Prom Night (dir. Paul Lynch, 1980) Terror Train (dir. Roger Spottiswoode, 1980) 1979 was a busy year for Jamie Lee Curtis. Coming off the success of Halloween, she would film three horror films from April to December: The Fog, which reunited her with John Carpenter, and two small Canadian productions that both sought to trade … Continue reading Prom Night (1980) & Terror Train (1980)

The Fog (dir. John Carpenter, 1980) After the production of the TV miniseries Elvis in 1979, John Carpenter and Deborah Hill returned to the horror genre with The Fog, which traded the urban menace of Assault on Precinct 13 and the suburban terror of Halloween for a tale of the supernatural in a small coastal … Continue reading The Fog (1980)

Halloween II (dir. Rob Zombie, 2009) Halloween (2007) was successful at the box office, making 80 million dollars on a 15 million dollar budget, but critical reception was poor (as usual with this franchise) and audience reception was decidedly mixed. There’s a stigma attached to remakes that I think is somewhat unfair, but also understand. … Continue reading Halloween II (2009)

Halloween (dir. Rob Zombie, 2007) A decision was made to reboot the series after the disappointing box office returns of Halloween: Resurrection and the death of the original executive producer Moustapha Akkad in a terrorist bombing in Amman, Jordan in 2005. Musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie made two pitches to Dimension Films--one a prequel detailing … Continue reading Halloween (2007)

Mirror Mirror (dir. Marina Sargenti, 1990) After the death of her father, a teen goth girl named Megan Gordon (Rainbow Harvest) moves with her mother Susan (Karen Black) far away from Los Angeles. This new house in a generic suburban wasteland has a cursed mirror, which Megan claims as her own. At school, Megan is … Continue reading Mirror Mirror (1990)

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (dir. John McNaughton, 1986) Jean-Luc Godard said two things about cinema that have become standard quotations. Photography is truth, cinema is truth 24 times a second. All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl. The first when taken out of context is essentially as empty … Continue reading Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Halloween: Resurrection (dir. Rick Rosenthal, 2002) Three years after the events of the last film, Laurie Strode is in a psychiatric facility. As the two exposition spouting nurses and a series of sepia toned flashbacks inform us, Michael Myers swapped clothes with a paramedic, crushed his larynx to prevent him from speaking, threw the mask … Continue reading Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (dir. Steve Miner, 1998) You want to feel real terror? We are now as far removed from Halloween H20 as it was from the original 1978 film. Yeah, the inexorable march toward death that is the movement of one year to the next. The actors in the film have had … Continue reading Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (dir. Joe Chappelle, 1995) The Revenge of Michael Myers was a disappointment at the box office, grossing only about twice its budget. It was also much maligned by the critics, but that’s much less important that the reviewers would like to think. The producers still wanted a sequel, but … Continue reading Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (dir. Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1989) The Return of Michael Myers succeeded at the one task that defines all films: it made a profit at the box office. A sequel was greenlit almost immediately, and a script shat out soon after. Anticipating another bad sequel to a great film that … Continue reading Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)