My love for HALLOWEEN and really the whole franchise started in high school. Oddly enough I became a fan after I watched SCREAM, another movie that would have graced the top 10 horror movies. I had seen a couple of the "FREDDY" movies before but SCREAM was the first "scary movie" I really LOVED. Through out the entire movie they reference HALLOWEEN. They borrow some of the score in the end very cleverly by having HALLOWEEN playing on a t.v. during the climax of SCREAM. The characters talk about HALLOWEEN a lot so I thought I'd give it a shot. That mixed with HALLOWEEN: H20 about to come out made me really want to watch the original.
From the opening steady cam POV scene, I was hooked. The music scored by John Carpenter is perfect and full of tension that just builds and builds. Every little jump scare in this movie works and used to really creep me out every single time.
If you've never seen it here is a run down of the plot. Michael Myers as a six year old kills his older sister on Halloween. He is then put into a sanitarium where he is treated by Doctor Loomis, played perfectly by Donald Pleasence. Fast Forward 16 years and Michael Myers breaks out of the hospital and returns to his hometown to cause chaos. He begins to stalk a group of teens, including Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis. He kills all her friends on Halloween night and tries to kill Laurie but she finds a way to outsmart him at almost every turn. At the end as Michael is about to kill Laurie, Dr. Loomis shows up and shoots Michael six times until Michael falls to his death...or so you think. Loomis looks down to the yard and sees that Michael is nowhere to be found....CREDITS!
I can't say how many times I watched the original, but it was a lot. I loved the character of Michael Myers. He wore a blue jump suit and a creepy all white William Shatner mask. Once I really got into the first movie, I found out there were 5 sequels...what?! I had to see them all, except for HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH. Why not Halloween III? Because Michael Myers isn't in it. To this day, I've never seen Halloween III.
Halloween II continues immediately where the first one left off. Laurie is taken to the hospital and Michael tries to yet again kill her. In 2 it is revealed that Laurie is Michael's sister and that is why he was stalking her. I think it's creepier that there was really no motive in the first one but it's alright. The movie itself isn't great. I remember not liking it much when I originally saw it and I just rewatched it the other day and feel the same way.
In Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Michael, well...returns. This time he is hunting his niece Jamie Lloyd. Mainly because his sister, Laurie, is now dead(ish). Jamie is played really well by Danielle Harris. I used to really like this movie and still do, just not as much. Now I can't get over how horrible Michael Myers looks. His mask is really awful in this movie. There is almost NO detail and is a lot less creepy. Dr. Loomis is back again and continues to try and save the day. He mainly just gets beat up and tells people that Michael is evil. I will say the end of Halloween 4 is great and I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, finds Michael once again chasing Jamie, who now is psychically linked to her uncle. That is really all you need to know, this movie sucks really bad. It has maybe the worst set of teenagers I've ever seen. I tried to rewatch this the other night but couldn't because they were so annoying. Also once again the mask looks terrible. It's a little better but seems to have a really pointy nose that is very distracting.
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers stars Paul Rudd in his first movie! That is all it has going for it. I do think the mask is finally creepy again, mainly because it looks like Shatner again. This one also has some good kills and scares in it but ultimately it's terrible. I haven't seen this in a long time. I planned to rewatch it but the fact that after rewatching the first three Michael Myers Halloween movies and disliking all of them but the first one, I gave up.
Halloween: H20 brings back Laurie Strode and completely ignores all the sequels. GREAT IDEA. The bad part about this movie is that it came after SCREAM and seems like Halloween trying to be SCREAM. Michael isn't bad but the mask changes a lot and it is REALLY distracting. Jamie Lee Curtis isn't bad in this but doesn't seem that great either. I did rewatch this and I got to say, it seems very dated and I didn't like it as much.
Halloween: Resurrection finds Laurie Strode in the same mental hospital that Michael was in. Guess who finds her? YEPPERS! Big Brother Michael. He kills her off with in 10 minutes and then goes home to find an internet show is filming in his house...sons a bitches... It's kind of a fun idea and it is a bit scarier than the last couple but Michael gets defeated by Busta Rhymes...I just can't deal with that.
That is the end of the original series. Rob Zombie, who has said he was a huge Halloween fan, remade Halloween. It's not terrible. It's almost all about Michael and shows how he grew up to be a crazy murderer. I like the first hour of this movie but then the second how becomes damn near a shot for shot remake of the original. The teens in this, including a new Laurie Strode, is even worse than the teens in Halloween 5. I'm not sure how that is possible but it is. I do like how brutal the movie is and how vicious Michael is again.
Rob then made Halloween II-the remake. It's awful. I actually wanted to leave the theater I thought it was so bad. It's obnoxious and ridiculous. Skip this at all costs.
The website cinemassacre.com did video reviews of all the movies and they are pretty spot on. Check 'em out if you get a chance. I pretty much agree with everything that is said.
I really used to love the whole HALLOWEEN franchise but now it's pretty much just the first one I can watch all the way through. It's a great movie that pretty much invented the "RULES" of a horror movie and really got the slasher genre off the ground. Watch it and enjoy.
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| Ew, this ain't STAR WARS, quit kissing your sister Mike! |
Also my next blog will probably be back to being more of a personal thing and less movie critic stuff.
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