Halloween Timeline Breakdown Part One

With the upcoming release of Halloween Ends this Friday, October 14th, I thought it would be a good time to go through and take a look at the different timelines of the Halloween franchise.  Coincidentally there are 5 distinct timelines within the Halloween Franchise, so today is part 1 of a five part series every day this week.  Welcome to Halloween Timeline part one.

In 1978 the original Halloween, directed and scored by John Carpenter, was released independently by Compass International Pictures.  It was done with a budget of $300,000 which even at the time was a tiny amount for a film.  Who could have imagined that this independent horror film in 1978 would spark a franchise that would span over four decades and thirteen films with five distinct timelines.

Halloween timeline part one begins with the film that kicked off the franchise in 1978, Halloween.

Halloween (1978)

The film welcomes us to Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night 1963.  We see a young Michael Myers (Will Sandin) put on a clown mask and grab a knife go upstairs and proceed to kill his older sister Judith Myers (Sandy Johnson).  He goes outside and his parents come home to find him in the mask with the bloody knife.  Fifteen years later, October 30th 1978, on a rainy night we meet Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence) and nurse Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens) arriving at Smith Grove Sanitarium to escort Michael to a court hearing.  Michael steals their car and escapes from Smith’s Grove and heads back to Haddonfield to embark on a bloody rampage.

Michael is camped out in his old family’s decrepit house that is being sold Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) father.  Michael sees Laurie through the window as she is dropping off the keys and begins following her throughout the day.  As the night progresses, Michael begins to kill off Laurie’s friends Annie Bracket (Nancy Kyes) and Lynda Van Der Klok (P.J. Soles) as well as her boyfriend Bob (John Michael Graham) who gets stabbed onto the wall with the knife (based on the released footage of the new film, we may see this again).  Michael begins to hunt Laurie and is eventually shot six times by Dr. Loomis, falls off the balcony and disappears.  This leads to the possibility of a sequel.

Halloween II (1981)

Film two in the Halloween timeline part one is the original sequel Halloween II (1981).  This go round was directed by Rick Rosenthal instead of John Carpenter, but was still written by Carpenter and Debra Hill.  Halloween II picks up right after the events of Halloween with Laurie being brought to the hospital for treatment of the wounds she sustained Halloween Night.  Dr. Loomis returns from the original and is out hunting for Michael Myers along side Chief Bracket.  Michael hears a news broadcast that tells that Laurie was brought to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and he begins making his way there.  This film also retcons the original that Michael was just randomly following Laurie into her being Michael’s younger sister who ended up being adopted by the Strode family.

Michael eventually makes his way to the hospital and begins picking off hospital staff.  Loomis is instructed back to Smith’s Grove under Governors orders and on the way learns that Laurie is his sister.  Loomis makes the U.S. Marshall take him back to the hospital and they encounter Michael attacking Laurie and Loomis shoots Michael.  The Marshall goes to check on Michael and is killed immediately.  The film ends with Laurie, Michael and Loomis in an operating room, Michael stabs Loomis and Laurie shoots Michael in both eyes.  She is instructed to shoot the gas and does.  The gas goes up in flames with Loomis and Michael in the operating room.  Michael stumbles out and collapses and Laurie is subsequently taken to another hospital.  This film basically seemed to end the terror of Michael Myers with him being blinded, blown up and a fireball….  But a good movie stalker is never really gone!

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

After a movie not tied to Michael Myers, the stalker is back in 1988.  This film was not written or directed by John Carpenter and Debra Hill.  This film was directed by Dwight H. Little and was written by Alan B. McElroy.  Donald Pleasence returns in the role of Dr Loomis.  This film picks up ten years later and Michael has been in a coma for the last ten years since he was blown up and burned in Halloween II.  Michael is being transported to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium by ambulance (when will these people learn not to transport him around Halloween?) when he hears that he has a niece.  Michael awakens, has his eyesight back, and kills the people in the ambulance.  His niece is Jamie Lloyd, played by Danielle Harris, and is the daughter of Laurie Strode.  She is living with a foster family, the Carruthers, in Haddonfield.

