7 Years Ago Today, One Of The Best Horror Franchises Ever Was Resurrected (& Started a Major New Genre Trend)

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John Carpenter’s *Halloween*, released in 1978, revolutionized the horror genre and essentially created the slasher film. While movies like *Peeping Tom*, *Psycho*, and *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre* are also considered influential, *Halloween* truly sparked a wave of similar films. Without it, we likely wouldn’t have seen popular slashers like *Friday the 13th*, *Prom Night*, *The Burning*, or *Sleepaway Camp*. Forty years later, David Gordon Green attempted to revive Michael Myers with a new trilogy, but the films ultimately weren’t very successful.

Despite everything, the huge popularity and critical praise for Green’s film really kicked off a trend of legacy sequels in horror. It’s likely many of these sequels wouldn’t have been made if Green’s reboot of the *Halloween* franchise hadn’t been successful. Let’s look at which ones probably owe their existence to it.

What Lessons Did David Gordon Green’s Halloween Teach the Industry?

The success of *Halloween* proved to the film industry that reviving classic horror franchises could be successful, and importantly, showed *how* to connect with modern audiences. Before diving into those strategies, let’s look back at the horror landscape in the years leading up to the film’s release.

Reboots of classic horror films are common, and we’ve seen a lot of them recently. Before the new Halloween came out, for example, we got remakes of Poltergeist (2015), Cabin Fever (2016), and both Flatliners and It in 2017.

Let’s be honest, out of all these films, only *It* really connected with both critics and audiences. And interestingly, it’s the only one that isn’t *technically* a remake. While you could argue it’s based on the old miniseries, it feels more like a fresh take on the Stephen King story – a new adaptation rather than a straight-up rehash.

Over those three years, filmmakers also experimented with established horror franchises. In 2016, they released a sequel to the 1999 film Blair Witch. Then, in 2017, Amityville: The Awakening reimagined the story, presenting the original The Amityville Horror as simply a fictional movie within its universe.

What made the recent *Halloween* movie successful, especially considering it’s a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original and nothing else? Like *Blair Witch*, it tries to continue the story of the first film and recreate its feeling. While *Blair Witch* didn’t quite pull that off, director David Gordon Green definitely captured the autumnal, scary atmosphere that’s so important to the *Halloween* series and Michael Myers.

However, the film did more than just bring back the classic Michael Myers after the divisive Rob Zombie entries. It offered a compelling premise: a decades-later rematch between Laurie Strode, who had survived the previous films, and her tormentor. While *Halloween H20* had already explored this idea, the marketing for this film emphasized a particularly brutal and intense showdown, and it delivered on that promise.

The main takeaway is that horror franchises, even those that haven’t been active for a while, can be successful again with today’s audiences. However, it requires a continued connection to the original material, a passionate fanbase, and a new film that both honors the past and moves the story forward.

Which Movies Did David Gordon Green’s Halloween Inspire?

The 2019 remake of *Child’s Play* didn’t make much of an impact in theaters. However, the success of the *Halloween* reboot the year before likely played a role in deciding to bring Chucky back to the big screen. He’d been performing well with direct-to-video releases like *Curse of Chucky* (2013) and *Cult of Chucky* (2017).

2020 saw fresh takes on classic horror with the remakes of *The Grudge* and *The Invisible Man*. While these films didn’t follow the same formula as the 2018 *Halloween*, the success of that movie likely paved the way for them to be made.

As a horror fan, I was really excited to see 2021 bring back the legacy sequel trend with films like *Candyman*. It wasn’t perfect, and people definitely had different opinions, but it was a bold and respectful follow-up to the original – just as ambitious, really. *Slumber Party Massacre* also quietly delivered as a direct sequel to the first film. To me, 2021 proved that, like John Carpenter did with *Halloween* in ’78 and Wes Craven with *Scream* in ’96, someone had once again sparked a new wave of creativity in horror, and I’m here for it!

In 2022, the year the *Halloween* series seemingly concluded with *Halloween Ends*, a lot of classic horror franchises were brought back to life. While *Hellraiser* and *Jeepers Creepers: Reborn* felt more like fresh takes on existing properties than direct sequels, and films like *Orphan: First Kill* and *Prey* explored the backstory of existing characters, the idea of either rebooting or expanding the lore of these franchises was definitely trending.

2022 also saw the release of a very successful legacy sequel, and it wasn’t the poorly received *Texas Chainsaw Massacre* on Netflix. That honor went to Radio Silence’s *Scream*. In fact, the character Mindy Meeks-Martin excitedly points out to her friends that they’re living through a time of reboot sequels.

Following the success of *Scream*, we’ve seen a resurgence of classic horror franchises. *Evil Dead* and *Pet Sematary* have both been brought back, and the *Saw* series recently concluded with a prequel. While attempts to revive *The Exorcist* weren’t successful, Fede Álvarez impressed with *Alien: Romulus*, Tim Burton delivered a hit with *Beetlejuice Beetlejuice*, and the *Ghostbusters* have continued their adventures with two more films. Even though Renny Harlin’s *The Strangers* trilogy hasn’t found its footing, Arkasha Stevenson’s *The First Omen* demonstrated that expanding on established horror lore can be just as effective as the original films.

Is Hollywood starting to run out of popular old franchises to revive? Not yet, it seems. Recent announcements for 2025 show the industry is still eager to bring back familiar titles.

Danny Boyle’s *28 Years Later* has sparked some debate, but it was a creatively unusual way to revisit the zombie story he began with *28 Days Later* in the early 2000s. *Final Destination Bloodlines* proved even more popular, and like other recent expansions of established franchises, it took the story back in time – and did so effectively.

Look, I have to be honest, *I Know What You Did Last Summer* didn’t really land with viewers. It felt like a beat-for-beat copy of the 2022 *Scream*, and honestly, people just didn’t seem to care. While it wasn’t aiming for the same iconic status as *Scream*, I expected a slightly better reception, especially if these legacy sequels are going to keep happening. I’m starting to wonder if that first weekend audience reaction was a sign of trouble, maybe word got around about that… let’s just say *divisive* ending.

We still have a few older projects coming out soon. Before the year ends, you can expect a new *Attack of the Killer Tomatoes* movie, titled *Organic Intelligence*. Plus, December brings a double feature: a remake of *Silent Night, Deadly Night* starring Rohan Campbell (from *Halloween Ends*), and a new *Anaconda* movie that’s cleverly self-aware – the 1997 film is treated as both a movie within the story and a real film in our world.

Looking ahead to 2026, several horror sequels and reboots are planned, including *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple*, *Evil Dead Burn*, and *Scream 7*. Mike Flanagan is also taking on *The Exorcist*, hoping to deliver a truly terrifying and memorable experience. Further down the line, we can expect new installments of *Christine*, *Chucky*, *Night of the Comet*, and *Pumpkinhead*, though those are still quite a ways off. Jason Voorhees has also returned in a short film, *Sweet Revenge*, and may appear in a feature film soon. It seems *Halloween*’s success has sparked a wave of horror revivals that could continue for ten years or more. Hopefully, we’ll also get one last *A Nightmare on Elm Street* film starring Robert Englund.

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2025-10-19 17:15