HALLOWEEN - The Long Halloween
HALLOWEEN: Seven, the hard way. - Originally published 10/25/99
BOO! Scared ya, didn't I? Well if you're not scared yet, you will be after watching John Carpenter's 1978 classic HALLOWEEN!
HALLOWEEN (1978)
Chapter 1: The Boogie-Woogie Boogey-Man!
I'm not accustomed to writing reviews of good movies, but Halloween is one, a good scary movie. Not that it's an Oscar award type of good, it's more of a cult-film kind of good. The kind of movie you can watch over and over without ever getting bored, in other words, a classic! Not that this movie isn't without it's flaws, but in a time before Multi-plex theaters and massive movie marketing campaigns, HALLOWEEN proved that you don't need a Ga-Zillion dollars to make a movie that endures the test of time.
It's the story of a troubled boy named Michael Myers of Haddonfield, Illinois, who at the age of six takes a really big sharp kitchen knife and kills his sister Judith on Halloween in 1963. And then it's off to the mental hospital for him!The story picks up again 15 years later the day before Halloween 1978. Myers is now in the care of Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance at the peak of his baldness). The pistol packing Dr. Loomis is determined to keep the evil of Michael Myers institutionalized forever, but Mikey has other plans as he escapes on Halloween-eve. First attacking, but not killing, Nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens) and then stealing her station wagon. Next, to celebrate the Halloween season Michael dons a scary mask and goes on a killing spree.
Preying mainly on the sex-crazed teen friends of Haddonfield's Laurie Strode (a fresh faced Jamie Lee Curtis). Eventually Myers sets his evil sites on Laurie who is baby sitting little Tommy Doyle, who is taunted by friends who claim that "the Boogey-man is gonna get ya!" Laurie also ends up sitting for little Lindsey from across the street so that Lindsey's sitter Annie can be killed by Myers. After planning a full evening of Halloween-related activities for her young charges, Laurie must spend the rest of the night worrying about getting a date with Ben Tramer her high school sweetie and fighting off a knife-wielding maniac in a white mask and blue jumpsuit named Mike! (Blue jumpsuit? Mike? Hmmm?) Although she fights valiantly to save herself, it appears that Michael will have the day. Then when things seem their darkest...THANK GOD! ITS DONALD PLEASANCE! With guns ablaze, Dr. Loomis shows up at the last second and empties his revolver into Myers who takes a tumble to the ground. Then comes the classic line of the film...
Laurie: "...was it the Boogey-Man?"
Loomis: "As a matter of fact, it was."
Finally at last the evil has ended, Michael Myers is fatally wounded...or is he? THE END?
HALLOWEEN II (1981)
Chapter 2: "To baldly go where we've been before!" or "Brother can you spare a KNIFE?"
Picking up from the last few minutes of the original is the unnecessary and unoriginally titled sequel to Halloween, HALLOWEEN II. Michael Myers is up and at 'em despite being riddled with bullets in the first movie. Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance return as Laurie Strode and Dr. Loomis. And several bit players return, including Nancy Stephens as Nurse Marion and remarkably enough Nancy Loomis who reprises her role as the corpse of Laurie's friend Annie, who was dispatched in the first movie.
Some might argue that the second film completes the story from the first. But H2 never really packs the wallop that the original does. For one thing the Laurie character is wasted in this sequel, as she lays around mostly drugged up in the Haddonfield Hospital and then later hobbling around the corridors in a stupor. Also the victims in this film begin to show signs of what I like to call the "I'll just wait here while you murder me" syndrome.
One glaring example of this is the cop near the end of the film that lingers just a little too long near Michael Myers "lifeless" body. Also the sequel is far gorier and bloodier than the original. While HALLOWEEN showed very little blood and showed Myers usually in shadows or from a distance, HALLOWEEN 2 is splattered in blood and Michael is seen quite a lot.
