What’s Next for Halloween? How about Halloween: Retribution!?
The “Under the Mask” Blog is an online outlet for the “Dont Go Out There” podcast hosts to further add creative content into the horror community.
by: Bryan Hathaway
Whether we all end up liking Halloween: Ends or not (Spoiler Alert: the way toxic fandom is, there's no chance we all agree on that), but what we can all pretty much agree on is this wont be the final Halloween movie. But where do we go from here? A Halloween 3 remake is a likely candidate, taking a break from Myers, but eventually (just like the first time) it will be time for Myers to come back and no way they do another remake. So, while we are jumping around timelines? lets do a true followup to Halloween 4. The latest Blumhouse timeline has shown that fans are smart enough to understand jumping around and multiple timelines now, so lets do it. Lets go back and retcon Halloween 5 and 6 and lets get back Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris for a true follow up to Halloween 4. Below is my idea that I pitched on our "Pitch a sequel" bonus episode of Dont Go Out There (Find that episode here: https://audioboom.com/posts/8154548-160-pitch-a-sequel-remake)
Halloween: Retribution was a name of the script that was written as a followup to Resurrection that I went into a little bit at the very end of our Halloween 2007 review. I took some ideas from a Halloween Returns speck script and followed a lot of the same beats as the original Halloween 6 as well. Hell though I should just name it "Halloween" because why the hell not at this point, right?
Again, this is a FOLLOWUP to Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. This would retcon Halloween 5 and 6 and Resurrection (They would not exist in this timeline).
We Would bring back Ellie Cornell as Rachel Carruthers.
OPEN: Our movie would open up in the late 90's at Jamie Lloyds house (Danielle Harris). She's obviously grown up now, but lives alone. You can tell Jamie has some psychological issues. Rachel shows up to pick her up. It is implied they are still close after all of these years. Theyre going to attend the Execution of Michael Myers, who is finally being executed after multiple appeals time and time again by Loomis after the events of 1988. Since Loomis has passed away, the execution has finally been pushed through and happening. Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd) meets up with them (He is now a Loomis type character). In conversation its implied Jamie never forgave Loomis for trying to save Michael's life. Why would Loomis be appealing the execution? Its brought up by Tommy that he didnt understand either but felt like Loomis, in his old age, almost relied on Michael-because it gave Loomis' life...a purpose. This is likened to how Batman always kept the Joker around- In a sense one cant survive without the other. During the execution, where Myers' face is never shown, there are a ton of audience members in attendance for the execution- there are replica Myers masks as it's become as popular in the local stores as a hockey mask or ghostface masks. This is a big media production. Lots of whispers as Rachel and Jamie enter. The power cuts off, there's chaos and panic with people everywhere running around screaming.. Myers (seen only in flashes and loud beats) grab a guard's nightstick and breaks the end off killing multiple people- it's pandemonium. Myers takes one of the audience's prop masks. Jamie is paralized with fear- just staring at her uncle as he approaches her. Again only in flashes, loud music beats and chaos. As he goes to stab her, Rachel jumps in front of her- it shows jamie's face up close blood spatter on it as Jamie screams into the camera... Roll opening Credits and Mr Sandman music....
Haddonfield, Illinois. October 31
We hear the same DJ from Halloween 6 (Barry Simms)- shock jock Howard Stern type guy (fan-casting Howard Stern). We keep the same beats from Halloween 6 (For all it's faults, Halloween 6 had a tremendous atmosphere). We find out that Halloween has been banned in haddonfield but this shockjock guy is putting on an underground rave/party in celebration of the anniversary of the Myers' murders. He tells everyone the news of what happened at execution and that Michael Myers has escaped and how many people he killed, including Rachel Curruthers.
