Top 10 Halloween Films (Michael Myers series)

Alright I have been patient and held off making a top 10 Halloween franchise list until I have seen Halloween Ends. Well that time is up and my review of Halloween Ends is out. Also, my whole take on the entire Halloween series is also out on my blog. Be sure to check those out for more in depth looks and thoughts on those films and the series as a whole from my point of view. 

I am a massive fan of this series and I love the Michael Myers character. In terms of how I will be ranking these, well I will be sorting them in order of one's I love best and which I felt had the best story, soundtrack etc. So no more delay, let's get to the killing.....I MEAN.....ranking....

10: H5

OK look this one sucks BUT I got to have a top 10 list as I could not just simply leave this list on a Top 8 Halloween films. To me H5, H6, Resurrection, Rob Zombie H2 and Ends are bad films of the series. There are bad films in the series, but I still have something I like about each one and for me in Halloween 5, what I like most is Loomis and Michael's interactions. I also like the scene where Jamie goes down the clothes shoot, and it's a bit tense for how she can escape that one.

9: H6

Again another bad one of the bunch BUT I will applaud them for trying to make sense why Michael can't die, and it's all some ritual and cult stuff even if I find the whole cult explanation in films to be cheap and overdone, it's something that prior to H20 and above that kinda fit. The off-screen kill of Loomis was not good and in the producer's cut they made Loomis the new leader of the cult of Thorn.

8: RZ's Halloween 1

And breathe this is where THE REAL LIST begins! Rob Zombie's first take with Halloween was great, it was different, it offered us a fresh new telling of the story we all knew but added more elements and backgrounds to Michaels character for sure, and it took his character to the realm of gritty almost factual take on what made him the monster he is and how his abusive home life background helped push him to be the killer we know today but not just that but all the bullies he had in his life and of course the kid was demented seeing as he was killing animals but hey, this was a good take. Rob Zombie did good, and the kills were brutal, and they actually made you feel the impact of them.

7: Halloween 4

Alright look, this and Halloween 2 (1981) both have better ends to Michael and a passing of the torch than Halloween Ends. It's a massive shame they killed Laurie off-screen for this film, and we got brought her daughter to carry on the whole family ties story with Michael. Loomis is one of my fave characters in the Halloween franchise, and he delivers a great performance here especially with its twist ending.

6: H20

Happy 20th Birthday to you, Michael Myers comes soon, Laurie you're in trouble, Happy 20th To you! Yes H20 is set 20 years after Halloween, and it's a direct sequel to Halloween 2 and all that came after H2 was retconned. Great to see Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie and she and Michael had a good reunion. There's little Easter eggs in this film showing other horror slashers too, and I think it's 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?! Michael being decapitated should have ended the series at the time.

5: Halloween 3

So this one is an Anthology film and does not contain anything from the Halloween films before it. Michael is not in it besides a 2 seconds cameo as in this one Halloween 1 is just a scary film advertised on TV. This is underrated. Yes it was majorly different and shocking in its time because they departed from Michael of course BUT leave that aside and think of it as its own thing, and you will have a good time.

4: Halloween Kills

Alright so now we are back to a more recent time of Halloween series with the second part of Blumhouse's trilogy of the series. I love this one, it's brutal, and the soundtrack is awesome, it feels so evil and big just like the Shape himself, and it's a great continuation from Halloween 2018 and of course it is fantastic seeing so many of the OG'S here.

3: Halloween 2 (1981)

OK so this one's ending for the series was better again than H4 and Halloween Ends. This one takes place exactly as Halloween 1978 ends and this one sets up the whole family ties story with Laurie being so special to Michael since Laurie is his sister. This is the best sequel in the original timeline.

2: Halloween 2018

Back to top form here with so many originals returning to reprise their roles, and it all works brilliantly. Mask, soundtrack, story, characters, fear, kills well it's perfect, I've talked about this one and the others on this list in more depth and detail over on my other blog post which had me write up about the entire series, so please check it out.

1: Halloween 1978

Of course this is what started it all and deserves to be crowned the best one. Not only did it start this extraordinary franchise, but it also gave birth to the whole slasher genre and outbreak from the 80s onwards. This started so many tropes to the horror genre and will always be the king of them all to me. I cannot big this film up more. Iconic, classic, masterpiece.

