Robert Forto

31 Days of Horror

31 Nights of Horror 2021

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Scary Movies at the Fort Robert Forto

31 Nights of Horror 2020

This year we continued with our annual 31 Nights of Horror extravaganza. We decided that this would be the year of Michael Myers. We watched all of the Halloween movies in three separate timelines. This was the first time we ever did this and it was interesting to see the similarities and easter eggs in all of the films.

Be sure to follow us on our Facebook Page at Scary Movies at the Fort and on Twitter @robertforto 

Here is this year’s list:

  1. Halloween (1978)
  2. Halloween 2 (1981)
  3. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
  4. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
  5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
  6. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
  7. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
  8. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
  9. New Nightmare
  10. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
  11. Halloween: Resurrection 
  12. Halloween (2007)
  13. Halloween II (2008)
  14. Halloween (2018)
  15. Halloween Kills (2021)
  16. The Old Ways (2021) on Netflix
  17. Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
  18. TBA
  19. TBA
  20. TBA
  21. TBA
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  25. TBA
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  29. TBA
  30. TBA
  31. Carrie (1976)



 

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Horror Lovers Challenge: Favorite Alien-Related Horror Movie

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On the hunt for the best space horror movies? Then you’ve come to the right place.

In space, no one can hear you scream. That’s the tagline for Alien and a stone-cold fact because there is no sound in the vacuum of space. Unless, of course, you’re in a spaceship or on an alien planet. Those are just some of the settings for the very best space horror movies and we’ve picked out the true highlights of the genre.

Horror, particularly in space, is a tricky one to pin down as, often, it can feel more like a thriller than a true horror film, but these five movies are still bound to make you rather unsettled and very relieved that you’re not actually in space.

Read on while we guide you through these creepy, and sometimes gory, space horror movies, and if you’re a little too nervous to check them out.

1.  Alien – Best space horror movie

  • Release date: September 6, 1979
  • Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt

The space horror film that changed everything, Alien is a classic. Not just a classic space horror film but a generally gripping tale for all. It’s another one where a spaceship encounters an evil creature – the simply titled (at this point) alien.

Steadily working on taking out the seven member crew, there are many iconic moments that you may or may not already be aware of. We won’t spoil them but we will confidently tell you that Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, is a truly memorable hero amongst many other memorable performances including a certain film-stealing scene from John Hurt.

Much of Alien is about what you can’t see and the anticipation of what could be around the next corner, and it’s genuinely tense stuff. While many space horror films delve purely into gore or use special effects that soon become hideously dated, much of Alien is actually quite understated and subtle. It keeps you in a constant state of suspense, waiting to see just what could happen next.

Many Alien films followed (and we’re featuring another one here) but when it comes to the best Alien movie, you just can’t beat the original. Unless, of course, you watch Aliens.

Get Alien on Blu-ray at Amazon

2. Aliens – Best space action horror movie

  • Release date: July 18, 1986
  • Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen

Aliens is the best Alien movie! Or is it? A contentious battle, we have a sneaky feeling that both Alien and Aliens are joint-first in this competition with the big winner being you.

Aliens is a much faster-paced movie than its predecessor. Directed by James Cameron, coming hot off the heels of The Terminator, it has Ripley team up with a group of Colonial Marines to investigate a growing influx of aliens and, ultimately, work towards killing them all. A great supporting cast including Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton ensure that this is an ensemble piece with a bit more development-focused towards Ripley being a maternal figure.

At its heart though, Aliens is a much louder space horror film than Alien. Expect a lot more explosions and a lot more fighting, but with an undercurrent of fear, horror, and more than a few jump scares. Sure, it’s rarely subtle, almost capturing the spirit of most 1980s blockbusters, but what a ride it is.

Get Aliens on Blu-ray at Amazon

3. Event Horizon – Best space psychological horror movie

  • Release date: August 15, 1997
  • Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan

Poorly reviewed at the time, Event Horizon had a troubled production which makes it all the more fascinating. Ultimately though, it’s an incredibly gory and violent space horror film that is guaranteed to unsettle.

Following a crew of astronauts sent on a rescue mission to save another spaceship, things go from bad to worse when it turns out the ship – the Event Horizon – is a test bed for an experimental engine that’s opened a rift in the space-time continuum. It leads to some incredibly horrific monsters creeping into the regular world, a descent into madness for much of the crew, and for the ship itself to become possessed by evil spirits.

