Halloween is an American
horrorHorror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
franchiseA media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
that consists of ten
slasher filmA slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
s,
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, and
comic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of
Michael MyersMichael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...
who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers. Fifteen years later, he escapes to stalk and kill the people of Haddonfield, Illinois while being chased by his former psychiatrist
Dr. Sam LoomisSamuel Loomis was a Connecticut furniture maker and the most celebrated maker of Colchester/Norwich style furniture.-External links:* ]]* ]]...
. Michael's killings occur on the holiday of
HalloweenHallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, on which all of the films primarily take place. The films collectively grossed over
$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
366 million at the box-office worldwide.
The original
HalloweenHalloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
, released in 1978, was written by
John CarpenterJohn Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
and
Debra HillDebra Hill was an American screenwriter and film producer, who co-wrote the horror film Halloween, its first sequel Halloween II, and The Fog.-Early life:...
, and directed by Carpenter. The sequels have had various writers and directors attached to them. Michael Myers is the antagonist in all of the films except
Halloween III: Season of the WitchHalloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the only Halloween where the story does not revolve around Michael Myers. Directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,...
, the story of which has no direct connection to any other
Halloween film in the series. Carpenter, who had a hand in writing the first sequel, has not had any direct involvement with the rest of the films. The film series is ranked fourth at the United States box office–in adjusted 2008 dollars–when compared to other American horror franchises. The first
Halloween film is credited with beginning a long line of slasher films inspired by
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's
PsychoPsycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
. The franchise began when the first novel appeared less than a year after the release of the first film, and then seven sequels have followed. In 2007,
a remake of HalloweenHalloween is a 2007 American slasher film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a remake/reimagining of the 1978 horror film of the same name, the first in the rebooted Halloween film series and the ninth Halloween film in total. The film stars Tyler Mane as the adult Michael...
was produced, with
a direct sequelHalloween II is a 2009 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a sequel to Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween , and the second film in the rebooted Halloween film series and the tenth Halloween film in total...
released two years later.
Films
| Film |
Director |
Writer(s) |
Producer(s) |
HalloweenHalloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
(1978) |
John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
|
Debra Hill Debra Hill was an American screenwriter and film producer, who co-wrote the horror film Halloween, its first sequel Halloween II, and The Fog.-Early life:...
& John Carpenter |
Debra Hill & John Carpenter |
Halloween IIHalloween II is a 1981 slasher film directed by Rick Rosenthal, and written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. It is the second installment in the Halloween series and is a direct sequel to the Halloween set on the same night of October 31, 1978 as the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers continues to...
(1981) |
Rick Rosenthal Richard L. "Rick" Rosenthal, Jr. is an American film and television director. He is also a producer, actor, and writer.-Biography:...
|
Halloween III: Season of the WitchHalloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the only Halloween where the story does not revolve around Michael Myers. Directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,...
(1982) |
Tommy Lee Wallace Tommy Lee Wallace is an American film producer, director and screenwriter.He is best known for directing Halloween III: Season of the Witch and It.-Early life:...
|
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael MyersHalloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 slasher film and the fourth installment of the Halloween film series, directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd , the daughter of Laurie...
(1988) |
Dwight H. Little Dwight Hubbard Little is an American film director, known for directing the films Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, The Phantom of the Opera, Marked for Death, Rapid Fire and Murder at 1600...
|
Alan B. McElroy Alan B. McElroy is an American writer, film director and producer.McElroy was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of Miami University with a degree in Psychology.He is the creator of Wrong Turn.- External links :...
|
Paul Freeman |
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael MyersHalloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is a 1989 American slasher film and the fifth installment in the Halloween film series. It was directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard and starred Donald Pleasence, who again portrayed Dr. Sam Loomis and Danielle Harris, who returned to play Jamie Lloyd...
(1989) |
Dominique Othenin-Girard |
Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othenin-Girard & Shem Bitterman |
Ramsey Thomas |
Halloween: The Curse of Michael MyersHalloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a 1995 American horror film and the sixth installment in the Halloween series. Directed by Joe Chappelle from a screenplay by Daniel Farrands, the plot involves the "Curse of Thorn", a mystical symbol first shown in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers...
(1995) |
Joe Chappelle Joe Chappelle is an American film and television director and producer. Chappelle was a Co-executive producer and regular Director for the HBO crime drama The Wire...
|
Daniel Farrands |
Paul Freeman |
Halloween H20: 20 Years LaterHalloween H20: Twenty Years Later is a 1998 slasher film and is the seventh installment in the Halloween film series. It is directed by Steve Miner and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Michelle Williams. The screenplay, based on a story by Kevin Williamson further developed by Robert...
(1998) |
Steve Miner Stephen C. "Steve" Miner is an American film and television director who is also a film producer.Miner was born in Westport, Connecticut. Television programs Miner has directed include The Wonder Years, Jake 2.0, Felicity, Dawson's Creek , and Diagnosis: Murder...
|
Robert Zapia & Matt Greenberg Matt Greenberg is an American screenwriter and producer, most notable for his work in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and 1408.-As Writer:*The Killing Box *The Prophecy II *Halloween H20: 20 Years Later...
|
Halloween: ResurrectionHalloween: Resurrection is a 2002 American horror film and eighth installment in the Halloween film series. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II, the film builds upon the continuity of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later...
