Halloween Marathon: Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

The light at the end of the tunnel is how I feel right now.  Its just right there! This month has been a bit intense with work and keeping up with the blog.  The first time its really gotten to me.  This time really went completely spontaneous and ended up being hectic to finish up the focus of the marathon: the Halloween series.  I had a list before I started the marathon and lets say I pretty much tossed it out the window.  Last night, at something like 11pm, I finally turned on Netflix and saw Halloween H20. I’ve mentioned it, but I will again, I’m not doing the final one due to time constraints.  I will eventually, just not immediately.  So, lets see whats up with this one!

Director: Steve Miner

Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Adam Arkin, LL Cool J, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe

Laurie Strode, now the dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle the Shape one last time and now the life of her own son hangs in the balance.-IMDB

The only relevance Halloween H20 had was to the very first (and well, second) Halloween.  That makes it kind of meh, because then its like, should I take in account that 4 to 6 happened then.  I mean, from what I got from the 4th one, Laurie either died or left her daughter.  So  now, she has a son, why did she choose to keep her son but leave her daughter and then her daughter gets stuck with that ridiculous fate and happened from 4 to 6.  She has issues and we know that already. Who wouldn’t, right? Lets say we forget about Laurie. Michael Myers makes no sense either.  He always struck in Haddonfield, so what makes him leave that comfort zone 20 years later and head to kill Laurie in North California now? I mean, if he was all high and mighty and knew all, as he seems to be in the previous instalments, then why not just go straight for her after his first escape back in 4? I know the technicalities are probably they couldn’t get back Jamie Lee Curtis to do that role or whatnot, but still, doesn’t matter who really gets slashed as long as they get hunted by Michael Myers, no? Either way, my head hurts from all the questions.

I’m not saying that I hated Halloween H20, I really am not. I watched this by myself so my imagination went running wild, as always so there were times I’d be tense but then this one was so predictable. I think its the fault of how they shot this one. Somewhere along the way, I started thinking that the purpose of Halloween H20 was to show why the first (or any of the others) was so creepy. For one, even when this movie was dark, it was still pretty bright.  Second, we aren’t supposed to see Michael Myers up close and personal.  He was scary because he was lurking around, and we never got a good look at him.  The shots were quick and we never knew when he’d attack.  This time, Michael was walking faster and always visible.  Plus, the mask was not scary and excuse me but blackest eyes, no they aren’t.  Are you lying to me Dr. Loomis or did his eyes change over the years? Maybe he’s softened up, but then, he hasn’t.

I went into this with little expectations that I was so happy to actually see JGL little role at the beginning.  I’m not exactly sure that part was supposed to yield that much excitement.  And then there was LL Cool J.  Hey, I thought he was pretty awesome in Deep Blue Sea and he was pretty hilarious in this one.  That was probably deliberate.  Not very fitting for Halloween but I liked it! Another thought going through my head for the cast was that I never saw anything with Josh Hartnett since Pearl Harbor and now I have 2 in a week.  I’m indifferent to Josh Hartnett but at least he wasn’t a brainless teenager in this one along with a young Michelle Williams.  So many familiar faces does give it a few extra points, right?

I think at this point, my review is already way out of hand.  Its just a lot of ranting and sarcasm.  Okay, I’m serious, I didn’t hate it because I was tired and by myself.  Overall, some tense parts but not a coherent storyline if you look at this in a whole.  Its predictable and doesn’t really have many scares.  I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to see this.

Happy Halloween everyone! I should have one more post up if everything goes as planned to do this my own way! 🙂 I’m getting that together right after dinner!

There you go! Seven Halloweens done! Have you seen them all? Which is your favorite? Is there something I’m missing in the story to link it better?

Halloween Marathon: Halloween 6 The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

I had a research error when I first bought this series and watched this one before the 4th one and had to double back to watch that one to get that review up. Stupid, yes I know…but doesn’t really change how I actually felt about it.  It was really to get some of the story. Lets check it out, shall we? 

Director: Joe Chappelle

Cast: Donald Pleasance, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan, Mitch Ryan, Devin Gardner

Six years ago, Michael Myers terrorized the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. He and his niece, Jamie Lloyd, have disappeared. Jamie was kidnapped by a bunch of evil druids who protect Michael Myers. And now, six years later, Jamie has escaped after giving birth to Michael’s child. She runs to Haddonfield to get Dr. Loomis to help her again. Meanwhile, the family that adopted Laurie Strode is living in the Myers house and are being stalked by Myers. It’s the curse of Thorn that Michael is possessed by that makes him kill his family. And it’s up to Tommy Doyle, the boy from Halloween, and Dr. Loomis, to stop them all.- IMDB

**Let me just say sorry that I have to keep copying summaries from IMDB.  I already have a lot of Halloween marathon posts backed up because of overtime at work.  I literally have no time to do anything else.  I still really hope that time would slow down.  I’m going to try my absolute best to get in another review sometime today.  Worst comes to worst, I’ll extend it to November 1st 🙂 Now lets get to the actual review! **

Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers isn’t all that bad as a horror movie.  I found it was more mystery than anything.  Sure, he runs around slashing people to get to Jamie’s baby but its pretty predictable.  After so many, is it so hard to figure out his next move and well, that he just will never die.  When I first watched this before the 4th, I felt it was better, although it does try to pull everything together.  There were parts that was kind of fun.  I can tell you though, one thing that didn’t work for me was some of the annoying characters, and it was quite nice to see them get killed off by Michael.  Mean, yes but my patience has been especially low…

Is there really a lot of story here? Maybe more than the rest in the series in my opinion.  It wasn’t a perfect story with so many illogical things. For example, no one sees a blood trail in a public bus station or hears a crying newborn in the bathroom.  Maybe no one needs to pee before a long bus ride.  What can I say, who knows what people do, maybe back in the days, everyone’s bladder works a million times better than now? However, I did appreciate that it tried to bring back older characters when they grew up.  This is where I’ll start looking at the actors.  For once, I know an actor in this! Paul Rudd! I was trying to figure out who he was the whole time.  He plays Tommy Doyle and he was rather likeable.  I just don’t know why he felt the absolute need to stop Michael and felt it was his mission, so he was in all means a hero.  

 

About now, I’m starting to feel extremely horrible for the character of Dr. Loomis.  He always gets caught up in these things and we all learn one of the reasons why in this one.  The doctor even retired from all this to get away and just live life, but he always has to get involved even with a cane.  He is the connection of all the Halloweens (except the third) and it gives it a lot to like and some flow from the previous installment.  

 

Overall, The Curse of Michael Myers is alright at best.  I didn’t hate it except for some annoying characters but they exit relatively quick.  I liked that I know Paul Rudd, who probably was a nobody back then but at least I know who he is.  It works hard to connect the stories and build up on what its all about.  If you did start watching the series, you won’t hate watching this one to follow up the previous one.  🙂

I still have to watch Halloween H2O in my busy schedule.  I don’t have the absolute last one (Resurrection?) and I won’t have time to watch it, so I’m going to postpone it.  Suffice to say, my work schedule is putting everything off a bit but I’ll aim to get everything (Halloween-related) up by Friday.