Anyway, the story is pretty much rehash of the first movie. Escaped mental patient wanders through the hospital offing anyone unlucky enough to be in the scene. Also we find out in this movie why it is that Myers is so determined to kill Laurie Strode. Seems that Laurie is actually Michael Myer's long-lost younger sister who was adopted by the Strodes after her parent's unfortunate car accident. A fact that Nurse Marion reveals to Dr. Loomis who shows up again to save the day and winds up incinerating both himself and Myers in a huge gas explosion. But the good news is Laurie won't have to worry anymore about winning the heart of young Ben Tramer since he is also incinerated early in the movie, by accident of course...whoops! So young Laurie is carted off in an ambulance and all is right with the world. Michael Myers is at last, dead...or is he? THE END??
HALLOWEEN III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Chapter 3: Who was that masked man?
Michael Myers? Sorry, never heard of him! That's the feeling you get watching "Halloween 3, Season of the Witch". The big question here is why the filmmakers felt it was necessary to make this movie a sequel to H1 and H2? Could it be that possibly because it would trick a bunch of fans into seeing a movie that they might have instead passed by! Hmmm, ya think?
This is the story of and evil Irish toy maker (aren't they all?) named Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy), leader of an evil Celtic cult, who markets a line of Halloween masks called "Silver Shamrock". The masks come in three styles, Jack-O-Lantern, Skull and Witch, and are being heavily promoted by a slick and highly annoying TV ad campaign to the tune of London Bridge is falling down. ("8-more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween! 8-more days to Halloween, SILVER SHAMROCK!...") It'll get into your head man! You'll start hearing it in your sleep even more than the Michael Myers theme from the first two flicks! Anyway the evil Cochran has stolen a 50-ton rock from Stone-Henge and is using a little piece of it in each mask along with some 80's technology. On Halloween night while watching the Silver Shamrock ad all the kid's heads will melt and snakes and bugs will come out and kill everybody. Why is he doing this? Well...um, 'cause he's evil I guess. Fortunately for us, the beefy Doctor Challis (Tom Atkins) and sprightly Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), who looks like an early beta-test version of SHOWGIRL's Elizabeth Berkley, catch on to Cochran's evil scheme and nearly foil it entirely except for...well I won't spoil the end, the filmmaker's have already done that for you. Suffice to say the ending is one of those that leave you saying, "it's over"... isn't it? THE END???
Let's hope so.
Halloween 3 has as much to do with the first two movies, as an eggplant has to do with a chicken! We do see Michael Myers and Laurie Strode in this movie but only on a TV that is showing "Halloween", and if there's one thing to be learned it's this. "Don't use scenes from a classic movie in your crappy movie, it will only emphasize just how crappy your movie is.
HALLOWEEN IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Chapter 4: Return to sender.
Poor Laurie Strode.
To survive all those close calls with her homicidal brother just to be killed in a car wreck. Well at least she has a young daughter, Jamie Lloyd, living in the cursed little town of Haddonfield. And at least little Jamie is safe because Michael Myers was killed in the giant explosion at the end of HALLOWEEN 2 right? Well not exactly. Its 10 years later and it seems that Mikey is still pretty hard to kill. Everyone's favorite homicidal maniac now in custody, is being transferred back to the Smith's Grove Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane Who Can Easily Escape Mental Institutions...Institute. And he escapes, right after a big-mouthed paramedic mentions that Michael has a young niece living in Haddonfield.
Enter Donald Pleasance, who is apparently pretty hard kill as it is hastily explained that Dr. Loomis (Pleasance) survived the fiery explosion at the end of H2 with just a few burns and a limp (burns cause limps?). Dr. Loomis realizes that Myers will return to Haddonfield, 'cause that's just where homicidal mental patients go. Makes you wonder why anyone even remotely related to the Myers family would live there.
When we first meet Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) we see that she is indeed a very troubled child with visions of her murderous uncle dancing in her head. She's now the foster child of some family whose name I forget, but she has a "sister" named Rachel (Ellie Corbie) who is basically be the Laurie Strode of this picture. Michael shows up, hacking folks all the way, the main characters end up barricaded in the Sheriff's house. Myers of course gets in anyway, kills some townsfolk. Then the redneck gang from movies like "Giant Spider Invasion" shows up, Michael kills some more, Dr. Loomis shows up shoots at Michael. Everyone goes for a ride and Michael ends up getting riddled with bullets (again) and falls down an abandoned well with lots of earth and wood tumbling down with him. Of course as usual no one bothers to check if the remarkably resilient killer is indeed really dead. Well of course, although bullets and falls have failed to kill him in the past, he has to be dead this time...doesn't he? THE END????
