The Halloween series is one of the most convoluted and messy horror franchises we have ever had. Which of course began with one of the great, great films of all time and then film after film managed to capture at least elements of that original magic, but did regrettably for the most part simply fall by the way side film after film. Of course in the next blog we will begin to look at some of the ways the series has been rebooted, however for now let’s remain with that original timeline… as it slowly but surely went the way of thorn! And if you don’t know what that means, you’re one of the lucky ones.
This article looks at the films released from 1978 – 1988.
Halloween (Dir. John Carpenter, 1978)
The film quite simply strives in its simplicity, from its glorious one-take opening to its thrilling final montage of establishing shots; we are riddled with fear by John Carpenter’s lens and his score. Jamie Lee Curtis shines as the original final girl as Laurie Strode, so painfully vulnerable and under attack by the ultimate cipher villain in Michael Meyers, living up to his original film credit as “The shape”. Creating a whole genre in just 90 minutes, the film hasn’t aged a day and remains incomparable against the over-abundance of slashers that followed it. Where many sequels and many imitators fail of course is a blissful ignorance of the multiple core things that make this film work. The score is masterful and haunting to this very day, however is sparingly used and utilised like a fine thing of precision, rather than overall wallpaper. Jump scares too are few and far between, and are usually as a matter of fact not aided by music at all. Rather a brutal sting that segues harshly into more rhythmic synth Carpenter percussion. ‘Lightening in a bottle’ is a term no more apt than in this very case, so many things had to go right to make this rather simple film soar to such excessive heights that it does; the choice of mask, now long since fabled, the choice of actors, with Curtis and crew managing to make the realism of the piece all the more frightening, and Donald Pleasance bringing a desperately needed set of stakes and gravitas as perhaps the most acutely used expositional character beyond that of Doctor Brown in Back to the Future. Part of the reason I enjoy to varying extents the seriously lesser sequels of the series is because I so desperately enjoy being with these indelible for all time characters again, and to be in the world that Carpenter and writer/producer Debra Hill created in the first place. These elements and even the most obvious and cringey of references are enjoyable to some extent due to the power and entertainment of what we first started with here in 1978. However the original of course will always survive on as a true masterwork in horror cinema. Despite this being where this whole article begins and by far the only masterpiece amongst any of these, and by far the best of any of these by a long stretch, I don’t have much more to say. The film is simple, strident and startling perfection. Without a shadow of a doubt. I will talk later in the case of the Gordon Green films to what extent it mostly comes down that no matter how many of the sequels I enjoy, no matter to what extent the legacy of the film spans, I never end up watching this first film and it’s truly masterful ending without thinking to myself; “wouldn’t it all have been so much better if it just ended here and then there was no more”. It’s all a case where I have talked and written on the film so many times, I have very little left. Whereas on the other hand… The rest of the saga…
Halloween II
(Dir. Rick Rosenthal, 1981)
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It has to be said that this is probably in the realm of quality one of the better, if not the best of the Halloween sequels. Perhaps of course because it is in all aspects attempting to be as close as possible to one of the greatest horror films of all time. Albeit the film is not directed by John Carpenter, every person involved in the production is working on two motivations working in tandem; to make the money that they should have earned on the first film and make this film feel as much the same as the original as possible. Carpenter even ended up directing certain early sequences in an attempt to achieve the film’s other clear motivation, to fall in line with the burgeoning realm of 80’s slashers that were slowly but surely becoming not just a financially dependent genre, but also an implicitly overflowing genre when it came to product made and delivered. Rick Rosenthal who will go on to direct one of the absolute worst, if not the worst sequel in the entire franchise, directs here and really does get a great balance of upping the anti and taking the series into new more heightened realms of slasher-dom, whilst also keeping that terrifying and plodding dread that so best personified the first film and made it the film it was. This film also has the wonderful conceit of taking place literal seconds after the last one finished, even showing the last five minutes of the film almost shot for shot, with a few new added moments to better get the film ready for the film it will soon become. Of course the film heads into after this five minutes another glorious opening credits sequence, very much of a piece with the original, just with a deeper, darker twisted pumpkin model. The film now with a score by Alan Howarth and Carpenter, with Howarth effectively adding a larger synth depth to the original score, removing much of the piano and making the score quite frankly more electronic and more startling – and also in a phrase “more 80’s”. The score is a microcosm of the whole film really; Carpenter is still involved, but they are taking his work and taking it to a higher level of dramatics and perhaps even over-the-topness that one quite possibly would not suspect heading into another Halloween film. Dean Cundey once again does the cinematography and the film looks and feels in that sense, perhaps the most important sense, very much like the first film. The film’s biggest strength is that “all in one night” 1-2 punch element and Cundey’s work here is the finest craft that goes into making the two very separate on the surface films feel of a kin with one another. Jamie Lee Curtis is mostly asleep for the majority of this film, however when she does awake, she is back on top form. However this is undoubtedly the beginning of where Dr Loomis will go from this point on; going to be one of the most over-the-top, frankly ridiculous, consistently filled with gravitas performances of any era. Pleasance goes for it like nobody else in the film and once again as was the case in the first delivers lines in a manner that many would never dream of saying them. It is a mania at this point and the character does indeed grow more comical in this sense, he is just so incredibly entertaining to watch. But then there will come a moment of complete dramatic perfection where Loomis sheds light or comments on the current proceedings and you completely understand once again the nature of the situation and the self-imposed tragedy of this doctor’s life. But then he will fire off a gun inside a car to get somebody to turn around and scream a one-liner beforehand, or in another excellent unintentionally humorous moment cause the tragic death of Ben Traimer in a car crash huge explosion.
