The Shape casts his shadow over the Halloween trailer

John Carpenter’s original Halloween (1978) is a masterpiece of the horror genre, a taut, exceptionally crafted film featuring a terrifyingly unfathomable villain that’s still scary as hell 40 years later. That’s…a lot to live up to. The latest to attempt that daunting task is David Gordon Green, a director best known for his work in the comedy genre who got Carpenter’s blessing to make a new film in the series last year. At the time, Carpenter wrote: “David and [writer] Danny [McBride] both came to my office recently with Jason Blum and shared their vision for the new movie and…WOW. They get it. I think you’re gonna dig it. They blew me away.”

Now, after a week of hype, the first trailer for Green’s Halloween has arrived. This particular film falls somewhere between a sequel and a reboot, ignoring previous sequels and picking up where the original Halloween left off—just, you know, 40 years later. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her star-making role as Laurie Strode, as full of steely determination as ever and now quite handy with a firearm. Judy Greer co-stars as Laurie’s daughter Karen, with Virginia Gardner as Laurie’s granddaughter Vicky.

The new Halloween stalks theaters on October 19.