Don't even think about it! And to make matters worse, it looks like little Jamie has been driven over the edge and will be following in her uncle's footsteps! I smell sequel! As Dr. Loomis quite correctly observes at the end of this film..."Nooooo! NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
HALLOWEEN V: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Chapter 5: Revenge is a dish best served cold...with dip.
Proving that you just can't keep a good bad guy down, Michael Myers is back (yet again), and he's pissed, so what's new? Michael is out for revenge which, when you think about it, is pretty inappropriate considering that HE'S the one that's been on the 10-year killing spree.
Halloween 5 picks up right where H4 left off with Michael down a well and poor Jamie Lloyd quite nuts. One year passes and it's Halloween once again. Jamie is now unable to speak due to her frightening experiences and has somehow developed a weird kind of espn with her killer Uncle Mike. Donald Pleasance is back again as the always bald and well-armed Dr. Loomis. And little Danielle Harris returns as 9 year old Jamie Lloyd, also returning is Ellie Corbie as Rachel who is an early casualty of H5. I always hate it when a character that has survived so much gets killed, I feel cheated, like what was the point of surviving the other movie just to get killed in the next one? It's like Ripley at the end of "ALIEN 3", except that Ripley was a better character.
So anyway, Michael Myers is back in Haddonfield for Halloween 1989 and guess what he's doing this year to celebrate? Killing people you say? Now how'd you guess that! The big difference this time is, the new characters are all so unappealing that we really want them to die! Especially the new girl Tina and her Fonzie-wanna-be boyfriend Mike. There are also two goofball cops who come complete with Oompa music everytime they appear. There is some new ground covered though, for one thing we almost see Michael Myers face and there is also a mysterious Johnny Cash-like figure that appears to help Myers escape at the end. The old Myers house has also been transformed from a average tract house into a much larger Munster-type haunted house.
Dr. Loomis appears to die after subduing the mad killer but does he? THE END????? Ummmm....
(By the way "the revenge" mentioned in the title, is apparently aimed at the audience since this is by far the worst of the series.)
HALLOWEEN VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (1996)
Chapter 6: Curses foiled again!
Boy those Haddonfield girls grow up fast! As we see little Jamie Lloyd again we find out shes grown up and been captured by some weirdoes and she's pregnant and about to give birth! WOW! That's a lot for a 16-year-old!
Jamie is being held hostage in a hospital by some kind of Celtic cult (Maybe the Silver Shamrock folks from H3?) and they want her baby. Michael Myers is also there but before he can get his hands on his niece, she and her newborn son escape. But not for long, Michael finally catches up to poor Jamie and does her in, but not before she calls an annoying radio DJ and tells the listeners that she's being chased by Michael Myers. And not before she manages to hide her baby boy at the bus station. Re-enter Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd); the kid that Laurie Strode was babysitting all those years ago. Tommy hears Jamie on the radio and realizes that she has hidden her baby and goes to find him and find him he does and names him Stephen. Also re-enter Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance), who didn't die in H5, has heard of Jamie's demise and has come to warn the Haddonfield police that Myers is on the loose again.
And just a personal observation here, why haven't these cops learned to listen to Loomis yet? It's almost like they're saying "yeah sure he's been right every time so far...but not this time!". Next we catch up with the good old Strode family, or at least a branch of the good old Strode family, Mr. & Mrs. Strode and their son and daughter, Kara Strode and her little son Danny. Now all living in the old Myers house, which has magically been transformed back into the rather unremarkable house it was in the first film. Seems that realtor Strode can't seem to interest anyone in buying the death house so he shows remarkably poor judgement as he moves his family into it. As expected Michael comes home, finds the Strode's and one by one begins eliminating them. He is especially thorough with the verbally and physically abusive Mr. Strode who you just know is gonna die from the moment you meet him.