It’s a sometimes surreal film to watch but with a strong cast including Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Jason Isaacs, and Joely Richardson, it just about veers away from being too cheesy. Some of the violence is hard to watch including eye gouging, vivisection and some sexual violence, but if you have a strong stomach, it’s a gripping take on space horror as we watch a spaceship turn into a vision of Hell.

Get Event Horizon on Blu-ray at Amazon

4. Pitch Black – Best space survival horror movie

  • Release date: February 18, 2000
  • Cast: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David

The movie that propelled Vin Diesel to stardom, and a seemingly never ending number of Fast & Furious films, Pitch Black isn’t necessarily a great picture but it’s one that’s acquired a cult following over the years for good reasons.

It follows the story of Riddick, a dangerous criminal, transported to prison via spacecraft. Along the way, the vehicle is damaged by comet debris and is forced to make an emergency landing on a seemingly empty desert planet. It’s not empty, of course. Instead, vicious alien creatures begin attacking the survivors of the crash and they find themselves having to rely on Riddick’s violent talents to survive.

As the name suggests, darkness is a key element of Pitch Black. The creatures only come out at night to kill and, luckily, Riddick has surgically modified vision which means he can cope with the dark but not the daylight. That explains both why Riddick is worth sticking with during this escapade and why Vin Diesel looks so cool wearing shades at all times. They’re not just for his looks but because he requires them to avoid a nasty migraine!

It’s not the smartest of movies but Pitch Black is a lot of fun and still likely to make you jump a few times.

Get Pitch Black on Blu-ray at Amazon

5.  Sunshine – best space thriller

  • Release date: July 20, 2007
  • Cast: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans

Potentially more a thriller than a traditional space horror movie, Sunshine still has its moments of horror, particularly later on in the somewhat bleak tale.

Set 35 years in the future, the sun is dying and it’s down to a group of astronauts to attempt to reignite it. Obviously, that was never going to be a smooth mission. With the team under a huge amount of stress, much of the horror stems from their gradual mental decline as well as moments of philosophy and spirituality. It’s a thinking person’s space horror then but there’s still room for some fairly nasty moments as well as a few cares you won’t have seen coming.

While the death of the sun isn’t particularly realistic here, there’s a wise message in there too about threats against humanity relating to climate change. At least until things turn more into traditional slasher horror territory. Still, it’s an intriguing watch and a genuinely different take on the conventional space horror genre.

