't heard, the new Halloween is a direct sequel to the original; this means (in the retconned universe) it's the first time horror's premiere "Final Girl" and the archetypal slasher have crossed paths since 1978 (and we can all just forget about 1998's atrocious Halloween H20: 20 Years Later).
As we continue our march towards Halloween's October 19th release date, we can expect excitement to increase exponentially. The film's release coincides with the original Halloween's 40th Anniversary, and Master of Horror John Carpenter has returned to the franchise as executive producer and to score the soundtrack. There's also a convention in the works: H40: Forty Years of Terror Convention is taking place in Southern California October 12th thru 14th. This news first came our way via Collider.