The whole plot of HALLOWEEN 6, revolves around the "curse" of this Celtic Cult that apparently has been helping Myers since H5 and now wants not only little baby Stephen, who is in the care of Tommy Doyle, but also little Danny, the unwed Kara Strode's little bas.er, boy, BOY I mean. Lots and LOTS of people die including almost all the Strodes and the annoying DJ and the entire cult as well it seems. Dr. Loomis shows up at the end again, still packing heat and helps Tommy, Kara, Danny and little Stephen escape then excuses himself saying he has something left to do, then the scene cuts to a close-up of Michael Myer's empty mask lying on the floor. What happened? Did he die? Was he taken off by Dr. Loomis? We don't know as the movie ends and we'll never know. THE END?????? Well it is at least for Donald Pleasance as the movie is dedicated to his memory.
My guess is that Pleasance who looks none too good throughout this film must have died before he could finish the final scene, so the producer's just did the best they could with what they had...which wasn't much. But you have to hand it to Donald Pleasance, despite the bad scripts and inevitable bald jokes, he never quit and he never lost the passion in his portrayal of Loomis. God bless you Donald Pleasance!
HALLOWEEN H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Chapter 7: Water, Water...anywhere? or " Halloween 3, as it should have been done!"
Trick or Treat! Well this time it's a treat! Looks life someone finally had the good sense to make a GOOD sequel to HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN 2. The oddly titled HALLOWEEN H20, which stands for 20 years later. The only disappointing part for me is that it didn't take place in Haddonfield. I thought that would have made it seem more like closure, but heck! What do I know?
Returning for this one is Nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens) who is now living in Langdon Illinios in Dr. Loomis's old house. Guess who shows up? You got it, it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt who makes a cameo in this movie much like Drew Barrymore did in SCREAM, in fact it's a WHOLE LOT like Drew's cameo if you take my meaning. Michael Myers has come to Langdon and ransacks Dr. Loomis's office finding a file marked "Laurie Strode". Leaving a few bodies behind, the credits begin and from the moment they do you know that this isn't going to be just another crappy Halloween movie. With the voice of Donald Pleasance speaking from beyond the grave we learn that Laurie Strode did apparently die in an auto accident but this seems to be the only plotline saved from the string of films that followed H2. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is now living in Summer's Glen California as "Keri Tate" the headmistress of an exclusive private school. Rounding out the cast are Josh Hartnett as Keri/Laurie's son John, Adam Arkin as her love interest, Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee's mother) as secretary Norma, who inspires several nods to Alfred Hitchcock's PHYSCHO, also Michelle "Dawson's Creek" Williams and LL Cool J as this film's resident bald guy.
We find out that Laurie faked her death to escape the wrath of Myers and is haunted by her past. Now that it's Halloween again she is seeing Michael Myer's everywhere. Myers does find Laurie/Keri and the killing spree begins. Michael then sets his sites on his nephew John before finally coming Face-to-Mask with his sister. Initially Laurie flees but then decides that enough is enough and goes on the offensive against her maniac brother. A battle of the titans ensues that makes up the climatic scenes of H20, with Michael Myers apparently being killed. But knowing better than to believe that (probably from having seen the past 3 movies) Laurie has one more ax to grind with Michael. Stealing the "body" of her brother Laurie leaves the scene of the killings and goes for a little ride, sure enough Michael comes back to life there is a final consfrontation and this time it's Michael that looses his head. It's looks like this time; finally the world is safe from the terror of Michael Myers. THE END??????? Yeah, I really think so this time.
This movie is also dedicated to the late Donald Pleasance and it's a far more fitting tribute than the stinky H6 was.
EPILOGUE
What was I thinking?!?!?!?!
Good question! What was I thinking? I guess no one can say that I not committed! I've spent close to 14 hour working on this one article. Some might say that I should be committed for doing that, what can I say? They're right, if I had to watch one more slasher flick this week; I would surely go nuts. So if they ever do make HALLOWEEN 8...you guys are ON YOUR OWN!*
Oh yeah, one more thing...BOO!
* - They did make Halloween 8, "Halloween: Resurrection", but I've yet to review it, maybe some day.
