There's good news and there's bad news for horror fans today, folks. The bad news is that Rob Zombie has signed to write and direct H2, the sequel to his godawful remake of Halloween.
The good news is... erm. Erm. We'll get back to you on that one.
Zombie has long said that he would never make a sequel to his 2007 film, which spent more time on the origin of stalker and slasher extraordinaire Michael Myers than it did on the actual stalking and slashing, despite the fact that it grossed a nice, sequel-friendly $78 million worldwide.
But Bob Weinstein, head of Dimension Films, worked his persuasive magic and Zombie has agreed to come back for the sequel, which will pick up where the original left off, with Laurie Strode (Scott Taylor-Compton, who we guess will be returning) attempting to avoid the murderous attentions of her brother Michael (Tyler Mane).
That, of course, was roughly the plot of Rick Rosenthal's Halloween II, back in 1981, but Zombie's sequel will not be a remake of that movie. Instead, it'll spin off in a new direction, much like the gruesome, mean-spirited **The Devil's Rejects **was a complete shift from the gruesome, mean-spirited House Of 1000 Corpses. Oh.
Filming will start on the movie in March, with Zombie racing to get it into cinemas by, well, October. "Now, we'll be hauling ass, and that's the problem making a movie called Halloween: If you come out Nov. 1 or after, nobody cares," Zombie told Variety. " If it was called anything else, I'd be fine."
Well, it is called something else, Rob, it's called H2. But we know what you mean.
So, readers, are you excited by this? Or does this further taint the memory of John Carpenter's magnificent original? Answers on a postcard - or, if you like, in the space below.