Halloween (film series)
The Halloween Series is a wildly popular series of horror films revolving around the holiday Halloween, the small town of Haddonfield, IL, and a masked serial killer/mass murderer named Michael Myers. The story was created by now-legendary director John Carpenter and has been hailed, praised, damned, condemned, ignored, honored, and otherwise noticed by the general public.
Films[edit | edit source]
Halloween[edit | edit source]
Main article:Halloween (film)
The movie that started it all. Michael Myers kills his sister, Judith, and is sent to Smith's Grove-Warren County Sanitarium under the care of Dr. Loomis. First he kills Annie Brackett, then Bob, then Lynda, and by the time he gets to Laurie Strode, Loomis shoots Michael six times and leaves him for dead... only for Myers to vanish!
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Dr. Loomis… Donald Pleasence
- Laurie Strode… Jamie Lee Curtis
- Annie Brackett… Nancy Loomis
- Lynda… P.J. Soles
- Bob… John Michael Graham
- Sheriff Brackett… Charles Cyphers
- The Shape… Nick Castle
- Michael Myers (unmasked)… Tony Moran, the Happy Days chick's brother
Halloween II[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween II
Michael follows Laurie to the hospital where he gets lazy and starts watching TV. He falls asleep and then Loomis sets the hospital on fire, making it asplode, killing everyone inside... Except for Michael.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Dr. Loomis… Donald Pleasence
- Laurie Strode… Jamie Lee Curtis
- Jimmy Lloyd… Lance Guest
- Sheriff Brackett… Charles Cyphers
- Michael Myers… Dick Warlock
Halloween III: Season of the Witch[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Has nothing to do with Michael Myers, so let's just skip it. It's a damn good movie, though. Should be if Tom Atkins is in it.
Halloween 4: Michael Myers Is Done Napping[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Michael wakes up from his decade-long nap to find out that Laurie Strode mysteriously vanished without a trace. and left behind her seven-year-old daughter, Jamie Lloyd. Once again, Loomis stops Michael and leaves him for dead. But the dude just won't die! Not even a redneck lynch mob or a police firing squad can stop him.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Dr. Loomis… Donald Pleasence
- Jamie Lloyd… Danielle Harris
- Rachel Carruthers… Ellie Cornell
- Sheriff Meeker… Beau Starr
- Michael Myers… George P. Wilbur
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Halloween 4 all over again, except Michael Myers's mask suddenly changes seconds after surviving the police firing squad from that film's climax. Jamie is mute for half the movie and has a telepathic connection to Michael. There's some mysterious Man in Black, who randomly shows up in the film without explanation and breaks Michael Myers out of jail at the end, killing all the police officers. There's a stuttering kid in a pirate costume named Billy. There's this totally 80s chick named Tina, whom mast fans find annoying. (I don't.) There's these bumbling clown cops. There's even another guy named Michael who's basically a Fonzie ripoff. But it's better than it sounds. However, it's just redundant.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Dr. Loomis… Donald Pleasence
- Jamie Lloyd… Danielle Harris
- Rachel Carruthers… Ellie Cornell
- Sheriff Meeker… Beau Starr
- Michael Myers… Don Shanks
- Tina… Wendy Kaplan
- Clown cops… I don't know, but one of 'em looks like a cheaper Dustin Hoffman
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Few people saw this 1995 installment, but it is revealed that Michael Myers is part of some weird Druid cult called Thorn that is telling him to kill his bloodline, and that he himself will die once the rest of his family has. The film was released direct-to-video outside of North America. This film also marked the final appearance of Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis, as he died during the filming. Then the editors sliced and diced the film to pieces to minimize Loomis and prevent him from appearing in the next film.
The Producer's Cut lived on through bootlegs until it was screened at New Beverly Cinema (in 35mm, no less) and then finally officially released (in HD, no less) in 2014 as part of Anchior Bay and Scream Factory's Halloween box set.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Dr. Loomis… Donald Pleasence
- Michael Myers… George P. Wilbur
- Tommy Doyle… Paul Rudd
- Jamie Lloyd… J.C. Brandy
- Stephen Lloyd… One of the Rugrats, probably Tommy
- Dr. Wynn/Man in Black… Mitch "Joaquin Phoenix" Ryan
- June Carter… Reese Witherspoon, who quit the film when she realized the Man in Black was not Johnny Cash
- Kara Strode… Marianne Hagan
- John Strode… Bradford English
- Debra Strode… Kim Darby
- Barry Simms… Leo Geter; Howard Stern was originally set to play him, but he was already filming Private Parts (The movie, Private Parts! Get your mind outta the gutter!)