(2002) |
Rick Rosenthal Richard L. "Rick" Rosenthal, Jr. is an American film and television director. He is also a producer, actor, and writer.-Biography:...
|
Larry Brand & Sean Hood Sean Hood is an American screenwriter best known for horror films, and more recently, action/thrillers.-Early life:Hood graduated from Brown University, with a double major in pure mathematics and studio art, and then spent several years working in Hollywood as a set dresser, prop assistant and...
|
Paul Freeman & Michael Leahy |
HalloweenHalloween is a 2007 American slasher film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a remake/reimagining of the 1978 horror film of the same name, the first in the rebooted Halloween film series and the ninth Halloween film in total. The film stars Tyler Mane as the adult Michael...
(2007) |
Rob Zombie Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
|
Malek Akkad, Andy Gould & Rob Zombie |
Halloween IIHalloween II is a 2009 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a sequel to Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween , and the second film in the rebooted Halloween film series and the tenth Halloween film in total...
(2009) |
Overview
The original
HalloweenHalloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
(1978), written and directed by
John CarpenterJohn Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
, tells the story of
Michael MyersMichael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...
as he stalks and kills teenage
babysittersBabysitting is the practice of temporarily caring for a child on behalf of the child's parents. Babysitting is commonly performed as an odd job by teenagers for extra money.-General:...
on Halloween night. The film begins with six-year-old Michael (Will Sandin) killing his seventeen-year-old sister Judith (
Sandy JohnsonSandy Johnson is an American model and actress. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for the June 1974 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Mario Casilli....
) on Halloween 1963. He is subsequently hospitalized at Smith's Grove Sanitarium. Fifteen years later, Michael (
Nick CastleNick Castle is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his role as Michael Myers in Halloween. He also co-wrote Escape from New York with his friend, John Carpenter.-Early life:...
and Tony Moran) escapes and returns to his hometown where he stalks Laurie Strode (
Jamie Lee CurtisJamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
) and her friends as they babysit. The film ends with Michael being shot six times by his psychiatrist,
Dr. Sam LoomisSamuel Loomis was a Connecticut furniture maker and the most celebrated maker of Colchester/Norwich style furniture.-External links:* ]]* ]]...
(
Donald PleasenceSir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
).
Halloween IIHalloween II is a 1981 slasher film directed by Rick Rosenthal, and written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. It is the second installment in the Halloween series and is a direct sequel to the Halloween set on the same night of October 31, 1978 as the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers continues to...
(1981) picks up where the events of
Halloween left off. Michael's body is missing from the front lawn, where it fell when Loomis shot him. Michael follows Laurie to the local hospital, killing everyone who gets between him and Laurie. The story reveals that Laurie is actually Michael's sister: she was given up for adoption as an infant. Michael corners Loomis and Laurie in an operating room, where Loomis causes an explosion as Laurie escapes. Michael, engulfed in flames, stumbles out of the room toward Laurie before finally falling dead.
The story line of the third
Halloween film, subtitled
Season of the WitchHalloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the only Halloween where the story does not revolve around Michael Myers. Directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,...
(1982), has no connection to the previous two
Halloween films.
Season of the Witch follows the story of Dr. Challis (
Tom AtkinsTom Atkins is an American television and film actor. He is primarily known for his work in the horror film genre, having worked with writers and directors such as John Carpenter, Stephen King, and George A. Romero...
) as he tries to solve the mysterious murder of a patient in his hospital. He, along with the patient's daughter Ellie (
Stacey NelkinStacey Nelkin is an American film and television actress. She is well known for her role in the 1982 horror film Halloween III: Season of the Witch as Ellie Grimbridge. Her best-known TV role is on the soap opera Generations as Christy Russell in 1990...
), travels to the small town of Santa Mira, California. The pair discover that Silver Shamrock Novelties, a company run by Conal Cochran (
Dan O'HerlihyDaniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish film actor.-Early life:O'Herlihy was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age...
), is attempting to use the mystic powers of the
StonehengeStonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
rocks to resurrect the ancient aspects of the
CelticCeltic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts...
festival,
SamhainSamhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...
, which Cochran connects to witchcraft. Cochran is using his Silver Shamrock Halloween masks to achieve his goal, which will be achieved when all the children wearing his masks watch the Silver Shamrock commercial airing Halloween night. Challis contacts the television stations and convinces all but one of the station managers to remove the commercial. The film ends with Challis screaming for the final station to turn off the commercial.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael MyersHalloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 slasher film and the fourth installment of the Halloween film series, directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd , the daughter of Laurie...
(1988), as the title suggests, features the return of Michael Myers (
George P. Wilbur-Biography:Wilbur played Michael Myers in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, the fourth and sixth films of the Halloween film series. He was the first actor to portray Michael Myers more than once during the film series...
) to the film series. The film reveals that Michael survived the fire in
Halloween II but has been in a coma since that night. While being transferred back to Smith's Grove, Michael comes out of his coma and overhears that Laurie Strode, who died in a car accident, has a daughter,
Jamie LloydJamie Lloyd is a fictional character in the Halloween film series, serving as the series protagonist in Halloween 4 and 5. The character also makes a brief appearance in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers....
(
Danielle HarrisDanielle Andrea Harris is an American film and television actress, best known as a scream queen for her roles in several horror films, four of them in the Halloween series: in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Jamie Lloyd and in Halloween and...
). Michael escapes the transport and heads to Haddonfield in search of Jamie. Fellow survivor Dr. Loomis also goes to Haddonfield after learning that Michael has escaped transfer. Eventually, the police track Michael down and shoot him several times before he falls down a mine shaft. Picking up directly where the previous film ends,
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael MyersHalloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is a 1989 American slasher film and the fifth installment in the Halloween film series. It was directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard and starred Donald Pleasence, who again portrayed Dr. Sam Loomis and Danielle Harris, who returned to play Jamie Lloyd...
