Halloween, one of the most beloved horror franchises, is due to wrap up its current sequel trilogy/reboot with Halloween Ends. I haven’t seen it yet, but the title seems to spell it out: this is it. The end of the line for old Michael Myers after being in a dozen movies over 45 years, a few different fuzzy timelines, and multiple production teams, directors and studios.

While horror franchises never really die, this one seems like they’re at least going to officially “kill” Michael and I wouldn’t count on Jamie Lee Curtis coming back for any more, so it’s effectively the end of the road (until it’s inevitably rebooted with all new people).

But how about this: instead of rebooting the story of Michael Myers in five years with a new cast and creative team, why don’t we take a stab at the other Halloween story, the black sheep of the franchise, Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

If you’re unfamiliar, it was an attempt to turn the franchise into a sort of anthology-style series connected only by the date October 31st. There’s no Michael Myers, instead there’s an evil toy maker that Manchurian Candidates children via Halloween masks. It’s not bad, but people rejected it at the time because it was too much of a departure, especially after a second movie featuring the iconic Michael Myers. But now it has a nice following and is well liked on its own merits. Tom Adkins in it, and we like that.

It’s been mostly ignored by the franchise for decades, but now it kind of makes sense to bring it back. Enough time has passed that your average horror fan knows the story about why they made it, and can appreciate it outside of the Myers context. Plus every streaming company needs low risk, high reward content. This is that, and also it’s got built in “can you believe they finally did it!” word of mouth/social media marketing. I can already see the reviews that say it’s “better than it has any right to be” (one of my least favorite review cliches).

The real question is, what’s the best way to handle it. Here’s some options:

Straight Up Reboot

Just do a full on boilerplate remake to reacquaint audiences. It’s weird to just call it Halloween III, but maybe just go with something like Halloween: Season of the Witch or really anything that takes the III off the name because it’s confusing. The important thing is locking in a good creative team. Probably someone that’s lesser known as it’s a pretty low stakes project and see how it goes from there. If it’s good and/or enough people like it, you can cross that bridge when you get there.

Limited Run TV Series

This one feels kind of like a soft reboot, but also maybe the most likely. Treat it like a true anthology style project and do 6-10 episodes that all feature a different story with the one connector being that it takes place on Halloween. Throw in the branding and the John Carpenter score so he gets paid but doesn’t have to do anything, who complains? Use it as an opportunity to tell stories through every conceivable horror movie subgenre: a haunted house episode, a found footage episode, an old spooky witch episode, the only thing that has to be there is the date. Use it as a launchpad for young directors and mix in some ringers to take on hour long episodes. Call it Halloween Stories. Yeah, that sounds like a lazily named TV show. Done!

Sequel to Halloween III

This is the weirdest option, but potentially the most fun. Just make a sequel to Halloween III that takes place in that movie’s universe after that story. I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen it in a few years and I don’t even recall how it ends, but there’s always something you can figure out. A mask is found in an attic or a tape of the Silver Shamrock commercial makes its way to TikTok. They potentially planted a seed for it in Halloween Kills if you really wanted to be a nerd and connect them. Halloween III 2 is a terrible title, but just do it who cares. It’s memorable in a Snakes on a Plane bad title way. Make it funny, but don’t treat it like a joke.

Or don’t do anything. Just let it gracefully exist in 1982, untouched and unspoiled. A weird divergent path that offers us a peek into an alternate reality. Maybe in that reality some dork is writing about how they should bring back the obscure character Michael Myers. If so, and this article reaches that guy: Get a life, dork.

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