Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,603
edits
Halloween (film): Difference between revisions
m
Copyedit (minor)
m (update links) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (Copyedit (minor)) |
||
| (21 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work|wppage=Halloween (franchise)}}
{{cleanup|Tropes that apply only to one movie in the franchise need to be moved to pages for the individual movies.}}
[[File:halloween-1978-poster.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''"These eyes will deceive you. They will destroy you. They will take from you your innocence, your pride, and...eventually...your soul. These eyes do not see what you and I see. Behind these eyes, one finds only blackness, the absence of light. These are the eyes...of a psychopath."''|'''Dr. Samuel Loomis''', ''Halloween'' (2007)}}
Line 5 ⟶ 6:
''If you came to this page looking for the actual holiday, please proceed to [[All Hallow's Eve]].''
In 1978, [[John Carpenter]] made '''''Halloween''''', a low-budget independent horror film. The success of this film popularized the [[Slasher
The series starts with the first two films:
Line 14 ⟶ 15:
Carpenter followed those films with:
* '''''[[Halloween III:
From there, the films go off into a couple of different continuities. First, we have the three direct sequels:
Line 32 ⟶ 33:
* '''''Rob Zombie's Halloween II'' (2009):''' On the night of the previous film, the body of Michael Myers -- who had been shot point-blank in the face -- disappears ''en route'' to the morgue. One year later, Laurie Strode continues to struggle with nightmares about Michael, Dr. Loomis attempts to spin his experiences with Michael into fame and fortune, and the still-alive Michael returns to finish what he started...
Ultimately, Blumhouse Productions and writer-director David Gordon Green decided to revive the series with sequels that only acknowledged the first movie as canon.
----▼
* '''''Halloween'' (2018):''' 40 years have passed. A traumatized Laurie Strode spent all this time preparing for the possibility of Michael Myers returning, even if he was kept locked away in a mental institution. And once the bus transferring Michael crashes on October 30, he is set to return home for the holidays...
* '''''Halloween Kills'' (2021):''' On the night of the previous film, Michael Myers was left inside the Strode basement as the house burned. Firemen arrive to put out the fire and accidentally let him out, enabling Michael to continue his killing spree.
* '''''Halloween Ends'' (2022):''' Michael Myers hasn't been seen in four years, and Laurie has moved on with her life. But her granddaughter Allyson starts dating Corey Cunningham, a young man with a checkered past of his own, and who ultimately finds Michael's hiding place to set up the Shape's return.
▲----
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Abandoned Hospital]]: The hospital from the second film is conspicuously empty, with Laurie and some babies being the only patients that are seen. Likewise, in ''Resurrection'' the mental hospital where Laurie is being held seems pretty understaffed, with only two guards seen.
* [[Accidental Murder]]:
Line 42 ⟶ 48:
** Laurie seemingly kills Michael by chopping his head off with an axe in ''H20'', only for the sequel to reveal that Laurie actually killed a paramedic whose larynx Michael had crushed before knocking him out and switching clothes with him.
** In the remake Patty tries to blast Michael with a shotgun during his escape from Smith's Grove. Michael grabs an earlier downed guard and uses him as shield.
* [[Acoustic License]]: In ''Halloween Resurrection'', Sara is in a college classroom in the beginning. When the professor asks a question, and she answers, her voice is barely higher than a whisper, yet the professor hears her clearly and responds.
* [[Action Girl]]: Laurie in ''H20''.
* [[The Adjectival Man]]: Before any of the characters knew Michael Myers' name, they simply referred to him as "The Boogeyman".
* [[All Hallow's Eve]]: Speaks for itself.
* [[All Just a Dream]]: The entire beginning of the ''Halloween II'' remake.
Line 52 ⟶ 58:
* [[An Axe to Grind]]: Michael uses one in ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' and Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II''.
* [[And Starring]]: ''H20'' had "introducing Josh Hartnett". He has done quite well for himself ever since.
** ''Resurrection'' has two "and" credits — One for Tyra Banks and one for Jamie Lee Curtis.
* [[Asshole Victim]]: John Strode and Barry Simms in ''The Curse of Michael Myers'', and a number of people in the remakes.
* [[Autobots Rock Out]]: In ''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers'', several of Carpenter's themes from the original are remade on the electric guitar.