(1989) has Michael (Don Shanks) surviving the gunshots, and the fall down the mine; he stumbles upon a hermit who bandages him up. One year later, and showing signs of a metaphysical connection to Jamie, Michael tracks Jamie to a local child mental health clinic. Using Jamie as bait, Loomis manages to capture Michael. The film ends with Michael being taken into police custody, only to be broken out of jail by a mysterious stranger, all dressed in black.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael MyersHalloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a 1995 American horror film and the sixth installment in the Halloween series. Directed by Joe Chappelle from a screenplay by Daniel Farrands, the plot involves the "Curse of Thorn", a mystical symbol first shown in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers...
(1995) picks up the story approximately six years after the events of
The Revenge of Michael Myers. The mysterious stranger who broke Michael out of jail kidnaps Jamie Lloyd (
J. C. BrandyJustine Chelsea "J. C." Brandy is a British actress.-Career:Among her roles she has appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation playing the role of Ensign Marta Batanides in the episode "Tapestry", CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Strong Medicine, What Lies Beneath , Silk Stalkings and played Jamie...
) in an effort to obtain her illegitimate child. Jamie escapes with her newborn, with Michael (George P. Wilbur) in pursuit. Michael kills Jamie and continues searching for her baby; the infant is found by Tommy Doyle (
Paul Stephen RuddPaul Stephen Rudd is an American actor and screenwriter. He has primarily appeared in comedies, and is known for his roles in the films Clueless, Wet Hot American Summer, Anchorman, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Dinner for Schmucks, The Object of My...
)—the young boy who was babysat by Laurie Strode in the first film—who brings it home for safety. It is revealed that Michael is driven by the Curse of
ThornThorn or þorn , is a letter in the Old English, Old Norse, and Icelandic alphabets, as well as some dialects of Middle English. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia, but was later replaced with the digraph th. The letter originated from the rune in the Elder Fuþark, called thorn in the...
, which forces a person to kill their entire family in order to save all of civilization. The mysterious stranger is revealed to be Dr. Loomis’s colleague, Dr. Wynn (
Mitchell RyanMitchell Ryan is an American actor most recently known for playing Edward Montgomery on the sitcom Dharma & Greg. He also worked with his on-screen wife from Dharma & Greg, Susan Sullivan, in the short-lived series Julie Farr, M.D..Ryan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville,...
), who is part of a group of people who protect the chosen individual so that they may complete their task. With the help of Kara Strode (
Marianne HaganMarianne Hagan is an American actress and writer.-Early life:Hagan was born and raised in New York and is of Irish, Scottish, Italian and Belgian descent...
), Laurie’s cousin, Tommy keeps the infant from Michael, who slaughters Wynn and his followers. Michael is finally subdued by Tommy, who injects him with large quantities of tranquilizers inside the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. The film ends with Loomis walking back into the sanitarium to find Michael.
The events that transpire between
Halloween 4 and
Halloween 6 are effectively ignored in 1998’s
Halloween H20: 20 Years LaterHalloween H20: Twenty Years Later is a 1998 slasher film and is the seventh installment in the Halloween film series. It is directed by Steve Miner and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Michelle Williams. The screenplay, based on a story by Kevin Williamson further developed by Robert...
. This film opens twenty years after the events of the second film. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has faked her own death so that she could go into hiding from her brother Michael. Now working as the head mistress of a private school under the name Keri Tate, Laurie continues to live in fear of her brother’s return. Her own son, John (
Josh HartnettJoshua Daniel "Josh" Hartnett is an American actor and aspiring producer. He first came to audiences' attention in 1997 as "Michael Fitzgerald" in the television series Cracker. He made his feature film debut in 1998, co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later for Miramax...
), attends school where she teaches. Laurie’s fear becomes reality when Michael (Chris Durand) shows up at the school and begins killing John’s friends and eventually he and Laurie come face-to-face. Laurie manages to get John and his girlfriend (
Michelle WilliamsMichelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, which she played from 1998 to 2003...
) to safety, but decides to return to the school to face Michael once and for all. Laurie succeeds in stopping Michael, but not satisfied until she knows that he is truly dead, Laurie steals his body and decapitates Michael.
Halloween: ResurrectionHalloween: Resurrection is a 2002 American horror film and eighth installment in the Halloween film series. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II, the film builds upon the continuity of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later...
(2002) picks up three years after
H20, and reveals that Michael swapped clothes with a paramedic—crushing the paramedic’s
larynxThe larynx , commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the neck of amphibians, reptiles and mammals involved in breathing, sound production, and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. It manipulates pitch and volume...
so that he could not talk—and that was who Laurie killed. Unable to deal with killing an innocent man, and the fact that Michael was still out there, Laurie is committed to a mental institution. Michael (Brad Loree) shows up at the institution, but Laurie captures him. Her fear of making the same mistake twice gets the better of her, and when she attempts to remove Michael’s mask he surprises and kills her. Michael travels back to his family home in Haddonfield, but finds a group of college students filming an
Internet reality showReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
. Michael proceeds to kill everyone, until he is finally electrocuted by the only surviving student, Sara Moyer (
Bianca KajlichBianca Maria Kajlich is an American actress. Kajlich has had starring and supporting roles in television and film; she currently plays Jennifer on the CBS comedy Rules of Engagement.-Early life:...
), and the show’s creator Freddie Harris (
Busta RhymesTrevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes ,Smith is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes...
).
