One Good Scare: A Love Letter to the ‘Halloween’ Franchise for Its 45th Anniversary

I found my way into the Halloween universe through an old VHS tape collecting dust on my father’s bookcase. He’d recorded Halloween II when it once played on HBO (back when the now-streaming giant was part of basic cable), and the crackle of static was part of its charm. I couldn’t tell you when I first saw Michael Myers slashing up Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, but I can guarantee where it was. Our living room carpet was a light tan, flecked with bits of beige, and our humongous wooden TV set, which sat squarely in the corner, gave me a front-row seat to so many terrible frights. I imagine myself transfixed to the screen, hypnotized by Dean Cundey’s cinematography and Rick Rosenthal’s expert direction. Michael Myers was and is The Boogeyman – he gave me more nightmares than I can count. But I loved being frightened, and Halloween II gave me what I so desperately craved.

For years, I thought Halloween II was the original Halloween. Yes, you read that correctly. My simple brain couldn’t comprehend that the film’s opening scene was actually the ending of the first one. Doh! When I finally did watch the 1978 original some time later, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The way The Shape stalked Laurie in broad daylight or popped out of the shadows with his mask seemingly glowing in the dark – it all seemed like the perfect nightmare. What John Carpenter achieved on such a meager budget was and is impressive. To think Michael Myers came to life because a pair of scrappy screenwriters wanted to make a movie, and they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Thanks to Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad, the little picture that could ignited one of the most lucrative franchises in history.

Another thing about my relationship with Halloween is I didn’t initially follow the series. I had no idea Halloween 3 through 6 even existed when I was a kid. No one was talking about Michael Myers by the time I was in elementary school in the ‘90s; there weren’t even any costumes available where I lived. It was all about Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, both of whom I dressed up as for Halloween. But everything changed overnight with Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later. With Jamie Lee Curtis’ return to the franchise, it was all anyone could talk about. It was a defining pop culture moment. Add in a cast of fresh faces – including Michelle Williams of Dawson’s Creek fame, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, LL Cool J, and Josh Hartnett – and you’ve got a recipe for success. And it was a bonafide blockbuster. Released in August 1998, it went on to snag $75 million; at the time, it was the highest-grossing entry of the franchise.

The box office receipts are great to have, but it’s the experiences that matter most. As the first horror film I ever saw in the theater, I remember the smell of popcorn wafting in the lobby, the stickiness of the seat beneath me, and the feeling of intense fear in the audience. From the heart-stopping opener – damn did Marion put up a helluva fight – to the epic John and Molly chase scene (why don’t we talk about it enough?!), Halloween H20 had everything you could ask for in a Halloween movie. Of course, as I’ve gotten older, I can admit to its many technical faults, like the masks and sometimes flat lighting – but it still holds a special place in my heart.

I have flashes of that day in mid-August, the heat as sweltering and unbearable as ever. We settled into our seats, my mom and I, and readied ourselves for what was to come. I can recall most the moment when Michael slashes his knife mere inches away from John and Molly, the terror casting their faces a ghostly white. Tears streamed down Molly’s face; her cries practically wormed into your eardrums. The entire crowd seemed to hold their breath, and you could literally hear a pin drop.

Of course, how could I ever forget that ending? The ending to end all endings. Laure Strode finally confronts and slays her monster. “Michael!” she screeches in that iconic moment, as she makes her way back into Hillcrest Academy. The final confrontation is epic: an ax, a flag pole, a whole drawer of knives! But the real moment comes in the last few moments. Wielding her ax, Laurie, after running Michael off the road and down a steep embankment, wavers at first. Perhaps, she’s thinking about the brother Michael could have been – or maybe it’s not that deep. Emotion wells up in her eyes, but she pulls back. She doesn’t allow emotion to cloud her judgment. She takes a single swing, and Michael’s head goes rolling in the grass. Cheers and applause roared in my eardrums. I remember clapping, too, not just for the final moment but the entire film. It made me love movies even more than I already did. I’d only seen one film in the theater prior to this, 1994’s The Lion King, so I was still green when it came to the movie theater experience. But goodness, was it something else.

Afterward, I left the theater with a chill racing down my spine. As my mom and I crossed the parking lot, I looked over my shoulder again and again, fully expecting The Boogeyman to pop out from around the corner. That’s the effect of a great movie-watching experience. Regardless of how you feel about Halloween H20, I’m sure you have a similar experience – that film from your youth that truly terrified you and kept you up at night. That made you frightened even in broad daylight.