We also Follow the same type of family, the dysfunctional family, that's living in the Myers house that are perhaps the same relatives from Halloween 6 or maybe another family all together (unimportant fodder). For the sake of this writeup, we go with the same people but they are NOT strode relatives (Thomas Family) The asshole dad who is a real estate agent trying to sell the old myers house but nobody will buy it (John-Anthony Starr) . Kara, late 20's- recently seperated or divorced (Lucy Hale)- her six year old son, Danny (Adrian Groulx), the teenage brother Tim (Iwan Rheon), caring mother Debra (Dedee Pfeiffer). We see Tim was eating breakfast in the kitchen and he was the one who had the radio on in the kitchen listening to the DJ, Barry Simms gives the report. Perhaps have a similar scene to the kitchen scene in part 6, where John is borderline abusive to daughter Kara.
Our next scene takes us to the Sheriff's office where they discuss the escape and are on high alert as it's expected Myers is on his way. Jamie shows up with Tommy to warn Sheriff Meeker (The same Meeker from 4. He's in his 70's, close to retirement- Played by same Beau Starr who is 77 at the time of us recording this), It is revealed he already knows and assures them they will not have a repeat of 1988. You can tell he doesn’t really trust Jamie after the end of part 4. Maybe even makes a comment to Tommy after Jamie walks away about not trusting her that the evil is in that family's blood- he's seen it first hand.
We see a familiar face come into the sheriff's office, Nancy Stephen's Nurse Chambers. She has seen the news report and says she has some information for them and hands them a folder. We don’t see what's in the folder- but she insists she has something Jamie needs to see- you can tell there's some bad blood there since Jamie still has resentment towards Loomis AND Marion as Loomis lived with her since his retirement (made cannon in H20) It's implied somehow that she helped Loomis keep them from executing Myers all of these years. Jamie wants to hear none of it and, in fact, causes a scene, yelling "its your fault he's out, if they had executed him years ago this would never have happened!"
Meeker interrupts and makes a comment about a family living in the old Myers house now... a struggling real estate agent who is having problems selling the house. A look comes across Tommy's face, Thomas wouldn’t happen to be their last name is it? Meeker says yes and he grabs Jamie and rushes out. Meeker and Marion follow.
We get a scene at Haddonfield High school with Tim Thomas and his girlfriend Beth (Jessica Sula) and some friends talking about hitting up that party that DJ Barry Simms is putting on tonight. They talk about the Halloween ban and imply they think Meeker went crazy after the incident in 88 and the kids are ready to do it anyway.
Back at the Thomas house, Debra is home by herself listening to the radio- and we get pretty much the same scene we get in the original Halloween 6- with Myers toying with her and eventually killing her, this time inside the basement instead of the back yard. as Myers has his head tilted looking at Debra's dead body, you hear Meeker, Tommy, Marion and Jamie pull up to the house and knock on the door. They enter and start wandering through the house. You see from the perspective of Myers' mask as he watches and stalks them from the shadows. Jamie is never seen by Myers. They find Debra's body in the washing machine and Tommy says "he's come home." Meeker gets on his radio to call it in. The dispatcher tells them of the party happening at such and such location and asks how to handle it. He tells them to stay put until they get there, they run up stairs and as they talk to Jamie, Myers hears Jamie's voice. While they walk out of the front door, Myers busts out of the shadows clearly triggered by hearing his niece's voice. Its too late, however, at this point they’re already outside and leaving. You see Debra's car pull out of the driveway slowly following them- implying it's Myers driving her car.
Kara and Danny are shown pulling up at the Thomas residence shortly thereafter. Kara finds her mother and tries to call her asshole dad, John. He's shown at the local bar and deliberately doesn’t answer (sends to voicemail). Kara then dials her brother Tim. Hes at the party and cant hear her. All she can make out from him is where he's at (the location of the party) and she runs, grabs Danny, and peels away in the car towards the party as well.
