"One Good Scare": The HALLOWEEN Films

[Marley Drama]

A little late, I know.

It would be great to get some discussion around the series here. The highs and lows. The characters you love and those you are willing to get killed. The films you've watched and the ones you haven't (I haven't watched the Rob Zombie films). The best soundtracks and the worst.

I've been listening to the film scores quite a bit recently. And that bizarrely put me in the mood to watch Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers last night.

I've generally favoured the first sequel and H20 over H4, but while watching, it occurred to me that my opinion of the films is quite fluid. Even my favourite instalment isn't set in stone.

So to start the ball rolling, here's my ranking of the eight films in the original franchise at this moment in time:

1. Halloween
2. Halloween H20
3. Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers
4. Halloween II
5. Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers
6. Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers
7. Halloween III
8. Halloween: Resurrection

How about you?!

 

[Sarah]

Absolutely love the Halloween series, thanks for this Mel!

Michael is truly THE Halloween legend and one of the most horrific characters in all of Scaresville. The fact that he can't die and you can never really escape from him makes it all the more frightening. The soundtrack is THE soundtrack to Halloween itself.

My favourites are:

Halloween (original - Rob Zombie should not be allowed to direct anything)
Halloween II
Halloween H20

I will need to recap on the others. Not sure how I feel about Halloween Resurrection. I actually find these films very hard to track down and buy.

 

[Ome]

It's been quite a while since I watched these and I was hoping to have a mini marathon earlier in the year.

Going from memory, he's how I rank the movies



1. Halloween
2. Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers
3. Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers
4. Halloween II
5. Halloween H20
6. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers



I've only seen Resurrection once and i hated the idea of the Big Brother theme, that I can't remember if I ever finished it.

 

[Sarah]

Halloween III is shit because Michael isn't even in it.

 

[Marley Drama]

Not sure how I feel about Halloween Resurrection.

I've only seen Resurrection once and i hated the idea of the Big Brother theme, that I can't remember if I ever finished it.

I loathe Resurrection. Busta Rhymes beating up Michael Myers with crappy kung fu moves and noises is so embarrassing. Then there's Laurie's fate.

But the most unforgivable part for me is the retcon of the H20 ending. It's desperate. I choose to believe the franchise ended with H20.

Halloween III is shit because Michael isn't even in it.

I could cope with Michael not being in it. But I could not cope with this:

Tonight I watched Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers. It's even worse than I remembered. What's with that wacky sound effects to accompany the two comedy cops. And Tina has to be the most annoying character in the whole series right after Busta:

 

[Ome]

It's desperate. I choose to believe the franchise ended with H20.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Jessie]

1. Halloween
2. Halloween II
3. Halloween H20
4. Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers
5. Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers
6. Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers
7. Halloween: Resurrection
8. Halloween III

 

[Angels Chanting]

I've only seen Halloween 1, 2 and 3. I quite like Halloween 3 and the haunting Silver Shamrock advert but my favourite was Halloween 2, even though the character played by Ana Alicia from Falcon Crest was killed in it.

 

[Sarah]

And John Carpenter is on board!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jamie Lee Curtis is returning to play the iconic Laurie Strode in the “Halloween” franchise.

Universal Pictures also set Oct. 19, 2018, as the release date for what it’s calling the final film in the “Halloween” series.

The horror movie is being produced by Trancas International Films, Blumhouse Productions, and Miramax.

Curtis’ character will have a 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.

John Carpenter will executive produce and serve as creative consultant on this film, joining leading horror producer Jason Blum, who’s behind “Get Out,” “Split,” and “The Purge” and “Paranormal Activity” franchises.

David Gordon Green is directing from a script he co-wrote with Danny McBride. Malek Akkad, whose Trancas International Films has produced the series since its inception, will produce. Green and McBride will executive produce under their Rough House Pictures banner. Green’s directing credits include “Pineapple Express” and “Our Brand Is Crisis.”

Carpenter came on board the project in May 2016. The “Halloween” film franchise was launched by Carpenter and Moustapha Akkad in 1978, and has led to 10 films that have grossed nearly $400 million worldwide.

Carpenter said at the time, “38 years after the original ‘Halloween,’ I’m going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all.”