BOO! Scared ya, didn't I? Well if you're not scared yet, you will be after watching John Carpenter's 1978 classic HALLOWEEN!
HALLOWEEN (1978)
Chapter 1: The Boogie-Woogie Boogey-Man!
I'm not accustomed to writing reviews of good movies, but Halloween is one, a good scary movie. Not that it's an Oscar award type of good, it's more of a cult-film kind of good. The kind of movie you can watch over and over without ever getting bored, in other words, a classic! Not that this movie isn't without it's flaws, but in a time before Multi-plex theaters and massive movie marketing campaigns, HALLOWEEN proved that you don't need a Ga-Zillion dollars to make a movie that endures the test of time.
It's the story of a troubled boy named Michael Myers of Haddonfield, Illinois, who at the age of six takes a really big sharp kitchen knife and kills his sister Judith on Halloween in 1963. And then it's off to the mental hospital for him!The story picks up again 15 years later the day before Halloween 1978. Myers is now in the care of Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance at the peak of his baldness). The pistol packing Dr. Loomis is determined to keep the evil of Michael Myers institutionalized forever, but Mikey has other plans as he escapes on Halloween-eve. First attacking, but not killing, Nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens) and then stealing her station wagon. Next, to celebrate the Halloween season Michael dons a scary mask and goes on a killing spree.
Preying mainly on the sex-crazed teen friends of Haddonfield's Laurie Strode (a fresh faced Jamie Lee Curtis). Eventually Myers sets his evil sites on Laurie who is baby sitting little Tommy Doyle, who is taunted by friends who claim that "the Boogey-man is gonna get ya!" Laurie also ends up sitting for little Lindsey from across the street so that Lindsey's sitter Annie can be killed by Myers. After planning a full evening of Halloween-related activities for her young charges, Laurie must spend the rest of the night worrying about getting a date with Ben Tramer her high school sweetie and fighting off a knife-wielding maniac in a white mask and blue jumpsuit named Mike! (Blue jumpsuit? Mike? Hmmm?) Although she fights valiantly to save herself, it appears that Michael will have the day. Then when things seem their darkest...THANK GOD! ITS DONALD PLEASANCE! With guns ablaze, Dr. Loomis shows up at the last second and empties his revolver into Myers who takes a tumble to the ground. Then comes the classic line of the film...
Laurie: "...was it the Boogey-Man?"
Loomis: "As a matter of fact, it was."
Finally at last the evil has ended, Michael Myers is fatally wounded...or is he? THE END?
HALLOWEEN II (1981)
Chapter 2: "To baldly go where we've been before!" or "Brother can you spare a KNIFE?"
Picking up from the last few minutes of the original is the unnecessary and unoriginally titled sequel to Halloween, HALLOWEEN II. Michael Myers is up and at 'em despite being riddled with bullets in the first movie. Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance return as Laurie Strode and Dr. Loomis. And several bit players return, including Nancy Stephens as Nurse Marion and remarkably enough Nancy Loomis who reprises her role as the corpse of Laurie's friend Annie, who was dispatched in the first movie.
Some might argue that the second film completes the story from the first. But H2 never really packs the wallop that the original does. For one thing the Laurie character is wasted in this sequel, as she lays around mostly drugged up in the Haddonfield Hospital and then later hobbling around the corridors in a stupor. Also the victims in this film begin to show signs of what I like to call the "I'll just wait here while you murder me" syndrome.
One glaring example of this is the cop near the end of the film that lingers just a little too long near Michael Myers "lifeless" body. Also the sequel is far gorier and bloodier than the original. While HALLOWEEN showed very little blood and showed Myers usually in shadows or from a distance, HALLOWEEN 2 is splattered in blood and Michael is seen quite a lot.