Whereas many attribute the first film as the film that began the slasher craze, in its actual material it is certainly more so a tension piece with a slasher final girl finale. For long stretches of the film, very little slashing occurs. Whereas Halloween II for the better as a rewatchable sequel I feel, is very much a slasher in pace and presentation. Excluding the re-introductory five minutes footage re-use and the opening credits, this film is a tight 80 minutes that just moves at such a wonderful pace and horrid frankness. The kills are all solid and the inventive nature of a hospital setting offers up more than a few great kills, even if overall the setting grows a little stale, paired with the fact of the outrageous suspension of disbelief that this hospital is so completely empty as it is. Overall the hospital setting does work for me and even the old jokes about the hot tub killing and “why is there a hot tub in a hospital?”, does make sense and is actually talked about in the film. The over-the-top murder that the hydrotherapy heat pool is used for is an entirely different matter that I’m sure turns off a fair few fans of Carpenter’s far more subdued original. The slasher nature of the film is also solidified by the removal of the psychical ambiguities of the original film with multiple different people, including even Debra Hill, made up The Shape that is Michael Meyers. However instead here we get one stunt performer and actor doing absolutely every moment of Meyers; Dick Warlock, who is really great here as the perfect silent killing machine. However it is of course in this film that plotting and mythology begins to rear its ugly head and lead this franchise down a dastardly path. We learn of Meyer’s age in this timeline, which of course doesn’t exactly concur with Warlocks’ or his performance, which feels older, darker. The mythology of Samhain is first introduced with Pleasance exposition dumping theories and beliefs about mythology and the like. However the worst of all these is the thing that so many reboots have attempted to distil or just remove; the reveal that Laurie is Michael’s sister. Carpenter and Hill infamously wrote the script fuelled by what Carpenter has told many times was “a six pack a night” and this reveal came about from a case of writers block regarding motivations. So Carpenter gave Michael one and undermined in so many ways the first film and its horror, as well as destroying the simplicity and quality of this second film by a good margin for me. Now as us Thorn-heads know, this is not the most ridiculous thing that we will come across in this saga, but it is certainly one of the dumber and easier routes. Say what you will about Thorn, but at least it’s not one of the go-to most overdone twists of all time. I guess what makes re-watches of Halloween II so jarring is just the absolute finality of its conclusion, there is no winking to possible continuation, no glimpses of ambiguity. Loomis is dead in an explosion and Meyers is much the same, literally burning alive in front of us, his flaming burning hallowed skull mirroring the opening image being our final image. It really is an absolute conclusive finale… but of course, that could never be, or at least for one more film it was, briefly.
