An image from ‘Halloween Kills,’ a movie we did not see.
Today, Halloween Kills, the second in David Gordon Green’s three-film revival of the franchise, opens in theaters and on the paid tiers of Peacock. We intended to review it this week, but the studio reneged on its screener plans at the last minute, which is never a great sign. (To paraphrase my all-time favorite rationale for not screening a film early, the studio wanted critics and audiences to discover the film together.)
Presuming that John Carpenter’s 1978 original is the best of the many iterations of the series—though maybe the most diehard Rob Zombie cultists disagree—we want to know: What is your second favorite Halloween movie? For me, it’s a difficult question. Halloween II (1981) could fairly be described as a by-the-numbers slasher film, with little of the originality and wit of the Carpenter film, but after seeing it on Blu-ray several years ago, I appreciated the economy of the (mostly) single location and thought Dean Cundey’s photography gave the hospital an elegant, spooky ambience. An argument could be made, too, for Zombie’s Halloween II (2009), which has some of the potent dysfunctional family vibe of his best film The Devil’s Rejects. But I’ll confess to having the most affection for the misbegotten Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983), which perversely abandoned Michael Myers altogether for an odd, funny science-fiction about a corporate scheme to brainwash kids through masks. (Happy, happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock!)
One important bit of housekeeping: This will be the last Open Question feature accessible to non-subscribers. Starting next Friday, we will also be limiting comment privileges to subscribers only. If you have not subscribed already, Keith and I would love to have your support and keep you active in the Revealer community as it continues to grow.
It’s a straight tie between SEASON OF THE WITCH and CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS—which is just as bonkers as the former, and with that slick, easily digestible 90s sheen.
I love a good bonkers mythology, for instance I'm the biggest fan of Omen III: The Final Conflict that I know of, and the Thorn cult in Curse is right up that very specific alley for me.
I actually just watched Halloween III for the first time this week and, though I enjoyed it, thought 'huh, this is like a really stupid Nigel Kneale script.' Imagine my surprise/smugness to discover after the fact that it was, in fact, originally a Nigel Kneale script that had had some really stupid changes mandated by Dino De Laurentiis, to the point that Kneale took his name off it. Still fun though!
Carpenter has given interviews where he describes Kneale as kind of a grump. But, of course l, you know the name of the person who “wrote” Prince of Darkness. Clearly the respect remained.
Yeah, was reading that Carpenter screened the first two Halloweens for him and his reaction was 'It was pretty ordinary, rough stuff. I could do better than that.' Which, y'know, is almost painfully blunt, but his track record bears out that, if not better, he could have done something fairly extraordinary if left to his own devices, shame it didn't quite pan out that way.
I'd go with the original II, and I'm glad you cited Cundey's photography because that's a big part of it.
I was obsessed with the series as a teenager (I had all of the little poster inserts from the Anchor Bay DVDs in my locker in eighth grade, which pushed me over the edge from weird kid to potential serial killer in the rumor mill), and to this day the only ones I outright dislike are The Revenge of Michael Myers, Resurrection, and Zombie's first film. The rest, despite their flaws, are all at least watchable.
While I can appreciate the WTF nature of Season of the Witch, and the fact that they tried to go into an anthology type of storytelling, I think unfortunately it is just not a very good movie. Too dark (lighting-wise), not suspenseful, boring, silly, etc. The coupling of the main characters is pretty gross due to the obvious age difference ( also gross, same actor in same gross age difference coupling in The Fog) But even without the age difference it just sort of happens because.
I do like the Silver Shamrock jingle and I admit it was ballsy to show what the masks do to the one kid.
I'd have to say the rebooted Halloween would be my second favorite one. Looking forward to Kills despite the not so glowing reviews I am seeing
Halloween H20 for me, with the Green/McBride reboot filling up the podium, and Zombie's Halloween II rounding out the Rushmore.
Despite the middling-at-best reviews, I'm looking forward to Halloween Kills. I'm not all that invested in the mythology, so much of the criticisms I've seen so far don't particularly concern me.
