The new Halloween film removes every film from the canon and is a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original from 1978.
Horror movies are a dime a dozen, and of those dozen, they always get sequels upon sequels. In the case for Halloween (1978), there were 9 movies that followed, of which the lore and history of Michael Myers expanded into the absurd from making the killer an immortal, to even a film that had nothing to do with Myers at all (Halloween III). Well, of all those ridiculous and insane plots that followed the first Halloween from 40 years ago, this latest installment ignores every single one of them and is presented as a sequel 40 years later.
So, how exactly does that work? Well, if you recall in Halloween II, this is when the sibling relationship was established between Laurie Strode and Michael. However, considering this film is a direct sequel to the original, that means that Halloween II is ignored, and thus Halloween (2018) does not consider this fact to be fact at all, and therefore Michael is a complete stranger to Laurie and those that he killed.
Comedian Danny McBride was one of the writers for this 2018 sequel, and has gone on record that he really hopes that he doesn’t upset fans by this creative change. While I personally am not a huge Halloween fan, I can see how this would maybe put some hardcore Michael fans at odds with the choice, but at the same time, the original films did veer off into the more absurd lines of plots, so maybe some will appreciate this take on the franchise? Guess we will just have to wait until this Halloween to find out.