Halloween III:
Season of the Witch (Dir. Tommy Lee Wallace, 1982)
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An absolute oddity in horror series history, but also one of the great films of its ilk. Let’s discuss. With Michael and Dr Loomis officially dead by all accounts by the end of Halloween II, it seemed that the Halloween franchise was naturally dead also. Then it came to be that a third entry in the series was going to go ahead, it then came to pass via the ideas of John Carpenter and Debra Hill that the way to go could be an anthology franchise, with each year a new horror film occurring on Halloween under the Halloween name would be the way forward for the series. For this, Tommy Lee Wallace who rejected directing the second film due to his reluctance to the idea of continuing Michael’s plotline, naturally was excited and intrigued by the idea and what came to be was Halloween III: Season of the Witch. A folk horror, ‘witchcraft in the computer age’ (as per Debra Hill’s one line pitch to co-writer Nigel Kneale for the film) that as we all know was the first and last of its kind when it came to this anthology concept. The film bombed, as shafted by its name of Halloween III - Wallace wanted the film to just be released as Season of the Witch or Halloween: Season of the Witch – and Michael was back by the time the fourth film was conceived of. For me this idea is only odd because of the fourth film and onwards returning to Michael, if the franchise simply went this way after the first film even, I can see audiences being far more excepting, but it was almost entirely rejected by fans and critics on its initial release and has of course only with time gained its deserving cult following. Afterall this really is a marvellously wicked, dark, quirky and fascinating film that feels so perfectly spooky and devilish for the season that one really does wish the anthology concept was a success. In many ways the vein of Halloween II is still present, when it comes to the visual continuity. Dean Cundey is back as cinematographer, Carpenter and Hill are back as producers, with Carpenter once again having a very hands on approach to helping the film get made, aswell as composing a beautifully creepy score with great infusions of the modern age, working again with Alan Howarth, for probably my second favourite Carpenter score of all time (second to the first film). Wallace does bring a more visceral gore to the film, which led to the film’s biggest issue in the eyes of Nigel Kneale. Kneale, whose work such as The Quatermass series and The Stone Tape infused so perfectly the supernatural with the modern and the technological was the perfect fit for this project which ultimately reveals itself to be a tale of old Irish cults harnessing the power of stone henge to kill the children of America on Halloween night with the widespread masks they have been created under the guise of the Silver Shamrock company. It’s very whacky material, delivered with incredible horror and tension. As a matter of fact the final thirty seconds of this film are some of the most unforgettable, daring and jaw-dropping moments of horror of the era.
But alas Kneale despite creating 60% of the final script that was used according to Wallace remains completely uncredited, with Carpenter and Wallace doing re-writes and Wallace receiving the sole credit for the whole piece. Different views are seen on Kneale’s departure, however it was very clear it seemed to many that Kneale was not a fan in anyway of the graphic gore that was being infused into the film. Now, these are some truly stunning practical effects and in one particular scene late in the film, bolster a truly terrifying supernatural horror torture scene that still unsettles me to this day in the bold nature of it. However it was not to Kneale’s liking it seemed, and in many ways one can see a version of this film without much of the gore and find quite the child-friendly spooky film, I prefer the infusion of gore taking this to new levels for me, but can still understand Kneale’s point of view. Afterall this is a very adult film in one particular marvellous other way, that of the lead character of Tom Atkins as a booze-hound, womanising doctor who flirts and succeeds with every woman he initiates with, including his female co-lead Stacey Nelkin whom he first meets as the grieving daughter of the dying man who kicks off the series of events leading them to Silver Shamrock company. Atkins is disgruntled, charismatic, scummy even at times, with his awful relationship with his kids and ex-wife, amongst a litany of other issues. But Atkins plays him so down the line and realistic, despite his slightly absurd romantic and sexual prowess with every woman he talks to, that the character of Daniel Challis becomes one very easy to root for and one that we grow to like. It’s a very adult lead for what is in its final product a very adult film. Dan O’Herlihy as the cunning Irish villain of the piece Conal Cochran is just as brilliantly portrayed, if a little over-the-top in his malevolence at certain points. All in all Season of the Witch is as much a disappointing film to return to as it is an ever-intriguing one, after all the promise of this anthology is one of the great ‘what if’s of horror movie history. It’s a wonderful little film and it’s an oddity in itself, with its weirdness and peculiarities, but is all the more the oddity with how it is neatly tucked away in the span of nine other films. Because just like that, Michael came home again.
Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (Dir. Dwight H Little, 1988)
Producer Moustapha Akaad was very clear with how he wanted the Halloween series to continue; bring Michael Myers back already! Halloween IV: The Return of
Michael Myers really is just that, it’s one of the first of what we now
frequently call ‘soft reboot’s – we have a new family of legacy characters,
despite us not getting to the stage yet where those actors want to return (like
they will twice over in the future). We have a rebuilding of the mythos of the
central villain figure and a triumphant return to their glory of horror, aswell
as the return of his ultimate foe in Dr. Loomis. But let’s just elaborate on
one thing, the continuation of this film following on from the 2nd
is absurd, the bandages around Michael’s face (which actually I think is an
awesome design and one I wish they stuck with for a little longer in the film)
and the minor scarring to Dr. Loomis’s face. Those in the film repeatedly refer
to it as “a fire”, which it was, neglecting the fact to mention that it was a
fire brought on by a huge gas explosion that most definitely killed both Loomis
and Myers without a second chance. This film originally had multiple written
and pitched openings which would elaborate and retcon the ending of the second
film by actually showing us Loomis being thrown from the explosion and in one
very exciting concept (that we would get eventually in Halloween Kills) Loomis
screaming at paramedics rushing to Michael’s aid to “let him burn! Let him
burn!” None of this was shot and instead we end up with a sequence that rather
effectively for me builds a fair bit of tension and suspense with a Silence
of the Lambs before Silence of the Lambs deep dark dungeon of a
sanatorium as we plunge deeper and deeper until we find Michael ready to be
transferred to a new facility. We also
plunge deeper and deeper into the bowels of retcon exposition as we are
informed of how both Loomis and Michael managed to now suddenly survive the
conclusion of the last film. But this exposition is delivered just as fun as it
is conceptually ludicrous. The script for this film was written by Alan B.