Since a lot of people are making good cases for HALLOWEEN III, which I love, already, let me offer up Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN as the second-best. I don't think it always works, but conceptually it's fascinating. Zombie wants to ask all the questions that Carpenter and Hill seemingly had no use for, like what kind of effed up circumstances make a Michael Myers in the first place. To me, it's kind of like Guadagnino's SUSPIRIA, less a remake than a film made by someone haunted by all the unexplored corridors of the original. It's a work of love and skepticism. (Yes, I know people hate it and SUSPIRIA, but give me this kind of remake over a slavish recreation of the original any day.)
I felt like Zombie's HALLOWEEN films were about as personal as you can get doing a rebooted franchise. I mean...the Michael Myers in those films doesn't look THAT different than Rob Zombie, right?
Definitely agree that the Zombie Halloween remake is just criminally underrated. Such a prime example of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' - in an era where a lot of horror classics got remade as slick, anonymous nothings, he took Halloween and inverted it.
The classic complaint is "I don't want to know about the Shape, the point is, he's scary because we don't know", which, sure, I agree! But, Zombie is like "no, in my version, I want you to know", and he smuggles so much dang feeling into that movie (and the sequel - even Danny Trejo's scene gets me a little weepy), far more than you'd normally ever get in a slasher. It's fair to say that "let's find out what makes this character TICK" is an overdone reboot strategy in general, but specifically in this movie it's a great idea because it defies expectation and it's great because it's so well done.
The sequels to all the classic 70's/80's slasher films are a huge blindspot for me so I've only seen the original and the 2018 one, but possibly due to low expectations I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Looking forward to Kills despite the reviews and to seeing what other people pick. Maybe I'll have to add a couple to my watchlist.
With the caveat that I haven't seen many of the Halloween films, I'd still have to go with Halloween III. So much fun and I definitely would've been okay with an anthology approach to the Halloween series.
This series takes so many weird and fascinating turns, it's easily my favorite of the original slasher series.
Halloween II - This is the Halloween movie that most feels like a Friday the 13th riff. The atmosphere and the mood and the kills work in this one and it always feels to me to closest to the original, though certainly not in its subtlety or restraint. 7/10 Pumpkins
Halloween III - I adore Halloween III and its fantastic weird goofy energy matched with a hard, kind of cruel edge that really gives the odd adventure some surprising gravitas and stakes. Probably one of my favorite '80s horror movies. Only problem here is that calling this my favorite Halloween sequel is like calling Ice Cream Sandwiches my favorite kind of sandwich. It's only in this group due to the name. 9/10 Silver Shamrocks, 1/10 Pumpkins
Halloween 4 - This one has a puffy looking Myers, but the atmosphere here is the most Halloween-y of the series and I like it a lot. I appreciate that at the first mention of Myers coming back the town immediately believes it as forms a drunken unruly posse. Also, Donald Pleasance is at his most unhinged and I will watch this psychiatrist attempt to pump bullets into his patient all day. Great ending too. 8/10 pumpkins
Halloween 5 - Weird shift to a full on gothic tone complete with haunted mansion. Doesn't really work, and I continue to be mystified by the unexplained (in this movie) Man-In-Black stuff. 4/10 Pumpkins
Halloween 6 - Now this one just seems misguided through and through. The mystical curse of thorn stuff, reducing Myers to a puppet of this cult, the quick dispatching of a disgraced Jamie. It all is a mess. Producers cut helps a lot but not enough. 3/10 Pumpkins
Halloween H2O - Of all of the "ignore the pervious sequels to bring Laurie Strode back years later" reboots, this is my favorite. I like this version of Laurie, struggling to deal with the trauma but managing well enough. The Scream vibes are strong but I like seeing a sequel reflect its decade. The lauie / myers faceoff here feels great and heads off to a great ending. 8/10 pumpkins.
