Halloween is a multi-part film series that was first realized by director/screenwriter John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill back in 1978. Since then, the movie has spawned three canonical sequels, three non-canonical sequels, a non-related sequel and two remakes. The original film, Halloween, introduced the character of Michael Myers, who was a silent, masked serial killer out to murder babysitters. The movie also introduced actress Jamie Lee Curtis in the role of Laurie Strode, who proves to be the "Final Girl" of the film, as well as its 1981 sequel, Halloween II. Adding to the growing list of characters is Donald Pleasence as Michael's "Ahab" psychiatrist, Doctor Sam Loomis and Nancy Kyes and P.J. Soles as Laurie Strode's high school friends (and murder victims) Annie Brackett and Lynda van der Klok, respectively.
The first sequel in the film, Halloween II, takes place on the same evening as the first film. Following this, things get sketchy. Halloween III bore no relation to the previous two films and is set within its own insular continuity. The Michael Myers stories expands into installments 4-6, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Jamie Lee Curtis had since exited the series by this point, and the franchise brought in child actress Danielle Harris as Laurie's orphaned daughter, Jamie Lloyd. Installments that follow Curse of Michael Myers however, render the three previous films apocryphal and they are no longer considered part of the Halloween canon.
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, released in 1998 brought the character of Laurie Strode back into the mix. The film estabslished that Laurie was alive and well and working as a headmistress to a private school out in California. This contradicts the notion that Laurie had died as set forth in Halloween 4. It also establishes that she has only one child, and that is teenager John Tate. Jamie Lloyd is no longer part of the overall continuity. Halloween H20 segued into Halloween: Resurrection, which was the final film in the original series and brought the storyline of Laurie Strode to a close.
In 2007, heavy metal lyricist and film director Rob Zombie remade Halloween, borrowing some elements from the original film, but also adding an entire back-story to Michael Myers, which has never been done in any previous installment. A sequel to this film, Halloween II, was released in 2009. Despite its title, this movie was not a remake of Rick Rosenthal's Halloween II from 1981, but just a continuation of the mythos that Rob Zombie had created.
Films[]
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The Laurie Strode saga |
The Jamie Lloyd saga |