Saturday, October 29, 2011

Halloween the Movie

Okay, so I'm probably the only person in the Universe who hasn't seen the Halloween movies. But it just so happened that AMC featured a Halloween marathon on TV last week and I finally found out what all the fuss was about. I saw Halloween (1978), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). For some reason AMC didn't air Halloween II (1981).

This is what I've learned about Michael Myers:

He is indestructible. He is "Superman." He's been shot, stabbed, burned and run over by trucks. He's been in car crashes, fallen off buildings and electrocuted. He will not die! 

I was relieved when Jamie Lee Curtis finally put an end to his rampage of terror by lopping off his head with an axe in Halloween H20. Unless you count Halloween: Resurrection (2002).  See? Indestructible.

Not sure what Halloween III: Season of the Witch had to do with Michael Myers. Didn't seem to fit the continuing saga at all.

On another note: In the movie So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Charlie (Mike Myers -- strange coincidence) is on the roof of a hotel being pursued by an axe murderer (Amanda Plummer). It's obviously a comic parody of the scene in Halloween 4 where Rachel and Jamie are being pursued by Michael Myers, including the part where Rachel is hanging onto the roof and Michael is standing over her with the knife. The tribute was lost on me before I had seen Halloween 4. Nice surprise discovery.

3 comments:

  1. Jamie Lee Curtis was awesome in H20. Cool lady and she got the bad guy all by herself. Good girl.

    Kris

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  2. Luana - wow - I'm gald you decided to try out some Halloween - but yow! The scariest thing is that you did yourself no favors watching the original on AMC - they show this VERY widescreen movie pan-and-scan and it destroys so much, rendering scary sequences compltely inert. You should really sit down and watch a nice anamorphic DVD or Blu-Ray presentation of the movie on a big widescreen TV - you'll be amazed at the artistry Carpenter brought to using his entire field of vision in a 2:35:1 picture. And as far as the series go, I love 1 - a true classic; I like 2 and 7 - both okay sequels. I'm not much on 4, think 8 is okay, and hate 5 and 6. Did you notice 5 ended on a cliffhanger? Now poor little old 3 - here's the story on that one - after 1 and 2 were both successful, the studio came after Carpenter and Hill to make another. Neither had the slightest interest in making another movie with Michael Myers pursuing Laurie Strode, so they instead decided to make the Halloween title an umbrella title for a series of films that were not connected in story, like a Twilight Zone thing - different Halloween themed scary tale each time out - but when 3 came out everyone thought they were getting Michael Myers again, and when they didn't, word of mouth sank 3 and squashed the franchise for 6 years, prompting the studio to make 4: The Return of Michael Myers with no involvement from Carpenter or Hill. For the record, I think the Halloween-Movies-As-Anthology idea is smashing, and I really like part 3, because it was such a change from the slasher-with-a-knife movies blanketing theaters at the time. Terrific post!

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  3. Craig: I agree. The editing was clearly an issue. It would be worth it to see them in their true form. And to catch up on all the other Halloweens, as well. I did like Halloween III: Season of the Witch...very cool idea about killing kids on Halloween night with a TV program. You could update the plot by hacking the social network on the Internet...

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