Halloween Resurrection - Why is this movie? 1/10 Pumpkins
Halloween (2007) - Not a fan of Zombie's remake here. The first half is a backstory seemingly for a completely different character than Myers. At that it feels like a chainsaw being run against a whole bunch of chalkboards. Then the second half is a disappointing retread of the original movie. But with a hulking inhuman and much less interesting Myers than the original had. I like a stalking Myers, this guy can't stalk anyone without drawing the attention of every cop in the county. 2/10 Pumpkins
Halloween II (2009) - Now as far as Rob Zombie Halloween movies go, this one I find much more interesting. Discarding the attempt to stay true to the original at all it really settles into doing its own thing. Not sure I like that thing, but it is far more interesting to watch. 5/10 Pumpkins
Halloween (2018) - I've got split opinions on this one. I like the feel of Myers here. He still is stalking like he did in the original, which has always been my favorite element of that movie, but he feels more like himself than he had in quite a while. The kills are good and many individual scenes are fantastic. But the movie ascribes an overly reverential tone towards Myers and the mask which pull this a little too close to being Meta for my taste. I don't much like survivalist Laurie, it casts Myers as being the only notable part of her entire life still 40 years later. I do enjoy though that once released, and despite Laurie's absolute surety that he is coming after her, Myers doesn't actually show any interest and just goes about hacking through the community, oblivious to her until physically dragged to and released on her doorstep by the doctor. Uhhh, let's say 7/10 Pumpkins.
By the above scientific method, I thus conclude that my favorite Halloween Sequel is a tie between Halloween 4 and H2O. Happy Halloween
Recently watched Halloween II (the original) on blu-ray and holy hell, yeah, for me that has to be 2nd best and maybe the 2nd best slasher of all time? It's a very streamlined version of the first one in that there is a lot more time spent on stalking/slashing/ominous vibes and the photography throughout sure does look scary.
The first three really do all sit on the shelf for me - while I know Carpenter only 'really' did the first one, his fingerprints (and Debra Hill's) are all over II and III and they each have a certain "Carpenter/Hill in their prime" energy.
IV-VI are just incredibly weak to me and pretty uninteresting. I think a lot of that has to do with how they look - they really lose the strong visual sense of place (both in a setting but also just in scope) and in general have a softer focus look which dates it and makes 'em look kind of cheap.
I need to revisit H2O but I pretty much know that I'm not gonna love it - Scream-influenced Halloween is not for me, and even when it came out and I saw it as a wee tyke, it mostly just didn't even feel like horror. (Never saw Resurrection, prob never will.)
Love the Zombie Halloweens - I know it'd never happen but I sure wish there was a Zombie Season of the Witch remake too.
Pretty 'meh' on the first DGG Halloween - agreed that it feels like they're really shooting to get back to the feel of the first one, and I love elements of it like the cast, the POV shots, etc. - but the whole podcast/crazy doctor stuff just feels stupid and in general it never really scares me like the first two do. Still! Intrigued to see the new one, some of the criticisms of it actually have me thinking I might like it.
I really need to re-watch OG II...I think I may have only seen it on TBS hosted by Joe Bob Briggs when I was a kid. Definitely need to check out that blu-ray it seems!
It certainly is Halloween III for me. I have such a vivid memory of seeing this on the movie network as a kid, and truly feeling duped when the credits rolled. I cycled back through the programming and sure enough, the film was called Halloween III. It was some time before I discovered the producers' plans to try and shift the series toward the anthology.
The Silver Shamrock theme song became forever drilled into my head that day.
H20, for me. It's characterization of Laurie is much stronger than Green's film. She still feels recognizable. I get that the 2018 film was going for a T2 thing, but Sarah's shift in that film feels more earned, since her experience is being denied by everyone in her life.
Definitely Halloween III: Season of the Witch. I like the 2018 film fine, and will definitely go see Kills, but Season of the Witch is too batshit crazy and entertaining to ignore, whereas Green's films are doodling in the shadows of the untouchable original.
