The Twelve Days of Halloween - The 8th Day: Halloween

For more than three decades, there have been a slew of slasher movies. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Halloween is regarded by many as the defining film that started America's love affair with the butcher knife-wielding mass murderer.  

For those who might not be aware, Halloween is the story of Michael Meyers. As a child, he murders his sister and is sent away to a mental institution, where he is locked away for 15 years, until he escapes. Dr. Sam Loomis is hot on his heels, though not quick enough to stem the tide of slaughter left in Michael’s wake. Hell-bent on murdering everyone in his blood line, Michael has set his unholy gaze on his sister, Laurie Strode, born after his incarceration and currently living with her adoptive family.

This gem contains pretty much every horror movie cliché you can imagine, the beauty of it being it was released before these things became clichés. If you ever watched Scream, and are familiar with the "rules of horror movies," this is where they all began. People die after sex; people die doing drugs; people die naked and/or in their underwear; people die after going outside to investigate that strange noise; etc.

The movie goes on, people scream, people die, etc. What I really liked about this movie, though, was the cinematography and the eerie vibe the silent psycho, Michael Meyers, gives off as he stalks his victims. There are scenes in which you see Michael standing in the background, slightly out of focus, as Laurie goes on with her day-to-day life. The way he walks, slowly, stiffly, and his mechanical method of plunging his knife in and out of his victims repeatedly, really pushes the idea his mind is not like a normal person's (well, that and the serial killing .. ahem).

If you like the original Halloween and haven't gotten your fill of Mikey, you're in luck; there are nine other movies in this franchise. The second movie picks up immediately where the first movie left off and is definitely worth watching. After these first two, though, John Carpenter has no direct involvement in the franchise, and it's up to debate as to whether or not the rest of the movies are worth watching. Nowhere is this more evident than in Halloween lll: Season of the Witch. Michael Meyers isn't even in it. It tells the story of Dr. Challis, who is investigating the murder of a patient at his hospital. To make a long story short, this movie has no real connection to any of the preceding or succeeding movies at all, and that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, if it wasn't so stupid. The original Halloween story does pick up in part lV, though, and concludes (or does it?) in Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, in which Busta Rhymes and some nobody actress electrocute Michael Meyers at the end of the movie. As of yet, dear Mike hasn't gotten up. However, given his past track record, I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

If after all nine movies in which Michael Meyers hacks and slashes his way through his relatives, the unlucky teens of Haddonfield, and/or their descendants, haven't given you your fill, you're in luck. In 2007, Rob Zombie directed a remake of the original Halloween and, in 2009, gave us a sequel. So, all in all, there are 12 movies in the Halloween franchise. However, you will get more out of the first two than you will out of the next 10, with the exception of the remakes, which stand alone and are quite good in and of themselves. I do suggest if you watch the remakes, WATCH THE ORIGINALS FIRST!