'Halloween Returns' Director Marcus Dunstan Overhauls Slasher Films

Horror has become popular, especially making October release dates particularly savored. Halloween fans might be in luck because Marcus Dunstan is completely overhauling the slasher film series with Halloween Returns, starting where the original John Carpenter Halloween II (and Rob Zombie's remake Halloween 2) left off  to replace the pre-existing storylines that came after them. Saw V writer Dunstan, who also directed The Collector and The Collection, will direct the reboot and would be excited to do more. It also seems that it will be released under the Dimension Films banner. Comingsoon.net even says, "Halloween Returns will follow the events of 1981's Halloween II and will attempt to pave a new continuity from there, ignoring all subsequent sequels and remakes. It will follow the first sequel's Deputy Gary Hunt (originally played by Hunter von Leer), who accompanied Dr. Loomis to the school and is now acting sheriff of Haddonfield, Illinois."

Right now, the film is in very early stages of pre-production. In fact, in a recent interview, Dunstan says, "The coolest thing we've done so far is a couple motion tests of potential Michaels," Halloween Daily News reports. When talking about what he's looking for in regards to the infamous Michael Myers mask, Dunstan does say that it must "resemble the classic profile from the John Carpenter's 1978 original Halloween," Halloween Daily News reports. They also predict that we'll see the first sign of the mask in a teaser trailer. Patrick Melton is also going to be writing the script with Dunstan. He wrote some of the Saw films although the new scripts will obviously be based on the characters created by John Carpenter. Matthew Stein will act as executive producer and Malek Akkad will produce as well. Hitflix reports that Dunstan and Melton went back to John Carpenter's original script "and just read it, John Carpenter's draft, and timed it with watching the movie, and line for line it keeps the same clock as watching the movie, so if you're reading the pages, it's almost like a shot list." They were clearly impressed and hope to make the same quality film.

Although it is still early and no definitive casting has been made, Dunstan did mention Gillian Jacobs of Community fame saying, "She's known for all this comedy on Community, and yet I didn't know her from Community first, I knew her from a movie called Gardens of the Night, which is one of the most wrenching dramas, and she's excellent. I thought, 'I wonder if this great performer would do that again, would like to go there,' and I think so," Comingsoon.net reports.

Hopefully we will only find more about this installment in one of our favorite and classic horror franchises!