Halloween, II & H20

[cfr1970]

I rewatched all 3 films this week and imo this is the only definitive Halloween story and a perfect trilogy.

The spookiness of part 1 is what makes it so great imo. There's pretty much zero gore but the it's the eeriness and anticipation of doom that makes it so much fun. And as soon as Laurie walks across the street to check on her friends, the suspense ramps up and stays non stop right up till the end.

Part 2 is also fun and I love how everything is a continuation of the same night. It's almost like one long movie if you watch them back to back. And the final chase between Laurie & Michael is loads of fun.

H20 is a great sequel to part 2, though it has some flaws, (how on earth can Michael be alive after having his eyes shot out and burned to a crisp?!...And he has his eyes back too. )

Overlooking that, it's a solid sequel with a good story showing Laurie 20 years later and how she's still dealing with the tragedy with her own kid now being the age she was when it all happened....and anticipating Michael to return. (Wouldn't she think he was blind though? )

The ending was perfect and really should've been the definite conclusion. Laurie chopping off her brother's head ensured this was the end, but of course they knew it wasn't even when they were filming this.

You can see "Michael" wake up after the crash and feels the mask on his head and looks frantic in confusion. This was to back up him not being Michael in the next one, but a paramedic that Michael killed and switched places with.

But that makes ZERO sense, because how on earth would Michael knock out this guy, take the time to put his clothes and mask on him, and walk out of there with all those cops around the scene? It's just not possible.

And we see 2 paramedics wheel Michael into the coroners van. So there's absolutely no logic to explain the whole thing.

But since I choose to block all that out in my head, and it's Michael that Laurie decapitates---H20 is a perfect conclusion to the trilogy. Another tiny mitpick is that I wish it had taken place in Haddonfield instead.

I haven't watched the 2018 film because it's not a sequel to anything, but a "reimagining" of the whole saga and I hate movies being "reimagined" because it cancels out everything that occurred before.

I mean, first Laurie has a daughter, then she has a son....and in 2018 she has a daughter again...and it's not even the same daughter from before. You can't do that!! .....And I won't even get started on how they took away the family connection which pretty much cancels out everything!

I read the entire plot on it's Wikipedia page to save me the 2 hours watching it and thought the whole thing was silly. They turned a wonderful character in Laurie into a 60 year old paranoid basket case, boobytrapping her home to wait for a killer that hasn't returned for her in 40 years lol......4 DECADES and she's still waiting for him?! SHE should be committed to Smith's Grove Sanitarium along with Michael!

I see already 2 sequels to the 2018 film have been completed with both being shot at the same time. Talk about a rush project...that alone leads me to believe it's going to be just more crap.

Wikipedia says they filmed "Halloween Kills" and "Halloween Ends" in just 2 months last year. I'm sure both will make lots of money, but i'll keep away from them and just stick with my perfect and classic trilogy to rewatch every Halloween.

[Hawkee]

I can never figure out why Halloween is such a popular movie and it seems that every Halloween TNT or TBS has an entire marathon of the whole Halloween movie series? Is it because Halloween is a very popular horror movie series? Or is because it has a huge following? Because it seems that when Halloween comes this movie always is on rather than showing any other horror movies. Mom and I saw Halloween many times and each time we've seen it we always have found it confusing and now that they have remade it I think Halloween will continue to be a successful movie series but why don't other horror movies have a chance to air on TV like Children Of The Corn Stephen King's It Child's Play Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview With The Vampire. But as long as Halloween is popular it still will be a popular movie for a long time
Bestie

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by LaBestia

I can never figure out why Halloween is such a popular movie and it seems that every Halloween TNT or TBS has an entire marathon of the whole Halloween movie series? Is it because Halloween is a very popular horror movie series? Or is because it has a huge following? Because it seems that when Halloween comes this movie always is on rather than showing any other horror movies. Mom and I saw Halloween many times and each time we've seen it we always have found it confusing and now that they have remade it I think Halloween will continue to be a successful movie series but why don't other horror movies have a chance to air on TV like Children Of The Corn Stephen King's It Child's Play Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview With The Vampire. But as long as Halloween is popular it still will be a popular movie for a long time
Bestie

It might be confusing to the casual viewer since the sequels keep getting ret-conned. The 2018 Halloween disregarded all of the sequels. Halloween H20 disregarded the sequels before that (4-6).

Most of the movies you've mentioned are all available on the various on-demand networks (AMC, Syfy, FXX...) and streaming.