Anyway, the story is pretty much rehash of the first movie. Escaped mental patient wanders through the hospital offing anyone unlucky enough to be in the scene. Also we find out in this movie why it is that Myers is so determined to kill Laurie Strode. Seems that Laurie is actually Michael Myer's long-lost younger sister who was adopted by the Strodes after her parent's unfortunate car accident. A fact that Nurse Marion reveals to Dr. Loomis who shows up again to save the day and winds up incinerating both himself and Myers in a huge gas explosion. But the good news is Laurie won't have to worry anymore about winning the heart of young Ben Tramer since he is also incinerated early in the movie, by accident of course...whoops! So young Laurie is carted off in an ambulance and all is right with the world. Michael Myers is at last, dead...or is he? THE END??
HALLOWEEN III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Chapter 3: Who was that masked man?
Michael Myers? Sorry, never heard of him! That's the feeling you get watching "Halloween 3, Season of the Witch". The big question here is why the filmmakers felt it was necessary to make this movie a sequel to H1 and H2? Could it be that possibly because it would trick a bunch of fans into seeing a movie that they might have instead passed by! Hmmm, ya think?
This is the story of and evil Irish toy maker (aren't they all?) named Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy), leader of an evil Celtic cult, who markets a line of Halloween masks called "Silver Shamrock". The masks come in three styles, Jack-O-Lantern, Skull and Witch, and are being heavily promoted by a slick and highly annoying TV ad campaign to the tune of London Bridge is falling down. ("8-more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween! 8-more days to Halloween, SILVER SHAMROCK!...") It'll get into your head man! You'll start hearing it in your sleep even more than the Michael Myers theme from the first two flicks! Anyway the evil Cochran has stolen a 50-ton rock from Stone-Henge and is using a little piece of it in each mask along with some 80's technology. On Halloween night while watching the Silver Shamrock ad all the kid's heads will melt and snakes and bugs will come out and kill everybody. Why is he doing this? Well...um, 'cause he's evil I guess. Fortunately for us, the beefy Doctor Challis (Tom Atkins) and sprightly Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), who looks like an early beta-test version of SHOWGIRL's Elizabeth Berkley, catch on to Cochran's evil scheme and nearly foil it entirely except for...well I won't spoil the end, the filmmaker's have already done that for you. Suffice to say the ending is one of those that leave you saying, "it's over"... isn't it? THE END???
Let's hope so.
Halloween 3 has as much to do with the first two movies, as an eggplant has to do with a chicken! We do see Michael Myers and Laurie Strode in this movie but only on a TV that is showing "Halloween", and if there's one thing to be learned it's this. "Don't use scenes from a classic movie in your crappy movie, it will only emphasize just how crappy your movie is.
HALLOWEEN IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Chapter 4: Return to sender.
Poor Laurie Strode.
To survive all those close calls with her homicidal brother just to be killed in a car wreck. Well at least she has a young daughter, Jamie Lloyd, living in the cursed little town of Haddonfield. And at least little Jamie is safe because Michael Myers was killed in the giant explosion at the end of HALLOWEEN 2 right? Well not exactly. Its 10 years later and it seems that Mikey is still pretty hard to kill. Everyone's favorite homicidal maniac now in custody, is being transferred back to the Smith's Grove Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane Who Can Easily Escape Mental Institutions...Institute. And he escapes, right after a big-mouthed paramedic mentions that Michael has a young niece living in Haddonfield.
Enter Donald Pleasance, who is apparently pretty hard kill as it is hastily explained that Dr. Loomis (Pleasance) survived the fiery explosion at the end of H2 with just a few burns and a limp (burns cause limps?). Dr. Loomis realizes that Myers will return to Haddonfield, 'cause that's just where homicidal mental patients go. Makes you wonder why anyone even remotely related to the Myers family would live there.
When we first meet Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) we see that she is indeed a very troubled child with visions of her murderous uncle dancing in her head. She's now the foster child of some family whose name I forget, but she has a "sister" named Rachel (Ellie Corbie) who is basically be the Laurie Strode of this picture. Michael shows up, hacking folks all the way, the main characters end up barricaded in the Sheriff's house. Myers of course gets in anyway, kills some townsfolk. Then the redneck gang from movies like "Giant Spider Invasion" shows up, Michael kills some more, Dr. Loomis shows up shoots at Michael. Everyone goes for a ride and Michael ends up getting riddled with bullets (again) and falls down an abandoned well with lots of earth and wood tumbling down with him. Of course as usual no one bothers to check if the remarkably resilient killer is indeed really dead. Well of course, although bullets and falls have failed to kill him in the past, he has to be dead this time...doesn't he? THE END????