A remakeHalloween is a 2007 American slasher film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a remake/reimagining of the 1978 horror film of the same name, the first in the rebooted Halloween film series and the ninth Halloween film in total. The film stars Tyler Mane as the adult Michael...
of the original
Halloween was released in 2007. This film focuses on the events that lead Michael Myers (
Daeg FaerchDaeg Faerch is a Danish-Canadian actor. His credits include a comedic role in Peter Berg's Hancock and, most notably, in the horror remake Halloween...
) to kill his family. It also identifies Laurie as Michael’s sister early on, which was something not done in the original 1978 film. On Halloween, Michael murders a school bully, his older sister and her boyfriend, as well as his mother’s boyfriend. Committed to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, Michael closes himself off from everyone. Seventeen years later, Michael (Tyler Mane) escapes and heads to Haddonfield to find his younger sister, with his psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (
Malcolm McDowellMalcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
) in pursuit. Michael finds his sister living with the Strode family, and going by the name Laurie. After killing all of her friends and family, Michael kidnaps Laurie and attempts to explain to her that he is her brother through the use of a picture that he has kept of himself and her as an infant. Unable to understand, Laurie fights back; eventually, Laurie uses Loomis's gun to shoot Michael in the head. In 2009, a sequel to the remake, titled
Halloween IIHalloween II is a 2009 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a sequel to Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween , and the second film in the rebooted Halloween film series and the tenth Halloween film in total...
, picks up right where the latter leaves off and then jumps ahead one year. Here, Michael (Mane) is presumed dead, but resurfaces after a vision of his deceased mother Deborah (Sheri Moon Zombie) informs him that he must track Laurie (
Scout Taylor-ComptonScout Taylor-Compton is an American actress and singer. She has appeared in numerous small television roles and in feature films that range from dramas to those in the horror genre....
) down so that they can "come home" together. In the film, Michael and Laurie have a mental link, with the two sharing visions of their mother.
Development
After viewing John Carpenter's film
Assault on Precinct 13Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American action-thriller film written and directed by John Carpenter. It stars Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against an attack by a relentless criminal gang, along with Darwin Joston as a convicted murderer who helps him. Laurie...
(1976) at the
MilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
Film FestivalA film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
, independent
film producerA film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Irwin YablansIrwin Yablans is an American independent film producer and distributor known for his work in the horror film industry.-Biography:...
and
financierFilm finance is an aspect of film production that occurs during the development stage prior to pre-production, and is concerned with determining the potential value of a proposed film...
Moustapha AkkadMoustapha Akkad was a Syrian American film producer and director, best known for producing the series of Halloween films and directing Mohammad, Messenger of God and Lion of the Desert. He was killed along with his daughter Rima Akkad Monla in 2005 in Amman, Jordan by a suicide bomber.-Early life...
sought out Carpenter to direct for them a film about a psychotic killer stalking babysitters. Carpenter and
Debra HillDebra Hill was an American screenwriter and film producer, who co-wrote the horror film Halloween, its first sequel Halloween II, and The Fog.-Early life:...
began drafting a story titled
The Babysitter Murders, but the title was changed at Yablans request, suggesting the setting be changed to Halloween night and naming it
Halloween instead. Moustapha Akkad fronted the $300,000 for the film's budget, even though he was worried about the tight schedule, low budget, and Carpenter's limited experience as a filmmaker. He finally decided to finance the film after Carpenter relayed the entire film to Akkad, "in a suspenseful way, almost frame for frame", and opted not to take any fees for directing the film. The low budget forced wardrobe and props to be crafted from items on hand or that could be purchased inexpensively; this included the trademark mask worn by Michael Myers throughout the film.
Production designerIn film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
,
art directorThe art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
,
location scoutLocation scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work that is shot outside of the studio, the search for a...
and co-editor
Tommy Lee WallaceTommy Lee Wallace is an American film producer, director and screenwriter.He is best known for directing Halloween III: Season of the Witch and It.-Early life:...
created Michael's mask from a
William ShatnerWilliam Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
Halloween mask, purchased for $1.98. The limited budget also dictated the filming location and time schedule.
Halloween was filmed in 21 days in the spring of 1978 primarily in
South Pasadena, CaliforniaSouth Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in in the West San Gabriel Valley...
. An abandoned house owned by a church stood in as the Myers house. Two homes on Orange Grove Avenue in
HollywoodHollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
were used for the film's climax.
| "We investigated a number of 3-D processes [...] but they were far too expensive for this particular project. Also, most of the projects we do involve a lot of night shooting – evil lurks at night. It's hard to do that in 3-D." |
— Debra Hill (writer/producer) on putting Halloween II into 3-DA 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
. |
Following the success of
Halloween, Yablans and Akkad began working on
Halloween II, which boasted a much larger budget than its predecessor: $2.5 million. Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad invested heavily in this film, even though John Carpenter refused to direct. Most of the film was shot at Morningside Hospital in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, and Pasadena Community Hospital in
Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
. There was initial discussion about filming
Halloween II in
3-DA 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
, but the idea never came to fruition. After
Halloween II was released, Carpenter and Hill were approached about creating a third
Halloween film, but they were reluctant to pledge commitment. The pair agreed to participate in the new project only if it was not a direct sequel to
Halloween II, which meant no Michael Myers. Most of the filming for
Halloween III took place on location in the small coastal town of Loleta in
Humboldt County, CaliforniaHumboldt County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located on the far North Coast 200 miles north of San Francisco. According to 2010 Census Data, the county’s population was 134,623...
. Familiar Foods, a milk bottling plant in Loleta, served as the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory, but all special effects involving fire, smoke, and explosions were filmed at Post Studios.