Zombie’s Halloween II is my second favorite. The way it doubles down on exploring trauma not just on Michael’s side, but on Laurie’s side of things is interesting. I love the dreamlike quality of the film: the hallucinations that become more and more real. It’s an interesting exploration of the final girl that never tips into the meta. Plus, Michael without a mask works!
I don't understand the general indifference to Halloween (2018) and it would actually be my pick for second favorite Halloween. I love every set piece, enjoy all the characters, it's just an all-around well made horror movie!
It's funny how one's tastes evolve. I only started liking the horror genre a few years ago. I mean the bloody and scary stuff and not the ambitious out-there movies that don't have too many horror cliches. I'm still not very interested in "slasher movies"; I never saw, for example, the Scream series. Though I did see the recent Malignant and found it pretty entertaining.
I saw Carpenter's Halloween and liked it but I haven't seen the many other iterations and sequels. For that matter I haven't seen Gordon Green's George Washington, but I heard it's great, lyrical even? So what I'm saying is if Gordon Green can go from that to a series of slasher films, and Scott, like many critics, appreciate them like any other genre, maybe I should give them a go. Though I still draw the line at torture porn films. (Kenneth Turan, the great critic at the LA Times for decades, wrote a piece some years back anout how he didn't like horror either, so maybe my feelings were shared by many more cinephiles than I thought.)
The original Halloween II probably has to be my answer. You're right that it's a fairly conventional slasher, but it's still a pretty solid example of the form. I also really like the opening section with Meyers wandering through the suburbs at night - has a really fun, spooky vibe of something being out there in the darkness, coming for you (similar to It Follows, imo).
I need to rewatch III because I remember being kind of mystified about its reclamation. I always really wished the Halloween franchise had gone in the direction they intended, with each film telling a different story. I just didn't find that particular entry super compelling.
Here's a question I struggle with every October: should I watch Zombie's second film? I've seen the first one and thought it was pretty terrible, but I get the sense that the second is somewhat different? I quite enjoyed Devil's Rejects and Lords of Salem, as well.
I'm fairly certain I've seen precisely NONE of the Halloween films, at least not all the way through. The opening to the first entry in a film class, for sure, but nothing else. I once watched nothing but westerns for an entire year. Maybe I should do a horror year, or even a slasher year. Hrm.
It’s a straight tie between SEASON OF THE WITCH and CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS—which is just as bonkers as the former, and with that slick, easily digestible 90s sheen.
I love a good bonkers mythology, for instance I'm the biggest fan of Omen III: The Final Conflict that I know of, and the Thorn cult in Curse is right up that very specific alley for me.
I’ve never seen OMEN III! Adding it to my list.
It's so silly. As if Revelations (and I'm saying this as a Christian) wasn't wild enough, they had to go and start adding stuff.
I actually just watched Halloween III for the first time this week and, though I enjoyed it, thought 'huh, this is like a really stupid Nigel Kneale script.' Imagine my surprise/smugness to discover after the fact that it was, in fact, originally a Nigel Kneale script that had had some really stupid changes mandated by Dino De Laurentiis, to the point that Kneale took his name off it. Still fun though!
Carpenter has given interviews where he describes Kneale as kind of a grump. But, of course l, you know the name of the person who “wrote” Prince of Darkness. Clearly the respect remained.
Yeah, was reading that Carpenter screened the first two Halloweens for him and his reaction was 'It was pretty ordinary, rough stuff. I could do better than that.' Which, y'know, is almost painfully blunt, but his track record bears out that, if not better, he could have done something fairly extraordinary if left to his own devices, shame it didn't quite pan out that way.
I'd go with the original II, and I'm glad you cited Cundey's photography because that's a big part of it.
I was obsessed with the series as a teenager (I had all of the little poster inserts from the Anchor Bay DVDs in my locker in eighth grade, which pushed me over the edge from weird kid to potential serial killer in the rumor mill), and to this day the only ones I outright dislike are The Revenge of Michael Myers, Resurrection, and Zombie's first film. The rest, despite their flaws, are all at least watchable.
I should say I haven't seen Kills yet, I'll be watching it tonight.
