Tag: halloween

38 Years Later: Say what you will about the weird mask, Halloween 4 still has the greatest opening in horror history

Halloween 4 was released 38 years ago… how has it aged?

Perhaps it’s the season that’s gotten to us, but it just feels like the right time for a nostalgic post. And what better to be nostalgic about than the 38th anniversary of the release of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers?

The movie was released on October 21, 1988, and as we write this, we’re now 38 years removed from a film that, for a lot of people, was a game changer.

Kids of the ’80s weren’t even alive when the original Halloween came out in 1978, but they were certainly around ten years later when Michael Myers made his triumphant return. And quite frankly, despite what some might say, perhaps this movie was even better than the original!

Now, nothing could really ever compete with the original or even the second film for some fans. But there was a certain magic that Halloween 4 had. Something that made it special. Something that, even 38 years later, still holds up remarkably well.

Picture it. We’re in the middle of a Michael Myers drought. Halloween III: Season of the Witch didn’t exactly quench our thirst because it didn’t even feature the white-faced horror icon. And by 1988, fans were more than ready to see the Shape return.

Then came Halloween 4, and the promotional poster showcased that familiar original mask. We all got excited.

And then we actually saw the mask.

It was like a brutal insult.

But George P. Wilbur did his best to become the Shape of a new age, and in 1988, the opening sequence of Halloween 4 gave us what might very well be the greatest October scene in movie history. Arguably the best. We’ll get back to that in a moment.

Critics at the time panned the movie. They hated it. Critics always seem to hate horror movies, but this one especially seemed to get under their skin. Yet despite their disapproval, the movie was a huge commercial success, opening at number one across the nation.

And why wouldn’t it?

It was released at exactly the right time, during the Halloween season, and it gave audiences precisely what they wanted. The name of the movie said it all: The Return of Michael Myers!

When you go back and watch the movie today, it still holds its own. It didn’t overuse cheesy special effects or try to become something it wasn’t. Instead, it gave us a pretty great storyline, a wonderful atmosphere, and the remarkable and impeccable Danielle Harris, who has long been heralded as one of the greatest actresses to ever appear in the franchise.

We’re not going to talk about what happened in Halloween 5 and Halloween 6. That’s an entirely different conversation, and perhaps one best avoided on an otherwise pleasant October evening.

But Halloween 4 gave us a great storyline, a great atmosphere, and, in our opinion, a really worthwhile movie.

Heck, we even got to meet Bucky, the electrical worker who met an unfortunate demise when he crossed paths with Michael Myers. Poor Bucky. Just another guy trying to do his job.

But now let’s talk about that mask.

The funny thing is, 38 years later, it almost looks like it’s aging better than it did when the movie first came out.

It’s aging, nonetheless. I mean, heck, 38 years is a long time.

In a strange way, the mask at 38 almost looks better than it did at age one.

And that was perhaps the most insulting part about this movie. The promotional posters, and eventually the VHS artwork, featured the original Michael Myers mask. That sinister, haunting, unforgettable face.

But what we actually got in the movie was something we can now effectively describe as the Temu version of Michael Myers.

Seriously. Look at it.

That might be the least forgivable part of the entire production.

That being said, some people actually like the mask. And we’re not going to get too deep into that debate because, frankly, it’s been going on for nearly four decades and nobody is changing anybody’s mind at this point.

But let’s end this with something that really matters.

Go back and watch the opening sequence of Halloween 4.

Those empty rural landscapes. The autumn decorations. The farm equipment. The gray skies. The lonely roads. The feeling that summer is long gone and winter is just around the corner.

And that haunting music.

There is something about that opening that captures October better than almost anything ever put on film. It doesn’t need Michael Myers. It doesn’t need blood. It doesn’t even need a single person.

It just needs autumn.

And I dare you to watch it without feeling nostalgic. Without feeling a little sad. A little vacant. And, strangely enough, a little comforted.