* [[Axe Before Entering]]: Michael Myers likes this trope.
* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Dr. Loomis in every appearance he makes. This guy took so many ass-kickings from Michael and still came back for more.
** [[Donald Pleasence]] in real life. According to the writer of ''Halloween 4'', he did most of his own stunts in the film. He did all this while pushing 70!
*** In addition to that, he also survived a plane crash and torture in a POW camp during [[World War II]].
* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: At the beginning of ''Resurrection'', Michael finally manages to kill Laurie.
* [[Battle Amongst the Flames]]: The ending of ''Halloween: Resurrection''.
* [[Bedlam House]]: The mental institution in Rob Zombie's ''Halloween'' remake. Michael Myers is kept chained at all times, his wardens degrade and insult him on a daily basis, and he is beaten at night. Even if he ''was'' a mentally stable individual, that sort of treatment would turn ''anybody'' into a [[Complete Monster]].
** Not to mention the female inmate that the orderlies gang-rape in front of him.
* [[Bedsheet Ghost]]: Michael kills Lynda while dressed as one in the original and the remake.
* [[Berserk Button]]: In the remakes, don't tease Michael Myers about how his mom is a pole dancer.
* [[Big No]]: Loomis has the biggest no of history in ''4''.
* [[Big Brother Instinct|Big Sister Instinct]]: Laurie to Tommy and Lindsey in the first movie; Rachel to Jamie Lloyd in the fourth movie.
* [[Billing Displacement]]: The original film had Donald Pleasence billed ahead of then-unknown Jamie Lee Curtis. By the time of ''Halloween II'' three years later, Curtis was enough of a star for them to employ diagonal billing.
* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: Averted in ''Resurrection''. Freddie, played by Busta Rhymes, is the only person (besides the [[Final Girl]], of course) to survive the movie. And the one who ''is'' killed isn't the first victim.
Line 78 ⟶ 84:
*** Except for the two victims killed while completely naked.
* [[Bloody Handprint]]: In ''H20'', Laurie leaves a bloody handprint on the door of a closet, tricking Michael Myers into thinking she was hiding inside.
* [[Book Ends]]: The ending of ''Halloween 4'' '''would''' have applied this to the entire series, had the film bombed and no more
** The theatrical cut of Zombie's ''2'' ends with
* [[Bottle Episode|Bottle Movie]]: Most of the movies take place over October 30/31.
* [[Break the Cutie]] [[Kill the Cutie|(and subsequently kill)]] [[Break the Cutie|the Cutie]]: Jamie Lloyd and remake Annie. Both happen to be played by Danielle Harris.
Line 85 ⟶ 91:
* [[Buried Alive]]: Michael kills Lisa this way in the comic ''Halloween: Nightdance''
* [[Camping a Crapper]]: Averted in ''Halloween: H20''. A woman and her daughter go to a public bathroom and Michael Myers follows them in. After a tense scene in which the audience assumes he is going to kill them, he ends up stealing the woman's car keys instead.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: ''Halloween: H20'', the seventh film in the franchise, completely ignores the fourth, fifth, and sixth films.
** The third film may or may not be ignored as well, considering that it has nothing to do the Michael Myers plot of the other movies.
* [[Car Fu]]: In ''Halloween: The Return of Michael Myers'', Rachel uses her car to run Michael Myers over. But since Michael is Michael, it doesn't faze him in the slightest.
** Also, in ''H20'', Laurie hijacks an ambulance van with Michael in it, and runs it off a cliff in order to kill Michael once and for all.
** He also tries to run down Jamie, Billy, and Tina in ''Halloween: The Revenge of Michael Myers'', and in ''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers'', runs Jamie off the road.
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Dr Loomis' entire career in regards to Michael is this. No one ever listens to his warnings about the danger Michael poses to society...even after the dead bodies start piling up.
* [[Cat Scare]]: In the first film, there's a scene where Loomis and Brackett are exploring the abandoned Myers house and a broken gutter suddenly crashes through a window, causing a startled Loomis to whip out a handgun.
** In ''Halloween II'', a bumbling security guard stumbles around outside the hospital checking for a disturbance. He gets startled by a spring-loaded cat, sighs and relaxes. Three guesses who he encounters next...
* [[Caught in a Snare]]: Laurie has a snare trap set for Michael in ''H20''.
