THE HALLOWEEN FRANCHISE WRITE UP

It's as of writing this right now the 6th October at 10:30pm and I am here to document and write up the entire Halloween franchise! Yes that is correct every single film even Halloween 3 and Rob Zombies Halloween's are here in this list with my thoughts and bits and bobs about the films and their stories and all my likes and dislikes, they are all pretty much here! 

This is all done in preperation and hype for the new film and potentially last Halloween film. I will also admit this is also done in prep for me eventually Ranking the series in a future top 10 list! SO buckle up as you join me on a deep dive into the Halloween franchise.

Halloween

Classic! So good! My fave horror character and slasher film. This slasher changed the game for horror. Michael is such an iconic character and Carpenters score is also very iconic and memorable. Initially this was going to be called the baby sitter murders. This also had a budget of 300k. I get chills to this day from the music. I love everything about this film. This is what started my fascination with the series and with its titular character of The Shape aka Michael Myers. The pov shots and tracking shots and music just mmf chefs kiss. Another iconic character I've always enjoyed besides Laurie is Dr. LOOMIS. So much mystery to Michael it's just so fascinating to me. The best mask for Michael of course. The build up to the kills and suspense and tension as a whole is also perfect. I have seen this so many times and I'm still so captivated by it all. Its amusing how Michael kills Bob and then puts on a white sheet and glasses just like playing with his victim before getting the kill and also the brute strength of Michael stabbing Bob and lifting him off the ground and just standing there admiring his kill is something else. There's a beautiful shot of Michael in the shadows and stabbing Laurie and the chase scene is superb. His gentle slow stroll is something else because he will always be at 1mph and behind you even if you are running away at 5mph and there's times where he just appears ahead of you. The iconic rise up of Michael is something else too and of course when Michael is shot 6 times and falls off a balcony and is laying on the ground in the next shot as LOOMIS looks over the balcony well he is gone. The first theme is the most iconic for me its got a sense of foreboding threat aswell as a sense of trancendance and of course the running lurking repeated tones although for the most part the instrumentals are the lightest played of the series in terms of themes this is iconic and legendary.

Halloween 2

The best sequel in the original timeline, set directly after the first so to watch the first two back to back is a nice treat. The one male paramedic is creepier than Michael in this haha. The kills are more creative and BOY the end mask shot is nice with the bloody tears as they dubbed it. The pov Michael shots are awesome. The soundtrack is so different more industrial, deep and synthy with its music. A lot of elements of this film are taken and remade later in the series. 

H3: Season Of The Witch

Nothing to do with Myers but this is still underrated and a great Halloween/horror film as this was supposed to be the start of a new anthology series of films. Hospital emergency room Dr. Dan Challis and Ellie Grimbridge, the daughter of a murder victim, uncover a terrible plot by small-town mask maker Conal Cochran, a madman who's planning a Halloween mass murder utilizing an ancient Celtic ritual. The ritual involves a boulder stolen from Stonehenge, the use of Silver Shamrock masks and a triggering device contained in a television commercial all designed to kill millions of children. The catchy silver shamrock jingle that plays constantly throughout this is so catchy. I actually like this one and I never skip this in a series rewatch and sometimes I watch this on it's own just because it is that good a halloween film and a great standalone film. 

H4: The Return Of Michael Myers

Not bad some fine kills as Myers returns. Praise be to loomis as he's one of my fave characters in the series. Shamefully they say Laurie died somehow and of course she had a 6 year old daughter and that's legit all we know of the strode story. One of the best endings. I'm not a massive fan of Michael being all "I must kill all my relatives". Oh the whole Michael waiting in a rocking chair bit and then kills someone by impaling them with the barrel of a shot gun was wicked fun. The mob coming together to stop Michael was another idea used better later on in the series. The theme has added instruments to it most notably added drums and the synth keyboards too and of course the tambourine shaking.