Don't even think about it! And to make matters worse, it looks like little Jamie has been driven over the edge and will be following in her uncle's footsteps! I smell sequel! As Dr. Loomis quite correctly observes at the end of this film..."Nooooo! NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
HALLOWEEN V: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Chapter 5: Revenge is a dish best served cold...with dip.
Proving that you just can't keep a good bad guy down, Michael Myers is back (yet again), and he's pissed, so what's new? Michael is out for revenge which, when you think about it, is pretty inappropriate considering that HE'S the one that's been on the 10-year killing spree.
Halloween 5 picks up right where H4 left off with Michael down a well and poor Jamie Lloyd quite nuts. One year passes and it's Halloween once again. Jamie is now unable to speak due to her frightening experiences and has somehow developed a weird kind of espn with her killer Uncle Mike. Donald Pleasance is back again as the always bald and well-armed Dr. Loomis. And little Danielle Harris returns as 9 year old Jamie Lloyd, also returning is Ellie Corbie as Rachel who is an early casualty of H5. I always hate it when a character that has survived so much gets killed, I feel cheated, like what was the point of surviving the other movie just to get killed in the next one? It's like Ripley at the end of "ALIEN 3", except that Ripley was a better character.
So anyway, Michael Myers is back in Haddonfield for Halloween 1989 and guess what he's doing this year to celebrate? Killing people you say? Now how'd you guess that! The big difference this time is, the new characters are all so unappealing that we really want them to die! Especially the new girl Tina and her Fonzie-wanna-be boyfriend Mike. There are also two goofball cops who come complete with Oompa music everytime they appear. There is some new ground covered though, for one thing we almost see Michael Myers face and there is also a mysterious Johnny Cash-like figure that appears to help Myers escape at the end. The old Myers house has also been transformed from a average tract house into a much larger Munster-type haunted house.
Dr. Loomis appears to die after subduing the mad killer but does he? THE END????? Ummmm....
(By the way "the revenge" mentioned in the title, is apparently aimed at the audience since this is by far the worst of the series.)
HALLOWEEN VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (1996)
Chapter 6: Curses foiled again!
Boy those Haddonfield girls grow up fast! As we see little Jamie Lloyd again we find out shes grown up and been captured by some weirdoes and she's pregnant and about to give birth! WOW! That's a lot for a 16-year-old!
Jamie is being held hostage in a hospital by some kind of Celtic cult (Maybe the Silver Shamrock folks from H3?) and they want her baby. Michael Myers is also there but before he can get his hands on his niece, she and her newborn son escape. But not for long, Michael finally catches up to poor Jamie and does her in, but not before she calls an annoying radio DJ and tells the listeners that she's being chased by Michael Myers. And not before she manages to hide her baby boy at the bus station. Re-enter Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd); the kid that Laurie Strode was babysitting all those years ago. Tommy hears Jamie on the radio and realizes that she has hidden her baby and goes to find him and find him he does and names him Stephen. Also re-enter Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance), who didn't die in H5, has heard of Jamie's demise and has come to warn the Haddonfield police that Myers is on the loose again.
And just a personal observation here, why haven't these cops learned to listen to Loomis yet? It's almost like they're saying "yeah sure he's been right every time so far...but not this time!". Next we catch up with the good old Strode family, or at least a branch of the good old Strode family, Mr. & Mrs. Strode and their son and daughter, Kara Strode and her little son Danny. Now all living in the old Myers house, which has magically been transformed back into the rather unremarkable house it was in the first film. Seems that realtor Strode can't seem to interest anyone in buying the death house so he shows remarkably poor judgement as he moves his family into it. As expected Michael comes home, finds the Strode's and one by one begins eliminating them. He is especially thorough with the verbally and physically abusive Mr. Strode who you just know is gonna die from the moment you meet him.