Alright that's my list, this will probably be the last post I make on Michael Myers and the whole Halloween franchise until the day comes where Evil comes back home to our screens again with fresh paint of course.

Thanks for reading, see you again soon.

Stay Spooky!

Halloween Ends Review - Deflated Finale

I was so excited and hyped for this film for over a year!

Jesus Christ this left me so deflated, disappointed, dissatisfied and depressed. 

It's taken me a few hours to come to terms with what I have just seen and here are my entire thoughts on this film and this will contain spoilers.

Basically this is set 4 years after the last film and everyone seems to be moving on, but the town is still feeling the effects of Myers and his evil with people coming out of the woodwork committing horrible crimes. Laurie is trying to move on as is everyone, but it's only for Michael to show up one more time. First let me say the new Blumhouse logo at the start mmm chef's kiss. Also, the title screen was lovely too and interesting with pumpkins breaking through other pumpkins. I've really enjoyed this current H40 timeline Blumhouse has given us well until this one emerged....

I was curious and excited for how this franchise was to meet its end and uhmmm well.....hmmm.....wow that's uh.....that's a bad taste in my mouth. So is this a joke and like the real Halloween Films will release soon? Because uhm......urgh. What?!

If I was in the writers room, I'd like to have seen their reasons for all of this film to be honest. I'll applaud the boldness of them for the new ideas brought into this film BUT they were executed poorly. For me this didn't feel like a Halloween film. Jamie Lee Curtis as her final outing as Laurie Strode was great! The soundtrack in this one was not the best of the trilogy in my opinion. On my first viewing of the film, I couldn't hear much of OST of the Carpenters sound, yes there's moment you hear the themes, but this film is mostly dominated by other third part tracks and very little of the OST I felt. Laurie's theme ends is the best on the soundtrack. Transformation, The Junkyard, The Fight, The Procession, Cherry Blossoms themes are also good. The end song choice with Don't Fear The Reaper was a decent shout. Halloween 78,18 and Kills have such great scores and this one was lacklustre and hardly present but of course I write this after only one viewing of the film, so it can be hard to take in all aspects of a film from one single viewing. Sure in the title sequence the OG, classic, iconic theme was there with added synth and bass as far as my ears could pick up. 

I'll give props to the guy who plays Corey too, fair play to that dude. 

The final showdown is the best part of this film. 

Honestly this film disrespected Michael also for me and considering the past two films and James Jude Courtney's take on The Shape because JJC delivered us a scary older version of The Haddonfield Boogeyman, this film's take with Michael is absolutely shockingly disappointing, he doesn't feel threatening or scary at all, and it's a disservice to the character's legacy. Remember we have had Michael disrespected in past films too, and they were bad and sadly this film for me is going to be in with the bad pile. With how the story goes the kills for me didn't convince me or give me much of a reaction because *SPOILER ALERT* it was not Michael doing those sick kills, but it was a basic copycat killer and for me that's not the same and doesn't have the same weight and doesn't do the same thing for me as it would have if it was actual Michael doing the killing.

There's some lovely Easter eggs in here and references to John Carpenter and also seeing the OG Shape at the Halloween party gave me a big smile because Nick Castle is a legend man! Halloween End's title screen's font and colour scheme is also the same as Halloween 3.