No more unregistered commenters? Quick, someone post as Lenny Briscoe Chuckles Softly before it too late!
While I can appreciate the WTF nature of Season of the Witch, and the fact that they tried to go into an anthology type of storytelling, I think unfortunately it is just not a very good movie. Too dark (lighting-wise), not suspenseful, boring, silly, etc. The coupling of the main characters is pretty gross due to the obvious age difference ( also gross, same actor in same gross age difference coupling in The Fog) But even without the age difference it just sort of happens because.
I do like the Silver Shamrock jingle and I admit it was ballsy to show what the masks do to the one kid.
I'd have to say the rebooted Halloween would be my second favorite one. Looking forward to Kills despite the not so glowing reviews I am seeing
They really did try to convince the world that Tom Atkins is the sexiest man alive. I almost believe it to this day.
Halloween H20 for me, with the Green/McBride reboot filling up the podium, and Zombie's Halloween II rounding out the Rushmore.
Despite the middling-at-best reviews, I'm looking forward to Halloween Kills. I'm not all that invested in the mythology, so much of the criticisms I've seen so far don't particularly concern me.
H20!!!!
Since a lot of people are making good cases for HALLOWEEN III, which I love, already, let me offer up Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN as the second-best. I don't think it always works, but conceptually it's fascinating. Zombie wants to ask all the questions that Carpenter and Hill seemingly had no use for, like what kind of effed up circumstances make a Michael Myers in the first place. To me, it's kind of like Guadagnino's SUSPIRIA, less a remake than a film made by someone haunted by all the unexplored corridors of the original. It's a work of love and skepticism. (Yes, I know people hate it and SUSPIRIA, but give me this kind of remake over a slavish recreation of the original any day.)
I felt like Zombie's HALLOWEEN films were about as personal as you can get doing a rebooted franchise. I mean...the Michael Myers in those films doesn't look THAT different than Rob Zombie, right?
Are we making this newsletter a home for wild accusations about Rob Zombie as an unstoppable serial murderer?
The only thing Rob Zombie has murdered is the chances for a proper White Zombie reunion!
Definitely agree that the Zombie Halloween remake is just criminally underrated. Such a prime example of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' - in an era where a lot of horror classics got remade as slick, anonymous nothings, he took Halloween and inverted it.
The classic complaint is "I don't want to know about the Shape, the point is, he's scary because we don't know", which, sure, I agree! But, Zombie is like "no, in my version, I want you to know", and he smuggles so much dang feeling into that movie (and the sequel - even Danny Trejo's scene gets me a little weepy), far more than you'd normally ever get in a slasher. It's fair to say that "let's find out what makes this character TICK" is an overdone reboot strategy in general, but specifically in this movie it's a great idea because it defies expectation and it's great because it's so well done.
Damn, do I need to watch those Zombie films? People have been making the case for them for years, but I just really dislike his other output.
The sequels to all the classic 70's/80's slasher films are a huge blindspot for me so I've only seen the original and the 2018 one, but possibly due to low expectations I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Looking forward to Kills despite the reviews and to seeing what other people pick. Maybe I'll have to add a couple to my watchlist.
With the caveat that I haven't seen many of the Halloween films, I'd still have to go with Halloween III. So much fun and I definitely would've been okay with an anthology approach to the Halloween series.
Halloween 2018! It's the only one that captures the original's combo of dread and whimsy.
This series takes so many weird and fascinating turns, it's easily my favorite of the original slasher series.