After
Halloween III was released, Michael Myers was brought back into the franchise with 1988's
The Return of Michael Myers, where he has stayed for the remainder of the series. Four more sequels would follow, between 1988 and 2002, before the series would take a break for five years. On June 4, 2006,
DimensionDimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
announced that
Rob ZombieRob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
, director of
House of 1000 CorpsesHouse of 1000 Corpses is a 2003 exploitation horror film written and directed by Rob Zombie; it is his directorial debut. It was released in the United States on April 11, 2003 by Lions Gate Entertainment.-Plot:...
and
The Devil's RejectsThe Devil's Rejects is a 2005 American horror film written and directed by Rob Zombie, and the sequel to his 2003 film House of 1000 Corpses. The film is about the family of psychopathic killers from the previous film now on the run...
, would be creating the next installment in the
Halloween franchise. Bob Weinstein approached Rob Zombie about making the film, and Zombie, who was a fan of the original
HalloweenHalloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
, and friend of
John CarpenterJohn Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
, jumped at the chance to make a
Halloween film for Dimension Films. Before Dimension went public with the news, Zombie felt obligated to inform John Carpenter, out of respect, of the plans to remake his film. Carpenter's request was for Zombie to "make it his own [film]". Zombie's film would combine the elements of prequel and remake with the original concept, with considerable original content in the new film. Zombie also wanted to reinvent the character, as he felt Michael, along with
Freddy KruegerFrederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
,
Jason VoorheesJason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
, and
PinheadPinhead is a fictional character from the Hellraiser series. Created by Clive Barker and portrayed by Doug Bradley, Pinhead is a prominent figure in the series, mostly featured as the main antagonist....
, had become too familiar to audiences, and as a result, less scary. Zombie delved deeper into Michael Myers's mythology. Michael's mask was even given its own story to provide an explanation as to why he wears it, instead of having the character simply steal a random mask from a hardware store, as in the original film. Zombie wanted to bring Michael closer to what a psychopath really is, and wanted the mask to be a way for Michael to hide.
In 2008, a sequel to the 2007 remake was announced, with French filmmakers Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Muary in negotiations to direct. Instead, Zombie was resigned to write and direct the sequel, with the film taking place directly after the end of his remake. In an interview, Zombie expressed how the exhaustion of creating the first
Halloween made him not want to come back for a sequel, but after a year of cooling down he was more open to the idea. The writer/director explains that with the sequel, he was no longer bound by a sense of needing to retain any "John Carpenter-ness", as he could now do "whatever [he] wants to do". Instead of focusing on Michael, Zombie chose to look more at the psychological consequences on Laurie after the events of the remake. As Zombie explains, after Michael murdered her friends and family, Laurie became a "wreck", who continually sinks lower as the film moves forward.
Music
John Carpenter composed the music to the first three films. For
Halloween, Carpenter chose to use a
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
melodyA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
played in a
5/4 timeThe time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
rhythmMeter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...
instead of a symphonic soundtrack. Critic
James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
calls the score "relatively simple and unsophisticated", but admits that "
Halloween's music is one of its strongest assets." Carpenter stated in an interview, "I can play just about any keyboard, but I can't read or write a note." In the end credits, Carpenter bills himself as the "Bowling Green Orchestra" for performing the film's score, but he did receive assistance from composer Dan Wyman, a music professor at
San José State UniversitySan Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...
.
The score for
Halloween II is a variation of John Carpenter's compositions from the first film, particularly the main theme's familiar piano melody played. The score was performed on a
synthesizer organA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
rather than the piano used for
Halloween. One reviewer for the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
described the revised score as having "a more Gothic feel". The reviewer asserted that it "doesn’t sound quite as good as the original piece", but "it still remains a classic piece of music".
Music remained an important element in establishing the atmosphere of
Halloween III. Just as in
Halloween and
Halloween II, there was no symphonic score. Much of the music was composed to solicit "false
startlesThe startle response is a brainstem reflex that serves to protect the back of the neck , or the eye , and also facilitates escape from sudden stimuli. It is found across the lifespan and in many species. An individual's emotional state may lead to a variety of different responses...
" from the audience. The soundtrack was composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, who had also worked on the score for
Halloween II. The score of
Halloween III differed greatly from the familiar main theme of the original and its first sequel. Carpenter replaced the familiar piano melody with a slower, electronic theme played on a synthesizer with beeping
tonalitiesTonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
. Howarth explains how he and Carpenter composed the music for the third film:
The music style of John Carpenter and myself has further evolved in this film soundtrack by working exclusively with synthesizers to produce our music. This has led to a certain procedural routine. The film is first transferred to a time codeA timecode is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing system.- Video and film timecode :...
d video tape and synchronized to a 24 track master audio recorderA multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...
; then while watching the film we compose the music to these visual images. The entire process goes quite rapidly and has 'instant gratification', allowing us to evaluate the score in synch to the picture. This is quite an invaluable asset.
Box office
The
Halloween franchise, when compared to the other top-grossing American horror franchises—
A Nightmare on Elm StreetA Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
,
Child's PlayChild's Play is a horror film franchise created by Don Mancini, with its first installment, Child's Play, being released on November 9, 1988. The film has so far spawned four sequels and has gone into other media, such as comic books. The films all feature Chucky, a killer Good Guys doll with the...
,
Friday the 13th, the
Hannibal LecterHannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
series,
PsychoThe Psycho film series is an American horror film franchise loosely based on the Psycho novels by Robert Bloch. The first film, Psycho, was directed by legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, with three sequels, a spin-off, and a remake following. The official films consist of Psycho,...
,
Saw,
ScreamScream is a series of American horror slasher films created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven. The films star Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. The series has grossed over $600 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists, to date, of four motion pictures...
