Days 179 and Day 180

This weekend I watched the rest of the Halloween films, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch, IV: The Return Of Michael Myers, V: The Revenge Of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers, Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later and Halloween: Resurrection.

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch is the odd man out as it’s not about Michael Myers (although the first Halloween film is shown on TVs seen during the film, so Michael does pop up a couple of times). Instead it’s about an attempt to “bringing about a resurrection of the ancient age of witchcraft” via the mass sacrifice of children. III is a pretty decent horror film, which reminds a little of the Twilight Zone, in that it has a great core concept, twists and a not so happy ending.

However, III didn’t make enough money and the idea that Halloween would become a franchise of horror movies with each film being separate and distinct from the other films, was dropped and they brought back Michael. 

Halloween IV: The Return Of Michael Myers and Halloween V: The Revenge Of Michael Myers centre on Jamie Lloyd, Michael’s nine year old niece and the last of his bloodline, and Michael trying to kill her. Danielle Harris plays Jamie and is really great, often young child actors are the weak link, but Danielle really knocks it out of the park. Ellie Cornell who plays Jamie’s foster sister is also great and together with Donald Pleasence they take IV from being an average slasher into something better/special. There is a little bit of people acting stupid to advance the plot and Michael has started to become more of an unstoppable supernatural monster, rather than a human monster. There is a nice bit when the locals find out that Michael is back and they decide to arm up and form a mob to go hunt him, although being armed doesn’t help them and most get Michaeled. IV ends with Michael being shot by about twenty people and falling down a mine shaft, but before this he manages to transfer his evilness into Jamie who kills her foster mum.

V starts one year later as we discovery that Jamie has been committed, is under Dr Loomis care and is mute and that Michael survived the mine shaft and was taken in by a hermit and has been comatose for tor the year. The day before Halloween Michael wakes up kills the hermit and a load of other people as he heads for Jamie. We also find out that Jamie and Michael have a psychic link and Jamie sees the killings from Michael’s POV. Dr Loomis uses this link to lure Michael make to his old home and captures him. The film ends with Michael being broken out of jail by a mysterious stranger in cowboy boots. V is a pretty average slasher film, there isn’t much time spent developing the characters, so that when they die they are pretty much just fodder. And there’s a bit too much time spent starting to build the Michael Myers mythos.

Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers was the last of the first run of sequels (as Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later, released three years later ignores Halloween III to VI) and really concentrates on building the Michael Myers mythos. At the end of V Jamie and Michael were kidnapped by a druid cult and VI starts almost six years later. Jamie is giving birth (assumedly she has been impregnated by the cult) afterwards she escapes with her baby, but is hunted down and killed by Michael, but Jamie has hidden her baby.

The baby is found by Tommy Doyle (played by Paul Rudd!!! Yes that Paul Rudd!!!) who names him Stephen and lives opposite Michael’s old home. Living in Michael's old home are relatives of Laurie, who Michael kills during the film. Escaping Michael are Kara Strode and her young son Danny, who are rescued by Tommy and Dr Loomis. Tommy explains that “he believes Michael has been inflicted with Thorn, an ancient Druid curse. Long ago, one child from each tribe, chosen to bear the curse of Thorn, must sacrifice its next of kin on the night of Samhain, or Halloween. Tommy believes that Steven will be Michael's final sacrifice.”.

Tommy, Stephen, Dr Loomis, Kara and Danny are then captured by the cult and taken to their headquarters. The head of the cult turns out to be a friend of Dr Loomis, who wants “to control and study the power of Thorn”. Michael then kills all the cult members (the film never explains why Michael was happy to stay with the cult and didn’t kill them during the six years). Michael then appears to be killed by Tommy, but the film ends with a shot of Michael’s mask and in the background, you can hear Dr Loomis’s screams. Again, this sequel spends very little time developing the characters, so you don’t really care when they are killed, and too much time developing the mythos (but not enough trying to make the mythos make sense). It’s not a great film.  

Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later ignores all the previous films, except for I and II. For twenty years Laurie Strode has worried that Michael would return and kill her, to cope she has faked her death, changed her name and become an (near) alcoholic. As the film starts she is headmistress of a private school, whose pupils are about to leave on a school trip, except for her son, his girlfriend, his best friend and his girlfriend. The only other people around are LL Cool J, the security guard, and Laurie’s boyfriend. Michael arrives and works his way through everyone, except for Laurie, her son and LL Cool J and the film ends with Laurie decapitating Michael. It’s not a bad nineties slasher film, with a good cast and script, and is probably the best of the sequels (maybe tied with II), but feels a little tame and doesn’t quite have the edge-of-your-seatness of the first Halloween.

In Halloween: Resurrection an internet reality TV company has set up Michael’s house to be live streamed on Halloween as six college students investigate the house. It turns out that Michael has been living beneath the house (he returned after he killed Laurie) and works his way through the TV crew and college students, until Busta Rhymes karate kicks Michael into some bare electric cables and Michael appears to die. This is probably the worst of the original Halloween films and too often feels like a parody of a slasher film, which is weird because it has got some good actors in it. But it has a weak script and one dimensional, cardboard cut-out characters that you are pretty happy to see killed.