H5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers

Oh this is bad. We also have an unlikeable new girl main character. The worst mask for myers. They try to make Loomis unlikeable. It's silly and dumb considering the film that came before it. My fave moments are with Loomis and Michael, the laundry shoot escape with Jamie and Michael and Michael killing people with farm equipment haha. The lowest grossing Halloween film. The change made to the Myers House was stupid and for continuity of the series was a horrible decision to change its design and look inside and out. The script wasn't even completed when filming began, this was just a huge mess. The theme is more in line with the first but there's again added instruments in the mix and different sound going on among the iconic track, I think there's more xylophone in this mix.

H6: The Curse Of Michael Myers

Contining the bad Halloween trend here. Sadly this is the last we ever see of Donald as Loomis. There's actually for the first time in the franchise history 2 cuts of this one. Good mask though. Good to have seen a brutal Michael with this one for sure. Just not a fan of the bad acting and the whole cult thing. The cult of Thorn story I feel would have worked with some dealings with the Halloween 3 story as Silvershamrock and Thorn cult could have been related given their Irish celtic roots but I digress. The offscreen kill of Loomis was not good and in the producers cut they made Loomis the new leader of the cult of Thorn. The producers cut suggests Michael went off and had a baby with his niece and yeah no that's not the character at all and they also made Michael get stuck in a circle of runes unable to leave until plot twist it's shown he switches places with someone else. Yeah this is just a big facepalm. More electric guitar in this theme. 

H20: Halloween 20

Direct sequel to halloween 2, this retconned everything onward as Laurie returns. This is Halloween 20 years later. Michael is looking for Laurie as always. It's cool how the film basically starts with Michael killing nurse Mirian and that she was taking care of Loomis in his final days and also helped keep all the information. Also Laurie went on to change her name and had a son and they moved to California. Laurie still has ptsd from her past with Michael as she is protective of her son around halloween and this is great to see and used much better later on in the series. Laurie still has a pretty balanced life however. Also a funny thing in this film is the bathroom scene when Michael is en route to Laurie as he leaves two people alive and just takes their car where as in a later film he kills two people in a similar setting so yeah later films take a lot out of these retconned films and make them better if you ask me. Janet Lee Curtis appearing in this is just so good. There's little Easter eggs in this film showing other horror slashers too and I think its in part thanks to the scream writer who wrote this. The mask in this was terrible. Apparently they went for a cgi mask because they couldn't make up their minds on one? What?! The iconic shot of Michael and Laurie meeting face to face is just oof lush. The fight between Laurie and Michael is also great. Decapitating Michael should have been the nail in the coffin to be honest. The theme song in this film feels like a bigger musical scored peiece with added violins and string instruments to the mix and a soft piano rendition.

Halloween Resurrection

Trick or treat motherfucker! Set after H20. Basically Michael apparently switched bodies with someone before getting decapitated and this is dumb as like I said the last film ended shockingly and also was not too bad overall. I'm not a fan of the mask in this one either. Laurie's death was just terrible. So many uninteresting characters in this and this is not the typical Halloween movie and doesn't feel like it. Its a bunch of teens making a reality show in a "haunted house" and it happens to be Myers house and he returns home and you can imagine what happens here. The theme song is slow with its build but the piano is normal speed but heavier on its low sounding chords. This film is stupid and rediculous and disrespects Michael. This was the one which nailed the series down and let it die. Until.....

