Movies - Halloween

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The Halloween films are a popular and financially successful series of horror films. The first is considered one of the most important and influential of the genre. All but one of the films feature Michael Myers as an unstoppable psycho-killer.

The series

Halloween

The first film, Halloween
, was released in 1978. It was directed by John Carpenter and produced by Debra Hill. John and Debra wrote the screenplay together, based on an idea by Irwin Yablans. The film starred Donald Pleasence and it marked the motion picture debut of Jamie Lee Curtis. Shot on a budget of $320,000, it became one of the most successful independent films ever. The town of Haddonfield, a small, quiet suburban town where the majority of the film takes place, is named after screenwriter Debra Hill's New Jersey hometown.

Halloween is generally considered the first of a long line of modern-day "slasher" movies descending from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
(1960). The movie originated a great many of the clichés seen in countless low-budget slashers of the 1980s and 1990s.

The film tells the story of psycho-killer wearing a white-painted William Shatner mask (from the film The Devil's Rain
). Six-year-old Michael Myers brutally kills his older sister on Halloween night, 1963, and is locked in a mental institution. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to repeat his rampage. Pursued by his psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Pleasance), Myers sets his murderous intentions on a group of young female babysitters.

Halloween II

Halloween's success led inevitably to a sequel. In 1981, Moustapha Akkad, executive producer of the original film, sold the film rights to maverick producer Dino DeLaurentis, though Akkad was still actively involved in production of any films that used those rights. Later that year, DeLaurentis released Halloween II in partnership with Universal Pictures. The film was written by John Carpenter, but this time directed by Rick Rosenthal. It was designed to pick up precisely where the 1978 original left off, in fact taking place on the same night the original movie ended. At the time, this sequel was intended to be the final chapter of the series.

Critics generally agreed it was not the caliber of its predecessor. Carpenter himself was extremely displeased with the end result, describing it as "about as scary as an episode of Quincy" and, reportedly reshot many scenes himself. In retrospect, it is now generally considered by far the best of the sequels. Many of the original films' fans are disenchanted by the seemingly endless spate of further sequels featuring Michael Myers, which are perceived as cynically-motivated moneymakers, rather than quality horror films made by dedicated filmmakers with a love for the originals and a genuine artistic vision.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

The third film in the series, Halloween III: Season of the Witch
, was released in 1982, also by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, with John Carpenter only acting as producer. While the first sequel was a direct continuation of the original story, Halloween III is an entirely unrelated film. Many were disappointed that Michael Myers did not return in this entry, although it was Carpenter himself who felt that the Myers storyline could not be extended any further.

Post-Carpenter sequels

:Main articles: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

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