New Jersey Stage Issue 52 | Page 84

as far away as possible from Haddonfield, Illinois, the scene of Michael’s rampage. It’s not so easy to swallow the version of Laurie Strode presented in director David Gordon Green’s new sequel, rather annoyingly titled Halloween. Not only has Laurie remained in Haddonfield, which is just down the road from Smith’s Grove, the psychiatric institute that continues to house Michael Myers, but she’s also NJ STAGE - ISSUE 52 become a gun nut. Doesn’t she remember how Michael survived those six bullets, fired at point blank from Loomis’s pistol? Green and his co-screenwrit- ers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley have taken the choice to wipe the franchise slate clean, ignoring all previous sequels to the 1978 film. The main impact of this decision is that Laurie and Michael are no longer siblings, a revelation made in the film’s INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 84