[cfr1970]

Originally Posted by LaBestia

I can never figure out why Halloween is such a popular movie and it seems that every Halloween TNT or TBS has an entire marathon of the whole Halloween movie series? Is it because Halloween is a very popular horror movie series? Or is because it has a huge following? Because it seems that when Halloween comes this movie always is on rather than showing any other horror movies. Mom and I saw Halloween many times and each time we've seen it we always have found it confusing and now that they have remade it I think Halloween will continue to be a successful movie series but why don't other horror movies have a chance to air on TV like Children Of The Corn Stephen King's It Child's Play Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview With The Vampire. But as long as Halloween is popular it still will be a popular movie for a long time
Bestie

Well for one, Halloween is still such a popular Halloween film because it's a scary movie that's set on Halloween itself. So I think that's the number one reason it's played every Halloween...as part of the spooky holiday.

Also, while there were horror films that came before this one, Halloween was pretty much the first modern day slasher film that spawned all that was to come later. I think if it weren't for Halloween, we wouldn't have gotten so many of the horror franchises that came afterwards.

And over 40 years later, the film still holds up great today and doesn't feel too dated either. For me, it still retains the same spooky suspense when I view it each Halloween and it's a Halloween ritual for me now.

As mentioned in my post above, I think all the changing sequels kind of ruined things so I only view parts 1, 2 and H20 and ignore the rest because imo it makes a perfect Halloween trilogy.

BTW I have Roku TV and see that there's a plethora of other horror movies that's been available all month to celebrate Halloween. So if you want a bigger choice of horror films to pick from than what channels like TNT or TBS is showing, I suggest getting the Roku...they're so cheap too at $30 or under and there's so many totally free channels to watch tons of horror movies if you want a bigger choice to pick from.

[Torgo]

The only one of the Halloween sequels I outright don't like is Resurrection. I love Halloween 2018, and it is indeed a sequel to the first film, and personally, and as much as I enjoyed H20, I prefer 2018. Honestly I don't mind 2018 ignoring all of the sequels as they just got more convoluted. 2018 really paid attention to detail with the first film. Nice that John Carpenter returned to help with the film's score. Probably one of the best slashers I've seen in recent years.



Of 4,5,6, part 4 is my favorite, they were trying to keep Michael scary, and really captured the Halloween season, part 5 got too goofy with the 2 comic relief cops, and the Myers house suddenly became mansion sized.
Part 6 has a lot of good ideas, but is a mess of a movie, the Producer's Cut is the best way to watch it. I did like the return of Tommy Doyle's character (played by Paul Rudd in this)

Halloween III, as a standalone film is an excellent little Halloween themed horror film. I think its bad reputation mainly comes from the fact it has Halloween in the title, if it was release separate from the franchise it wouldn't get near the amount of hate it does now, though over the years I've seen more and more people see beyond its title and appreciate it for what it is.


And I agree. Halloween started the modern slashers, it and a few years later with a major studio releasing Friday The 13th, the 80's became slasher-mecca. There were a lot of proto-slashers that came before Halloween, and the only one I'd is closest to a true slasher is Black Christmas. But Halloween took all of the elements/tropes and put them together and created the slasher template.

[cfr1970]

Originally Posted by Torgo

The only one of the Halloween sequels I outright don't like is Resurrection. I love Halloween 2018, and it is indeed a sequel to the first film, and personally, and as much as I enjoyed H20, I prefer 2018. Honestly I don't mind 2018 ignoring all of the sequels as they just got more convoluted. 2018 really paid attention to detail with the first film. Nice that John Carpenter returned to help with the film's score. Probably one of the best slashers I've seen in recent years.

The thing I can't get past with Halloween 2018 is how they portray Laurie Strode in it. After taking away the family connection, what you're basically left with is a 17 year old teen who stumbled upon her friends being killed for no reason one night by some psycho who tried to kill her for all of 10 minutes before escaping.

Now if you take away Halloween 2 which they apparently did, Michael never pursued Jamie in the hospital later that night. So why on earth would this character spend the next 40 years of her life as a recluse, boobytrapping her remote home and waiting for his return to come get her?....For 40 years?!

It defies all logic and reason that this woman would essentially dedicate her entire life for nearly half a century waiting for this random killer to come back to off her. It makes no sense and ruins Laurie's character. Had they kept part 2 in the history and the family connection, like they did with H20, it would have worked imo.

I'll probably wait until the new trilogy has been released and then watch them all together but for now, i'm too afraid of it ruining the whole franchise for me.