* [[Character Development]]: Laurie goes from shy wallflower to action girl between ''Halloween II'' (1981) and ''H20'' (1998).
* [[Chase Scene]]: Lot of chasing will happen when Michael Myers makes himself properly known.
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Ben Tramer, the boy that Laurie has a crush on, is briefly mentioned in the first movie [[The Ghost|but never seen]]. In the second movie,
* [[Clean Cut]]: Michael is quite fond of this trope.
* [[Clothes Make the Legend]]: Michael's mask and boiler suit.
Line 105 ⟶ 111:
** Tommy Doyle in Halloween 6, still traumatized by the events of the first Halloween.
* [[Continuity Reboot]]: Twice. ''H20'' was a partial continuity reboot, ignoring ''Halloween''s 4-6. Rob Zombie's 2007 film was a remake, ignoring all previous films.
** H20 is more
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Conal Cochran of ''Season of the Witch''.
* [[Cut Phone Lines]]: Michael does this in practically every ''Halloween'' movie.
** In ''The Return of Michael Myers'', Michael doesn't just cut the phone lines of his victim's house. He cuts the phone lines ''and'' causes a blackout in ''the entire town''.
* [[Cry for the Devil]]: Remakes.
* [[Daylight Horror]]: Michael Myers stalks Laurie Strode and her friends through the sunny, idyllic streets of Haddonfield in the middle of the day.
* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: Michael Myers is savvy of a genre ''[[Unbuilt Trope|he helped to create]]''.
* [[Danger Takes a Backseat]]: How Annie gets killed in the first film.
** Michael pulls this off by clinging to bottom of a pickup truck in ''The Return of Michael Myers''.
** Also, Barry's death in ''The Curse of Michael Myers''.
* [[Death by Mocking]]: Anybody who mocks Michael Myers in the ''Halloween'' remake doesn't last very long.
Line 119 ⟶ 125:
* [[Decoy Protagonist]]: In ''Halloween 5'' {{spoiler|it looks like Rachel is going to reprise her role as the [[Final Girl]], but ends up getting killed twenty minutes in}}.
* [[Determinator]]: Michael spent fifteen years in a mental hospital, waiting for a chance to escape so that he could kill his sister. When he failed in killing her, he then spent the next ten years massacring everybody related to her. Then, depending on which canon you follow, he spent 10-20 years searching for his sister again.
* [[Developing Doomed Characters]]: While the earlier ''Halloween'' movies aren't so bad, the later ones revolve around the typically unlikable, rebellious teens with
** This is especially prevalent in the Rob Zombie remakes where practically every character is a mean, brainless [[Jerkass]] who's scenes revolve around how awful they are. It seems to be Zombie's way of making the viewer sympathize with Myers, but it makes the scenes with any character who isn't Myers downright painful to watch.
* [[Does Not Like Shoes]]: In "Halloween II", Laurie is barefoot but justified since she had been admitted to the hospital.
* [[Don't Go in The Woods]]: ''Revenge of Michael Myers'' ends with Michael Myers chasing the protagonists into an eerie, foggy woodlands with a car. When he crashes the car, he gets out completely unscathed and proceeds to stalk the victims through the forest with a butcher knife.
* [[Dramatic Irony]]: Virtually the entire first film, and much of the later ones, is simply "Hey! There he is in the background! And the characters can't see him! [[Oh Crap|Crap!]]"
Line 132 ⟶ 138:
* [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]: "It's time, Michael..."
* [[Dysfunctional Family]]: Zombie's remake has Michael growing up on one of these.
* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The first movie is actually a fairly subtle [[Psychological Horror]] movie with relatively little blood and gore, and it frequently employs [[Nothing Is Scarier]]. It arguably has more in common with ''[[Psycho]]'' than with movies like ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the
* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: The [[Revision|extended scenes]] found on the [[Bowdlerise|TV version]] reveal The Shape's full name to be Michael '''Audrey''' Myers. We now know the real reason behind his homicidal rampage.
* [[Empty Promise]]: Loomis to Jamie, in the school in ''4''. Subverted when she asks him if he ''really'' believes they'll make it out alright, and he gives a barely audible [[Little No]].