At the party there is a TON of people and a BUNCH of them have Michael Myers masks on. Jamie, Tommy, Meeker, Marion and a few deputies arive and then split up. The party continues as the cops are largely ignored. The sheriff goes to look for DJ Barry Sims as he can hear his voice over the speakers. We see Myers' perspective as he sits in the car watching them. From here a lot of the Halloween 6 festival happens the same way: Beth is even interviewed by DJ Barry Simms in front of the crowd, asserting: "We will no longer let the powers that be control our minds. For years, Halloween has represented everything that's wrong with Haddonfield. But Michael Myers is long gone. There is no Boogeyman. Tim is shocked to hear from Barry himself that Time and his family live in the old Myers house. He didn't know. Sims is killed as he takes a smoke break away from the crowd- and thinks Myers is just another fan with a Myers mask. Meeker sees and tries to intervene, but is killed as well. We cut to another part of the party and Marion is still trying to tell Jamie what she needs to tell her. Jamie still blows it off but Marion is insistent. She tells her that her mom Laurie is still alive, living in Summer Glen as the dean of a College. She's shocked by the news but is interrupted as we hear Kara's voice saying "Tommmy?"- it turns out Tommy is Kara's ex husband (or current husband as theyre seperated) and little Danny is his son. She has moved back home since their split and this explains why Tommy's eyes lit up at the station when he heard a real estate agent (his father in law) and family was living at the Myers house. She's panicking telling him about finding her mom at the house and we hear screams in the background as Myers is loose in a panicking crowd- murdering people left and right (think Freddy vs Jason Cornfield Scene)- it's chaos as again, we are in a crowd of people wearing Myers masks. Tommy, Kara, Danny and Jamie take off, Tommy reveals a gun but there’s too many people and too many with masks to shoot anyone- as Nurse Chambers falls back into the crowd. We see Myers slaughter a ton of people including Tim, Beth and their friends- and see out of Myers' peripheral the four of them running as Kara screams as she sees Tim stabbed and reach out for her as he dies. They stumble into the same place we recognize we just saw Sims and Meeker die. The four talk about a way to kill him, Jamie says the best way to get him off his guard will be where it all started, back at his house. They notice blood dripping and falling on them- Sims is tied up in the tree above them with blood dripping (like Halloween 6). They scream, turn, and find Meeker dead as well as he falls out of a tree above them. The real Myers comes out of the crowd towards them. Murdering people in his way as he heads toward them. Myers manages to grab Danny and knocks Jamie to the ground. Tommy intervenes enough to save Danny and tells Kara he loves her as he is lifted up off the ground and stabbed through the chest and brutally has his throat slashed. Jamie grabs danny and helps Kara up as they jump in the car and speed away as more police show up as well. We get an overhead shot of the car speeding down the road and immedately pump the breaks and skid off the road, almost wrecking as all three evacuate the car, throw up and scream. We are shown Tim's decapitated head in the backseat- Myers left as a little present for them to find.
We are back at the Thomas residence as a now drunk John pulls into the driveway and stumbles into the house. He tries to turn on the light as he's yelling obsenities and even calling Danny a little bastard as he realizes there’s no power. John stumbles into the kitchen and turns on the gas to the oven, you hear it but it doesnt light. You then hear the door open. He thinks it's someone in his family and calls to them, cussing more, asking Debra "Why the fuck the oven doesnt work". It turns out to be Myers, he kills John. The three pull up and Jamie and Kara enter the house telling Danny to stay in the car. The smell of gas is noticeable and a fight ensues as Myers pops out of nowhere, Jamie is mortally wounded. Danny walks in and it distracts myers from killing Kara. With his attention turned, Kara runs out of the house and grabs Danny. As Myers is shown sitting up "Undertaker style" and just about to go after Kara, a mortally wounded Jamie grabs him, holds on to him and says "hey uncle", then lights a lighter and the entire house explodes. We see Nurse Marion pulling up to get Kara and Danny as we close on a shot of Jamie burning, holding Michael's mask as it melts. No sign of Myers' body. Credits role as the masks melts in the fire.
Jaime Lloyd: Danielle Harris
Rachel Carruthers: Ellie Cornell
Tommy Doyle: Paul Rudd
Barry Simms: Howard Stern
John: Anthony Starr
Kara: Lucy Hale
Danny: Adrian Groulx
Tim: Iwan Rheon
Debra: Dedee Pfeiffer
Sheriff Meeker: Beau Starr
Nancy Stephens: Nurse Chambers
Beth: Jessica Sula