Halloween II - This is the Halloween movie that most feels like a Friday the 13th riff. The atmosphere and the mood and the kills work in this one and it always feels to me to closest to the original, though certainly not in its subtlety or restraint. 7/10 Pumpkins
Halloween III - I adore Halloween III and its fantastic weird goofy energy matched with a hard, kind of cruel edge that really gives the odd adventure some surprising gravitas and stakes. Probably one of my favorite '80s horror movies. Only problem here is that calling this my favorite Halloween sequel is like calling Ice Cream Sandwiches my favorite kind of sandwich. It's only in this group due to the name. 9/10 Silver Shamrocks, 1/10 Pumpkins
Halloween 4 - This one has a puffy looking Myers, but the atmosphere here is the most Halloween-y of the series and I like it a lot. I appreciate that at the first mention of Myers coming back the town immediately believes it as forms a drunken unruly posse. Also, Donald Pleasance is at his most unhinged and I will watch this psychiatrist attempt to pump bullets into his patient all day. Great ending too. 8/10 pumpkins
Halloween 5 - Weird shift to a full on gothic tone complete with haunted mansion. Doesn't really work, and I continue to be mystified by the unexplained (in this movie) Man-In-Black stuff. 4/10 Pumpkins
Halloween 6 - Now this one just seems misguided through and through. The mystical curse of thorn stuff, reducing Myers to a puppet of this cult, the quick dispatching of a disgraced Jamie. It all is a mess. Producers cut helps a lot but not enough. 3/10 Pumpkins
Halloween H2O - Of all of the "ignore the pervious sequels to bring Laurie Strode back years later" reboots, this is my favorite. I like this version of Laurie, struggling to deal with the trauma but managing well enough. The Scream vibes are strong but I like seeing a sequel reflect its decade. The lauie / myers faceoff here feels great and heads off to a great ending. 8/10 pumpkins.
Halloween Resurrection - Why is this movie? 1/10 Pumpkins
Halloween (2007) - Not a fan of Zombie's remake here. The first half is a backstory seemingly for a completely different character than Myers. At that it feels like a chainsaw being run against a whole bunch of chalkboards. Then the second half is a disappointing retread of the original movie. But with a hulking inhuman and much less interesting Myers than the original had. I like a stalking Myers, this guy can't stalk anyone without drawing the attention of every cop in the county. 2/10 Pumpkins
Halloween II (2009) - Now as far as Rob Zombie Halloween movies go, this one I find much more interesting. Discarding the attempt to stay true to the original at all it really settles into doing its own thing. Not sure I like that thing, but it is far more interesting to watch. 5/10 Pumpkins
Halloween (2018) - I've got split opinions on this one. I like the feel of Myers here. He still is stalking like he did in the original, which has always been my favorite element of that movie, but he feels more like himself than he had in quite a while. The kills are good and many individual scenes are fantastic. But the movie ascribes an overly reverential tone towards Myers and the mask which pull this a little too close to being Meta for my taste. I don't much like survivalist Laurie, it casts Myers as being the only notable part of her entire life still 40 years later. I do enjoy though that once released, and despite Laurie's absolute surety that he is coming after her, Myers doesn't actually show any interest and just goes about hacking through the community, oblivious to her until physically dragged to and released on her doorstep by the doctor. Uhhh, let's say 7/10 Pumpkins.
By the above scientific method, I thus conclude that my favorite Halloween Sequel is a tie between Halloween 4 and H2O. Happy Halloween
Halloween 4 for me!
Curious what everyone's prefered Halloween II is as well, now that we've got a little sub-series going on.
Recently watched Halloween II (the original) on blu-ray and holy hell, yeah, for me that has to be 2nd best and maybe the 2nd best slasher of all time? It's a very streamlined version of the first one in that there is a lot more time spent on stalking/slashing/ominous vibes and the photography throughout sure does look scary.
The first three really do all sit on the shelf for me - while I know Carpenter only 'really' did the first one, his fingerprints (and Debra Hill's) are all over II and III and they each have a certain "Carpenter/Hill in their prime" energy.
IV-VI are just incredibly weak to me and pretty uninteresting. I think a lot of that has to do with how they look - they really lose the strong visual sense of place (both in a setting but also just in scope) and in general have a softer focus look which dates it and makes 'em look kind of cheap.
I need to revisit H2O but I pretty much know that I'm not gonna love it - Scream-influenced Halloween is not for me, and even when it came out and I saw it as a wee tyke, it mostly just didn't even feel like horror. (Never saw Resurrection, prob never will.)