Rob Zombies Halloween

First of all I don't mind Rob Zombies takes on the series BUT they could have been better and also for me these are Robs best films and that's not saying too much. The first Zombie Halloween starts with a huge backstory on Michael Myers and his abusive as fuck family history with a serious broken home dynamic with an abusive as hell dad, his mom is a stripper and Michael kills animals and gets bullied at school because he's different and of course one day his rage got a hold of him and he beat one of his bullies to death. The Rob Zombie Halloween are mostly gritty and unsettling and beyond gory and Michael is like a feral animal in how he kills. Malcom Mcdowell as Loomis I also liked. The relationship with Loomis and Michael I also like and the fact Michaels mother still visits Michael despite the horrible crimes up until she one day kills herself and so this is where Michael becomes mute because it seems that's the last of his humanity which is alive and soon as his mother is gone so is he and then we get this empty, hulking psychopathic monster. He just exists waiting and bidding his time til he is ready to leave to kill again. TYLER MANE as Michael is fucking great I loved his portrayal and even met Tyler and told him this and got a signed photo from him and of course Tyler Mane is one of the tallest and nicest guys you will ever meet. Anyway back to the film. Its so upsetting when Michael kills the only guard who was helping Michael. The kills in this film make you feel them. When we meet adult Laurie we see a lot of recreated scenes from the first Halloween. The mask is nice more similar to the original but weathered and cracked. Respect to the cast of this one as there's some cracking actors in this. Laurie tries to kill Michael after Michael takes her away to her house and kind of like gets on her level as if to say "it's just us now" and when Laurie attack Michael, he just reacts with rage because the one person left in his life has now turned against him too so he goes back to trying to kill her before getting shot by Loomis and we get the same Halloween quote "was that the boogeyman" all before having Michael attack again all before Michael and Laurie fight to the death so to speak as Laurie flat out shoots Michael straight in his face and then ends. The theme song for this feels a lot more demented and distorted probably to keep in shape with Rob's version of Michael and the theme is also accorporated with some distortion and synth and the traditional piano which now sounds like a music box. It was great to take Michael back out to the big screen in a new take on his story and the Halloween series but now let's move to the sequel because evil never dies....

Rob Zombie's Halloween 2

I watched this in cinema and being a massive fan of Halloween I had a pretty good time at the time of first seeing this because it was my first time seeing my fave slasher and horror series on the big screen and the mask was great. This one defo made Rob Zombie go crazy creatively with this film because White Horses and metaphors. So this again starts from the end of the first and Laurie goes to hospital as 2 pervy paramedics take Michael's body to the hospital BUT he was not dead and he awakens and kills the paramedics. The practical effects and gory kills are just wicked and the grotesque nature of showing Laurie and her injuries was so brutal. The dream sequence was great just wish it wasn't set as a dream sequence. Exploring the themes of ptsd was interesting we seen Laurie change into a completely different person following the year after the attack. Loomis turns into a scumbag in this one who's more for the fame and chasing fame and selling the story of Michael to others. Sure the stories and consequences do catch up with Loomis as he gets a lot of flack for it and it's good that the Film shows that. Compared to the first Halloween Rob made this one feels like a weird mix up as a lot of the characters don't feel the same and are quite unlikable in this one. Michael often doesn't wear a mask unless he wants to kill someone so it seems. In the finale Michael takes Laurie again to an abandoned place for some ritual this time which again urgh and also goes back on the ending of Robs first Halloween so wtf and why do this Rob? Was it all for getting your wife some screen time and money? That's what it feels like ahaha. Cult coo koo going on because only Michael and Laurie can see the visions of their mother and the white horses. Loomis does just appear and try to talk michael over and prove to the world that he's not a phony. Loomis gets brutalised and the police kill Michael and apparently freeing Laurie from the loopy spell shit going on and then shes crying and saying she loves her brother. Like what?! Of course then Laurie kills Michael for good and wears his mask and then she's set to be the next killer but then the film ends. The theme is the same as the last one really. It's a big disappointment compared to the first and I just don't know why Rob went the direction he did. We almost got Halloween 3D but thank god it ended and that was it. Until 2018 when Evil Came Home!

