20 Sequels That Brilliantly Fixed Past Mistakes

3. Halloween (2018) - Wiping The Slate Clean

When there are so many sequels and so many bad decisions, if all else fails, the best thing is simply to wipe the slate clean. That's what 2018's Halloween was, which saw franchise creator John Carpenter return to the franchise after decades away, and it was the course correction fans had been waiting for all these years.

Halloween (2018) acts as a direct sequel to the 1978 original, ignoring every other Halloween film, meaning that all of those bad decisions were lost in time like tears in rain. Michael and Laurie actually being long-lost siblings? Gone. A ridiculous cult being responsible for Michael's evil? Gone. Michael unceremoniously killing off Laurie Strode, ending up in a Big Brother-style reality show, and then being karate-kicked out of a window by Busta Rhymes? All gone.

It's a shame 1981's Halloween II couldn't have stayed canon, as that is the only truly good sequel in the original continuity, but then again, that was the one that revealed that Michael and Laurie were siblings, so it's understandable why that one was jettisoned. Essentially, this legacy sequel represented a complete course correction that finally restored the sense of believable, suspenseful terror that defined Carpenter's original masterpiece. 

It was a sign of things to come. The next two Halloween films were divisive, but they largely avoided the issues that weighed down all those previous Halloween flicks, and Carpenter was able to steer his story to a reasonably satisfying end. You love to see it.