Halloween: Films (1978-2002)

Halloween (1978)
Dir. John Carpenter

Halloween is more than just another cheap, independent slasher flick. It's a master class on how to create, pace and sustain tension when working with a limited budget.

The unease and sense of foreboding that permeates every crucial scene is in large part due to Carpenter's use of music. Like Hermann's score on Psycho (1960) it has a stabbing, piercing, onomatopoeic quality that keeps your nerves on a knife edge.

The faceless, unstoppable force that is Michael Myers taps into a very human, deep-rooted fear of what's hidden behind the mask we all wear, but Michael's inner evil is so powerful that even blankness can't hide it.

Halloween II (1981)
Dir. Rick Rosenthal

You can’t keep a knife-wielding maniac in a Shat mask down for long. There are bitches to be killed, so MM rises to the occasion.

It begins at the very instant Carpenter's original ended. The POV shots and the heavy breathing return, and the frame often gives us two things to focus on at one time. In most respects it mimics the things that the first one did well, so why is it dull?

There's no suspenseful build-up. The plot is so riddled with holes it belongs in Church. The starkness of the iconic music score is lost. The environment is empty. Loomis runs around blindly. Laurie is hardly in it, and when she is there she hardly speaks.

I can't delve into the ending in this review, but be warned, it makes little to no sense.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Dir. Tommy Lee Wallace

The much maligned third film has a stupid plot but I don't think it deserves the hate it gets. Instead, it deserves a second chance.

People wanted more Michael Myers. But instead they got a story about masks and an evil Irishman's plot to poop on every happy kid's party with the help of some ridiculous pseudo-science and ancient magic.

Tom Atkins is a decent actor. The film is better paced than Halloween II (1981). The tense and occasionally terse music of Carpenter and Howarth raise the atmosphere to an extraordinarily high level, heightening the already well-developed intent. The cinematography is great in places. The finale is balls, but the very end scene is classic stuff.

Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Dir. Dwight H. Little

Leaving aside the incredulity of how we got
to this point in the series, there's an effective building of atmosphere and the story, despite its obvious flaws, does a decent job of associating itself with the first two entries while simultaneously starting a new arc.

We're back in Haddonfield ten years after MM got stabby. There's no Laurie Strode, but there's someone related to her.

John Carpenter had wisely abandoned ship by this stage, but Alan Howarth remained on music duties, which helped considerably.

Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Dir. Dominique Othenin-Girard

Film five picks up the story one year after film four and insults the intelligence of the viewer at almost every turn: MM’s Rocket Man escape; his brief Frankenstein moment that goes nowhere; the teenagers that exist solely to be killed off; a question posed that every viewer will be asking themselves remains unanswered; the mystery man with the shiny toecaps, etc. I applaud bringing fresh ideas into the franchise, but don't half-ass them.

Donald Pleasence is great as always, and the little girl (Danielle Harris) is fantastic, even in an overly-long, dragged out chase scene that left no doubt where it would end.

Speaking of endings, there isn't one; you'll need to watch Part VI for that.

Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Dir. Joe Chappelle

Chucklehead's back to murder anyone in the Myers house that may be very slightly semi-related somehow to somebody somewhere. His first kill is a lot of fun, but things turn to shit afterwards with the introduction of a public fascination with serial killers that sets up some lazy plot advancements.

Loomis, now wizened and retired (and hardly burned) gets most of his scenes cut, along with some babble about a cult that was supposed to explain the Thorn rune. The rune is Purisaz, which does actually represent negative powers and hostility, so that at least fits.

Elsewhere, they manage to mispronounce Samhain again, after getting it wrong in the second film and then right in the third. On a sadder note, Donald Pleasence died before the film was released.

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

Dir. Steve Miner

As expected, Jamie Lee Curtis is the best thing in the seventh film. It likes to think of itself as the real sequel to the first, although it incorporates elements of the second and even has remnants of an explanation for Laurie's absence in the fourth, fifth and sixth from a previous script, which it pretends didn't happen. It's clear that Dir. Steve Miner hadn't got a damn clue what film he wanted to make.

There's no explanation for Michael Myers' return. There's no proof it’s even him. It's just a stocky guy in a mask with a big-ass knife who likes to stick it in people.

There's some decent camerawork early on and the editing was functional, but by halfway through the running time I was feeling the sharp pangs of regret. H20 isn't even the last one. They made another one afterwards! Bloody hell. Finality and credibility go out the window when there’s money to be made.

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Dir. Rick Rosenthal

The familiar tune fills me with hope. The glimmer of hope ends when Jamie Lee's cameo ends. Why is she even on the cover?

Michael's back. He still lives. He still lurks. He still has the ability to make any knife he holds swish with a magic, metallic sound in empty air.

Someone sets up a live internet stream from the Myers house in 240p. Are you kidding me? That's the plot? That gibberish is dialogue? Fuck off.

Michael should get a medal for helping keep the slut population down.

Resurrection almost (but not quite) makes me glad that Rob Zombie's remake happened because it stopped any more awful sequels.