The whole plot of HALLOWEEN 6, revolves around the "curse" of this Celtic Cult that apparently has been helping Myers since H5 and now wants not only little baby Stephen, who is in the care of Tommy Doyle, but also little Danny, the unwed Kara Strode's little bas.er, boy, BOY I mean. Lots and LOTS of people die including almost all the Strodes and the annoying DJ and the entire cult as well it seems. Dr. Loomis shows up at the end again, still packing heat and helps Tommy, Kara, Danny and little Stephen escape then excuses himself saying he has something left to do, then the scene cuts to a close-up of Michael Myer's empty mask lying on the floor. What happened? Did he die? Was he taken off by Dr. Loomis? We don't know as the movie ends and we'll never know. THE END?????? Well it is at least for Donald Pleasance as the movie is dedicated to his memory.
My guess is that Pleasance who looks none too good throughout this film must have died before he could finish the final scene, so the producer's just did the best they could with what they had...which wasn't much. But you have to hand it to Donald Pleasance, despite the bad scripts and inevitable bald jokes, he never quit and he never lost the passion in his portrayal of Loomis. God bless you Donald Pleasance!
HALLOWEEN H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Chapter 7: Water, Water...anywhere? or " Halloween 3, as it should have been done!"
Trick or Treat! Well this time it's a treat! Looks life someone finally had the good sense to make a GOOD sequel to HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN 2. The oddly titled HALLOWEEN H20, which stands for 20 years later. The only disappointing part for me is that it didn't take place in Haddonfield. I thought that would have made it seem more like closure, but heck! What do I know?
Returning for this one is Nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens) who is now living in Langdon Illinios in Dr. Loomis's old house. Guess who shows up? You got it, it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt who makes a cameo in this movie much like Drew Barrymore did in SCREAM, in fact it's a WHOLE LOT like Drew's cameo if you take my meaning. Michael Myers has come to Langdon and ransacks Dr. Loomis's office finding a file marked "Laurie Strode". Leaving a few bodies behind, the credits begin and from the moment they do you know that this isn't going to be just another crappy Halloween movie. With the voice of Donald Pleasance speaking from beyond the grave we learn that Laurie Strode did apparently die in an auto accident but this seems to be the only plotline saved from the string of films that followed H2. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is now living in Summer's Glen California as "Keri Tate" the headmistress of an exclusive private school. Rounding out the cast are Josh Hartnett as Keri/Laurie's son John, Adam Arkin as her love interest, Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee's mother) as secretary Norma, who inspires several nods to Alfred Hitchcock's PHYSCHO, also Michelle "Dawson's Creek" Williams and LL Cool J as this film's resident bald guy.
We find out that Laurie faked her death to escape the wrath of Myers and is haunted by her past. Now that it's Halloween again she is seeing Michael Myer's everywhere. Myers does find Laurie/Keri and the killing spree begins. Michael then sets his sites on his nephew John before finally coming Face-to-Mask with his sister. Initially Laurie flees but then decides that enough is enough and goes on the offensive against her maniac brother. A battle of the titans ensues that makes up the climatic scenes of H20, with Michael Myers apparently being killed. But knowing better than to believe that (probably from having seen the past 3 movies) Laurie has one more ax to grind with Michael. Stealing the "body" of her brother Laurie leaves the scene of the killings and goes for a little ride, sure enough Michael comes back to life there is a final consfrontation and this time it's Michael that looses his head. It's looks like this time; finally the world is safe from the terror of Michael Myers. THE END??????? Yeah, I really think so this time.
This movie is also dedicated to the late Donald Pleasance and it's a far more fitting tribute than the stinky H6 was.
EPILOGUE
What was I thinking?!?!?!?!
Good question! What was I thinking? I guess no one can say that I not committed! I've spent close to 14 hour working on this one article. Some might say that I should be committed for doing that, what can I say? They're right, if I had to watch one more slasher flick this week; I would surely go nuts. So if they ever do make HALLOWEEN 8...you guys are ON YOUR OWN!*
Oh yeah, one more thing...BOO!
* - They did make Halloween 8, "Halloween: Resurrection", but I've yet to review it, maybe some day.
posted by Jeff at 11:07 PM
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