, and
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—and adjusting for the 2011 inflation, is the fourth highest grossing horror franchise in the United States at approximately $557.5 million. This list is topped by
Friday the 13th at $687.1 million, followed by the
Nightmare on Elm Street series with $592.8 million. The Hannibal Lecter film series closely follows in third with $588.7 million. Following
Halloween is the
Saw series with $457.4 million,
Scream with $442.9 million,
Psycho with $376.3 million,
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with $304.6 million, and the
Child's Play film series rounding out the list with approximately $203 million.
| Film |
U.S. release date |
Budget |
Box office revenue |
Reference |
| United States |
Foreign |
Worldwide |
| 1. Halloween (1978) |
October 25, 1978 |
$325,000 |
$47,000,000 |
$8,000,000 |
$55,000,000 |
|
| 2. Halloween II (1981) |
October 30, 1981 |
|
$25,533,818 |
|
$25,533,818 |
|
| 3. Halloween III: Season of the Witch |
October 22, 1982 |
|
$14,400,000 |
|
$14,400,000 |
|
| 4. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers |
October 21, 1988 |
$5,000,000 |
$17,768,757 |
|
$17,768,757 |
|
| 5. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers |
October 13, 1989 |
$5,000,000 |
$11,642,254 |
|
$11,642,254 |
|
| 6. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers |
September 29, 1995 |
|
$15,116,634 |
|
$15,116,634 |
|
| 7. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later |
August 7, 1998 |
$17,000,000 |
$55,041,738 |
$17,958,262 |
$73,000,000 |
|
| 8. Halloween: Resurrection |
July 12, 2002 |
$13,000,000 |
$30,354,442 |
$7,310,413 |
$37,664,855 |
|
| 9. Halloween (2007) |
August 31, 2007 |
$15,000,000 |
$58,272,029 |
$20,829,296 |
$80,249,467 |
|
| 10. Halloween II (2009) |
August 28, 2009 |
$15,000,000 |
$33,392,973 |
$5,312,275 |
$38,705,248 |
|
| Total |
$70,325,000(A) |
$308,522,645 |
$58,370,799 |
$366,893,444 |
List indicator(s)
- A dark grey cell indicates the information is not available for the film.
- (A) indicates an estimated figure based on available numbers.
|
Future
On June 21, 2011, it was announced that a new
Halloween film, at the time titled
Halloween 3D, would be released on October 26, 2012. At the time of the announcement, there was no director or writer attached to the project. Originally,
Patrick LussierPatrick Lussier is a Canadian horror and thriller genre writer, editor and director.- Career :Lussier has worked as a film editor on most of Wes Craven's latter films, including Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Vampire in Brooklyn, Scream and Red Eye and has directed films including Dracula 2000, The...
and
Todd FarmerTodd Farmer is an American writer and actor, having written the scripts for Jason X , Messengers 2: The Scarecrow , My Bloody Valentine 3D , and Drive Angry .-Early life:...
were labeled as writers but dropped out due to their occupancy on the
Hellraiser reboot. There is no confirmation if a new script will be written or if any of the cast members from the two Rob Zombie remakes will return.
Documentary
25 Years of Terror is a
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
released on July 25, 2006 featuring a documentary on the
Halloween films, narrated by
P. J. SolesP. J. Soles is an American film and television actress, known for her roles as Lynda van der Klok in Halloween, Norma Watson in Carrie and Bill Murray's military girlfriend Stella in Stripes....
and featuring interviews from many of the cast members as well as filmmakers of the
Halloween films and a lot of footage from the series as well. It has panel discussions with members from the casts and crews of most of the
Halloween films, plus other celebrities and filmmakers such as
Rob ZombieRob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
and
Clive BarkerClive Barker is an English author, film director and visual artist best known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories which established him as a leading young horror writer...
as well as film critics. All of the panel discussions took place at a 25-year Anniversary convention in
Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
(one of the filming locations of the original
HalloweenHalloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
) in October 2003. It also has extended versions of interviews featured in the documentary, and much more.
In 2010,
The Biography ChannelThe Biography Channel is an American digital cable television channel owned by A&E and based on the television series of the same name. A version of the channel also airs on ONO and Telefónica in Spain and on Sky Digital and cable television in the United Kingdom, a version of the channel also...
produced a
television specialA television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
titled
Halloween: The Inside Story, which premiered on October 28, 2010.
Novels
When the original
Halloween was released in 1978,
a novelization of the movieHalloween is a 1979 novelization by Curtis Richards of the horror film Halloween which has been out of print since the late 1980s...
followed just a year later. Written by Curtis Richards, the book follows the events of the film, but expands on the festival of
SamhainSamhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...
and Michael's time at Smith's Grove Sanitarium.
Halloween II,
Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and
Halloween 4 each received novelizations as well. Jack Martin would write
Halloween II, which was released alongside its film counterpart. Martin included an additional victim of Michael's in this novel.
Halloween IV, released in October 1988 and written by Nicholas Grabowsky, also followed the events of the film in which it was adapted from. As of August 2010, no further films have been novelized.
Over a four month period,
Berkley BooksBerkley Books is an imprint of Penguin Group that began as an independent company in 1955. It was established by Charles Byrne and Frederic Klein, who were working for Avon and formed "Chic News Company". They renamed it Berkley Publishing Co. in 1955. They soon found a niche in science fiction...
published three young adult novels written by Kelly O'Rourke; the novels are original stories created by O'Rourke, with no direct continuity with the films. The first, released on October 1, 1997, titled
The Scream Factory, follows a group of friends who set up a haunted house attraction in the basement of Haddonfield City Hall, only to be stalked and killed by Michael Myers while they are there.
