John Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece Halloween is one of my all time favorite movies and is really the start of the slasher franchises. Along the way there have been several sequels, one that had nothing to do with the originals, a reboot, and a few sequels that retconned the story. Retcon is retroactive continuity.
Original Timeline:
Halloween (1978) - - Halloween II (1981) - - Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers - - Halloween V: The Curse of Michael Myers - - Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers
Michael Myers kills his sister on Halloween night in 1963, fifteen years later he breaks out of the asylum and attacks Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween Night 1978 killing several. With Dr. Loomis tracking Michael down he is shot and falls off a second floor balcony. Michael, having escaped attempts to kill Laurie at the hospital that she was brought too and we now learn that they are brother and sister with Laurie having been adopted by the Strode Family. Laurie manages to get away when Dr. Loomis sets himself and Michael on fire killing them both.
Halloween Eve 1988 the comatose Michael is being transferred to Smith's Grove when he overhears the ambulance personnel commenting that his sister Laurie was killed in a car crash years earlier and that he has a niece, Jamie, living in Haddonfield. Micheal awakens killing the ambulance crew and heads to kill his niece, ultimately he kills a lot of people just not her. Dr. Loomis is back hunting down Michael again, but the citizens of Haddonfield repeatedly shoot Michael until he falls into and old mine. Jamie who had been dressed as a clown like her uncle the night he killed his older sister, attacks her adopted mother with scissors. In 1989, Michael, of course, survives the mine and awakes after a one year coma. Jamie is now a mute from the trauma and is in a children's clinic. She is telepathically linked to her Uncle and suffers nightmare and seizure. Loomis is back and eventually, after Michael kills a lot of people, he manages to tranquilize Michael so he can be taken into custody but suffers stroke in the process. Being held in the local jail, a group of men in black come and kill everyone and take Michael away. Later it is retconned that they took Jamie that night as well.
Six years later, a pregnant Jamie gives birth to her Uncle's son. In this flick Michael is controlled by a cult using the Runic Symbol Thorn and the cult must sacrifice his next of kin on the night of Samhain or Halloween. Jamie escapes with her son but is later tracked down and attack by Michael at a bus station, depending on the version of the film you watch she is either killed there or at the hospital later. Dr. Loomis is back to hunt down Michael, but so isn't Tommy Doyle, who is suffering from his own PTSD issues from that faithful Halloween night 18 years ago. We also meet Laurie's cousins Kara and her son Danny, we also meet other Strodes but they don't matter. Danny also hears voices to kill for him, as in Michael, which makes no sense because there is no blood relations as Laurie was adopted by the Strode family. In the end Michael kills a lot of people, the cult falls apart, Michael gets away and Loomis screams in anguish.
Stand Alone:
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The Silver Shamrock mask company using black magic to control the children
Second Timeline:
Halloween (1978) - - Halloween II (1981) - - Halloween H20: 20 Years Later - - Halloween: Resurrection
Michael Myers kills his sister on Halloween night in 1963, fifteen years later he breaks out of the asylum and attacks Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween Night 1978 killing several. With Dr. Loomis tracking Michael down he is shot and falls off a second floor balcony. Michael, having escaped attempts to kill Laurie at the hospital that she was brought too and we now learn that they are brother and sister with Laurie having been adopted by the Strode Family. Laurie manages to get away when Dr. Loomis sets himself and Michael on fire killing them both.
October 29, 1998 Michael, who survived the fire, breaks into Loomis' retirement home in Langdon, Illinois and steals the file on Laurie Strode killing a few people on the way. Evidently Laurie Strode faked her death, moved to Summer Glen, California becoming Keri Tate the headmistress at a private school. Her son John is 17, and shockingly she is super over protective of her son. The majority of the school goes on a trip to Yosemite, Laurie, her son, his girlfriend, two of their friends, and Laurie's boyfriend, and long with the security guard are at the school when Michael arrives and commences to killing everyone. The movie ends with Laurie stealing the van that has Michael's body in it, the van crashes when he attacks her, he's pinned between a downed tree and the van and Laurie beheads him. Oh, Michael was coming for Laurie now because John was 17 the same age as Laurie when he tried to kill her the first time, I know weak sauce.
Apparently though we find out that it was a paramedic that Michael changed places with so he survived! Three years later on Halloween 2001, Laurie now institutionalized over the guilt of killing an innocent man, is attacked my Michael, but she's been waiting for him and lures him to the roof, but her fear of killing the wrong person gets the better of her and she tries to unmask him Michael stabs her and throws her off the roof killing her. (I have a problem with this, she has never seen his face before how would she know what he looks like?) A year later a bunch of college kids are filming a reality show at the old Myers house in Haddonfield so Michael shows up to kill them for trespassing in his home. Michael is electrocuted and his body is taken to the morgue but as the coroner goes to examine his body Michael awakens.
Halloween Resurrection was by Rick Rosenthal who also directed Halloween II so that's cool. Also the DVD release of Resurrection in the bonus features has the raw camera footage from the the camera the actors had.
Halloween (2007) - - Halloween II (2009)
I'm not going to break down these flicks, both written and directed by Rob Zombie and are not attached to any other Halloween flicks. Danielle Harris stars in both as Annie Brackett and was in Halloween 4 & 5 as Jamie Lloyd, Laurie's daughter.
The first film I think is an amazing look at Michael as a child and how he became the masked killer. The second film is pure garbage.
Third Timeline:
Halloween (1978) - - Halloween (2018) - - Halloween Kills (2021) - - Halloween Ends (2022)
Michael Myers kills his sister on Halloween night in 1963, fifteen years later he breaks out of the asylum and attacks Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween Night 1978 killing several. With Dr. Loomis tracking Michael down he is shot and falls off a second floor balcony.
October 29, 2018, Michael has been at Smith's Grove for 40 years since that faithful night. Laurie still lives in Haddonfield and has been waiting and preparing for 40 years for Michael to come for her. She had a daughter that she also trained for Michael's return, but the State took her away when she was 12 years old. Laurie also had one grandchild. A blogger writing a story on Michael visits him and Laurie, he even has Michael's original mask. On Halloween Michael is being transferred and escapes, he starts killing folks, gets his mask back, and goes after Laurie. But again she been waiting and her house is one big booby trap. She traps Michael in the panic room basement and sets the whole house on fire, the film ends with the house burning down around him. A post credit scene we can hear heavy breathing.
A year later the two sequels were announced, originally to be released in 2020 and 2021 but Covid pushed them back a year. Nick Castle returned and the Shape, John Carpenter executive produced the flick, and it was released by Blumhouse.
I enjoy the majority of all the Halloween movies, except Halloween II (2009) but I think Storyline 3 is my favorite.
Until Next Time!
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