Description

We look back at the film franchise that helped pioneer the slasher genre: Halloween.

Transcript

Another Look at the Halloween Film Franchise It was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and defined the “slasher” genre. Welcome to watchmojo.com and today, we’ll be taking a look at the Halloween film Franchise. Originally titled “The Babysitter Murders”, 1978’s “Halloween” was written and directed by the Master of Horror, john Carpenter. The movie told the tale of Michael Myers, a disturbed 6-year old boy who murdered his older sister on Halloween in 1963. After a 15- year hospitalization, Michael escaped and ventured back to his hometown where he began stalking a girl named Lorry, played by newcomer actress Jamie Lee Curtis. The 1981 sequel “Halloween 2” began the involvement of other less known directors while Carpenter continued to stay involved as the co-writer and producer. In this popular entry in the franchise, Myers continued to stalk Lorry and audiences discovered that Myers had been adapted and that Lorry was his biological sister. At the insistence of John Carpenter, the third installment “Season of the Witch” kept none of the elements from previous films, aside from the name. Carpenter felt that the series had the potential to branch into a holiday themed anthology series. As a result, it did not feature Michael Myers, or have any connection to the established storyline and even when so far as to abandon the slasher genre, which the franchise had pioneered. Amidst public confusion over the state of the franchise, the studio acted quickly in order to restore the popular elements once found in the series. “Halloween 4” was then appropriately titled “The Return of Michael Myers”. Carpenter’s involvement in the franchise was then further reduced to a supportive writing credit. The film followed the premise that Myers had been in a coma since his last screen appearance. Awaking ten years after the events of the second movie, Myers discovered that Lorry had died in a car accident. However, she had given birth to a daughter named Janie, who then became his next target. Only one year after its release, the studio felt that the slasher film craze was starting to fade. So they pushed “Halloween 5” into production without a solid script. This was the last film in the series with which Carpenter had any involvement. In 1195, the franchise rights were sold to dimension films who were quick to exploit the franchise. They advertised “Halloween 6” as six times the terror, six times the fear, six times and the thrills of the original Halloween. The film was a commercial failure, but did add an interesting twist to the character with the revelation that he is driven by curse which forces him to kill his entire bloodline. (He told him to kill his family.) Its failure at the Box Office resulted in the creation of 1998’s “Halloween H2O”, a semi- sequel that began an ultimate time line that picked up 20 years after the second film and ignored all the films that came in later. To add credibility to the series and reconnection with fans the original John Carpenter versions, the role of Lorry was reprised by Jamie Lee Curtis. Rapper LL Cool J was also cast in the film to help generate public interest. H2O sequel “Halloween Resurrection” was the final film within the original franchise. The film received terrible word of mouth and the studio’s inclusion of Tyra Banks and Busta Rhymes did not too much to win over audiences. In 2007 and 2009, the series saw a complete reboot when Robb Zombie was brought onboard to retell the events of the first two original films with more greeting to cinematic realism and violence. Zombie chose to explore the Myer’s characters back story in greater depth (I’m not listening.) He added a new layer to the franchise by Lorry’s character share similar psychological problems with her brother. Despite the 2007 film performing admirably at the Box Office, the 2009 sequel tanked. As the result of the reboots failure, Robb Zombie has refused to come on board for the third film while dimension films went ahead and announced the next entry will be presented in 3D. The project appropriately entitled “Halloween 3D” was seek to capitalize on the tremendous financial success of other recent 3D horror films.(Oh Shit!)