10 Unexpected And Surprising Horror Movie Sequels

‘The night no-one came home’ turned out to be a controversial tagline for Season of the Witch (1982), the third installment of the Halloween franchise. Following the success of John Carpenter’s original slasher flick (1978), the producers had shoehorned in Halloween II (1980) to capitalise on the intrigue in the infamous killer, Michael Myers. The movie was co-written by Carpenter, despite his reservations in continuing the story, and carried on from the very last scene of the original picture.

It was then felt by all involved that the story of Myers and final girl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) had been completed, with the producers having the idea to turn the franchise into an anthology series, releasing unrelated standalone Halloween-themed movies. However, the reappearance of Michael Myers was alluded to in Season of the Witch's marketing. In a pre-internet age without spoilers, viewers went flocking to the cinemas expecting to see the horror icon.

The fanbase were surprised when what they got instead, was this bizarre, sci-fi-influenced horror movie about a megalomaniac planning on brainwashing the children of America with hypnotic Halloween masks... and with Myers nowhere to be seen.

The backlash to this threequel was severe enough to change the plans of the creators, who backtracked and eventually followed up with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), placating fans and providing a springboard which created one of the longest running horror series - with Halloween Ends (2022) providing the latest depiction of the infamous Shape.