I have dedicated every waking breath to horror since it first grabbed me back in 1999-2000 when I first saw nearly every staple franchise that holds together this beautiful genre starting with Romero’s then ‘Dead Trilogy’.
After over 10 years of doing little else besides watching horror movies I have to admit I was a little embarrassed I had never seen the majority of the Halloween series. Over the years I did have the pleasure of seeing the best of the series. I had seen John Carpenter’s original classic, the second, and Season of the Witch, although SOW is pretty good as an original horror flick it doesn’t have anything to do with the shape of the series Michale Myers which this article is largely focused towards (unless all of Myer’s masks were designed by the Silver Shamrock company of course). I even jumped into the game a little late and went to Resurrection when it hit theatres. There is a lot of argument around that states that Resurrection is a horrible entry for the series, looking back however even with Busta Rhymes ruining the movie it still manages to be a much more competent movie than the later sequels that came before.
It’s not entirely my fault I had never seen the series as I never rent, always buy and especially after the release of “From Crystal Lake to Manhattan” Friday the 13th box set, I figured a Halloween box set had to be on it’s way in the near future. That was 7 years ago. Rob Zombies Halloween prequel/remake renewed my interest in Myers, and after seeing H2 which I all but liked, I needed to see what Myer’s moments I’d been missing out on in the Haddonfield universe. I got terribly sick before Christmas, and although the pain was excruciating, staying positive about the situation it was also great timing as I had just borrowed the Halloween movies I have never seen from a friend. One by one I suffered through these flicks while on my ‘sickation’ from work. To be fair Four and Five aren’t terrible movies, but they aren’t anything great either, the later sequels however are on another level of bland. When combining them, the movies have their moments of being creepy, sporting some decent kills, and furthering the mythos with competent story, but if you look at them individually all these films lack at least one of those key ingredients to a good slasher film. After seeing all the movies I am forced to raise the question, are most negative comments directed at Rob Zombie’s Halloweens unfair? Rob Zombies Halloween was terrifying while Michael was growing up as we watched his child like innocence fade into a complete rage against everyone and everything due to his surroundings. The second half of Halloween then proved to be a solid retelling of ‘the night he came home’ with Michael being portrayed as a monstrous behemoth of a man over his previous portrayal of a man of slightly larger than average size. If you watch H2 carefully you will notice it is a visual acid trip of dark fantasy’s greatest moments. If only this same bizarre imagination was carried over to the kills of the film it would have been a pure masterpiece of modern horror cinema. Zombie instead decided that Michael’s iconic knife should be the only tool he uses to kill throughout the film. While I’ll never argue to the contrary that that decision sunk the production, I do feel Rob Zombie again delivered a film more impressive than the later entries of the original series. If you have not seen the majority of the Halloween movies I obviously don’t recommend them. It is a shame the series creators brought back Michael after fans revolted towards Halloween taking a new direction with number three. I for one would have much rather explored the lore and traditions of Halloween rather than having to see the same faceless psychopath over and over again. Halloween has potential to build up the franchise again with sequels as it shouldn’t be hard to top the majority of what we’ve seen besides the few exceptions. I understand why Michael is looked at as a king in the realm of the Slasher God’s, it is unfortunate however that the films decide to tread ridiculous story lines over delivering entertaining kills which I feel are the absolute most important pieces to any slasher franchise or character (in H20 Michael ends with a whopping three kills approx.). As I said above I understand why Michael Myers is looked at as one of the greatest slasher villains because of the first films, but does he deserve to sit as high as the top dogs in the genre? Why do Leatherface and Norman Bates take a back seat to him most of the time? Hell come to think about it rating on consistency Michael Myers is kicking at the heels of the Leprechaun’s buckled shoes who only has six movies, with four being good. Maybe people saw these films when they were younger and Myers holds a special place in their hearts, we all have those things that are for us and us alone, but as it sits right now watching with a fresh pair of eyes Halloween is a broken franchise. Hopefully Zombie’s re-envisioning will inspire others to further the Myers evolution and bring credibility back to the Haddonfield stalker.
