10 Films That Retconned Themselves (To Fix Glaring Mistakes)

10. Halloween II – Michael’s Sister

Let’s start with a particularly infamous offender, courtesy of the horror icon and perennial king of cool John Carpenter. Halloween is a pretty much flawless horror, the simple story of an unstoppable killer with seemingly no motive pursuing and picking off teens before being floored by a plucky, resilient final girl.

At least, the killer had no motive until the movie was an unexpected success at the box office. That’s when The Halloween helmer, tasked with putting together a sequel, needed a reason for Myers’ return. Carpenter admitted that the decision to reveal Laurie Strode as Michael Myers’ secret sister came to him while writing at 2am and surrounded by empty beer bottles.

Let’s face it—we all wish franchise-defining sparks of inspiration came to us in this state. The decision would go on to fuel a whopping seven more Halloween films, a two-film reboot courtesy of Rob Zombie, and eventually another reboot courtesy of indie darling David Gordon Green. With two further sequels on the way, Green wisely chose to jettison the familial connection in his reboot.