It was only after Halloween H20 that I learned there were four other movies in the franchise. Over the next few years, I watched Halloween 3-6 when I could – and let me tell you, they weren’t easy to track down. I don’t even recall any of those playing on HBO, but I could very well be wrong on that. It was a long time ago. After Halloween 8 came and went (we don’t talk about Halloween: Resurrection), I bought an overseas DVD set of the entire franchise up to that point. Of course, I also had to buy a region-free player along with it, and that’s when my obsession with Halloween really exploded. I was quickly taken with Halloween 4 and have come to admire Dwight Little’s work on the film – that opening title sequence alone is a thing of pure magic – as well as that of Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris, the film’s two leads. Rachel and Jamie’s relationship was magnetic. They could be your neighbors, and both actors brought considerable weight to the roles, so when Michael did show up, you actually cared about them. With Jamie Lee Curtis off taking Hollywood by storm, Ellie and Danielle became the heart of the franchise in the late ‘80s – even though their characters were both unceremoniously killed off in the silliest ways in later sequels. The disrespect! 

Soon after, I became a member of the now-defunct Official Halloween Message Board (or OHMB) and connected with like-minded Halloweenies – sharing franchise theories, behind-the-scenes photos, and rumors about the next installment. There was an H9 landing page at one point before that effort, like so many other projects, fell apart. I couldn’t get enough of Halloween.

In early 2005, I transferred colleges and lost touch with the online OHMB community, but my love for the series never waned. When Rob Zombie’s Halloween came along, I was giddy with antic…pation. As an unapologetic The Devil’s Rejects fan, I couldn’t wait to see what fresh perspective Zombie would bring to the now-stagnant franchise. Resurrection had stopped Michael Myers dead in his tracks, so a remake seemed to come at the appropriate time. Here we had a heavy metal artist-turned-filmmaker who had a clear vision and knew exactly what he wanted to say. No one was going to tell him any different. Well, producers did, which is why we ended up with the 2007 film. While the first half brings an interesting perspective to Michael’s origin story – the events inside Smith’s Grove are the most interesting part of the film – the second half mimics the original in almost every way. There’s a lack of vision, even if some of its parts still work (such as the cast and Tyler Mane’s menacing performance as Michael). My friends and I went to see the movie, and they were as excited as I was.

I don’t know if it was because my friends hated the film, or I actually hated it, or both – but I left the theater disgruntled and dissatisfied. I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. Now, I don’t want to turn this into a hit piece on Rob Zombie, so what I’ll say is that I love his visual style. There’s always something to digest with what he does. You can walk away from a Zombie flick having fully feasted on the lighting, coloring, and camera angles. He just knows how to tell a story – even if his dialogue leaves much to be desired. Then, there’s his Halloween II, the 2009 follow-up. Needless to say, I didn’t see this one in the theater; only years later. I can’t say that I like the film much – in fact, I loathe it – but again, Zombie knows how to arrest you with images that you won’t soon forget. From the opening scene, he exacts a brutality that shakes you down to the core. It might have been a dream in the movie, but it remains the best section of the film. I also give credit to the cast, namely Scout Taylor Compton, for nailing the shit out of the script. You can feel her pain oozing from the screen. She’s that good.

But neither film worked for me, and it’s a damn shame.

The franchise then lay dormant for nine very long years. Various ideas came and went, like Halloween 3D and Halloween Returns, but nothing came of any of them. Then, the news landed like a bombshell in the fall of 2017. Michael Myers was back! I still remember the promotional image of Jamie Lee Curtis standing on a porch wearing the same clothes her character had worn 40 years prior. It just dripped with nostalgia. A few things ran through my mind: 1) I can’t believe we’re getting a new Halloween movie, and 2) Uh, Laurie’s back… again?! Now, don’t get me wrong, the film turned out quite alright, but I had my doubts going into it.

To celebrate, I dragged my mother along for the ride. It’d been 20 years since Halloween H20, and it seemed fitting that we should see it together. Now that it’s been five years (holy hell, how did that happen?!), I recall the experience quite fondly. My mother has since died, so seeing Halloween (2018) with her is a special moment in my life. Regardless of our relationship, we always bonded over horror movies. She’s the one who bought me A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5 on VHS, after all. She got me. As before, the popcorn wafted through the air, and the plastic vinyl of the seats was sticky beneath me. It felt like home. There’s nothing like sitting in a darkened movie theater watching a Halloween movie. I carry that day around in my pocket; it was one of a few days that was actually good with my mom. Whenever I rewatch the film, I think about that day, and her – grief imprints itself ferociously onto films (or art, in general). It’s funny that way.

