Not Another Halloween Rant

I saw Halloween Ends for the third time today. This time in theaters. They really don't bother with picture quality anymore, and they never get the aspect ratios right. It's like they don't give a fuck, but anyway... I hope it can cross 100 million in the box office by the end of the month.

I rewatched the original and the new trilogy this month, and as single-minded as Myers may be, he never stops my brain from spinning new thoughts, so bear with me as I ramble.


In the beginning of H1 '78, we see it through young Michael's POV. Did he snap then and there on Halloween night 1963, or was he always crazy? And if he did snap, what caused it? Hypothetical scenario: Michael was watching TV and saw someone die on a show. Then he thinks to himself, "Death, huh? I'll give her a shot."

Halloween '78 succeeds in its simplicity. Slow creepy buildup. Tense climax. No motives. The lack of explanation gives the fans things to think about. A fundamental aspect of Michael Myers is his mystique. Don't try to explain the bogeyman, and I'm glad the new trilogy didn't.

H-Ends does pose a lot more questions about Michael that the other sequels couldn't, like what does Michael do when he wins? Where does he go? Has he ever treated his own wounds, and has he ever washed his outfit in the four years between movies?

The new trilogy disregards old sequels, but pays fan service to them anyway. I loved the Silver Shamrock masks and H3 font use, but where was Tom Atkins? And the sewer life was an H8 homage I guess. Didn't he eat rats in that one? And how does he get his vitamin D down there?


Since they never imagined the first movie as spawning a jillion sequels, there wasn't much attempt at continuity after H2. The series went off the rails and the depiction of Myers was vastly inconsistent. Same goes for the Myers house. H3 could've only worked if H2 was an unrelated story too, but they botched that idea. H4 only had Donald Pleasence to anchor it, as did H5, but everything got weird in that one. I would describe H5 as a weird movie. And H6 is a flashy 90s piece of shit, and H20 is bizarre way of reconciling bad continuity by making it even worse. It was at that point that the series lost any hope of having a single canon. Continuity was never a strong point in this franchise... until the trilogy decided to follow only the best of the movies: part 1.

This franchise's inept continuity parallels the Universal Solider franchise. Van Damme and Dolph in the first, recast Van Damme for 2 and 3, have him return for a shitty reunion movie, then have him return for the "real" gritty sequels with Dolph.