Halloween 2018

Alright so we are back to true and top form here. Laurie's back. Carpenter is back and he has updated his classic score adding in a more synth edge to it, the piano soft undertones are nice and so are the little riffs of electric guitar and electro style sounds in the theme, this is probs my second fave theme in the series. It's a direct sequel to the first Halloween 40 years ago and we are dealing with Michael in the modern age. It's great to see The Shape and his legacy that is still so much alive as two podcasters go to try and meet Michael and when they present his mask things change. The atmosphere and people around everything changes. Evil is aware his precious mask is within reach in the first time in over 40 years. This is a bad omen for SURE. The reverse shot of the rotting pumpkin coming back to life was beautiful. So good to see Jamie Lee Curtis back! In the past 40 years Laurie has had a bad life plagued of ptsd thanks to the boogeyman. Laurie has had 2 failed marriages and a rocky relationship to her daughter, however she does have a good relationship with her granddaughter. Alison is great but her friends and boyfriend at the time are not. Michael is being moved to a new prison when disaster strikes and of course Michael breaks free along with all the other prisoners. Michael's new Dr, Dr Seratin is pretty good and I like the contrast in him compared to Loomis as this Dr is most obsessed with Myers and his evil rather than Loomis's fear of evil and has to be stopped. Here's the bathroom scene from H20 but this time it's BRUTAL. MICHAEL IS BACK. Great mask. James Jude Courtney plays the body for this Michael for the next 3 films and he's great just the perfect body for Myers. They fill us in on this film saying after The Shape disappeared at the end of first Halloween but was found a few houses away and stopped and taken away basically after they stopped Loomis from killing him. Michael kills anyone and everyone because he just wants to and the track shots in this are golden. These films just oh my god I love the Michael pov and track shots. There's some great humor in this film especially with the little kid Julian. The easter egg of kids wearing masks from Halloween 3 is great. Dr Seratin tries to twist us with Michael seemingly dead and the doctor removes Michael's mask and wears it and stabs the good officer who was out to protect Alison Strode and you know what I liked this twist as I said it's a great contrast compared to Loomis. Michael is the essence of evil and he always changes those around him in some way shape or form and you can look at the entire series Canon and non Canon and see the evil rubs off and changes others exposed to Michael. Dr Seratin wants to get a feel of inside the mind of Michael and what Michael must feel killing and wearing the mask and helped free Michael to study him however this does bite Seratin back as he gets viciously killed and curbed stomped by Michael. Now we set the stage for the Strodes vs Michael. Michael playing with the mannequins is a tense scene and we get window call backs and a great fight between Laurie and Michael and then we get Karen and Michael and Alison all beating or rather shooting The Shape is great and refreshing to see. 3 generations of strode later they manage to capture the monster who tormented their family and burn the house down with Michael stuck inside the house. We don't see Michael burning but we do hear him breathing you can't kill the boogeyman. With Alison holding a knife while the strode family flee to safety we can see this as a passing down of the trauma to the next generation.

Halloween Kills

Basically we follow the exact same night and straight after the 2018 film after Michael was locked away in the burning strode house only for foolish firemen to come along and free Michael which they end up regretting on account of Michael absolutely brutalising them all with such ease. We get an ensemble of legacy characters from the first Halloween returning and that's so great to see and we see how they are and have been affected by The Shape after all these years and of course when death comes back to their little town, they take the law into their own hands because "Evil dies tonight". Probably the bloodiest and goriest film in the series with the highest body count too for Michael. The recreation of 1978 scenes are so perfectly done. The theme in this film is more ethereal choir singing along with the traditional piano theme. The social commentary with this film asks what fear does with mob mentality and with society. Big John and Little John are great new characters which we lose quickly because Michael is pure evil and of course they had to be living in his house. I'm not a fan of Alison getting back with her cheating bf and of course he dies. This film is of course about Laurie healing and resting because of course she gonna have a massive fight when she is recovered. Michael playing with bodies is class and on par for what he'd actually do given that now and then he has this playful nature even if it's with dead people haha. Badass Karen is great and ending with Karen dying I did feel was rushed but hey its the mysterious ways of the shape and maheb Halloween ends redoes this scene. Of course this is one of the better Halloween sequels. What will happen now when Halloween Ends....

That is all I have for you today, thanks so much for reading my little passion project piece on the entire Halloween franchise up to this point. :) 

CLICK HERE FOR MY Halloween Ends review!

AND CLICK HERE FOR MY Halloween films ranked list!

Please share this blog post to other Halloween or horror fans, I would love this post to get a lot more exposure than other posts from the shere amount of work I did and put into it. 

Thanks for reading, stay spooky!