Line 138 ⟶ 144:
* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]: Michael is quite fond of his mother in the ''Halloween'' remakes. Not only does he kill the kids who insult his mom, he also has hallucinations about her [[Woman in White|wearing completely white]] and urging him on while he murders.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: After ''Halloween II'' sparked controversy as inspiration for R.D. Boyer's crimes, the ''[[Moral Guardians]]'', of all people, decided not to campaign against this or other horror movies, as "it would be silly, after all, to ban horror films just because Boyer claims to have thought that he was reenacting Halloween II."
** At the conclusion of the Halloween: Resurrection prologue, Michael, after
* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: In ''Revenge of Michael Myers'', Michael chases the protagonists in a car. Even though the car is barely going at a running-pace, it still explodes when it collides with a tree. Though this ''does'' add to the creepy factor when Michael nonchalantly gets out of the car completely unscathed.
* [[Evil Clown]]: Michael's childhood Halloween costume.
Line 162 ⟶ 168:
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Micheal has proved that he ain't just a dumb brutish killing robot. He usually observes his victims closely, figures out their weaknesses, take advantage of it, kills their friends and family in order to make them weak mentally, cuts out all escape routes before he goes in for the kill and he knows when and who he can kill and when not.
* [[Genki Girl]]: Tina from ''Halloween 5''.
* [[The Ghost]]: Ben Tramer, Laurie's crush in the first movie.
* [[Going by the Matchbook]]: In the original, Loomis finds a plumber's abandoned pickup, and in it is the same matchbook carried by the nurse who was with him when Michael Myers escaped the previous night; she left her matches in the car Michael stole, and they wound up in the truck of the guy he stole his jumpsuit from.
* [[Good Old Fisticuffs]]: Freddie tries to bring Michael Myers down with his fists in ''Halloween: Resurrection''. Surprisingly, {{spoiler|Freddie actually survives this encounter}}.
** Surprisingly? It's common knowledge that being played by {{spoiler|a rapper}} is the strongest [[Plot Armor]] in existence.
* [[Gorn]]
** Ironically, the first film in the franchise, which arguably invented the modern,
* [[Groin Attack]]: Laurie knees Michael in the groin in ''H20''. It doesn't do anything except cause him to give her a nasty glare.
** And Freddie actually electrocutes Michael in the groin in ''Resurrection''
* [[Gross Up Close-Up]]: Rob Zombie seems to like these. In his ''Halloween II'', we're treated to close views of Laurie having her head sewn shut, a man's face after he's mutilated by a crash, a guy having his head sawn off with broken glass, Big Lou Martini getting his arm snapped...
** There's plenty in the original series as well from ''Halloween 2'' onward (for example, when he kills a nurse by repeatedly dunking her head into scalding water, and that's just ONE of many instances in the film). Or ''Halloween 5'', where he impales two coupling teenagers with a pitchfork. Or ''Halloween 6'', which finds Jamie being impaled on a corn thresher.
* [[Half-Empty Two-Shot]]: The first movie has a famous example, when Michael emerges from the closet to attack Laurie.
* [[Hallucinations]]: In ''Rob Zombie's Halloween II'', Michael Myers has hallucinations about his [[Woman in White|mother]]...and some rather random things, including pumpkin-headed aristocrats and white unicorns.
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: In Part 5, Tina sacrifices herself to give Jamie a chance to get away from Michael.
** Inadvertently done by Brady in Part 4 who tries to shoot Michael, then futilely struggles with him, ultimately giving Jamie and Rachel a chance to escape.
* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: Almost. By the fifth film, Dr. Loomis is ready to use blackmail, threats and physical force to make sure Michael is gonna be put down. It goes so far that he used Jamie as a bait to lure Michael in to a trap, and then beat him savagely with a plank so that Michael got unconscious yet he continued to beat him, all while screaming "DIE! DIE!" for each hit.
* [[Hearing Voices]]: ''The Curse'' establishes that The Man in Black provides voices (that command to kill) to those chosen to perform the sacrificial familicide.
* [[Hollywood Darkness]]: ''Halloween'' was one of the first horror movies to use the blue filter.
* [[Hollywood Kiss]]: Most of the characters kiss this way.
* [[Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday]]: Halloween was a trope codifier for this too.
Line 195 ⟶ 201:
* [[Impending Doom POV]]: The beginning of the original film.
** And at the end of the fourth.
* [[Implacable Man]]: Guess who. A particular example is in the seventh film, after getting an axe in the chest, Michael nonchalantly rips the weapon out and keeps going.