Originally Posted by Torgo

Halloween III, as a standalone film is an excellent little Halloween themed horror film. I think its bad reputation mainly comes from the fact it has Halloween in the title, if it was release separate from the franchise it wouldn't get near the amount of hate it does now, though over the years I've seen more and more people see beyond its title and appreciate it for what it is.

I saw this just once back in 1982 and never again lol. I still remember how disappointed I was as a kid sitting in the theater that it had nothing to do with Halloween.
All I remember of this is that bugs would crawl out of pumpkin masks or something and kill the children? Also that creepy song ---

"10 more days till Halloween
Halloween, Halloween.
10 more days till Halloween
Silver Shamrock!"

I have the dvd that with parts 2 & 3 on it, but have only watched part 2. Maybe one night when i'm really bored i'll put in 3 and give it a rewatch.

Originally Posted by Torgo

And I agree. Halloween started the modern slashers, it and a few years later with a major studio releasing Friday The 13th, the 80's became slasher-mecca. There were a lot of proto-slashers that came before Halloween, and the only one I'd is closest to a true slasher is Black Christmas. But Halloween took all of the elements/tropes and put them together and created the slasher template.

I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre last week, and I think you can include that too as one of the early modern slashers before Halloween came along. I haven't seen Black Christmas yet, but saving it for next month when it's closer to the holidays.

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by LaBestia

Children Of The Corn

Children of The Corn is so corny. I tried rewatching this series. They start out good but then lose me around the middle towards the end. That will never be a popular movie series for the Halloween season.

Originally Posted by Torgo

The only one of the Halloween sequels I outright don't like is Resurrection.

I don't care for this one either. I saw it once and that was enough. I had forgotten Michael killed Laurie in this one. I always thought she committed suicide to get away from him. It's not a memorable film.

Originally Posted by Torgo

Of 4,5,6, part 4 is my favorite, they were trying to keep Michael scary, and really captured the Halloween season, part 5 got too goofy with the 2 comic relief cops, and the Myers house suddenly became mansion sized.
Part 6 has a lot of good ideas, but is a mess of a movie, the Producer's Cut is the best way to watch it. I did like the return of Tommy Doyle's character (played by Paul Rudd in this)

Halloween III, as a standalone film is an excellent little Halloween themed horror film. I think its bad reputation mainly comes from the fact it has Halloween in the title, if it was release separate from the franchise it wouldn't get near the amount of hate it does now, though over the years I've seen more and more people see beyond its title and appreciate it for what it is.


And I agree. Halloween started the modern slashers, it and a few years later with a major studio releasing Friday The 13th, the 80's became slasher-mecca. There were a lot of proto-slashers that came before Halloween, and the only one I'd is closest to a true slasher is Black Christmas. But Halloween took all of the elements/tropes and put them together and created the slasher template.

I still haven't seen Halloween 3. I'll give it a try one of these days. There's so much stuff I'd rather watch than that.

If you're referring to the 70's original Black Christmas, I agree. The 2006 remake is for people who love gore over story. The 2019 is downright insulting to the original film. Black Christmas was never a PC film like they made it. I will never watch that one again.

Originally Posted by cfr1970

The thing I can't get past with Halloween 2018 is how they portray Laurie Strode in it. After taking away the family connection, what you're basically left with is a 17 year old teen who stumbled upon her friends being killed for no reason one night by some psycho who tried to kill her for all of 10 minutes before escaping.

There's no reason for Laurie to be messed up over one night of terror 40 years later. In the 2018 flick, her character made a prison out of her house in the woods for Michael. Why would Michael want to kill her 40 years later when he could be killing all these other people? It doesn't make sense for Michael to still want to target Laurie decades later when she was just a babysitter.

Originally Posted by cfr1970

I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre last week, and I think you can include that too as one of the early modern slashers before Halloween came along. I haven't seen Black Christmas yet, but saving it for next month when it's closer to the holidays.

Do watch any of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels? I like the 2006 and 2013 sequels the best. The 2006 is a remake that is similar to the original. The 2013 is a sequel to the first one from 1974.

I have a list of scary Christmas movies I watch every December. I need to pull it out soon. December will be here in no time. I hope you watch the original Black Christmas. That's the best one. The 2006 remake with Katie Cassidy is more about gore than story. It's still worth a watch. Avoid the 2019 altogether. It has nothing to do with the Black Christmas story. They just took the name for a PC garbage flick.

