Yea yea, I know I am cheating a little, but I am way behind and these movies are almost the signature movies for the entire month. How can I not review them? I'm talking about the originals this time, not the crappy Rob Zombie remakes. I reviewed those last year.
HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN 2! Halloween starts with a simple enough scene. It's 1963, and a girl is hooking up with her boyfriend while babysitting her little brother. Typical enough for any teenager. Except this teenager's little brother is none other than Michael Myers, and this night is none other than October 31st. I'm not really sure how old this little boy is, as the camera basically follows his eyes as he watches his sister go upstairs, then the boy places a mask over his face, and through the masked view, we see little Michael go upstairs and then stab his sister multiple times with a large knife. He then heads outside, presumably to do further mayhem, but is instead interrupted by the timely arrival of his parents. At least, I assume they are his parents. In any case, any trace of the little boy that was Michael Myers appears to be gone when they pull of his clown mask. What triggered Michael's killing? Did he have abusive parents? Was he possessed by the spirit of Samhain? Did he just hate his sister's hair style? We never find out for sure.
Flash forward to 1978, and we find Laurie Strode, apparently either adopted after the death of her real parents, or her real parents changed their last name from Myers to Strode, because Laurie is apparently Michael Myers' sister. I'm not quite sure which, although I am sure the story explains at some point. Younger sister, I would assume, because this is 15 years after Michael's little psychological break, and Laurie (played by Jamie Lee Curtis in her first movie role) is 17 and in high school. Dr. Loomis, Michael's psychiatrist, is fully convinced of the evil in Michael by this time. In fact, as Dr. Loomis himself says, he spent years trying to reach the boy, and then years trying to keep him locked away. Dr. Loomis is played by Donald Pleasance to great effect, although John Carpenter's first choice was actually Christopher Lee, and quite frankly I don't think anyone could have handled how horrifying this movie would have been with Christopher Lee as Dr. Loomis. Not that Donald Pleasance didn't do a fantastic job of it, just saying. In any case, Michael is about to be transferred to a more secure facility under the care of Dr. Loomis, only as Dr. Loomis arrives, Michael has already killed the hospital staff and steals Dr. Loomis' ambulance, hellbent on returning to finish the job he started 15 years previous. The date is October 30th.
Then the movie sort of slows down a bit. Building suspense, we follow Michael Myers all around town as he stalks Laurie Strode. Maybe he's trying to make sure she is his sister, maybe he's waiting for the right time, maybe he has an overactive sense of drama. In any case, come Halloween night, Michael dons a mask from a costume shop (an unpainted Captain Kirk mask) and gets busy killing people. Michael's not really picky in the killing, he'll spend a half hour stalking a single teenage girl in her own home just to catch her at a bad time (read, half undressed), and yet take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to slaughter a station full of police officers. Hey, when you've only got one night a year to get your business done and you take the time to visit your fans, it really lets them know you care.
The rest of Halloween, and all of Halloween 2, follow Laurie Strode as she loses her friends to Michael, one by one, and then does battle with him herself, with the help of the local police, and Dr. Loomis, who has tracked Michael to Haddonfield, New Jersey (although it was actually filmed in California). Even after Dr. Loomis shoots him 6 times at the end of Halloween, Halloween 2 begins with the rest of that same night, as Laurie strode heads to the hospital after barely surviving the first movie, and Michael follows her there, killing everyone and everything that gets in his way. Seriously, shotgun blasts to the face just piss this guy off. I don't think I've ever seen two movies that chronicle the events of a single night before, and I don't think I've seen one since. Aside from a little bit of the first movie spent giving you the idea of what's going on, you practically follow the events in real time, much like what was done with the series "24" back when it was exciting.
I can't say enough good things about these two movies. Not only are they suspenseful, terrifying, spooky, and generally a slasher flick in every other way, but it launched the careers of Jamie Lee Curtis, John Carpenter, and... well, not the guy who played Michael Myers. Apparently that was just some extra who worked for $25 a day helping build the sets.
