The Halloween Film franchise

I was reading to day, that Friday the 13th is getting yet another reboot. Which got me thinking about the late 70s/ early 80s slasher picks and none come quite as good as the original Halloween.

For any of you that have not seen it, it really does hold up remarkably well, other than the clothes for the time period.

Just a few interesting facts about the film:

• Test audiences hated the original screenings of "The Babysitter Killer" as it had no score or particular theme. When the score (written by John Carpenter himself) was added and the film retitled Halloween, the audiences loved it.
  
  The original Michael Myers mask was a Captain Kirk mask spray painted white.
  
  The person who played Michael Myers in the original, was director Nick Castle who went on to have quite a few 80s hits.
  
  The film series was supposed to be a stand alone horror stories, with a different protagonist/ story each year.
  

The sequel which followed on from the events of the original, was an excellent sequel in its own right, and was for my money, the only other Michael Myers story that was any good.

The 3rd installment, "season of the witch" is a stand alone story which really is quite creepy in parts but nothing to do with the film series. Which is a shame, as it has the brilliant Tom Atkins in it and is well worth a view.

Then came the other sequels which got gradually worse. Parts 4, 5 and 6 were back to Michael and really offer up very little other than a generic stalk and slash, although part 6 really is fantastically awful and starred a young Paul Rudd (Antman). The film is a complete mess and makes absolutely no sense.

Then we fast forward to Halloween (H2O) which brought back Jamie Lee Curtis to the series. Many thought that this was a great return to form but once again, I personally found it lacking. It had better production and acting than the previous sequels but was still a tame effort.

Following on from this, the final part of the series was released, Halloween: Resurrection, which is widely regarded as the worst of the lot (its really not! Even with Busta Rhymes in it as a kung fu gangsta film maker). I never quite figured out why its derided so heavily compared to the others but its far superior than anything post part 4 (which was okay).

We then got the obligatory reboots by Rob Zombie who also directed the sequel to his reboot. Now for me, this is the real low point of the series as it takes everything great about the originals and rewrites them. Instead of just a kid who is nuts, Rob tries to explain why he went nuts. Doesnt work at all.

So there we have it, my quick tour of the franchise. Does anyone have any memories of the series or any thoughts on any of the movies? Do you agree with my thoughts on the sequels?

Personally, the original, is possibly the greatest horror movie made. A bold statement but I would welcome your opinions!

I can't believe I'm going to type this, but I agree with almost everything you've written above, Adam.

First film scared the bejesus out of me when I saw it when I was about 14 and it stuck with me. One of the few films where the daylight scenes are as creepy as the night time scenes and perhaps the most disconcerting soundtrack in any film I've ever seen.

The sequel is great too - great idea to set a horror film in a hospital.

Gonna buck the trend and say that I enjoyed the Rob Zombie remakes. Whilst I agree they aren't a patch on the first two (they're like the Hellraiser series in that after the first two you might as well forget it!), I thought the RZ films were pretty good. I do wish he'd stop putting his wife in his movies though, she has (or at least had) a great a$$ but she simply can't act.

Will go on record as saying that any further reboots will be absolute sh!te

I dunno - provided they get a director who is a fan of the older movies and wants to re-create their feel / atmosphere (and provided they can get a decent cast) they could be okay.


Certainly could get any worse than Jason X. Watched it on a whim a few years ago and thought it was hilariously bad...I'm talking Sharknado levels of cringeworthiness.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211443/


I also reckon the first couple of Nightmare on Elm Street films compare favourable with Halloween, but suffered a similar deterioration in quality the longer the series went on. The Freddy vs Jason ones really didn't do it for me either. I'm a strong believer in not mixing franchises - like Alien vs Predator

Suspiria is my favorite horror movie...Scared the life out of me....

Now I'm older I prefer Halloween 2 to 1....Because I love the haunted house/hospital scenario and it gets straight down to business...

But you're right Argento and Carpenter realised that atmosphere is central to a good horror and their presence is missed in the genre today where it is all gore and slaughter...

As for Zombie he's just bloody awful..

Later on though the only difference between the Halloween and Friday franchises was Donald Pleasence...He gave them a respectability they didn't deserve..

H2
H
H4
H20
H6
H-res
H5

Best to worst.....Who ever invented Tina in 5 needs stoning..H5 was the pits..

Still better than Zombie's though