When John Carpenter’s Halloween was released over forty years ago, the premise for the movie was pretty simple — a madman escapes from a mental health sanatorium, and on the way back to his hometown, he robs a hardware store, taking a $2 William Shatner mask as part of his loot, and proceeds to brutally murder three teens without remorse, mercy, or even a clear motive. Now four decades old, the franchise is ever expanding and has seen installments that range from being fairly badass to unforgivably bad. It has branched off into multiple timelines, a few reboots, featured a young Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle in The Curse of Michael Myers, and it even veers off at one point to feature a crazed mask maker who attempts to murder all the children in the world using mystical pieces of Stonehenge. While the quality of the overall franchise can be debated, there’s no denying the staying power that it still holds over the horror genre, especially its leading man — The Shape himself… Michael Myers.
Director David Gordon Green is currently in post-production on Halloween Ends, starring Jamie Lee Curtis in her final outing as Laurie Strode, which is due in theaters on October 14th. So what better time than now to reassess the first two installments in his Halloween trilogy — the aptly titled Halloween from 2018 and the middle chapter Halloween Kills from 2021. The franchise has more timelines than poor Marty McFly had to deal with in Back to the Future. Still, Gordon Green has focused on the events from the 1978 original, de-canonized some aspects of it, and brought back some legacy characters to battle the seemingly unstoppable monster that is Michael Myers one final time… well, until the next reboot that is. So grab a Shatner mask and crank up that John Carpenter synth score because you know it’s time for… FACE-OFF!
This episode of Face Off is written by Adam Walton, narrated by Shawn Knippelberg, and edited by Adam Walton. But don’t let us have the final word —tell us in the comments which slasher flick is your pick — Halloween (2018) or Halloween Kills?