McElroy, from a story by McElroy, Danny Lipsius, Larry Rattner, Benjamin
Ruffner. And with McElroy we end up with our first major Halloween fan
now working as a writer and I actually think both writer McElroy and director
Dwight H. Little both do pretty great work and elevate this, especially come
the film’s finale, into a very worthy sequel to the original. This films best
strength is it’s 84 minute run-time and honestly the whole thing flys by at
such a clip, it’s an incredibly rewatchable spooky season treat, even if with
this great pace we lose some of the dread of the original two films. For my
money this is the best version of a Halloween movie that had to be made
in the 80’s slasher vein. It’s fun, the kills are great, it moves with a great
pace, the characters are all fun and new, Loomis is back (if not as at first as
unintentionally funny as we would first hope) and Michael despite some caveats
is rather scary in this film again. All in all Return really is a more
than solid entry for this franchise.Credit
The screenplay and direction really does follow one chief rule it seems, to go back to basics and return the series to a more straight forward slasher formula; Michael is back killing teens in Haddonfield on Halloween night. Now the film does end with a truly great final twist, but up until that point the film does indeed fall into a slight formula. But again it’s a formula that works and is done very well here. The whole film has a slight younger feel to it, it’s not that it lacks gore or things like that, but it does with its young girl lead feel like a Halloween for a slightly younger audience, of course I wouldn’t recommend this to many truly young children but I also find it to be a nice gateway film (again if my wife isn’t in any way hesitant to what films I show my kids, they are going to be seeing things far too early all over). There is in regards to these new characters the introduction of Danielle Harris as Jamie Strode, the daughter of Laurie and the niece of Michael – with the film only very slightly eluding to the horrific sister reveal of the second film. Laurie is unceremoniously killed off-screen before the film begins, giving Jamie into the care of very few on-screen Carruthers (a lovely small field), with Ellie Cornell as her step-sister. Both Harris and Cornell are really great here and Harris is beyond solid for a child performance, she is genuinely a perfect mini scream queen. Their terror and their sadness and their drive are all wholly believable, aswell their familial chemistry is wonderful here. It makes for two really fun and likeable leads for this film, especially thinking of them as two new original characters by the time of the fourth film in the series. Sasha Jensen of Dazed and Confused fame also appears here as Cornell’s boyfriend whose arc is a fairly obvious one of cheating sh*t who redeems himself by the end, it’s a fun little arc and all the dialogue between our teen characters returns to that Debra Hill mould of being believable, likable and adult. Michael’s mask itself seems a little off however and in one scene is erroneously an entirely different mask with blonde hair, due to the real one being misplaced. It makes sense this time in universe, with Michael losing his original going into prison and then finding what must be the ten years later version in a costume store, however it just feels far less scary than the first. In a word it feels slightly goofier. However goofier is not the word one would use to describe the rest of the film, I really do find this film works very well for what it is, with a few great horror sequences, and some great action sequences as the film continues, which are great despite the natural fact that they lessen the original's taut feel. In the end though the film’s masterstroke is its final reveal, a truly terrifying, shocking and brilliant twist that sends the series in a whole new brilliant direction, with Danielle Harris now in a surprise reveal taking on the spirit of Michael (or just being traumatised to the point of mental fracture). It’s a really great ending and Pleasance pulls out his best acting in the film to really sell this haunting finale where Loomis quite literally goes to shoot a child as his only response to the face of horror returning once more. It’s a really, really sublime ending and probably my second or third favourite in the whole series, even if… again! The next film completely rejects it in favour of one of the worse films in the entire series. Return however as a self-contained beast is a marvellous Halloween treat.
- -Thomas
Carruthers
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