Love the Zombie Halloweens - I know it'd never happen but I sure wish there was a Zombie Season of the Witch remake too.
Pretty 'meh' on the first DGG Halloween - agreed that it feels like they're really shooting to get back to the feel of the first one, and I love elements of it like the cast, the POV shots, etc. - but the whole podcast/crazy doctor stuff just feels stupid and in general it never really scares me like the first two do. Still! Intrigued to see the new one, some of the criticisms of it actually have me thinking I might like it.
I really need to re-watch OG II...I think I may have only seen it on TBS hosted by Joe Bob Briggs when I was a kid. Definitely need to check out that blu-ray it seems!
It certainly is Halloween III for me. I have such a vivid memory of seeing this on the movie network as a kid, and truly feeling duped when the credits rolled. I cycled back through the programming and sure enough, the film was called Halloween III. It was some time before I discovered the producers' plans to try and shift the series toward the anthology.
The Silver Shamrock theme song became forever drilled into my head that day.
H20, for me. It's characterization of Laurie is much stronger than Green's film. She still feels recognizable. I get that the 2018 film was going for a T2 thing, but Sarah's shift in that film feels more earned, since her experience is being denied by everyone in her life.
Definitely Halloween III: Season of the Witch. I like the 2018 film fine, and will definitely go see Kills, but Season of the Witch is too batshit crazy and entertaining to ignore, whereas Green's films are doodling in the shadows of the untouchable original.
Zombie’s Halloween II is my second favorite. The way it doubles down on exploring trauma not just on Michael’s side, but on Laurie’s side of things is interesting. I love the dreamlike quality of the film: the hallucinations that become more and more real. It’s an interesting exploration of the final girl that never tips into the meta. Plus, Michael without a mask works!
I don't understand the general indifference to Halloween (2018) and it would actually be my pick for second favorite Halloween. I love every set piece, enjoy all the characters, it's just an all-around well made horror movie!
HALLOWEEN II because of Donald Pleasence.
NEIGHBOR:
Is this a joke? I've been trick-or-treated to death tonight.
DR. LOOMIS:
YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT DEATH IS!
It's funny how one's tastes evolve. I only started liking the horror genre a few years ago. I mean the bloody and scary stuff and not the ambitious out-there movies that don't have too many horror cliches. I'm still not very interested in "slasher movies"; I never saw, for example, the Scream series. Though I did see the recent Malignant and found it pretty entertaining.
I saw Carpenter's Halloween and liked it but I haven't seen the many other iterations and sequels. For that matter I haven't seen Gordon Green's George Washington, but I heard it's great, lyrical even? So what I'm saying is if Gordon Green can go from that to a series of slasher films, and Scott, like many critics, appreciate them like any other genre, maybe I should give them a go. Though I still draw the line at torture porn films. (Kenneth Turan, the great critic at the LA Times for decades, wrote a piece some years back anout how he didn't like horror either, so maybe my feelings were shared by many more cinephiles than I thought.)
Put me down in the Halloween III column as well Scott! Part of me still kinda wishes this series had gone the anthology route as intended.
The original Halloween II probably has to be my answer. You're right that it's a fairly conventional slasher, but it's still a pretty solid example of the form. I also really like the opening section with Meyers wandering through the suburbs at night - has a really fun, spooky vibe of something being out there in the darkness, coming for you (similar to It Follows, imo).
I need to rewatch III because I remember being kind of mystified about its reclamation. I always really wished the Halloween franchise had gone in the direction they intended, with each film telling a different story. I just didn't find that particular entry super compelling.
Here's a question I struggle with every October: should I watch Zombie's second film? I've seen the first one and thought it was pretty terrible, but I get the sense that the second is somewhat different? I quite enjoyed Devil's Rejects and Lords of Salem, as well.
I'm fairly certain I've seen precisely NONE of the Halloween films, at least not all the way through. The opening to the first entry in a film class, for sure, but nothing else. I once watched nothing but westerns for an entire year. Maybe I should do a horror year, or even a slasher year. Hrm.