The Old Myers Place is the second novel, released December 1, 1997, and focuses on Mary White, who moves into the Myers house with her family. Michael returns home and begins stalking and attacking Mary and her friends. O'Rourke's final novel,
The Mad House, was released on February 1, 1998.
The Mad House features a young girl, Christine Ray, who joins a documentary film crew that travels to haunted locations; they are currently headed to Smith Grove Mental Hospital, where they are confronted by Michael.
Comic books
The first
Halloween comic was published by
Brian PulidoBrian Pulido is a creator, writer and producer of comic books and films.-Early life:Growing up in Long Branch, New Jersey, Pulido first developed an interest in the horror genre after the release of Night of the Living Dead when he was a child.-Comic book career:Pulido has created, written or...
's Chaos Comics. Simply titled
Halloween, it was intended to be a one-issue special, but eventually two sequels spawned:
Halloween II: The Blackest Eyes and
Halloween III: The Devil's Eyes. All of the stories were written by Phil Nutman, with Daniel Farrands—writer for
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers—assisting on the first issue; David Brewer and Justiniano worked on the illustrations. Tommy Doyle is the main protagonist in each of the issues, focusing on his attempts to kill Michael Myers. The first issue includes back story on Michael's childhood, while the third picks up after the events of the film
Halloween H20. These comics were based on Daniel Farrand's concept for
Halloween 8; he had been approached by the producers to pitch a follow-up to
Halloween H20. His idea was to have Tommy Doyle incarcerated at Smith's Grove for Michael Myers' crimes, only to escape and reunite with Lindsay Wallace. Together, they study the journals of Dr. Loomis and find out more about Michael's childhood. The movie would have explored Michael's time at Smith's Grove and relationship with Dr. Loomis, before returning to Tommy and Lindsay, who are attacked by the adult Michael Myers. Upon defeating him and removing his mask, they discover Laurie Strode, who has taken over her brother's mantle. Farrand's logic was that, since Jamie Lee Curtis was contracted to cameo in
Halloween 8, they should make that cameo as significant and surprising as possible. Although the studio did not follow up on his pitch, Farrands was able to tell his story in comic book form.
One Good Scare was released in 2003; it was written by Stefan Hutchinson and illustrated by Peter Fielding. The main character in this comic is Lindsey Wallace, the young girl who first saw Michael Myers alongside Tommy Doyle in the original 1978 film. Hutchinson wanted to bring the character back to his roots, and away from the "lumbering Jason-clone" the film sequels had made him.
One Good Scare came about because Hutchinson wanted to produce a comic book to celebrate the series' twenty-fifth anniversary; it was to be sold as a collectible at a
Halloween convention in South Pasadena. Due to the positive reception to
One Good Scare, Hutchinson hoped to use the comic as a "demo" for getting a distribution deal, but was unable to due to rights issues.
While waiting to acquire the rights to publish more
Halloween comics, Stefan Hutchinson worked on the documentary
Halloween: 25 Years of Terror with Malek Akkad. Together, they developed ideas for possible
Halloween stories that would be “connected into a larger tale, so the idea was that it would use the serial aspect of comic books to create different storylines than would be possible in the films.” On July 25, 2006, as an insert inside the DVD release of
25 Years of Terror, Hutchinson released
Halloween: Autopsis. Written by Hutchinson, and artwork by Marcus Smith and Nick Dismas, the story is about a photographer assigned to take pictures of Michael Myers. As the photographer, Carter, follows Dr. Loomis he begins to take on Loomis's obsession himself, until finally meeting Michael Myers in person, which results in his death.
| "A lot of readers found in the comic books what they had been missing from the films in the later sequels. Our books are very faithful to the source material, and by that we mean the original film itself. In our stories, Michael Myers is very much again "The Shape" — the undefined bogeyman of 1978, rather than the family killer of the 80s and 90s." |
| — Stefan Hutchinson on the fan support of his Halloween comic book series. |
Rob Zombie's reboot of the film series ensured that any
Halloween comics would not be contradicted by upcoming films, allowing Hutchinson creative freedom. Malek Akkad was approached by Devil's Due Publishing with the possibility of producing a line of
Halloween comics, and he and Hutchinson worked to make them a reality. Hutchinson was convinced by the strong support of
One Good Scare that the comic books would have an audience. In 2008, Stefan Hutchinson released the first issue of his new comic book,
Halloween: Nightdance. This is a four issue mini-series, and it does not contain any characters—other than Michael—from the films. The four issues are titled, "A Shape in the Void", "The Silent Clown", "A Rainbow in One Color", and "When The Stars Came Crashing Down". The first issue, "A Shape in the Void", takes place on October 31, 2000, so that it falls between
Halloween H20 and
Halloween Resurrection. Issue one follows Michael as he stalks Lisa, a fifteen year-old girl with insecurities and "a chronic fear of darkness". Hutchinson explains that
Nightdance was an attempt to escape the dense continuity of the film series and recreate the tone of the 1978 film. Michael becomes inexplicably fixated on Lisa, just as he did with Laurie in the original
Halloween, before the sequels established that a sibling bond was actually his motivation for stalking her. The aim was to once again establish Michael Myers as a "credible and dangerous force".
