A historical summary of the most popular classic horror sagas of All Time! ‘Halloween”
By Tim Glanville
Halloween is a time for Dressing up in costumes, parties, group gatherings, pumpkin jack o lanterns and the traditional Horror movie marathon. Year after year it becomes a tradition and annual thing for many people to do on Halloween, watching Horror Movies. From Classics such as Phantom of the Opera, The wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, psycho and The Exorcise. They become a key aspect to the Holiday and meaning of Halloween. Today it’s a Tradition just beginning, with a new generation of Movie goers who see the classics that are frightening today as they were years ago.
One of the most popular horror classics of all time “Halloween” is surveyed to be the most watched horror movie series on Halloween. Beginning with the Release of the first Film in 1978 on Halloween of that year. Directed By Horror/ Sci Fi Producer John Carpenter, “Halloween” became an instant horror classic going on to gross the most money of any independent film ever. Staring Actress Jamie Lee Curtis and Veteran movie actor Donald Pleasance, the film had nothing but sure success for Horror. It lead to an Era of Slasher films that Rose in the 80’s. this Horror Genre was not seen since “Psycho”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, and “Black Christmas” all films that came out before “Halloween.” With all the success of the first film it was continued on with the sequel “Halloween 2” in 1981 that Became another Classic in the series. Although the most recognized Horror film of the year was “An American Werewolf in London” that won the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and an Academy Award for Makeup, “Halloween 2” still gained a lot of success. Unfortunately John Carpenter went on to do other films such as the thing and the Fog leaving the Michel Myers story abandon for almost 7 years. The series continued on with the release “Halloween 3 Season of the Witch” a year later. The Film became a negative impact on the movie series, having nothing to do with the story Line of the main Character Michael Myers. It brought Dislikes and Hates to Fans of “Halloween” and is not favored as the original movies. During the period of Halloweens absence, other horror films such as “Friday the 13th”, “creep show” and “A nightmare on Elm Street” were in the spotlight of Horror with their significant success and marks on Horror film. Keeping similar elements of horror they made some of the most well known Horror classics alongside “Halloween.” In 1988 John Carpenters collaborator Mustapha Akkad brought back to life Michael Myers and the series continued on again with the Story of the Psychopathic killer in ”Halloween 4 the Return of Michael Myers.” The film Reunited Actor Donald Pleasance as the only original actor in the movie series. The film went onto gross out 5 million overall at the box office ranking 5th in the series. The film got moderate critic feed back as there were some dislikes in the 4th film, but the film kept some original elements seen in the first two films that gained it success. With its mustered success, Akaka quickly worked on the 5th film “The Revenge of Michael Myers” that released a year later in 1989. The Film
Earned $5, 0093,485 in 1,495 theaters in The United States, but quickly fell from the box office with a mere 11,642,254 becoming one of the least successful “Halloween” films in the series. Most reviews to “Halloween 5” were good and bad, critics believed the rushed script, and irritating characters are the reason. The release of “Halloween 4” on video ran into the release of Halloween 5 in theaters confusing the viewers to understand the storyline of the sequels to the original film. The movie series continued on with “Halloween 6 The Curse of Michael Myers” that released on September 29, 1995. Bringing in $7,308,529 during the opening weekend gross, being the first film in the series to beat “Halloween 2’s” opening weekend gross. The film went on to gross a total of $15,116,634 at the U.S. box office. On February 2 1995 “Halloween’s” long time actor Donald Pleasence Died at the age of 75 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France hospital from complications after heart valve replacement surgery. The film was dedicated to him in honor of his acting career in the “Halloween” Films. His dedication is seen in the end of the film. With the success gained, the return of Jamie Lee Curtis brought “Halloween 7 H20” that came out two years later even more success. The film was indeed another classic becoming the second highest grossing film in the Halloween series, just behind Rob Zombie’s remake of the first film grossing over $21 million at the box office. In 2002 “Halloween 8 Resurrection” came out with extremely poor reception only grossing in $12,292,121. The two original films were remade by horror director Rob Zombie that were slightly successful, but did not surpass the original films. For almost 30 years the “Halloween” saga has changed horror as well as the industry of independent films forever. As for director John Carpenter a small budget film became a success beyond one man’s wildest dreams, unexpectedly connected the world to traditions and rituals of Halloween past and yet changed the holiday to what it is today. Forever people will know one movie when it comes to mind with horror and that’s “Halloween” and the man Michael Meyers.
