What Halloween Kills Means For The Slasher Movie Genre Beyond 2021
But fear not, despite their previous clinkers, all three of these top-tier franchises have new sequential reboots in the works for the coming decade ahead, and we have Halloween’s 2018 unprecedented financial victory to thank. Jason’s movie comeback has long been speculated through a variety of script re-writes, but the latest rumour suggests a new film by LeBron James’s production company Springhill Entertainment will serve as a direct sequel to 1986’s Jason Lives by ignoring the deprecating disasters that came after. Leatherface is also due to return in a new development from Legendary Entertainment that will focus on him as a 60-year-old antagonist.
In terms of A Nightmare on Elm Street’s future, it’s unlikely we’re going to see the 73-year-old Robert Englund return onscreen as Freddy given the fact he’s expressed the idea of only ever returning in a cameo role. This slight disappointment comes despite New Line Cinema promising that a reboot “is definitely still happening (but) nothing is percolating just yet.” Englund himself has put forward the name of Kevin Bacon to reprise the role. Take that as you will.
In all honesty, you can never truly kill these slasher blood brothers as monstrous cinematic villains anyway, no matter how many missteps are made by producers, writers, or directors. But now that it's been artistically proven that easter-egg galore fan-service is a clear-cut road to a box-office win, the near future of modern horror looks set to be a retrospective resuscitation of what made these cult marvels so darn well-loved in the first place. A focus on authenticity and a fastidious revisit to the origin of these classics is the key to unlocking the potential new era of the Neo-slasher movie.
Hopefully, if loyal fans cross their fingers when they lay down to sleep at night, a slasher renaissance may be upon us. And if Halloween’s bold step into respectful fan-service is to go by, I say let the blood-bath commence. Leatherface is currently revving his chainsaw and Jason his sharpening his machete as we speak.