*SPOILER ALERT*

The Hawkins and Strode relationship angle was nice. It was also interesting having other people commit crimes or killings when Michael wasn't around and people still blaming him or his evil which seems to have affected the town like a dark cloud that still lingers over it. The people blaming Laurie was also good I will say because even though we had Laurie be more free and not hung up on survival and hunting down Michael and being the Victor of her survivor's guilt in a way, it was cool to see not everyone has moved and some blame her for atrocities as they are convinced she brought him back to their town, and so she should be blamed for the deaths and injuries from Michael. Social commentary again is "Evil is infectious and people will always want to blame someone else and hate others". I'll be honest here the Evil of Michael's eyes influencing others to go crazy or evil or delve more into their evil sides is great I mean we have seen this happen with Loomis and Dr Seratin and even Jamie Lloyd. Michael is evil pure evil, and he has the blackest eyes, the devil's eyes and of course stating the idea of Michael being that pure evil that, the more he kills, the stronger he gets. You know, yes cool that's true I agree, there's always been so much mystery and supernatural elements with Michael and that's just so fascinating to me so to see him act like a shrivelled old man in Halloween Ends sucked! You know the dude is a fucking monster! He's in his 60s in 2018 and Kills films, and he's shrugging off everything anyone throws at him and that should have stuck, and he should not have gone into hiding for me this is all out of character and does a disservice to Michael Myers "The Shape" character. Yes, the brute strength and appearing he does is here in this film, but we mostly get the copycat Michael getting all the kills in even if the copycat goes against what Michael does as the copycat just goes for revenge kills rather than Michael's "if you're in my way or in my interest I will kill you!". We really should have had these OG characters and characters from the past few films face off with Michael and in my opinion they should have all died by Michael's hands except for Laurie, but I'll get to that in a moment. For the big finale film honestly Michael technically only kills one person, the others he's assisted with. It's a shame "The Shape" we get in this film is not the same monster they set up with the previous two. 

*SPOILER ALERT* 

OK look this film should have ended with Laurie and Michael taking each other down that was the only fitting way for this to have ended or maybe have a twist where Laurie puts on Michael's mask as Michael is laid out pinned on the floor, and she kills Alison and then goes for Michael. Either way right we definitely should have had a closing shot or after credits aimed at the Mask and having some breathing. No shadow of a doubt we will get a reboot of the series in the next 10 years because Evil never dies and evil always takes on new shapes. 😉

Anyway, a disappointing and deflating finale to Blumhouse 40th anniversary Halloween series. 

This will be joining the ranks with the bad Halloween films for me personally. 

A sour pumpkin spiced end to the Blumhouse Halloween era.

3/10

What did you think of Halloween Ends?

Let me know by commenting or tweeting me @ScottyJ193

For my entire thoughts on every single other Halloween film please CLICK HERE!

Thanks for visiting my blog and for reading this review. 

It means a lot to me and I value and appreciate all your support.

Stay Spooky!

A Halloween Tribute

CLICK HERE

Waiting, silently,

He comes,

Once more,

Haddonfield,

Home is where he goes,

Stalks his prey.

Emotionless,

Expressionless,

His breathing barely heard,

When he is a mere foot from your kerb,

Walks faster than mortals,

He is nothing but the word,

Immortal,maybe,

Supernatural forces,

Beyond comprehension,

Power him in this dimension, 

No one is safe,

When he comes home,

He'll stalk you,

Patiently,

Playing with his prey,

Before he corners them,

He raises his clenched hand,

His blood soaked overalls,

He overthrowal's all,

His knife a dark shade of red,

No where is safe to hide,

Not even under your bed,

You think the being is unreal that it's all in your head,

But you are mistaken,

Some tried blocking off his home,

However it could not stop him at all,

Evil always finds it's way home, 

The shape is not to be messed with,

The boogey man is real,

Death comes to your town when he visits,

They tried to fix him,

The six year old boy in the clown outfit,

He is not clowning around when he killed in cold blood,

He's been stabbed,

He's been shot,

He's fallen from heights,

He's been blown up,

Run over,

Beaten,

Hung,

Electrocuted,

Even decapitated,

Nothing can stop him,

Nothing phase's him,

He's not human,

His eyes will deceive you, they will destroy you. They will take from you, your innocence, your pride, and eventually your soul, His eyes do not see what you and I see. Behind his eyes one finds only blackness, the absence of light, these eyes of his are of a psychopath. Inside every one us, there exists a dark side. Most people rise above it, but some are consumed by it. Until there is nothing left, but pure evil. The darkest souls are not those which choose to exist within the hell of the abyss, but those which choose to move silently among us. 

Make no mistake,

It's coming,

Come now,

He'll always find you,

Ain't nowhere to hide,

Everyone be afraid,

Laurie Strode is who he desires most,

Many have tried to stop him,

You have to escape,

Either that or die,

Run,

Survive,

He come's home tonight!

All is not what it seem's,

Look out,

Lose yourself,

Our goodness won't save us,

We have to fight him,

Everyone beware,

Especially this night,

No one can stop the shape, that stalks the night!

CLICK ME