The original “Halloween” was directed by Carpenter from his own script about Myers as he stalks and kills teenage babysitters on Halloween night. The film begins with six-year-old Michael killing his teenage sister on Halloween in 1963; he escapes 15 years later from a sanitarium and stalks Strode and her friends as they babysit.

Malek Akkad is the son of Moustapha Akkad, who exec produced the original “Halloween” with Irwin Yablans and produced several of the sequels. Malek Akkad produced three sequels, including 1998’s “Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later,” 2007’s “Halloween,” and 2009’s “Halloween II.”

Curtis also played Strode in “Halloween II” (1981), “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later” (1998), and “Halloween: Resurrection” (2002).

“Same porch. Same clothes. Same issues. 40 years later. Headed back to Haddonfield one last time for Halloween. Release date 10/19/18,” she tweeted about her return on Friday.

Why do I have to wait a YEAR???!!!!

 

[Marley Drama]

Oh please. I love Halloween, Curtis and Carpenter. But how many definitive endings, retcons, reboots and "one last time"s can a film series have?

the final film in the “Halloween” series

...Again

Headed back to Haddonfield one last time

...Again

Curtis’s character will have a final confrontation with Michael Myers

...Again



I have this feeling that in 2048, eighty seven year old Laurie Strode - played by ninety year old Jamie Lee Curtis - will still be having one more "final confrontation" with Michael Myers.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I just hope this time she tells him how he's degraded her as a woman on behalf of the patriarchy for 40 years.

 

[Sarah]

Did I imagine it...or did Laurie die in the last one?

 

[Ome]

But how many definitive endings, retcons, reboots and "one last time"s can a film series have?

I don't care anymore, in fact, this news has really excited me.

It's one of those stories where I ask how many times has he been killed and walked again?

 

[Ome]

Did I imagine it...or did Laurie die in the last one?

Oh, I thought she did die, now I'm all over the place trying to remember. I'm planning on doing the full series next month.

 

[Sarah]

I am sure she did. Maybe she has the gene like Michael that means she can't really die.

 

[Marley Drama]

Did I imagine it...or did Laurie die in the last one?

Yes. Jamie Lee insisted on her character being given a definitive on-screen death (so this is like Patrick Duffy's return to Dallas).

Spoiler

As H2O was to be the "final" film, Michael's death (an on-screen decapitation) was designed to give him no way back. When JLC learnt that it was going to be retconned for Resurrection she insisted on killing off Laurie on screen so she could firmly put the series in the past and give a definitive ending to Laurie's story.

Personally, I choose to believe the series ended with H2O.

 

[Ome]

Jamie Lee insisted on her character being given a definitive on-screen death

This is why my memory is so out of it with the later films, I've only watched Resurrection once. I'm quite excited at doing the full set next month.

 

[Sarah]

The original is obviously the best. I don't think Michael features in Season of the Witch at all does he?

Halloween II is fantastic - Donald Pleasance 'He's gone! The evil is gone!' - amazing.

I can take or leave anything that Rob Zombie does - didn't he do the remakes? Not in the same league at all. There's something very frightening about the simplicity of the original Michael Myers which doesn't exist in those remakes.

I love H20 - my favourite line is 'MICHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAEL!!!' when she goes screaming up the driveway with the axe. I love the setting and the autumnal feeling about it. Halloween is my favourite time of year.

 

[Marley Drama]

Music from the Halloween scores keeps coming on shuffle this week, which is a little uncanny since it's about this time of year I normally start actively playing them.

Curiously, this track was the first song that came on shuffle after I read Sarah's post about the 40th anniversary film...

Now I'm getting a little paranoid that my iPhone is somehow picking up on my mood.

John Carpenter's music from the original film especially is so associated with autumn that I pretty much only listen to it when leaves start dropping and the sun is low in the sky and turning things a warm gold.

On the other hand, the music John Ottman originally wrote for Halloween H20 (which got butchered in the film itself) is so beautiful I can listen to it year round (though it's always that bit better in October)...

 

[Sarah]

Halloween III is shit because Michael isn't even in it.

I can't believe I said this. Laughing at myself.