* [[In Name Only]]: ''Halloween III'' has an entirely separate story and characters from the other films.
* [[Intro-Only Point of View]]
* [[Joisey]]: Averted. Michael Myers' hometown of Haddonfield is in Illinois. The real Haddonfield is actually located in New Jersey.
* [[Karma Houdini]]: Josh Pinder in the spin-off book ''The Old Myers Place''. He at first appears fairly normal, but his status as a [[It's All About Me|spoiled]], [[Jerkass|assholish]] [[Rich Bitch]] soon becomes apparent, and he eventually tries to rape the main character (with it being revealed he tried doing the same to another girl the previous year). You'd think all that would cause Michael to zero in on him like a homing missile, but no, he survives.
* [[Kill'Em All]]: Zombie's ''Halloween II'' has
* [[Kill the Cutie]]:
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: How ''did'' Michael learn to drive?
* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: Laurie Strode is Michael's sister; something that is spoiled on the ''Halloween II'' DVD cover.
Line 210 ⟶ 216:
* [[Machete Mayhem]]: One is briefly used by Michael to massacre the Cult of Thorn in ''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.''
* [[Mad Artist]]: Some see Michael as one of these, due to how he sets up and, in a few cases, seemingly admires the corpses of his victims.
* [[Made of Plasticine]]: Practically every victim in the series is this.
* [[Made of Evil]]: Dr Loomis believes that Michael is this....and he may be right.
* [[Made of Iron]]: Michael Myers started out Made of Iron, but it was later [[Ret Conned]] into supernatural [[Nigh Invulnerability]].
* [[The Man They Couldn't Hang]]: Michael in ''Resurrection''.
* [[Mask of Power]]: Especially in the first film; Michael doesn't kill anyone except when wearing a mask. In the intro he froze when his dad removed his clown mask, and later when Laurie knocks his mask off he takes the time to put it back on, giving her a better chance of escaping. First thing he does before starting his spree is steal the mask, but not for disguise since he never takes it off and few people would
* [[Menacing Stroll]]: Michael's highest level of speed, at least [[Offscreen Teleportation|when the camera isn't on him]].
* [[Mirror Scare]]: Michael Myers.
Line 246 ⟶ 252:
* [[Police Are Useless]]: The Haddonfield Police Station gets massacred in both ''The Return of Michael Myers'' and ''Halloween 5''.
** In Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II'', Sheriff Brackett asks Andy, one of his deputies, to protect Annie. To say he fails horribly shouldn't come as a shock.
* [[Prank Call]]: During the original 1978 film, a group of friends tease one another with prank calls as a Halloween trick. During one such prank, Lynda is strangled by Michael Myers while in the midst of a phone call with Laurie. Laurie, assuming it is another friend making a prank call, [[Mistaken for Prank Call|hangs up on Lynda's cries of distress]].
* [[Prolonged Prologue]]: ''H20's'' prologue goes for almost 20 minutes before the opening credits begin.
* [[The Public Domain Channel]]: Laurie watches it in ''Halloween II''.
* [[Quizzical Tilt]]: Michael Myers does this when examining some of his victims.
* [[Recut]]: The ''Halloween'' films had many TV Cuts made:
** During the filming of the sequel, John Carpenter shot more scenes for the ABC broadcast of the original to help it pad out the allotted time. While largely just character exposition, one scene ({{spoiler|a visit to Michael's asylum room where the word "sister" is carved in the door}}) serves to help validate the twist of the second movie..
** The sequel itself has a few new things for the TV Cut. These include some alternate cuts of scenes, some scene and dialogue extensions, and a scene added to the end that takes place in the ambulance.
{{quote|Laurie: We made it. ''We made it!''}}
** Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers has the most stunning example of this. Apparently, the film ran over time and budget, so [[Executive Meddling|the suits decided to take it over to see how they could screw it up]]. Their version is the Theatrical Cut. When the film was shown on TV, someone got a hold of the now infamous Producer's Cut. While the violence and cursing were trimmed, an ''assload'' of alternate takes and different opening narration were shown, ''and the entire last 20 minutes of the film is RADICALLY different from the Theatrical Cut''. The main change is that the explanation for Michael's killing ways is altered: The Theatrical version offered a scientific reason, but the Producer's Cut says the reason is supernatural (which also explains why Michael is also growing bigger in each previous film. It's because his power is growing). It also shows a final scene with Dr. Loomis realizing that he has been cursed by Thorn. This was likely altered when Donald Pleasance died. An early trailer showed that the film was originally going to called "Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers." This version is only available through bootleg video releases.