Maybe it’s because we’re getting older. Maybe it’s because those October days of 1988 are now so far behind us. Or maybe it’s because that opening sequence reminds us of a time when the world seemed a little different, the seasons seemed a little longer, and Halloween itself seemed to have a certain magic that is increasingly difficult to find.

Whatever the reason, that opening still works. It might even work better today than it did 38 years ago.

Halloween 4 was a great movie.

But it also gave us what may very well be the greatest opening sequence in horror movie history.

And 38 years later, that’s something worth returning to.

Strange currencies: The unsettling coincidence of six flags teaming up with final destination

The death of Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem is tragic.. but the combo of the park using Final Destination as its Halloween theme has made people uneasy..

There is something particularly unsettling about the timing of a recent collaboration between Six Flags and the Final Destination horror franchise, especially considering the tragic death of a man at Six Flags Over Georgia just as the collab began..

On Monday, October 12, 2026, 42-year-old Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem died after being ejected from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia. The story as as tragic as you can get.. Kariem, a father and longtime educator, was visiting the amusement park with family members to celebrate his niece’s birthday when the tragedy occurred. Several other riders were also injured.

Kariem had already overcome in his life. According to his family, he was a two-time cancer survivor who had also survived a frightening car accident just three weeks earlier. His 10-year-old daughter was with him during that incident, and both escaped without injuries. He had also overcome a serious lung infection and, earlier this year, completed a 10K race despite previously being told he might need a lung transplant.

This was a man who had overcome some extraordinary challenges, only to lose his life during what should have been an enjoyable family outing.

The circumstances surrounding his death remain under investigation. Witnesses have raised concerns about the roller coaster’s restraints, and Six Flags temporarily closed nine other roller coasters at several of its parks following the tragedy. The Goliath roller coaster itself remains closed. State officials have indicated that its most recent inspection, conducted in March, found no violations or deficiencies.

At this point, investigators have not determined exactly what caused Kariem to be ejected from the ride.

Safety is understandably at the center of the discussion, and it should be. Roller coasters are designed to provide thrills through extraordinary heights, speeds, and forces, but the expectation is that passengers can experience those thrills safely. What happened in Georgia raises serious questions that deserve thorough answers rather than speculation.

But there is another aspect of this story that is particularly strange.

The Final Destination

Six Flags recently partnered with the Final Destination franchise for its Halloween Fright Fest programming. The attraction is based on the popular horror movie series in which characters narrowly escape death, only to find themselves facing a series of bizarre and often fatal accidents. Fans of the franchise will undoubtedly remember Final Destination 3, released in 2006, which famously features a catastrophic roller coaster accident.

The collaboration was arranged before Kariem’s death, and there is no suggestion of any connection between the attraction and the tragedy. Nonetheless, the timing is difficult to ignore.

According to reporting from TMZ, Six Flags intends to continue offering the Final Destination attraction at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California despite the recent tragedy in Georgia. A company representative clarified that the haunted maze does not feature scenes involving a theme park.

That distinction is important, but it doesn’t entirely eliminate the uncomfortable coincidence.

There is something undeniably strange about an amusement park company promoting a fictional horror experience centered around escaping death while simultaneously dealing with the real-life death of a guest on one of its roller coasters. It is especially unsettling when considering the life experiences of the man who died, having already survived cancer twice and a recent car accident.

This is not to suggest that Six Flags should necessarily cancel its Halloween programming or that horror entertainment is somehow responsible for what occurred.

The collaboration was planned before the accident, and the attraction is being offered at a different park. Still, the decision to continue it so soon after this tragedy is bound to raise questions about sensitivity, timing, and public perception.

There is a significant difference between fictional horror and real tragedy, and that difference becomes especially important when the two unexpectedly intersect.

For now, the most important issue remains the investigation into what happened on October 12 and whether anything could have been done to prevent it.

And beyond the headlines, the horror movie comparisons, and the questions surrounding Six Flags, there is a family mourning a father, a loved one, and an educator whose life was much more than the circumstances of his death.

