As Halloween rapidly approaches I have decided to give every Halloween movie in the franchise it’s fair shake to see their pros and cons.
Undeniably, Halloween 1 did it best. Atmosphere, suspense, solidified evil… just perfect. Halloween 2 is no slouch but in an era where gore was becoming the norm, there was less left to the mind. Still though; solid movie.
But now as we move forward, we are forced to add strange factors into the storyline. Halloween 4 introduced us to Michael’s niece, and Halloween 6 took her from us in a seemingly forced, and downright strange manner. Paul Rudd ended the movie with a pipe. Paul Rudd should die first in a Myers movie haha!
I don’t want to waste your time reading, but for avid fans; do you take the story seriously after H1 or H2 or are they just movies to watch when you’ve seen the first 2 too many times that week?
I don’t take it seriously at all after H2, I do enjoy watching some of the sequels though, specifically H4. As I’ve heard it said before, the story of michael Myers and Dr Loomis ends at the end of H2 when they blew up in the hospital, all the sequels after that are purely for entertainment value.
Best theory I’ve ever heard. I can’t lie, there are bits and pieces of all the sequels I enjoy, even 6 and Resurrection. I just accept the ending of H2 as the end all be all
Not a fan of any of the sequels, though I don’t completely hate Halloween II. The reason all of the sequels don’t work for me is because the ending of Halloween is so perfect: Michael disappears, we see nothing but hear his ominous breathing as the theme plays. The Shape lives, undying. Just because he’s the Boogieman and will always return doesn’t mean we have to see him return. I’m thrilled and apprehensive about the new movie for this reason.
I’m indifferent to the series. Halloween was perfect on it’s own. I’d like to see a short movie where Lorie wakes up in the hospital and all the sequels were just a dream while she was out. She slowly wanders down the empty corridors out to the parking lot and looks out to see bodies of children strewn around with melted masks courtesy of Silver Shamrock! Happy Halloween! It’s almost time kids. Tune in to the big giveaway at 9 and don’t forget to where your masks.
Absolutely. I love H1, HII, HIII, H4, and H6. Although H5 is the turd of the bunch, I always include it in my marathons with the others. There’s still certain things about it I can enjoy, even though it’s basically a giant slap in the face to H4. But H1-H6 as a whole for me is the most legit and real timeline. H20 was fluff, albeit mildly entertaining, but everything after that was horrid unwatchable crap.
So yeah, I personally like to include everything from H1 to H6. (My feelings on the Thorn storyline are complicated. There are certain things I like about it and certain things I don’t. But generally, the film as a whole, with all of its flaws, is still fantastic IMO)
That’s why I made the poll on whether you take them seriously or not. I agree, there are parts of every Halloween I enjoy but there are parts of the storyline I can’t overcome. The whole “Thorn” idea in 6 just irks me and the storyline seems to fall apart.
I love the franchise; but for me it all took place on that cold Halloween night in 1978.
Halloween II is as far as I’ll go with the sequels. It’s not a particularly good movie but it has enough of the Halloween vibe to keep me interested. Everything after was pretty awful. I never understood the love for Halloween 4. That one was one of the worst imo. It didn’t even feel like The Shape but rather a poor imitation in ridiculous looking mask kind of like something you would see in a haunted house. They also turned Haddonfield into a small-hick town. Haddonfield was more of an upper middle class town in the first 2. The scene with The Shape climbing into the pick-up truck was cringe-worthy.
Halloween is probably my favorite horror film of all time. Despite some flaws, I love Halloween 2. The rest I could do without but don’t hate all of them. H20 and 4 are ok. I enjoy 5 and 6 mildly for minor reasons. 3 was brutal and Resurrection was a steaming turd of a movie, the “Jason Takes Manhattan” of Halloween only worse. If I could make myself forget that the franchise had existed before Zombie’s take I could say his first one had merit, but the second was an abomination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtrx0erfuEw
I think the aesthetic of the masks is something that affects my liking of the films, silly as it may be. The original mask, especially the H2 version, was amazing. I thought the H5 mask was pretty scary. other than they, IMO they all suck. I thought H4 was one of the better installments but that mask was just so lame.
The only films in the franchise I genuinely like as movies are John Carpenter’s HalloweeN and Halloween III : Season of the Witch. Though I do enjoy Halloween II, it isn’t a very good film like others have stated, but it at least has that distinct mood and cinematography that Dean Cundey provided for the first three installments of the series, and a very menacing shape as portrayed by Dick Warlock. Not to mention it was my first HalloweeN film, so it holds some sentimental value.
As for the other sequels, I find The Return and the producer’s cut of Curse to be entertaining and interesting movies for their ideas and concepts, especially Curse since I’m a sucker for anything relating to Samhain, but I don’t take them seriously in the context of the plot. That ended for me when Doctor Loomis shot Michael from the balcony of the Doyle house, and the boogeyman disappeared into the night.
I enjoy 1-6, parts 5 and 6 have very real flaws, but they still feel like Halloween films to me, after that it starts to feel like something else. The cinematography fell off, no more Alan Howarth, no more Donald Pleasance (much more integral to the Halloween feel than Laurie in my opinion), the time period changed (after around the mid 90’s a lot of the culture changed and so did the feel of things in general), the masks started showing the eyes, the Halloween holiday took a step back in H:20 and Resurrection and they felt less autumnal, The Shape was no longer The Shape and was just Michael in those two as well.