Halloween Franchise review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
HALLOWEEN FRANCHISE
So we talked about one of the greatest horror films of all time in Halloween, but it doesn’t end there – although I’m sure many wish it did. Any cornerstone of a great slasher franchise is its endless, often pointless sequels. But we love Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface, and especially Michael Myers. In total there are 11 installments of Halloween. You know about the original so now let’s talk about the sequels.
HALLOWEEN II
MORE of the night he came home! I’m a fan of this. Probably the best – and worst part about the movie is that we find out that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers sister. Oh that’s why he was after her... Yeah it eliminates the whole Boogeyman perception and makes him human but I’m cool with it. I like that the film is contained within a hospital and watching Michael wreak havoc in inventive ways. Also cool to incorporate some of the witchy parts of Halloween when they find SAMHAIN written on the blackboard (that’s pronounced sowin by the way) Michael prefers a scalpel in this film and it has the single greatest moment in all of the films when he walks right through a plate glass door. Once again Laurie survives and we get to see how badly Loomis wants Michael dead.
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzOdUKVD8Ac
HALLOWEEN III - SEASON OF THE WITCH
So first things first, this movie is not about Michael Myers so it may not be for you. The first two films are treated as though they never happened but I do believe that there are scenes with Halloween playing on a television though. It’s about an evil mask maker using Celtic and Witchcraft practices that I do appreciate because of the roots of the holiday. Fans weren’t happy with the title since it didn’t include Myers. Not such great reviews but I do love the cheesy music and of course the Silver Shamrock commercial.
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MnaYzBhx0A
HALLOWEEN IV – THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS
Probably my second favorite in the series. Ten years later Michael Myers returns! He escapes while being transferred and returns to Haddonfield. This time he’s after his niece Jamie Lloyd who we find out is indeed Laurie Strode’s daughter now living in Haddonfield with her foster family. One of the reasons I like this one is it really feels like it’s the Halloween season. If nothing else they capture that look. LOVE the opening credits. It’s the first time we see Danielle Harris whom we’ll talk about later. Loomis is back badly scarred from the part 2 explosion but he’s not stopping anytime soon. The ending is great with Michael being mowed down by every bullet on earth and seemingly falls to his death in a cemetery. After everyone returns home seemingly safe, Jamie stabs her mother while still in her clown costume. The last scene of her holding the bloody knife while Loomis cries in disbelief is intense and leaves the door open for more…
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-tYVNOvtQ
HALLOWEEN V – THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS
Not sure how I feel about this one. Part 4 was very successful and they wanted to cash in so this installment was shot and released just a year later. We still follow Jamie Lloyd as she is now in a hospital for children after killing her mother. Michael is of course alive. He’s fallen through the cemetery into a mineshaft where he escapes into a creek. He ends up with a hermit whom he predictably murders and makes his return to Haddonfield. Jamie can’t speak and now has a psychic connection with Michael. Loomis uses her as bait to lure him back to his childhood home to kill him once and for all. During the film we see the appearance of a stranger arriving in Haddonfield in black boots. Loomis succeeds in capturing Michael and at the end he is sitting calmly in a cell ready to be transferred to prison. As Jamie waits in a car, there is an explosion in the police station. Gunshots are fired as the stranger who arrived, AKA the Man in Black has freed Michael and they have escaped. I do enjoy the final scene where Jamie wanders in fear through the burning precinct as we are left with the question of what just happened. The plot thickens…
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvTjz_LXvPo
HALOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS
A bit of a mess. Problems with production and it just never really worked out. The premise is good though. Michael is ultimately controlled by a society using the Curse of Thorn. Now we know whom the Man in Black was working for. Jamie Lloyd finally meets her demise – on farm equipment no less in this film. Later Tommy Doyle, the now adult character that Laurie babysat in the original film finds Jamie’s infant son. He lives in a boarding house across the street from the Myers house where members of the Strode family now live. Michael is now after Jamie’s son and Kara Strode’s son Danny, whom is believed to have the power of the Thorn as well. The Thorn cult kidnaps everyone and takes them to Smith’s Grove sanitarium. The final scene alludes to what appears to be a showdown between Michael and Loomis. Neither characters fate is revealed. The sad aspect of this movie is that Donald Pleasence who is legendary for his role as Dr. Sam Loomis died only months before the film’s release. We see Myers actually run for the first time while chasing his prey and the Halloween theme gets a heavy metal twist to it. There was a Producer’s Cut bootleg version you could get your hands on that was a much more satisfying cut of the film.