Get Sunshine on Blu-ray at Amazon

Horror Lovers Challenge: Creepiest Dead Body

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POLTERGEIST (1982)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Zelda Rubinstein
Poltergeist’s climactic backyard splashdown is a masterwork of horror intensity. Actress JoBeth Williams, fleeing from a house overrun by demons, tumbles through a rainstorm into a hole dug for an impending pool. As Williams wails and flails, skeletons continually pop up from the mud all around her in a nonstop onslaught of terror.
By any circumstances, that’s scary. Now consider that the skeletons had actually once been inside of living human beings. According to JoBeth Williams herself:
“In my naivete, I assumed these were not real skeletons, I assumed that they were prop skeletons, you know, made out of plastic or rubber or something. But the skeletons were not synthetic. I found out from the crew that they were using real skeletons, because it’s far too expensive to make skeletons out of rubber and stuff. And I think everybody got very creeped out by the idea of that.”
Bruce Kasson, who worked as Assistant Prop Master on Poltergeist, confirms the claim, stating:
“Yes, the skeletons were real. They came from Carolina Biological. Replica skeletons did not exist, as far as I remember, at that time They’re now common and relatively cheap. And the rush to the bottom line for cost will dictate.” [Blumhouse]
DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)
Director: George Romero
Cast: David Emgee, Ken Foree, Galen Ross
Dawn of the Dead, George Romero’s landmark zombie apocalypse epic, showcases makeup and special effects by Tom Savini that elevate the art form to new heights of gross-out greatness.
On one of the props, though, Savini had some help from Mother Nature. He unwittingly worked with a bona fide skeleton that appears early on, sitting up in the hall of an apartment complex, wrapped in a sort of hooded sheet.
Savini had borrowed the skeleton from a prop collector named Larry Winterstellar, who wasn’t sure where it came from. Afterward, Winterstellar sold the bones to Marilyn Wick, owner of a shop called Costume World. Once there, the skeleton sat in the front window as a decoration.
While dropping by Costume World one day, a police officer noticed the skeleton and thought it looked too convincing. He turned out to be right. A coroner determined the skeleton belonged to an unidentified 35-year-old woman, and she had died about 100 years prior to her movie debut.
In 1982, a judge ordered the remains to be properly buried in a cemetery. The woman was laid to rest in an unmarked grave until 2014, when fans of the film raised money to buy her a proper headstone. Costume World proprietor Wick donated the bulk of the money.
Today, the mystery woman is properly laid to rest under a marker with a name given to her by DOTD devotees: Dawn Doe. [Dread Central]
MEN BEHIND THE SUN (1988)
Director: Tung Fei Mous
Cast: Jianxin Chen, Shu Gou, Linjie Hao
Inspired by the all-too-horribly-true World War II atrocities committed by Japan’s General Shirō Ishii, Men Behind the Sun is a largely unwatchable cavalcade of human cruelty.
Chinese writer-director Tung Fei Mous has said he created the film to bring awareness to the crimes committed against his imprisoned countrymen (and women and children) as part of the sick and horrific biological warfare experiments undertaken and overseen by Ishii in the notorious “Unit 731.”
Boasting convincing visual effects too heartbreaking and stomach-emptying to even describe, Men Behind the Sun goes beyond fake blood and rubber guts. For a scene where a young boy is anesthetized and has his organs removed while alive, Mou uses footage of an actual child’s autopsy. Yes, you read that right. [Birth. Movies. Death]
BEYOND THE DARKNESS (1979)
Director: Joe D’Amato
Cast: Kieran Canter, Cinza Monreale, Franca Stoppi
Over the course of an almost impossibly prolific exploitation flick career, Italian splatter-horror guru Joe D’Amato churned out some of the most insane, explicit, and gloriously over-the-top outrages to ever stain movie screens blood-red.
Beyond the Darkness (BTD) is brutal and berserk even by standards befitting the filmmaker who also brought us Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980), and Porno Holocaust (1981).
BTD, which played in America as Buried Alive, chronicles a mad taxidermist who digs up his fiancée’s corpse and attempts to resurrect her via home surgery. It doesn’t work, but we do witness him torturing, dismembering, and cannibalizing other victims in the process.
As noted, Beyond the Darkness immediately stood out upon arrival and then became legendary once rumors swirled that D’Amato illegally obtained human corpses and used them for the movie’s rambunctiously repulsive gore segments. A new extras-packed BTD Blu-ray explores the film’s frantic history in full. Don’t miss it — if you dare. [Severin Films]
UNREST (2006)
Director: Jason Todd Ipson
Cast: Corri English, Scot Davis, Joshua Alba
Unrest is an unsettling horror thriller centered on a dead body in a hospital morgue that seems to curse anyone with whom it comes in contact.
The movie’s atmosphere feels uncannily true-to-life (and death) and, in terms of jolts, autopsy imagery abounds. The former might be chalked up to writer-director Jason Todd Ipson being an actual medical doctor and a formerly practicing surgeon. The latter proves especially effective because Ipson incorporates film footage of legitimate post-mortem medical examinations.
When asked about the use of real human remains, Ipson said:
“I absolutely will not deny that, but I absolutely cannot verify it … Prosthetics are make-believe. I want people to really understand human anatomy and what death means … What we did was very respectful of the dead and their spirits.”
Ipson went on to make the comedy Everybody Wants to Be Italian (2007). In keeping with his commitment to authenticity, that film contains the use of some actual Italians. [Skewed and Reviewed]

20 Surprising Halloween Facts

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Do you consider yourself a creepy connoisseur? Think that you know everything there is to know about ghouls, ghosts, and gremlins? Are you the ultimate Halloween trivia fanatic?

Halloween is shrouded in mystery. Even the most devilishly devout fans don’t know every fact and facet of the magic of October 31.

Don’t fret! We’re here to help you out. Here are 20 spooky and surprising tidbits that you didn’t know about this frightfully fun holiday. Don’t worry, these Halloween facts aren’t boo-gus.

1. Early trick-or-treaters had to dance for candy.

Yep, that’s right. Many experts have traced this treat-seeking practice back to the early European practice of “mumming.” This is where costume-clad candy-goers would perform dances, songs, and plays in exchange for goodies.

2. They’re watching you.

Legend has it that if you spy a spider on Halloween, a loved one is watching over you from beyond the grave.

3. Halloween used to be a time for romance.

Take a seat, Tinder. In certain areas of Ireland, singles celebrated the holiday by playing a romantic fortune-telling game that predicted who they would marry. Some autumn activities, including bobbing for apples, were originally intended to help a woman find a husband.