August 2008 saw the release of Devil's Due's
Halloween: 30 Years of Terror to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the
Halloween franchise. This comic book one-shot is a collection of short stories inspired by John Carpenter's original. "Trick or Treat" features the MacKenzies,
unseen characterIn fiction, an unseen character is a character that is never directly observed by the audience but is only described by other characters. They are a common device in drama and have been called "triumphs of theatrical invention". They are continuing characters — characters who are currently in...
s from the first film who Tommy and Lindsey run to for help. "P.O.V." shows a murder from the
point of viewA point of view shot is a short film scene that shows what a character is looking at . It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction...
of both Michael and his victim, "Visiting Hours" sees Laurie Strode reflecting on how her life could have been had her brother never found her in 1978, while "Tommy and the Boogeyman" reveals that Tommy Doyle grew up to write comic books featuring Michael Myers. In the final story, "Repetition Compulsion", Dr. Loomis tries to predict where Michael will strike next on Halloween, 1989. Writer Hutchinson explains that
H30 came about because, unlike previous decades, there was no
Halloween film coming out in 2008 to acknowledge the occasion.
Devil's Due released four issue mini-series
Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode in late 2008. Written by Hutchinson with artwork from Jeff Zornow, the story bridges the gap between
Halloween II and
Halloween H20 by focusing on Laurie Strode in the aftermath of the 1978 murders. Hutchinson explains that Laurie is "trying to get better and trying to repair, but where do you even start after going through such horror? How do you even try to resume normality when you don’t know what that is anymore?" Although Michael appears in the series, it is not clear whether he is real or if the traumatised Laurie is seeing things. Hutchinson is not a fan of the revelation that Laurie and Michael are siblings and took steps to address that problem in the story. He wanted to avoid the "bloodline plot of the middle sequels", which he felt demystified the character of the Shape, and approach the story so that "it becomes almost incidental that she’s his sister". Hutchinson believed that Laurie Strode's evolution into Keri Tate was fertile ground for a storyline; he says, "it’s not the faking of the death that’s interesting at all, but it’s the fall that leads to that happening. The faked death is just simple mechanics and can be covered in a sentence, but the state of mind and events leading to that are full of rich character and dramatic potential."
Online stories
All of Stefan Hutchinson's
Halloween comic books take place in the
Halloween H20 timeline, which retconned
Halloween 4 - 6 from continuity. Hutchinson comments that, while the retcon was unpopular with "a lot of fans" for ignoring previous movies, he preferred the "simplicity of this storyline, over the needlessly convoluted mythology that the last two films had created". However, he admits that one of the downsides of the
H20 timeline is that fans do not know exactly what happened to Dr. Sam Loomis after
Halloween II. To remedy this, Hutchinson pitched
Halloween: Sam as a way of paying tribute to the character. Written by Hutchinson and featuring illustrations from
Autopsiss Marcus Smith,
Sam is a prose short story available exclusively for download at the website HalloweenComics.com. It explores the life of Dr. Loomis, including his backstory and relationship with Elizabeth Worthington, a journalist he met during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1995, Michael Myers visits the ailing Dr. Loomis in hospital, and murders Elizabeth in front of him. Loomis attempts to stop him, but dies of a coronary failure.
Merchandise
The
Halloween franchise has also seen profitability through various merchandise like toys, dolls, statues, model kits, bobbleheads, snow globes, movie posters, masks, T-shirts, hats, and more. Michael Myers has made appearances in the form of dolls and toys from
McFarlane ToysMcFarlane Toys, a subsidiary of Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc., is a company started by Todd McFarlane that makes highly detailed models of characters from movies, comics, musicians, video games, and sport figures...
, Sideshow Collectibles, and
NECAThe National Entertainment Collectibles Association or NECA is an American manufacturer of collectibles typically licensed from films, video-games, sports, music, and television based in New Jersey...
. Even Dr. Loomis has been immortalized in plastic alongside Michael Myers in a two-figure set produced by NECA. In 1983,
Wizard VideoWizard Video was a motion picture distribution company created by B movie veteran Charles Band, who would later go on to found Full Moon Features. They were best known for their VHS releases of Zombie 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I Spit on Your Grave...
, who had also released a video game version of
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released a
Halloween game for
AtariAtari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
. In the game, the player was a babysitter who had to protect her children from Michael Myers, who had managed to get inside the house. Although the game was called
Halloween, and featured the film's theatrical poster as its cover art as well as the movie's main music theme, the game itself never refers to any characters, including the killer, by their names in the film.
The Michael Myers mask has been reproduced over the years by
Don PostDonald Post is dubbed by many as The Godfather of Halloween for creating and selling some of the first latex masks, which are still commonly used in the entertainment industry today...
, the mask company responsible for the creation of the masks from several of the
Halloween films (the Silver Shamrock novelty factory seen in
Halloween III was actually shot on location in one of Don Post's factories). While Don Post reproductions of the Michael Myers mask are still commonly found in costume stores every Halloween, the license to produce Michael Myers masks has since been given to Cinema Secrets, the company commissioned with the creation of the Michael Myers mask for
Halloween: Resurrection.
The
Halloween series also lives on in DVD form. Many versions of the original
Halloween (often including special extras like free merchandise or additional footage missing from previous DVD releases of the film) as well as several of its sequels have been published by
Anchor Bay EntertainmentAnchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
,
Universal StudiosUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, and
Dimension FilmsDimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
. On October 2, 2007, the original
HalloweenHalloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
was sold on
Blu-rayBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
for the first time by Anchor Bay Home Entertainment. In December 2007 there were reports that the Producer's Cut of
Halloween: The Curse of Michael MyersHalloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a 1995 American horror film and the sixth installment in the Halloween series. Directed by Joe Chappelle from a screenplay by Daniel Farrands, the plot involves the "Curse of Thorn", a mystical symbol first shown in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers...
might get a DVD release in the future.
External links
Official
Database
- Halloween film series at Allmovie
- Halloween film series at Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
Miscellaneous