Canon-Strike XI: Never Ending Horror

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, a lot of these merge into one after a while.
H20 had the ending and the window moment from your gif.
Resurrection had Coolio and the Big Brother setting.

I enjoyed Halloween 2018, particularly the one-take sequence and Laurie becoming some hard-ass survivalist.

->Open Spoiler<-

Question: If you had to come up with a premise to continue the series, how would you do it, assuming that Halloween Ends really is the finale to the original arc?

Halloween is spookiest when it's not trying too hard, for me. Michael hiding behind a tree in broad daylight was a real shiver moment.
All the voodoo nonsense just makes it pointless. He needs to be human and killable, but terrifyingly relentless.
The whole lunatic angle is a little tastless, but the killer really has to be unhinged.

Maybe start with a killer who is influenced by Myers and is caught as he's murdering a family.
They get out after serving their time and getting therapy and try to start a new life but people start dying around them, then they start getting stalked. Twist is someone from the family at the start survived and wanted them to taste the horror and had years to plan whilst the person was in jail. *Shrug*

Love this recording of an actual cinema audience during the final section of the original film:

->Open Spoiler<-

[Neon Ignition]

Put together, the original and the 2018 film I feel make the most successful arc for the franchise and character. This particularly stands if you consider Myers as not surviving the end. They work in a kind of Top Gun/Maverick combo way that the films since wear away and make you forget how well the 2018 did work.



I think with Halloween you have two key considerations. The first is that it's critical that Myers not become Jason, the second is that it's holiday themed. It's often considered to be too coincidental that events kick off on the same day in each film, it's rarely directly addressed.

Personally, I think a full reboot is the only way to go and I'd be tempted to keep things fairly restrained to basics. Set it back in the 1970's so you sidestep a lot of modern considerations and make it easier to have him move through the shadows undetected. I'd be tempted to play with the idea that the citizens of the town don't know who is doing the killing also. Basically you put an emphasis on the 'Shape' element rather than Myers. This would help to explain his absences between Halloween's, he could literally be anyone for 364 days of the year rather than hiding in a hole, then it would be more natural that you could tie the holiday into his motivation and the town increasingly fearing it across sequels. Essentially an arc of small reveals where we might know it's Myers but not necessarily panning out the way we're familiar with whilst also keeping each film fairly grounded. It could be a way of naturally exploring the anthology elements whilst tying in the Myers elements.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 24 - Halloween Kills
Following the success of the new line of the franchise a sequel was always inevitable and this new Halloween III pulls a Halloween II to Halloween's new Halloween II by taking place on the same night as the prior film. As Laurie is rushed to hospital the fire crews race out to her burning home to discover Myers has survived and a night of the town descending into panic begins.




Kill the franchise?

[QualityChimp]

[Neon Ignition]

With Kills it's one of those entries that tries to be clever and instead misses its mark. So focused on developing a mob-mentality scenario it betrays the fact that this is taking place on the same night as the prior film so any sense of time is suspended to justify a crowd of characters who really just serve to act dumb and get killed. It lacks the consideration and nuance of the previous entry and in order to justify Myers making it through the film they tilt closer to Jasoning him. You can easily watch it enough from the perspective that plenty goes on in it and you see lots of Myers but it wastes Laurie and it wastes its set up.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 25 - Halloween Ends
The final Halloween film to date and here we risk spoilers given its just opened. Laurie is living a happy life with her granddaughter four years after the events of the previous films. She may be settled but the townsfolk aren't, growing increasingly unrested due to the disappearance of Myers. Meanwhile, a man named Corey faces his own struggles.




A fitting end to Timeline 5 cementing the best incarnation?

[Neon Ignition]

I wrote a bit about it in the general thread but Ends swings for unique and instead delivers the mistakes of several past genre sequels, trying to subvert when it should have simply been a fan pleaser, therefore pleasing few

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 26 - Evil Dead
A group of teens headed to a getaway in the woods would birth not only a thousand quotes, memes and genre cliches but also a franchise and a noted filmmaker. Discovering the Book of the Dead in the cabins basement, they unwittingly unleash a demonic force upon them and find themselves preyed upon by the elements surrounding them.




Is its reputation well deserved?

[Atticus]

Evil Dead was almost a rites of passage video shop rental when I was at school. It's still a great watch and it hasn't really dated, the shoestring visuals showed all they had from day one ... but its reputation seemed to dissolve when Raimi himself put it in the shade with his own sequel (though it's far more raw horror and nowhere near as playful as part 2).

[Dogg Thang]

I think Evil Dead is a fantastic movie. It's so raw and full of energy. You can feel the passion running through that movie. It's very crude in ways. It does sometimes feel like a bunch of mates making a movie and yet they do it with so much energy that I just get carried through it every time. It's quite full on in places too.

[QualityChimp]

Just before we move off Halloween, Tommy Lee Wallace, Director of the best Halloween film, Season of the Witch, is writing a book about it:

https://bearmanor-digital.myshopify.com/blogs/news/dont-forget-the-big-giveaway-at-9

BONUS: Here's a nice article on the film by Den of Geek:

https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/halloween-iii-season-of-the-witch-cult-classic/

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch – The Inside Story Of A Cult Classic
Director Tommy Lee Wallace on ditching Michael Myers to make Halloween's best sequel, 40 years on.

[QualityChimp]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj86Y80pH5m/

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 27 - Evil Dead II
Ash survives his night of terror having ended it being briefly possessed but when another group arrive at the cabin they discover him and panic that he killed the leads parents. Locking him up they read the rest of the book and again unleash the full nightmare from within it. As they are picked off, Ash escapes and progressively loses his senses to the madness until something snaps and he decides it's time to fight the demons back.




Was the sequel Groovy?

[Neon Ignition]

With Evil Dead 2, what we have here, is I feel the franchise in its most perfect form. It pretty much reuses everything from the first film meaning fans of that one are served but just dials everything up. It's pretty much the scenario played out for everything it's worth and whilst I've enjoyed what followed this film contains pretty much every element you could need.

[CMcK]

Evil Dead II isn’t really a sequel it’s more of a better budget remake. It’s the best in the series and places way more emphasis on Ash. Campbell is great at the physical comedy and a charismatic figure. This is the film that gave us all cinematic touches we would later come to expect from a Raimi directed movie too.