4. Michael Myers’ mask is actually a Star Trek mask.

The 1978 classic horror flick, Halloween, was filmed on such a shoestring budget that the crew used a $2 Captain James Kirk mask. To make it more sinister, they reshaped the eyeholes and painted it white

5. Samhainphobia is the pathological fear of this ghoulish holiday.

Does the thought of Halloween make you cringe? You may suffer from this phobia. Samhainphobia is actually a medical term for the fear of Halloween!

6. Black cats are harder to adopt close to Halloween.

Some animal shelters won’t let anybody adopt black cats around the end of October because they’re afraid the felines will be sacrificed.

7. Are you going batty?

These winged mammals have a special connection to Halloween. In addition to being a witch’s favorite pet, bats were attracted to the bonfires the ancient Celtics created when celebrating October 31.

8. The world’s largest pumpkin tipped the scale at a hefty 2,528 pounds.

A New Hampshire man named Steve Geddes won a $6,000 prize for the giant gourd at the Deerfield Fair.

9. The term “witch” actually means “wise woman” in Old English.

If somebody ever refers to you as “witchy,” don’t forget to thank them! They’re saying that you’re super smart.

10. It’s illegal to sell or use Silly String in Hollywood on Halloween.

If caught with this prank product, it could cost you up to $1,000 in legal fines.

11. Mischief Night is really a thing.

Also known as Devil’s Night, it’s an informal holiday falling on the night before Halloween where pranksters engage in mischievous acts.

12. Chocolate candy takes the cake.

According to a 2019 survey, half of trick-or-treaters prefer a chocolate treat over any other type of Halloween candy. Six percent would accept gum. Obviously, toothbrushes don’t make the list.

13. Early Halloween costumes involved dead animal heads.

During the earliest Halloween celebrations, partygoers donned dead animal heads and skins. These pelts were considered the first type of Halloween costumes. Yuck.

14. Halloween is really old.

In fact, Halloween is more than 2,000 years old!The holiday can be traced back to the times of the ancient Celts and is rooted in their festival of Samhain.

15. There’s a Guinness World Record for fastest pumpkin carving.

How fast? A mere 16.47 seconds. The speedy carving was done by Stephen Clark of New York in 2013.

16. Houdini died on Halloween.

The famous illusionist Harry Houdini died on October 31, 1926. Since then, an annual séance has been held with the hopes of making contact with him on the other side. Houdini had even given a code word to his wife before his death and told her he’d use it if his ghost ever returned.

17. The word “bonfire” has a horrific history.

Halloween is the perfect night to have a bonfire. However, this word has a horrific history. Derived from the phrase “bone fire,” bonfires originated during Samhain when priests would toss cattle bones into burning flames.

18. 17 percent of people in the U.S. dress their pet up for Halloween.

Looking for a great Halloween costume for your pooch? Spirit Halloween has a ton of cute pet costumes!

19. Halloween helped give us more daylight hours.

Halloween supposedly played a role in extending Daylight Savings Time so kids could collect even more candy during daylight hours.

20. Americans spent about $8.8 billion on Halloween last year.

How much individuals spend on Halloween has grown by about 80% since 2005.

Now that you know all of these fun facts, go show off your Halloween trivia skills to your friends and family!

Halloween: The complete timeline and how to watch the horror series in full

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Your comprehensive guide to all eleven Halloween movies.

It’s October, which can only mean one thing: Halloween is coming. Not to mention Halloween movies and our annual 31 Nights of Horror.

Yep, a whopping 40+ years after John Carpenter’s original Halloween movie wrote the slasher rulebook, we’re back for one last round of trick-or-treating.

But with 12 (TWELVE) movies in the Halloween franchise and not all of them actually following on from one another, how the hell do you watch them? (Just to give you a flavor of the problem, the writers of the newest sequel informally called their version “Halloween II 3“.)

You’ll want to start at the beginning, which means starting with Halloween (1978), of course. Or Halloween (2007). Um, or Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). Click on the links to skip to the right place in our Choose Your Own Adventure-style timeline. Here we go…

START HERE: Halloween (1978)

(Director: John Carpenter. Writers: John Carpenter and Debra Hill. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Nick Castle and PJ Soles)

Back in 1963, young Michael Myers violently stabs his sister Judith to death. After 15 years in hospital, he escapes, despite the best efforts of his childhood psychiatrist Dr Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence).

