One thing that really struck me this year is the sheer amount and variety of clothing featuring the 70s/80s slashers. It seemed like every other person had a unique shirt with the characters, some custom made, some very elaborate, some quite clever. I couldn't help thinking that a lot of different outlets were making a lot of money off Michael and friends. Conversely, I only saw a few Weeknd shirts, and almost all of those were the ones Uni was selling. I think the view here was a bit distorted - for fans and vets, The Weeknd was THE new and intriguing element this year while Halloween was very old hat. For the general public, however, I think Halloween was at least as scintillating as Weeknd. I'd be surprised if we don't get one of the big slashers each year for the foreseeable future - obviously, Chucky is up in 2023 - and I wouldn't be surprised to see a slasher-focused Carnival of Carnage-style year pop up. The hitch, of course, is that Universal doesn't control the rights to most of them, and in several cases the rights are quite tangled. Jason and Freddy in particular have been underrepresented at HHN considering how large they loom in the pop culture zeitgeist.
It sort of seems like the ideal IP line-up is one slasher, one "classic" creative really wants, one currently or recently released Uni or Blumhouse property, one Classic Monsters, and one miscellaneous, either a musician or a hot outside property. Of course, some properties tick more then one of those boxes.
