The new Halloween is getting a novelization in October

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

We recently saw a video promoting the release of the soundtrack for Blumhouse’s upcoming HALLOWEEN – and if you want to own a copy of the score that has been composed by John Carpenter (along with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies), you can pre-order it at THIS LINK. Now comes word of another cool tie-in release.

One type of movie tie-in I’ve always been a fan of is the novelization, something that used to be more prominent than it is these days. A lot of films you might not suspect had gotten a novelization did get them back in the day, and I find the novelizations of horror films to be interesting additions to collections. Early FRIDAY THE 13TH, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and HALLOWEEN films are among those who got novelization tie-ins… and the new HALLOWEEN sequel is getting one, too.

The author tasked with turning the screenplay by David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and Jeff Fradley into a novel is John Passarella, who’s best known for writing books based on the television series Supernatural.

Directed by Green, the new sequel ignores the events of every previous HALLOWEEN movie except for John Carpenter’s 1978 original. That film’s heroine Jamie Lee Curtis has returned to reprise the role of 

Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

The description on the back of Passarella’s novelization gives a bit more information than that synopsis: 

In 1978, Laurie Strode survived an encounter with Michael Myers, a masked figure who killed her friends and terrorized the town of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night. Myers was later gunned down, apprehended and committed to Smith’s Grove State Hospital.

For forty years, memories of that nightmarish ordeal have haunted Laurie and now Myers is back once again on Halloween, having escaped a routine transfer, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. This time, Laurie is prepared with years of survival training to protect herself, her daughter Karen and her daughter Allyson, a teenager separated from her family and enjoying Halloween festivities.

The film (and the soundtrack) are set to be released on October 19th, and it looks like the novelization will be following soon after on October 23rd. The book store Dark Delicacies has a pre-order page on their website, but they’re currently only accepting orders from fans who plan to attend an in-store signing event. But at least we have an idea of when the book might be available for the rest of us.

Novelizations were previously written for the first HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN II, HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH, and HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS.

Curtis’s co-stars in the new film include Judy Greer as Laurie’s daughter Karen; Andi Matichak as Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson; Miles Robbins, Virginia Gardner, Dylan Arnold, and Drew Scheid as Allyson’s Haddonfield High classmates; Will Patton and Rob Niter as police officers; Rhian Rees as a character named Dana; and Diva Tyler as a caretaker. Original Michael Myers performer Nick Castle and stuntman James Jude Courtney both wore the mask of the iconic slasher this time around.