The Halloween Franchise

GOOD THINGS - Just about everything - music, acting, Curtis, Pleasance, The Shape - One of the best told horror stories of all time. This is the reason why we're still here, watching the others. This is absolute perfection.

GOOD THINGS - Jamie Lee Curtis, The Shape returns - Actually displaying more understanding of the character than any of the other sequels, or movies. A perfect ending to the "trilogy" of H1-H2-H20. You don't really need the others. Very orchestral theme version, but really well used - Not overly gratuitous - The ending is worthy of the original.

BAD THINGS - Josh Hartnett, LL Cool J

GOOD THINGS - A direct sequel to the original; Pleasance, Curtis; The Shape is stilll threatening, the music is plastered on as thick as possible, but with music this great, who cares; provides some kind of "closure" to the original

BAD THINGS - The brother/sister thing, which even Carpenter hated - Starting off a wave of sequels, which recinded the endings of each subsequent movie - there didn't really need to be a sequel, did there? - Rather over the top kills, annoying characters

GOOD THINGS - some really good moments - Actually has a better understanding of "The Shape" than H2 - Danielle Harris - Very good theme variation - Pleasance - the final shot

BAD THINGS - slightly derivative; doesn't get out of the ending to H2 effectively - Myers stabbing someone with a rifle?!

GOOD THINGS - Some atmospheric shots; The opening

BAD THINGS - Totally hacked up storyline; little plot-sense; A terrible send-off for Donald Pleasance; Arguably the poorest version of the main theme ever; A rather low-energy cast; The whole cult concept

GOOD THINGS - Danielle Harris, some interesting ideas, A cool opening; Pleasance; Mental Tina ("I hate cats"...?)

BAD THINGS - A plotless runaround; The crappest mask in the franchise; No momentum; barely any Myers; No understanding of the character - This was shot without a finished script quickly, and cheaply, and it shows; A rather poor use of the theme music; Terribly annoying characters; A poor resolution

GOOD THINGS - The pre-credits scene

Bad Things - The Pre-Credits Scene; Everything else

GOOD THINGS - Some cool shots; The white horse idea; Danielle Harris; Malcolm McDowell - ONLY BETTER THAN THE FIRST ONE BECAUSE it's it's own movie, not trying to copy the original. It's the difference between *beep* and *beep* on your bed.

BAD THINGS - Horrendous characters, The Shape is barely used, and isn't even The Shape most of the time, moping around looking like a hobo rocker;The Shape roars whilst he kills people...?; Dr Loomis does not "love" Mike Myers - this again totally misses the point; Excessively violent; The theme music is used about once in the entire film; Laurie Strode; Rob Zombie; Terrible plot; None of this feels even vaguely like a Halloween movie.

GOOD THINGS - Malcolm MacDowell, The Music, Danielle HArris

BAD THINGS - The biggest travesty in the franchise - Rob Zombie takes over the original movie, and injects it with horrible, horrible people, gives Mike Myers a "bad childhood" - missing the point of "evil incarnate" - Overdoes the mask thing about a billion times too much, bulks Mike Myers up into a 7 foot tall superman, turns Laurie Strode into a mentally retarded slut, wallows in gore and sadism, writes like Quentin Tarrantino aged sixed, with a million swears a second, drags the ending out by about half an hour, has a rubbish ending stuck onto the end of the original ending, and has the cheek to use some of the original lines, as well as copying some scenes shot for shot. This is like letting some aggressive 2 year old watch Halloween, then telling him to go and write his own version of it. THis is the version for gore-seeking idiots who can't watch "old films", and need to have things endlessly "modernised" - Please note, this cost 50 times as much as the original did, and has not a thing to recommend it over the Carpenter version.