Halloween: H20[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later
Taking place twenty years after the original Halloween, Halloween H20 focuses on Michael Myers going to the store to buy a bottle of water, where he runs into Laurie, who faked her death years earlier. He doesn't kill anybody in this film aside from customers who are taking too long at checkout. It was the highest at the box office in 1998 and won a few Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Song for Celine Dion's "My Knife Will Go On."
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Michael Myers… Mike Myers
- Laurie Strode/Keri Tate… Jamie Lee Curtis
- John Tate… Josh Hartnett
Band on the radio… Creed
- Nurse Marion Chambers… Nancy Stephens
- Ronny… LL Cool J
- Will Brennan… Adam Arkin
- Psycho cameo… Janet Leigh
Halloween: Resurrection[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween: Resurrection
Not worth documenting. Michael Myers terrorizes a stupid reality TV web show that films at his house.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Michael Myers… Brad Loree
- Freddie Harris… Busta Rhymes
- Forgot her name… Tyra Banks
- Sara Moyer… Bianca Kajlich
- The other characters… Who cares?
- Laurie Strode… Jamie Lee Curtis
Halloween Remake[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween (2007 film)
In 2007, Rob Zombie remade Halloween in a white trash style with over-the-top blood and gore and gratuitous swearing inserted into every other word. The film was released on August 31, 2007. It was commercially successful, but critically derided, as most slashers are. It was also divisive among fans.
Halloween Remake, Part II[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween II (2009 film)
Dissatisfied with the few shreds of fidelity to the original classic that managed to weave themselves into his remake, Rob Zombie reimagined his reimagining, taking cues from Heaven's Gate. The movie has at least 3 cuts, but few people have bothered to see any of them, thus provoking the producers to can Zombie whenever they would make a future installment.
Halloween (2018)[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween (2018 film)
In 2010, the Weinsteins planned a 3D film without Zombie. The idea was scrapped. In 2015, the Saw sequel filmmakers were announced to helm a "recalibration" entitled Halloween Returns. That didn't happen either, due to the Weinsteins losing the rights to Halloween.
In 2016, in what sounded like an April Fool's joke, it was announced that Blumhouse had picked up the rights and would be doing a new film with John Carpenter. Comedy vets David Gordon and Green and Danny McBride were announced as director and co-writers, respectively. In 2017, it was announced that Jamie Lee Curtis would be returning as Laurie Strode.
The 40th anniversary film, entitled Halloween, was released October 19, 2018.
Yet another sequel was released (see below) with a script by some guy named Scott Teems, who also wrote Blumhouse's remake of Stephen King's Firestarter.
Halloween Kills[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween Kills
Similar to Halloween II (the good one), quite a few scenes are set at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital with Laurie. Except she has a more convincing wig. The film sees the return of Sheriff Brackett, Marion Chambers, Lindsey Wallace, Tommy Doyle and Lonnie Elam -- all played by their original actors except for Tommy and Lonnie. Tommy is played by legendary 80s Brat Pack nerd Anthony Michael Hall.
Halloween Kills was originally intended to be released in 2020, but I guess they just couldn't make it work. So they pushed it to 2021.
Halloween Ends[edit | edit source]
Main article: Halloween Ends
Likewise, Halloween Ends was originally intended for 2021, but got pushed to 2022. In this film, Halloween ends. Except it doesn't, because John Carpenter will always need a new yacht, Maserati, house, and indoor swimming pool until he croaks.
External links[edit | edit source]
- HalloweenMovies.com - The Official Website of Michael Myers
- Halloween (1978) on IMDb
- Halloween II on IMDb
- Halloween III on IMDb
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers on IMDb
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers on IMDb
- Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers on IMDb
- Halloween: H20 on IMDb
- Halloween: Resurrection on IMDb
- Halloween (2007) on IMDb
- Halloween II (2009) on IMDb
- Halloween (2018) on IMDb
- Halloween Kills on IMDb
- Halloween Ends on IMDb
