Fans and purists of all things horror got their wish on Wednesday whenRyan Turek, VP of Feature Film Development at Blumhouse Productions, announced the new Halloween will be rated R.
Turek made the announcement on his Twitter account with the message, “Rated R for horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use and nudity.”
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Rated R for horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use and nudity. #HalloweenMovie
— Ryan Turek (@_RyanTurek) August 1, 2018
The Halloween films are home to the mute and unkillable genre icon Michael Myers, who has been dishing out notably gory and gruesome deaths for decades in cinemas, often up against his sister, Laurie, played by Jamie Lee Curtis.
The original Halloween, directed by horror maven John Carpenter, was released in 1978 and featured little in terms of blood and gore. Over time, and in the wake of the explosion of the slasher genre in the early 80s, the films turned the gore meter up steadily.
When Rob Zombie headed up a remake in 2007 and a 2009 sequel, he leaned into the blood-and-guts violence, going full-bore into a territory of grotesque psychological terror. Reception of his efforts to this day is decidedly mixed.
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The first Halloween film is heralded as a classic all these years later and launched the careers of Carpenter and its star, Jamie Lee Curtis. She returns to reprise the role of Laurie Strode and Carpenter is attached as an executive producer and consultant, as he has for much of the franchise’s history.
Debuting on October 19, the latest Halloween is directed by David Gordon Green from a script written with Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak with Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney sharing the role of masked killer Michael Myers. The film is executive produced and scored by original filmmaker John Carpenter.