Halloween (2018), or what I like to call it – Halloween’s Greatest Hits – was packed tightly with franchise Easter Eggs and excelled on a technical level. Christopher Nelson nailed the mask; I believed it could be the same mask from the original. David Gordon Green and cinematographer Michael Simmonds understood the assignment in more ways than one. From the one-shot take to smaller moments like when Michael sees Laurie for the first time, it all conspired to make a movie of enchantment. Naturally, I do have a few issues with the film (the pacing in the middle is all wrong), but I can appreciate it for what it is. A boss slasher flick. With its expertly crafted sequences – my god, it was good to have a well-made Halloween film again after so many duds in this franchise – and nerve-shredding score, the latest in Michael Myers’ saga satisfied our collective hunger. And it seemed like an appropriate end to the series as we knew it.

That is, until not one but TWO more sequels were announced. I suppose it was inevitable, what with Halloween (2018) raking in $255 million worldwide. Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends take insanely bold swings, for better or worse. If you’re talking about a franchise now in its double digits, it’s hard to do anything fresh or new. I’ll never quite understand why Kills, especially, has been drug across the coals like it has. It was No. 12 in the franchise, and what do you expect? Still, from a merely technical standpoint, it swings and hits big time. The score is totally killer (pun intended), the performances are solid (glad to see Andi Matichak take center stage), and the kills are so over-the-top that they’re just a joy to watch. As far as my personal opinion, I take it like those wild ‘80s slashers that don’t make much sense but the kills are cool so you let it slide. If taken from that perspective, you can have fun with it. Try it sometime.

With Halloween Ends, the franchise as we knew it came to a close. I’m in the minority when I say I loved how out-of-left-field it was. Michael Myers takes a backseat, which is admittedly strange for a finale, and Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) steps into the spotlight. I knew from the opening scene, which depicts the accidental death of the most annoying kid on the planet, that we were about to get something wildly different. But I never expected a bad-boy slasher flick. Corey is pushed over the edge by the town, and when Michael chokes him in the tunnels, a bit of evil transfers into Corey’s body. “Evil doesn’t die, it changes shape,” writes Laurie in her memoir. That simple line sums up David Gordon Green’s entire trilogy. Evil, like fate, always comes in cycles. That’s another reason I don’t take issue with Brackett (Charles Cyphers) and Nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens) dying so easily in Halloween Kills. “Fate caught up with several lives here,” a voiceover in the original Halloween says in the famous classroom scene. You can’t outrun fate. Everyone who had brushes with The Boogeyman died – or many of them did. It began with Michael and Laurie, and it was always fated to end with them. Halloween Ends said goodbye to the Boogeyman, putting to rest all the nightmares and restless nights of sleep we’ve all had over the years. 44 years and piles of bodies later, the franchise as we knew it was over.

With the news Miramax has won the TV rights for a series, as well as a proposed “cinematic universe” across both TV and film, Halloween isn’t actually over. It’s never over; it just changes shape. I do believe when it does return, it’s going to look drastically different than what we’re used to. Maybe the TV series will tell disturbing tales that all inhabit the same universe as Michael Myers. Or it could very well bring Michael to the small screen for the first time, as it depicts chilling stories about The Boogeyman stalking suburbs across America. Or better yet, leave the TV series to be an anthology and bring Michael Myers back in a new form for the cinema. The Night House and Hellraiser screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski have a very cool idea of what could happen. Whatever happens, I just want something new and different. Make Michael Myers Great Again!

Dear Halloween, it has been a wild ride. I can safely say it most certainly hasn’t been boring – well, except for Resurrection. From the first time I watched Halloween II on VHS to seeing Halloween Ends in the theater, Michael Myers has been a vital part of my life. Growing up, my friends and I would play Halloween with one of us pretending to be Michael and stalking around the neighborhood. It was always a blast to act scared (and give our parents heart attacks in the process). We were young and carefree, and Halloween ignited our imaginations in a way I can’t quite articulate. Now, as a 30-something adult, I find myself revisiting certain standout films to get that hyper-intense charge – whether it’s Halloween 4 or more recently Ends.

There’s just something special about this franchise, even on its absolute worst day.

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