Halloween (1978) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - November 10, 1978

The holiday may have come and gone, but the first ever theatrical release of John Carpenter's Halloween was just around the corner in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here we have a handful of sneak preview screenings hoping to generate some positive word of mouth for the film's opening on Wednesday, November 15th.

Halloween II (1981) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - October 29, 1981

I believe I saw Halloween II on Saturday, October 31st, at the Hayward Festival Cinemas. Two things stand out in my memory. When we arrived at the multiplex there was a line around the theatre, but no line at the ticket window. Turns out the line was for Halloween II ticket holders. I was both shocked and delighted.

My second memory is of the moment Carpenter's 'chase music' started pounding and the packed house erupted with enthusiastic cheers.

While this first sequel to Halloween does not warrant a spot on my exalted Favorite Movies of All-Time List, I cannot say that I dislike all that much. While it does suffer from a certain lack of imagination and energy, I do not think it is the abomination John Carpenter himself has dismissed it as. So it goes.

Halloween III Season of the Witch (1982) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - October 21, 1982

Met with critical and audience derision, Halloween III Season of the Witch failed to launch the planned anthology format producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill hoped to follow their commercial success of Halloween II (1981) with. So it goes.

Although a modest money maker in its own right, Halloween III did nowhere near the business of the previous films and, for a few years, was perceived as something of a franchise killer. Which is too bad, as the movie is undeserving of that reputation.

Being a John Carpenter fanatic at that time, I saw Halloween III on the big screen and, during the end credits, my father, who was sitting beside me, muttered, "No wonder this was no good, Dino De Laurentiis had something to do with it." Ouch.

I liked it, though... Still do. It has become one of my perennial Halloween season viewings.

Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - October 16, 1988

It took six years, but another Halloween sequel "course corrected" the perceived creative misstep of Halloween III Season of the Witch (1982).

Picking up ten years after the events of Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981), this sequel introduced Laurie Strode's orphaned daughter Jamie (Danielle Harris). When a comatose Myers (George P. Wilbur) learns that he has a relative he has yet to kill, he awakens from his ten-years long coma and sets off once again to Haddonfield, Illinois. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) is quick to pursue, of course.

Competently directed by Dwight H. Little and sporting a solid enough for what it is script by Alan B. McElroy, Halloween 4 gave audiences more of the same, but with just the slightest bit of difference to make it appear fresh, and, for the briefest of moments, it revived the moribund franchise from the shackles of its years long inactivity. 

Halloween 5 (1989) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - October 8, 1989

Halloween 5 would be the last film in the franchise I would see on the big screen until 2018's Halloween. I found it odd that The Revenge of Michael Myers subtitle only appeared in the marketing materials for the film and not in the actual film.

This yet another sequel the undoes the plot twists of a previous entry, just as Psycho III and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth had done. I remember enjoying it well enough, but have not seen it from start to finish in decades, at least.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - September 24, 1995

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers would be the first franchise entry that I did not see for the first time on the big screen. It would stay that way until 2018.

I did get around to seeing it at some point in the early 2000s, but never all that interested in checking out the Producer's Cut. So it goes.

When this movie was first released, I did wonder if the producers would dare to subtitle the next entry in the series either Michael Myers Strikes Again or The Trail of Michael Myers.