The “Halloween” franchise has a lot of really good and really bad movies. How does it stand up as a franchise despite its flaws, though? It actually stands its ground fairly well.
In 1978, John Carpenter did something absolutely incredible that not only changed the face and presentation of horror, but also verged on violating the audience. “John Carpenter’s Halloween” was a dark, intense movie that was only further darkened by its understated, but all too there, presence. This understated horror/slasher classic was one of the few movies to do the blood-and-gore formula right.
Its sequel took things further and made it much more of a psychological movie, while also throwing in a bit of a higher level of spirituality. Dr. Loomis let us know more about what drives Michael Myers. It also let us know more about Laurie Strode, better known as Michael’s sister. The problem with this is the fact that it started going through the normal degrading slope of quality that most directors think, which is “The higher the body count, the better it would be.” A lot of the people that died in the movie you occasionally wanted them to die because they were so annoying. Some of them died because they were there. There was no better reason. However, due to the fact that quite a bit of it took place in a hospital, which is already creepy, and was well shot, the atmosphere and suspense was still there.
If you like the “Halloween” franchise or just the Michael Myers storyline, “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” is ignorable. It was horrible and only had the remotest ties to the actual franchise, namely happening on Halloween and showing a trailer for “John Carpenter’s Halloween” on a TV in a bar.
“Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers” was pretty lackluster. The best thing about it was the fact that it started touching on theories of what made Michael Myers the unstoppable killer that he is. That being said, the only people that they really took time to develop were the people related to Michael Myers and Michael himself. All of the victims were of no consequence or were just fun to watch die.
“Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers” improved upon “Halloween IV.” It took time to further develop survivors and anyone that really matters in the movie. That still doesn’t save it from being mediocre. There were camera problems, lighting issues, no atmosphere or suspense. Still there was a story and you did actually care about more of the people who die in the movie.
“Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” was more comedic than anything. Sadly, there were only about three or four characters that you actually cared about. There was some merit to the movie though. Tommy, one of the surviving kids from when Michael Myers was tormenting is his sister Laurie in the first movie, is now a paranoid goof who studies pagan symbolism and magic to find a way to stop Michael. It also tied Michael’s niece, the little girl from “Halloween IV and V” into the storyline as well. This is also the last time Donald Pleasence reprised his role as Dr. Samuel Loomis. Both Tommy and Loomis make the enigma of Michael Myers a bit more fleshed out, regardless of how implausible their theories might be.
“Halloween: 20 Years Later,” for a seventh movie in a series, was actually remarkable. It got back to the basics of the franchise while remaining fresh and new. Laurie Strode returned into the storyline as presumably the only person who can stop Michael. Due to the fact that the cast is smaller, you also start to care a bit more about everyone who dies, even though there are those whose deaths are of little consequence. It actually follows almost the same formula as the movie where there are the three obvious couples as well as the cop (in this case a security guard) and a psychologist (who this time is a part of the three couples). Then again, directors quite often forget the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It was refreshing to have a good simple horror/slasher movie that had people you cared about and made something as simple as a school unsettling.
“Halloween: Resurrection” was the novelty act of the series. It was pretty much Michael Myers meets reality internet tv. Never, in a horror movie, should Busta Rhymes say “Trick or treat [expletive]” and then roundhouse kick someone out of a window as though he were Chuck Norris in “Walker Texas Ranger.” This movie was a pain to watch unless you went in thinking I’m going to laugh myself out of my seat within the first five minutes of the actual storyline for the movie starting up.
“Rob Zombie’s Halloween” was actually, surprisingly, something that was actually pleasing to watch. It remained faithful enough to the original “Halloween” to be familiar. It had characters that were really well developed. Even though it was faithful to the source material, it was also different enough to make you wonder what was coming up. The thing that was most interesting about the movie was that it was a character study rather than just a regular slasher flick. It made you care about Michael. It was surprising to see someone make such a feared and hated character someone you could actually care about.
Then Rob Zombie screwed it up with “Halloween II.” It’s hard to figure out where to start on what’s wrong with this movie. It’s easier to figure out where it went right; that is to say almost nowhere. The only things that stood out as really good were Malcolm McDowell (Dr. Loomis) and Brad Dourif (Sheriff Brackett). What was wrong with it? The script was awful, you didn’t even care about the main character, Weird Al has more insight in his cameo on what’s going on in the movie. But wait, there’s more. The time frame reference isn’t even faithful to Rob Zombie’s original “Halloween,” you cheer for the deaths of everyone, the character of Michael Myers is completely off and only the opening five minutes is reminiscent of the original “Halloween II.” Also, the dream sequences build up to a really cool move for the franchise. However, they don’t even build up to what they’re building up to. I digress though.
Either way, the individual movies range from absolutely incredible to absolutely horrible. However, as a franchise, it’s one of the most solid horror franchises out there. Just, for sure, avoid “Halloween III” and “Rob Zombie’s Halloween II” unless you’re planning on making a movie and want examples of what not to do.