Myers kills a mechanic, nicks his uniform and a creepy white mask, and, what with it being Halloween, decides to stalk high schooler Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). He gruesomely offs her friends one by one before his final* confrontation with Laurie and Loomis.

(*Not actually final.)

Halloween II (1981)

(Director: Rick Rosenthal. Writers: John Carpenter and Debra Hill. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Dick Myers)

Despite being stabbed every which way and even being shot off a balcony, Michael Myers survives the events of Halloween and goes after Laurie once more, killing oodles of people in the meantime to keep busy.

Meanwhile, Loomis finds out the secret connection between Michael and Laurie, before seemingly sacrificing himself to put an end to Myers’s reign of terror.

INTERLUDE

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

(Director: Tommy Lee Wallace. Writer: Tommy Lee Wallace. Starring: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy)

The only movie in the Halloween franchise that has nothing to do with Michael Myers. After the story ended with Halloween II, the idea was to keep the name but introduce annual standalone films.

First up (and last up) was Season of the Witch. Its original script was written by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale and suitably mixes up a quirky dose of 1980s sci-fi with Celtic witchy chills for a throw-everything-at-the-kitchen-sink-including-yes-robots approach.

Halloween III is so out-of-universe it even features a character watching a trailer for Halloween, and the lack of Michael Myers annoyed everyone so much that they canned the whole anthology idea.

END OF INTERLUDE

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

(Director: Dwight H. Little. Writer: Alan B McElroy. Starring: Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, George P Wilbur)

After the flop that was Halloween III, a lesson was learned. No Michael Myers, No Halloween. So Michael Myers is back and they’re even yelling about it in the title.

It turns out that Michael didn’t die at the end of Halloween II, and neither did Loomis. Jamie Lee Curtis was off doing hit comedies though, so the only main character who had supposedly actually survived is unceremoniously killed off in an off-screen car crash.

After ten years in a coma, Michael Myers returns and this time he’s on the hunt for Laurie’s previously-unmentioned daughter (and his niece) Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), who grew up with a foster family.

Michael goes on a killing spree once more, and this time the entire city rises up in an attempt to stop him. Myers is eventually killed* (*he isn’t), but there’s a twist ending that suggests his legacy is far from over.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

(Director: Dominique Othenin-Girard. Writers: Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othenin-Girard and Shem Bitterman. Starring: Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, Don Shanks)

Despite the whole being-shot-down a-mineshaft thing, it turns out that Michael Myers is still alive. He slips into another coma before waking up for, you guessed it, another killing spree, while being stalked by Loomis, who just refuses to give this one up.

After the events of the last movie, Jamie (Laurie’s daughter, Michael’s niece) is now mute as a result of all that unpleasantness but has somehow forged a psychic link with Myers. On regaining her wherewithal, she teams up with Loomis to lure Michael and put him away for good*.

(*Not actually for good.)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

(Director: Joe Chappelle. Writer: Daniel Farrands. Starring: Donald Pleasence, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan, Devin Gardner, J.C. Brandy, George P Wilbur)

For the last* movie in the series (*not the last movie) Danielle Harris left as Jamie, being recast by JC Brandy. Donald Pleasence does return though as Dr Sam Loomis for the last time, in one of his final films.

Meanwhile Paul Rudd (yes, that Paul Rudd), stars as Tommy Doyle, who first appeared in Halloween, then popped up in Halloween II (and a tiny bit of Halloween 4). Tommy was one of the kids Laurie Strode babysat. Now in his mid-20s, he takes Jamie’s baby into his care after her grisly demise and tries to protect the Strode brood from Michael Myers’s evil machinations.

Oh, and Michael’s six-film reign of terror? It turns out it’s all because of the mysterious “Curse of Thorn”, and that Myers is himself a victim of a Druid cult. Okay.

Beset by constant on-set script changes and hefty reshoots after troubled test screenings (including a completely re-shot ending), the film has a reputation for being a bit of a bloody mess in every way. The screenplay pretty much went through a corn thresher, and so did the rushes.

Like the Cult of Thorn itself, the film does still have its devoted acolytes, and their lobbying saw the eventual release of the so-called ‘Producer’s Cut’, which restores that original creepy ending and some other bits and bobs.