[cfr1970]

Originally Posted by Christopher

There's no reason for Laurie to be messed up over one night of terror 40 years later. In the 2018 flick, her character made a prison out of her house in the woods for Michael. Why would Michael want to kill her 40 years later when he could be killing all these other people? It doesn't make sense for Michael to still want to target Laurie decades later when she was just a babysitter.

If they had kept it like H20 with the sibling relationship and part 2 history in the timeline, I would've been excited and seen the 2018 version as soon as it hit dvd.
But without the family connection, Michael has zero reason to go after Laurie 40 freaking years later...and she has zero reason to dedicate her entire life anticipating his return. It's such an incredible insult to the audience to do this to the history...but it made buckets of money so unfortunately the masses swallowed it up without caring.

Originally Posted by Christopher

Do watch any of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels? I like the 2006 and 2013 sequels the best. The 2006 is a remake that is similar to the original. The 2013 is a sequel to the first one from 1974.

I watched the 1974 version for the first time last week since seeing it as a teen on video. So it was all new for me because I had almost no memory of it.

I think I saw the 2006 remake many years ago, but don't remember much of it and I know I never saw the 2013 sequel. So i'll have to seek those two films out this week to watch.

Originally Posted by Christopher

I have a list of scary Christmas movies I watch every December. I need to pull it out soon. December will be here in no time. I hope you watch the original Black Christmas. That's the best one. The 2006 remake with Katie Cassidy is more about gore than story. It's still worth a watch. Avoid the 2019 altogether. It has nothing to do with the Black Christmas story. They just took the name for a PC garbage flick.

The original Black Christmas is in my list to watch. I like gore so i'll watch the 2006 remake too....but anything with PC in it I have zero interest in so I won't even bother with that 2019 one.

[JamesG]

Speaking of TCM, Leatherface (2017) was surprisingly good.

[Torgo]

Texas Chainsaw 3D from 2013 was awful. The continuity was all over the place. A straight sequel to the original, it's set about 20 years later, or should have been, yet it's set in Present Day. Or the lead character should have been 30-some years older and not in her early 20s.

Suddenly Leatherface's house has a ton of relatives. What, were they all hiding in the basement during the original movie?

Not surprised though since it's from the same writer/director as Jason Goes To Hell.

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Speaking of TCM, Leatherface (2017) was surprisingly good.

I still need to watch this one. One of my friends said it was good too.

Originally Posted by Torgo

Texas Chainsaw 3D from 2013 was awful. The continuity was all over the place. A straight sequel to the original, it's set about 20 years later, or should have been, yet it's set in Present Day. Or the lead character should have been 30-some years older and not in her early 20s.

Suddenly Leatherface's house has a ton of relatives. What, were they all hiding in the basement during the original movie?

Not surprised though since it's from the same writer/director as Jason Goes To Hell.

I didn't think it was that bad. I like the ending. It was different than the previous Texas Chainsaw's. I give them points for trying to be unique and not just another plot we've seen in the previous ones.

As for the relatives, Leatherface's house had people living there. Even in the original, there were people there. I didn't find that a sudden change.

[cfr1970]

Originally Posted by Christopher

Do watch any of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels? I like the 2006 and 2013 sequels the best. The 2006 is a remake that is similar to the original. The 2013 is a sequel to the first one from 1974.

The 2006 one I see on Amazon Prime Video is called "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" which seems to be a prequel rather than a remake. Is that what you meant? I just signed up for the free 7 day Cinemax trial and can watch it for free tonight.

I see they also have all the Saw films on Cinemax---so i'll have to squeeze all of them in to watch over the next 7 days before the trial ends and they charge me. I think I can manage it.

[cfr1970]

Watched "TCM: The Beginning" and really liked it. Lots of suspense and disgusting gore and none of the blood looked fake.

The only thing that I didn't like is that just like in the Wrong Turns, nobody survives. Ugh. I think you need to have at least one survivor in these films. I felt so bad for the girl at the end when the chainsaw ripped through her seat. Poor girl...But she was kind of stupid to enter that house much less return inside when she heard her friend screaming.

There comes a point where you just have to accept that you can't help them and flee. So as heroic as she tried to be, it was also foolish and she brought her fate upon herself.

But how the hell did Leatherface manage to beat her to the car to hide in the back seat?! She ran out to the car as he still had the chainsaw in her friend's back in the meat plant. He couldn't have moved that fast! No way!

It was good though and i want to see the remake and the 2013 sequel now.