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NpA82QWczY
HALLOWEEN H20
H20 (Halloween 20 years later) is an important film in the franchise. It marks the return of Jamie Lee Curtis to the series for the first time since Halloween II. This film jumps ahead 20 years after the events of the original Halloween and ignores the previous sequels. Laurie Strode is now the Headmistress of a private school in Northern California, has a son (Josh Hartnett) and is definitely screwed up from what happened to her. Michael finds her and we get a long awaited showdown between the two. She is no longer the timid teenage girl and is ready to kill her brother who she always knew would find her and that clearly shows when she stops at nothing to do so. In the end she cuts Michael’s head off with an axe. Wow! Is Michael Myers really dead???
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heFY1zqvsyE
HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION
I’m only going to talk about the opening scene of this movie. One more time we get to see Curtis play Laurie Strode. We find out she actually killed a paramedic at the end H20. Myers crushed the larynx of the EMT who found him and switched clothes with him. She’s living out her life in a mental hospital after everything that’s happened to her. Michael finds her and she almost ACTUALLY kills him but needs to check the mask to be sure it’s him. Well, it’s him and he takes advantage of her mistake, stabs her and throws her to her death. Our Final Girl Laurie Strode is finally dead. Why don’t I talk about the rest of the movie? Because it stars Busta Rhymes.
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMV3pcxbcTA
ROB ZOMBIE’S HALLOWEEN
Rob Zombie is one of my idols and when I heard he was going to remake Halloween I was PUMPED. It wasn’t amazing, but I did like it. In his vision we see Michael Myers backstory and how he became whom we know today. Zombie loves white trash and that is certainly the environment young Michael grew up in. Killing animals, a bully, then his family. After that we jump ahead to a fairly straightforward remake. Zombie loves his horror movies and I appreciate that he cast so many horror actors and icons. Ken Foree, Malcolm McDowell, Dee Wallace, and Danielle Harris – whom I promised we’d come back to. So every male horror movie fan is basically in love with Harris. She is NOT the little girl from Halloween IV and V anymore. I met her along with some other cast members at a horror con just before the film was released. Thank you Rob Zombie. The film is very much Zombie’s style BUT it does paint Myers as a human. That was the one thing about the original that was great. Michael Myers was pure evil. Really not human. Zombie’s take is good though and I love his style of raw, almost documentary way of shooting.
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5oFtbWvJRY
RZ’S HALLOWEEN II
It seems that every horror film is destined for a sequel and Zombie’s version was no exception. I think I actually liked this more than the original. Very, very violent and raw. It starts with scenes in the emergency room as doctors put Laurie back together after being attacked by Michael. She’s now living with Annie and Sheriff Brackett and is really messed up. I really like that the film is about what happens to a person after intense trauma. Her life is a mess and she is trying the best she can to move on. We’ll mention that Scout Taylor Compton plays Laurie very well in both films. As with the original Halloween II, we find out that she is Michael Myers sister and he’s coming to get her. Zombie gives a bloody send off to fan favorite Danielle Harris and does an overall good job with this film. It’s a twisted tale of family in a way as he keeps seeing visions of his mother. In the end we see Laurie with a twisted smile on her face sitting in the mental ward. Fitting end I suppose.
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWBOfbZaA8g
HALLOWEEN (2018)
Okay, one more to go. This film was just released in theaters and I did enjoy it. This film is a direct sequel to the original 1978 film. Yes I know this sounds like H20 again considering it has Jamie Lee Curtis and ignores the previous sequels so yeah, it kind of is. Of course this is taking place almost 40 years later but Laurie Strode’s character is still haunted by that night so we again see the struggle with dealing with traumatic life events. This time she’s living in a wooded home protected by fences and booby traps everywhere Yes, she knows Michael will eventually be coming for her. He escapes in a bus crash and goes on a bloody rampage in Haddonfield before finding Laurie. Girl power in this film as its Laurie Strode, her daughter and granddaughter against him. They trap him in the hidden basement and set fire to it as they escape. I like that we never see Michael’s dead body so we have no closure. My favorite part of this film is that they reshot some scenes from previous films. Laurie’s granddaughter in the classroom looking out the window while the teacher talks about fate from the original film. The neighbor making a ham sandwich when Myers enters the house from part II. The woman in the gas station bathroom very much like that from H20. Fans of the franchise will enjoy the film.
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek1ePFp-nBI
Whew. That was a lot of movies. I hope you enjoyed reading these reviews and I hope you have or will watch all of them as well! I’ll leave you with Dr. Loomis’s most famous quote:
I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no, uh, conscience, no understanding and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes, the devil's eyes.