Forty years after Michael Myers slashed his way through Haddonfield, IL, terrorizing Laurie Strode and killing all her friends, he came back, thanks to David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and Jeff Fradley, the creative team behind 2018's Halloween. And in the Halloween holiday spirit, they delivered a bucket of Easter eggs.
If you feel reticent about watching Laurie Strode fight The Shape again, your feelings are valid. There have been some stinkers in the Halloween franchise, but this version of the story is the most faithful yet to the spirit of the original, so comparisons between the original Halloween vs. Halloween 2018 have been favorable.
Most of the references in Halloween to the 1978 original and a few of the other films in the series don’t hit the audience over the head, and a few go by so fast they’re hard to notice. But all the Easter eggs in Halloween 2018 - some big, some small - are sure to make John Carpenter fans cheer in their seats.Â
The Halloween franchise font is the appropriately named ITC Serif Gothic. Over the course of 40 years, the film's title typography slowly morphed into an interchangeable font that can just as easily sit at the top of the one-sheet for Ghost Ship and other horror movies.
Halloween 2018 brings back the original film's font and color palette, a move that immediately lets the audience know they're in good hands.
While other films in the franchise have called back to John Carpenter's groundbreaking synth score from the 1978 original, director David Gordon Green made sure to go to the man himself to get the perfect mood for his film.
Carpenter, along with his son and writing partner, recorded a brand-new score for the film that makes use of flourishes from the original score in key moments, while creating new sounds that feel both modern and timeless.
Laurie's house plays a major part in the newer film's third act, and it bears a strong resemblance to the original house from the 1978 film.
The set is a love letter to the original Halloween, with Laurie stalking Michael through each room of the home in a dazzling parallel to the first film.
John Carpenter introduced title cards in the original film that let the audience know what day the action was taking place. The film begins on October 30, and the tension immediately goes up when the screen cuts to black and the words "October 31" pop up. Many of the later films in the series use the date cards; others ditch them altogether. When Rob Zombie brought them back in 2007, he did so with a small twist.
The title cards in 2018's Halloween specifically harken back to the original, down to their placement in the film.
A big part of the fun of the Halloween franchise is its title sequence. The first two films feature a simple black background with orange letters displaying the credits and a jack-o-lantern burning in the frame. Halloween III: Season of the Witch digitized the pumpkin, and parts four and five put their own spin on it.
David Gordon Green finally brought back the charm of the original with a rotten jack-o-lantern that reinflates as if to say, "Halloween's back, baby."
A super-cool tip of the hat to the original film is Nick Castle's appearance as Michael Myers in the scene where he and Laurie see each other for the first time. According to Castle, he has a specific way of tilting his head that David Gordon Green needed in the film.
But even when you don't see him, you hear him. Castle told Bloody Disgusting, "In the new one, if there’s any interest in comparisons, I do all the ADR breathing for The Shape even though I’m only in it in a cameo."