HALLOWEEN 3: Season of the Witch! Okay, if any of you have seen this and are wondering what it has to do with Michael Myers, Laurie Strode and whatnot, don't. It doesn't. Some movie company snatched up the rights to do Halloween 3, hoping to cash in on the fame of the Halloween series. Which is a goddamn shame, honestly, because Season of the Witch was actually a decent flick and should have stood on it's own instead of them trying to sneak it into the Halloween name.
Season of the Witch has Tom Atkins, the male lead from The Fog, an awesome B movie horror actor at the time, which lent great star power to the film, and he's pit up against a group of... well, I'm not sure what you'd call them. There's basically one guy, an old man, and a bunch of, shall we say, doppelgangers? In any case, this movie is almost more about Halloween than Halloween, as at one point, Tom Atkins asks the bad guy why he's doing what he's doing, and the villain talks like a guy who's 3000 years old, about sacrificing children and animals in honor of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) and says the world is due for a little sacrifice now and then. Maybe he should start a chain of restaurants and call them TGIS (thank god it's Samhain)?
Honestly, the movie was not bad at all, excellent B-Movie stuff, and did not deserve a bad rap because the idiot producers chose to steal the "Halloween 3" name. A bit of trivia, while Tom Atkins is tied up in the villain's stronghold, they put on TV for him and on the screen is a scene of Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, if I am not mistaken.
HALLOWEEN 4 and 5! After losing momentum with the loss of Halloween 3 as a potential title, it took years to come out with Halloween 4. However, despite losing Jamie Lee Curtis as the female lead (who eventually came back for Halloween H20), they got a whole new cast with the exception of Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance returns). This movie picks up about ten years after the events of the first two movies. Dr. Loomis, scarred horribly after the events of Halloween 2, is not even consulted, as the foolish hospital administrator decides to move Michael Myers, who has been comatose since the events of ten years past, to a less secure facility. Honestly, why do they always decide to move him on October 30? Why not move him in the middle of July? Wtf? In any case, as soon as Dr. Loomis hears the ambulance transporting Michael Myers has had an accident, he is out of the administrator's office and on his way to Haddonfield. Where, Michael apparently has a niece...
Michael Myers' niece is not 17 this time, which just confuses me, as Michael seems to have an affinity for 17 year old girls, but a younger girl (Danielle Harris, who was also in the Halloween remake by Rob Zombie years later), Jamie Lloyd. In any case, Jamie has lost her parents, fostered into another family, and Michael spends most of Halloween 4 hunting her down, only to have her again be saved by Dr. Loomis. By the time Halloween 5 rolls around, it's a year later. Jamie, traumatized by the events of Halloween 4, now has some psychic connection to Michael, and she can sense his actions to some extent. Dr. Loomis tries to use Jamie's connection to track Michael, but it's a useless gesture, as Michael again kills everything that moves. I mean, it's a slasher pic, what did you expect, right?
The funny thing about the Halloween series of movies is that the killer, ultimately the most recognizable feature of the series, is played by a different actor in every movie. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if at the end of Halloween 5, he had taken off his mask and it had been William Shatner under there. lol
Each of the Halloween movies has a bit of nudity in it here and there, and they are all fun to watch. Except Halloween 3, which is still fun to watch but I don't think has any nudity in it. It'll be interesting to see if, while remaking the Halloween films, Rob Zombie decides to take the same detour and have Halloween 3 have absolutely nothing to do with Michael Myers. lol They did eventually make a Halloween 6, but it wasn't called that, didn't have much to do with haddonfield, and wasn't nearly as good, but did have a few short scenes with Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis, so if nothing else, he managed to appear in more of the Halloween films than any other actor. Honestly, for the remakes, they should have got Christopher Lee to play Dr. Loomis. Would have been AWESOME. He's still alive and kicking! Maybe they can get him for Season of the witch? Hmmmm.
19 reviews down, 12 to go! 6 Days! Can I do it? Only time will tell!
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