END OF THIS TIMELINE (Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween 4, Halloween 5, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers)

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

(Director: Steve Miner. Writers: Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Durand, Michelle Williams, Josh Hartnett)

Jamie Lee Curtis is back as Laurie Strode, 20 years later. But didn’t she get killed off before Halloween 4? Okay, it turns out that Halloween 4, 5 and 6 didn’t happen. Surprise! This timeline pretends that they just never existed.

H20 is instead a direct sequel to Halloween II, and although it sort-of acknowledges Laurie’s car crash “death” from Halloween 4, it turns out she faked it and is now living as headteacher Keri Tate.

Meanwhile, the late Sam Loomis’s assistant Marion Chambers is killed by… you guessed it, a returning Michael Myers. He’s on another of those darn killing sprees, before he and Laurie Strode come mask-to-face for the first time in two decades, and Myers is finally killed*.

(*He isn’t.)

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

(Director: Rick Rosenthal. Writers: Larry Brand and Sean Hood. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kakilich, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tyra Banks, Brad Loree)

H20 revived the franchise and gave it the perfect ending, but a victim of its own success, it spawned another direct sequel. Jamie Lee Curtis was cajoled back to play Laurie Strode one last time, with the character being killed off for good* this time early on (*she isn’t).

It turns out that Laurie didn’t actually kill Michael last time around, but instead a hapless medic with whom he’d swapped clothes. Doh! Faking a catatonic state, she eventually has a final confrontation with Michael, with Myers getting the better of her as she hesitates.

A year on, a bunch of college students enter reality TV show Dangertainment… they have to spend a night in Michael Myers’s old home for the sake of web-based telly lolz, and you can guess how well that ends up.

END OF THIS TIMELINE (Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween H20, Halloween: Resurrection)

INTERLUDE

Halloween (2007)

(Director: Rob Zombie. Writer: Rob Zombie. Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Sheri Moon Zombie, Danielle Harris, Brad Dourif, Tyler Mane)

Despite plans for a straightforward Halloween 8 (or should that be Halloween 5 II?) following on from Resurrection, things took a leftward turn.

The very first Halloween was instead remade/rebooted by heavy metal thrasher Rob Zombie with Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode and A Clockwork Orange‘s Malcolm McDowell as Dr Sam Loomis.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween more or less follows the template of the original movie, though it fleshes things out a bit (in more ways than one) by having much more focus on Myers’s original murderous antics as a child.

Although the film takes place in a completely different universe to the Carpenter original and all its sequels, Danielle Harris returns, but this time playing Laurie’s pal Annie rather than her daughter Jamie.

Halloween II (2009)

(Director: Rob Zombie. Writer: Rob Zombie. Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Sheri Moon Zombie, Danielle Harris, Brad Dourif, Tyler Mane)

With Zombie’s Halloween being a massive commercial (if not critical) success, a sequel was inevitable.

Set two years on from its predecessor, we find out that Laurie is battling psychological problems, Dr Loomis is writing books about all this palaver, and Michael is somehow still alive.

As per, Laurie and Michael end up on a collision course, and as usual, despite Laurie’s seeming victory there’s a twist in the tale.

END OF THIS TIMELINE (Halloween (2007), Halloween II (2009)) AND END OF INTERLUDE

Halloween (2018)

(Director: David Gordon Green. Writers: Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Virginia Gardner, Nick Castle)

Jamie Lee Curtis is back as Laurie Strode, 40 years later. But didn’t she die in Halloween: Resurrection?

Okay, it turns out that Halloween: Resurrection didn’t happen. And nor did Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Or Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Or Halloween 4, 5 or 6. Or the Rob Zombie remakes. Or even Halloween II. Surprise!

After plans for a sequel to Halloween II (2009) (called Halloween 3D) and/or Halloween II (1981) (called Halloween Returns) fell through, the new Halloween, aka Halloween (2018), picks up exactly where Halloween (1978) left off, sort of.

“We’re kind of ignoring all the films past the first one,” said writer Danny McBride. “It picks up after the first one, but it’s sort of an alternate reality. It’s as if the first Halloween ended in a slightly different way.”

Intriguing…

Anyway, John Carpenter’s back as a composer, executive producer, and creative consultant in the Blumhouse production, and Nick Castle is back as The Shape/Mike Myers for the first time since the original movie, too.

Halloween: (2021) is released on October 13, 2021

END OF SERIES* (*WE’LL SEE…)

So, what do you think of this list? Did you make it all the way through? Please let us know in the comments and if you will, head over to our Scary Movies at the Fort Facebook page for more information and to see what we are watching during this year’s #31NightsofHorror