Michael Myers Tribute

Love them or hate them, the latest Halloween trilogy films fit pretty well into this Myers tribute video.

Click below...

It's Time, Michael

When you finally buy that Myers mask that you've always wanted...

Now Playing: Halloween 3 Test Room A

This is really fantastic.

Click below for some wonderful horror ambience...

Halloween Ends

I've run from you. I have chased you. I have tried to contain you. I have tried to forgive you. I thought maybe you were the Boogeyman. No, you're just a man who's about to stop breathing.

- Laurie Strode

Halloween II

We watched this 1981 sequel recently and I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older or what, but the middle part, those slow scenes inside the hospital, no longer troubled me.  It felt slow, but not in a bad way.  It felt like the late hours of the night on Halloween, right before November 1st.  

The atmosphere and style were all there, despite not having John Carpenter as the director.  The story is still very interesting and elevates Laurie from someone who was randomly chosen by Myers to being way more significant.  I never had any issues with the fact that she turns out to be Michael Myers' sister.  From a sequel point of view, it really works well.  The classroom scene where Myers has done some exposition for the audience never bothered me either.  Writing 'SAMHAIN' on the chalkboard in blood was always such a strange element.  I used to try to picture Myers in that classroom.  Skulking around in the world he remembered back before he murdered his sister and was incarcerated.  It never felt out of character for him to write on the board...  we're dealing with a guy who dressed up as Bob's Ghost in the first film, who arranged a tombstone (that he plucked from a cemetery) at the head of a bed as he displayed Annie's dead body.

Then we get poor Ben Tramer's fiery death.  I might be obsessed with this character's tragedy story.  And of course we also get an amazing performance by Donald Pleasence.  In a lot of ways, this film is about Loomis and not Laurie.  Halloween II and IV are like love letters to Dr. Sam Loomis, and you feel his absence in every scene that's missing this wonderful actor.  (I forgive him for mispronouncing 'samhain.')

The production design really got it right when decorating the scenes with Halloween decor.  So many staples of the time, with some really great homemade decorations as well hanging in the hospital hallways.  

We loved revisiting this film and seeing it with fresh eyes, watching it late at night with glowing Halloween blowmolds and flickering candles all around.

Click below for the classroom scene, a personal fave...

Now Playing: Smith's Grove Sanitarium

By Angel Dust Dealers.

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Super 8mm Horror Movie

Man, this IG account just keeps giving and giving.

Click below for a wonderful little horror film.

Halloween Pumpkin Ring

Halloween, as in the film...  Pumpkin as in you-know-the-one...

Click here for the Uneven Creations shop.

Where's Ellie?

This was a rare piece. German. Made in Munich, 1785. 

I must try and get a replacement.

Halloween Ends

The saga ends.  The end of a franchise. We'll never see Michael Myers ever again (until the reboot).  

I've been pretty vocal about my dislike of the last two HALLOWEEN films.  I still feel like they were soulless cash grabs.  Unnecessarily violent, and just bizarre in the way they rearranged/rewrote/ignored the canon timeline.  And SURE most of those old HALLOWEEN sequels were horrid, but that should never be used as a reason why we should be ok with the latest films.  Or less demanding.  Or softer in our reviews of them.  I told myself the last two were just expensive fan films so my brain could live trauma-free.  I love Michael Myers, and as a fan it has not been easy watching him endure so many odd situations since 1988 (I loved HALLOWEEN 4).

Since "Horror Films" were on our October checklist when my friend Wren was visiting, we knew we had to see this recent trilogy off in style.  

(Pumpkin wine is exceptionally good.  Not too sweet, and incredibly light [and it has nothing to do with this review]).

Periodically throughout the entire film, we'd look over at each other and say, "I don't hate it yet!"  The movie was GOOD.  Despite everything I was hearing online from disappointed and confused fans.  The same fans who relentlessly trashed on my beloved CANDY MAN were now saying things like "They tried something different, but it didn't work.  It was weird."  I figured it was going to be a real stinker.  It wasn't.  Like not at all.  

The best way I can describe it is that it felt like a Halloween anthology film that took place in the HALLOWEEN FILM universe (kind of like what they were planning to do back when they made HALLOWEEN III:  SEASON OF THE WITCH).  It was Michael Myers-adjacent.  And it was original.

Laurie's character felt more believable.  The town felt more sincere and logical.  And the main protagonist was one of the most interesting and sympathetic characters I can recall in recent horror film history.  No spoilers here, but if you watched the other two and figured this would be more of the same (for better or worse), you definitely need to give this one a shot (with or without wine).  

Strangely, the trailers that were released were wildly misleading and portrayed a movie that never was.  I think the folks promoting this thing panicked and tried to sell it as a big showdown between Michael and Laurie.  "The Saga Ends," as I recall.  

John Carpenter's score was perfect too.   So I'll end this review with a track from the soundtrack (which happens to be to the neatest scene).  And with a simple statement:  We really dug it.

Click below...

Final Trailer: Halloween Ends

I shall reluctantly watch every second of this (probably twice).

Click below...

Thanks, Sara!

Sponsored By Smith's Grove Sanitarium

Everyone should enter.  First prize is a clown mask!

Click below for Five Finger Tees.

Thanks, Mike!

Now Watching: Halloween Goodness

Repost of a wonderfully appropriate and timely video... edited with scenes from a bunch of great Carpenter films (and Pumpkinhead and Tommy Lee Wallace's HIII).

Click below...

Modern Trailer: Halloween II

Click below for a really great fan trailer.

The Many Deaths Of Michael Audrey Myers

Man, I was so pumped when this thing started.  Then it got to Halloween V.  And all the others.

Click below...

Sanitorium By The Cemetery

Marion : The only thing I can't stand is their gibberish... how they keep ranting on and on.
Loomis : You haven't anything to worry about. He hasn't spoken a word in fifteen years.

Images by Chris Wallace.

Haddonfield Souvenir Mug

I shall be broke by November.

A super neat product from 12 Months of October.

Click here for the Etsy Shoppe.

Classic For A Reason

As a cleanser after the Halloween Ends trailer.

Click below...

"Their Saga"

So the trailer dropped for HALLOWEEN ENDS and it feels a lot like HALLOWEEN KILLS on steroids.  I can't say that I've really been waiting to see the big brawl match between Michael and Laurie.  As I already got that treat back in 2003 with FREDDY VS JASON.  That's the proper venue for such a thing, in my opinion.  The only way this "fight" will have any significance is if one of these two (or both) really do end up croaking (misuse of the word 'significance').

The violence looks to be off the charts, which was a major gripe I had with HALLOWEEN KILLS.  Just not necessary if your story and directing are interesting and spooky.  

Click below for the trailer...  (so much forced fanfare in there [like the jack o'lantern face behind Laurie with the gun {that's the same face from the first film that she carved with Tommy}]).

Laurie says "Come get me, Mother F'r"...Busta Rhymes would be proud.

Thanks, Sara, for the link (I think).

Creating The Shape

This video is lunacy.  Tommy Lee Wallace explains, and DEMONSTRATES, how they made the Michael Myers mask out of a James T. Kirk mask for the original HALLOWEEN back in the day.  I never expected to see this process actually unfold in a short video.  I've only read articles about it, so this is gold to me.

Click below...

Thanks, Samhain!