** ''Halloween: H20'' has a TV Cut that does the violence and cussword trim, but also has some alternate scenes fun. One added scene gives the counselor played by Alan Arkin some development by revealing that his mother cheated on his traveling salesman father, and he got blamed for knowing, but doing nothing.
* [[Redemption Equals Death]]/[[Stupid Sacrifice]]: Loomis, in Zombie's ''2''.
* [[Retired Badass]]: Loomis in the sixth movie.
Line 254 ⟶ 267:
* [[Sassy Black Woman]]: Ronnie's wife in ''H20''.
* [[Say My Name]]: Laurie at the end of ''H20'':
{{quote|
* [[Series Continuity Error]]: Several.
** At the end of the first film, Loomis shoots Michael six times, and he falls off a covered balcony at the back of the house; in the sequel, this scene is shown again at the start - and Loomis shoots Michael ''seven'' times (despite only having a six-chamber revolver), sending him flying off an ''uncovered'' balcony at the ''front'' of the house. Made all the worse when Loomis goes around shouting "I shot him six times!" in the first few minutes of the film.
Line 264 ⟶ 277:
*** She literally gets shot to death in the Producer's Cut of ''The Curse of Michael Myers''.
* [[Shooting Superman]]: In a non-superhero example, Michael Myers. This trope gets referenced in the commentary of ''Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers'' - in a scene where a cop clumsily shoots at Michael, one of the commentators mentions that, as a lifelong resident of Haddonfield, the guy should have realized shooting Michael just pisses him off.
* [[The Shrink]]: Loomis.
* [[Single Mom Stripper]]: Note to [[Kids Are Cruel|cruel kids]]: Do not tease Michael Myers in the remake about how his mom is a pole dancer.
* [[Single Tear]]: Strangely enough, Michael Myers has a [[Single Tear]] moment in the fifth film...before reverting back to his [[Complete Monster]] self, of course.
* [[Sinister Scythe]]: Used to kill Samantha in ''5''.
* [[Slashed Throat]]: Appears to be Michael's default method of killing.
* [[Smoking Hot Sex]]: Lynda and Bob in the original ''Halloween''.
Line 288 ⟶ 301:
* [[Suddenly Voiced]]: The director's cut of Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II'' actually has Michael scream "DIE!" before killing Loomis.
* [[Tagline]]: "The night ''he'' came home!"
* [[Take Me Instead!]]: When confronting Michael at the diner in the
* [[Take That]]: In ''Part 4'', Michael is coincidentally looking for a new mask at a store the same time Jamie is. He grabs a [[Ronald Reagan]] mask and walks off screen. A few seconds later, he throws it away and grabs the bleached [[William Shatner]] mask instead. The scene was cut for being too funny.
* [[Thematic Series]]: As mentioned, the franchise was originally meant to be a series of horror movies centered around Halloween but poor reception of the third movie killed any chances of this idea being carried through.
* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' has Michael preparing to kill a bunch of sanitarium employees by overlooking a tray filled with medical tools. At first, it looks like he's going to grab a scalpel, but, having apparently gotten tips from Jason Voorhees, he decides to grab a ''huge'' machete (that was there for some reason) instead.
** In 'the new 'Halloween II'', Michael stabs a nurse in the back. And then does it again. And again, and again, until after about an entire minute filled with stabbings, he rams the knife into her skull and leaves it stuck there.
* [[Things That Go Bump in the Night]]: The Shape (aka Michael Myers), from the original ''Halloween'', is repeatedly compared to the boogeyman, apparently unkillable, and deeply enigmatic. He also seems to particularly target teenagers who are [[Death by Sex|transgressive against social norms]]. In a subversion of this particular trope, he doesn't show much if any interest in actual children.
* [[Time Skip]]: The original film skips from 1963 to 1978, while both of Zombie's films open in Michael's childhood and then the Laurie storyline 17 years later. There is a second time jump in the sequel to two years AFTER the events of ''Halloween (2007)''.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Countless examples, though especially
** Justified in-universe. It's implied in [[The Remake]] that Michael took the janitor's words about about living in a world inside your own head to heart - aside from his mask-making and when they occasionally drag him out for probation hearings, he is functionally catatonic most of the time.