Upon returning to Haddonfield, Michael begins hunting down his niece to kill her.  Rachel, the Carruthers daughter, who is babysitting Jamie protects the young girl and tries to get her to a police substation not far from the school at the urging of a trooper.  Michael, hidden under the truck kills the four men driving the girls to safety.  Rachel gets Michael off the truck and hits him with it sending him into a ditch off the road.  A lynch mob shows up, Jamie approaches Michael and touches his hand.  He immediately gets up and is gunned down by the mob.  He falls down a mine seemingly to his end.  At the end of the film, Jamie attacks her step mom while she is getting a bath ready for her, Loomis sees Jamie at the top of the steps with a bloody pair of scissors and attempts to shoot her but is stopped by the Sheriff.  The ending seems like we can have a new character taking up the Myers mantle of being a slasher.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Continuing on in the Halloween timeline part one, we come to the next release Halloween 5.  After the end of the last one, you would be wise to assume that we may see Jamie taking up the killing spree of her uncle but that isnt it.  We see the ending of the prior film again with Michael being shot numerous times and falling into a mine shaft.  The lynch mob and state police toss dynamite down the hold to make sure he is dead.  The craft old masked Mike, escapes in a river and comes upon a man living down there.  He nurses Michael back to health, we pick up one year later and Michael awakens from his coma and kills the man who nursed him back to health.  He is on his way back to Haddonfield to once again go after his niece Jamie.  Jamie, played once again by Danielle Harris, is in Haddonfield Children’s Clinic after the attack on her foster mother.  She is now mute and moving to the supernatural aspect of things, has a telepathic link to her uncle.

Loomis, aware of the link between Jamie and Michael decides to use this to capture Michael.  They go to the old Myers house, Michael finds Jamie but stops when she calls him uncle.  She removes his mask and touches his face which drives him nuts and he begins the hunt again.  Downstairs Loomis lures Michael into a trap, dropping a steel net on him, tranquilizing him and beating him silly with a wooden plank.  The police arrive and take Michael into custody.  At the police station, a man in black arrives and frees Michael with an explosion.  Many of the police are dead and Jamie sees that the back door is open and Michael is gone.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

The final film is the Halloween timeline part one is the 1995 film, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.  This film is set six years after Halloween 5 and Jamie, now played by J.C. Brandy, is now fifteen years old.  She gives birth to a child and is helped to escape by a nurse.  Jamie and her child flee from Michael in a pickup truck and he is in pursuit.  Michael catches up to Jamie and kills her, but finds the baby is not in the truck.  Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie babysat in the original film, is now an adult and lives in a boarding house.  The old Myers house is across from the boarding house and the occupants are now Kara Strode (Marianne Hagen), her child Danny, her brother Tim, her mom Debra and her father John (I wonder if they were named in honor of John Carpenter and Debra Hill).  Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd), finds the baby at a bus station and take him to the hospital.

Continuing the supernatural vibe from the last film, Tommy is studying what made Michael do what he did and believe he has been infected with Thorn, an ancient curse that makes him kill his bloodline on Halloween night.  They believe the baby would be the last sacrifice.  The man in black is revealed to be Dr. Wynn and reveals that Smith’s Groves staff has been working with the Thorn cult to study the power and how to control it.  Michael chases Tommy, Kara, her son Danny and Steven around the hospital and they discover fetuses of failed experiments by Dr. Wynn.  Tommy injects Michael with chemicals and beats him unconscious with a lead pipe.  Loomis goes to check on Michael and finds the mask on the floor and Michael is gone.  This is the end of the Halloween timeline part one.

Thoughts of the Halloween timeline part one

This version of the timeline started off great with the original Halloween (I am not just saying that because it is my favorite film).  Halloween 2 modified the original storyline, adding in the sister par, but still had the same vibe to it.  I felt after Halloween 4, this timeline went off the rails a bit.  I thought the ending of Halloween 4 would be a perfect way to move to a new killer still in the Myers family tree.  The supernatural stuff, kind of felt shoe horned in, especially in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.  Where all of a sudden, this whole cult was in place and doing experiments underneath everyone’s noses at Smith’s Grove.

What is your favorite film in this timeline of the Halloween films?  What is your least favorite?  Let us know in the comments below or by hitting us up on our Twitter account by clicking here.  As always stay tuned to Culture Splat for more like this.  Don’t forget to check out our store by clicking here for our Michael Myers mug which is perfect for some hot chocolate or coffee while watching Michael going on his killing sprees.