* [[Tragic Dream]]: In the remake, Michael just wants to meet Laurie and live happily with her.
* [[Traumatic C-Section]]: In a flashback sequence in ''Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode'', a young Michael Myers is shown daydreaming about cutting baby Laurie out of his mother during a meal.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The original theatrical trailer gives away the first scene's twist - that the killer is the victim's six-year old brother.
* [[Trope Codifier]]: The first film, along with ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the
* [[Two-Person Pool Party]]: In ''Halloween 2'', Nurse Karen and Budd get busy in the hospital's hydrotherapy pool before Michael Myers [[Death by Sex|strangles Budd with a length of cord and drowns Nurse Karen after dunking her face into scalding water, causing her face to blister and boil]].
* [[Unexplained Recovery]]: Dr. Loomis surviving the explosion of the first floor of a hospital in ''Halloween II'', returning in ''The Return of Michael Myers'' with a slightly burnt face, a limp and mangled hands.
** The same goes for Michael seeing as before the explosion, he got shot in the eyes by Laurie, causing him to become blind. To be fair, it's implied that he isn't exactly human...
** Loomis could've always been blasted out of the wall as the writer of ''4'' wanted to do.
* [[The Un-Reveal]]: In the first film, Michael is unmasked - and he looks like a normal 23 year old boy.
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: The Cult of Thorn apparently believe Michael killing his relatives will bring world peace... or something.
* [[Vader Breath]]: Michael.
* [[Villain Based Franchise]]: Played semi-straight, in that Dr. Loomis (the hero in the first movie) came back for every sequel until [[Author Existence Failure|Donald Pleasence's death]], with Laurie Strode (the original's final girl) appearing in the remainder of the sequels. Whilst Michael is the only character in every installment (barring the third one), he is always opposed by one of the survivors from the first movie.
* [[The Voiceless]]: In the original series Michael never spoke and only ever uttered generic noises like grunts, which themselves are barely audible in most cases. In the remake series Michael's shown to talk, but only as a child.
** ... until {{spoiler|the director's cut for ''Halloween II'' (2009), where screams "DIE!" at Loomis before stabbing him multiple times.}}
Line 319 ⟶ 332:
* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: Michael in the Zombie directed films.
* [[Wrestler in All of Us]]: Michael takes Howard down with a choke-slam in ''Halloween II'' ('09), before he stomps his face in.
* [[Writing Around Trademarks]]: In Zombie's ''2'', Laurie and her new friends Mya and Harley attend a party dressed as [[The Rocky Horror Picture Show|Magenta, Columbia, and Dr. Frank
* [[You Kill It, You Bought It]]: One of the Chaos! comics has Laurie taking Michael's place after killing him in ''H20''. This was ultimately rendered non-canon by ''Resurrection'' though.
** The ending of ''Halloween II'' (2009) on the other hand ends with Laurie becoming as crazy, evil and twisted as Michael, even briefly putting on his mask, after killing him.
* [[You Look Familiar]]: In 2009's ''H2'', the actor who gets stomped to death behind the strip club later turns up as the green-faced host of the big Halloween party.
** Which itself becomes funny when Bill Mosley, the original actor, dropped out from playing the role. The reason why its funny is because he had a victim role in the
** ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' includes appearances by Nancy Loomis as Challis' ex-wife and (via voiceover) Jamie Lee Curtis as a telephone operator.
* [[You're Insane!]]: Loomis to the Thorn leader in ''The Curse''.
{{quote|
* [[Your Head Asplode]]: John Strode's death in ''The Curse of Michael Myers''. Michael impales him to a fuse box, electrocuting him to the point that his head messily blows up.
{{reflist}}
{{Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time}}
[[Category:The Criterion Collection]]▼
[[Category:Horror Films]]
[[Category:Slasher Movie]]
Line 340 ⟶ 354:
[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Films of the 1970s]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Halloween]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
[[Category:Multiple Works Need Separate Pages]]
▲[[Category:The Criterion Collection (LaserDisc)]]
[[Category:National Film Registry]]
[[Category:One-Word Title]]
| |||