That deserves to remain at the center of this story…

Hear us our.. Donnie Darko is a Halloween movie

Donnie Darko is a lot of things.. but it takes place in October.. for us it’s also a Halloween movie as well..

On October 2, I turned on Donnie Darko for the first time in quite a while, and I had one of those moments where you suddenly notice something about a movie you have watched before but somehow never really considered. I realized ironically the day I watched the movie was actually she same day the movie begins.. October 2, 1988, with a culmination on October 31..

Obviously, Donnie Darko is a lot of things. It’s science fiction. It’s psychological. It’s a mystery. It’s a time-travel movie, depending on how you interpret it. It’s a movie about alternate realities, fate, death, adolescence, mental illness, God, free will and probably another dozen things people have been arguing about since the movie came out in 2001.

But it’s also very explicitly an October movie. So for that reason, Donnie Darko is a Halloween movie..

The story begins in early October 1988. Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. That countdown takes us through October and directly toward Halloween. And when everything finally comes together, it happens on Halloween night.

There’s a Halloween party and there are people walking around in costumes. There are dark streets and autumn leaves. All that visual… And, of course, there is Frank.

Frank is a giant rabbit, which admittedly should make him sound more like something that belongs at Easter. except nobody has ever looked at Frank and thought that guy should be delivering Cadbury eggs.

He’s basically the anti-Easter Bunny.

But when you really consider the time frame of the movie, Frank makes even more sense as a Halloween figure. He’s a man in a grotesque rabbit costume who appears out of the darkness and tells Donnie that the world is going to end. He’s frightening, mysterious and somehow exists in this strange place between the living and the dead.

There’s an old idea associated with Halloween that this is the time of year when the veil becomes thin when the boundary between our world and whatever might exist beyond it isn’t quite as solid as it normally is.

Well, the veil is definitely thin in Donnie Darko. Except Richard Kelly takes that old supernatural idea and essentially gives it a science-fiction vocabulary. Instead of simply having ghosts crossing from the world of the dead into the world of the living, Donnie Darko gives us the Tangent Universe and the Primary Universe. Reality itself has fractured and two things that aren’t supposed to exist together suddenly do. Time becomes unstable while the living and the dead don’t necessarily stay in their proper places..

Donnie Darko also feels like fall.

You can sense it in the bones and roots of the film with fallen leaves and gray skies. The suburban streets and school hallways add to that mix. There is a melancholy running underneath everything that feels like that particular stretch of autumn when summer is definitely gone but winter hasn’t arrived yet.

Even the school scenes feel like October.

And that brings me to something else often almost forgotten about this movie: just how beautifully made its opening sequences are.

In the original theatrical version, Donnie wakes up inexplicably on a mountain and eventually rides his bicycle home while “The Killing Moon” by Echo & the Bunnymen plays.. Donnie wakes up somewhere he shouldn’t be, looks around, smiles, gets on his bicycle and rides home. We don’t know what’s happening yet, but already it feels like we’re somewhere between a dream and reality.

“Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears begins playing. The camera moves through the school, and within the length of essentially one song, Donnie Darko introduces us to an entire little universe of people. The continuous school sequence really does use “Head Over Heels” as we move among Donnie’s classmates, teachers and the different social groups inhabiting the school.

Within just two minutes, we don’t need long introductions to learn who our lead characters are.. this musical moment brings us a visual version of their collective stories without any dialogue to interrupt it..

There are movies that spend twenty minutes introducing their characters. Donnie Darko somehow introduces an entire world in the length of a Tears for Fears song.

The movie basically tells us: Just watch these people. You’ll understand.

“Head Over Heels” isn’t a Halloween song and it isn’t even really an autumn song. Yet somehow, when we hear it in Donnie Darko, it feels like October and the song kind of stayed a honorary tune of this time of year since being in the movie..

Halloween is about masks, and almost everyone in Donnie Darko is wearing one even before anybody puts on a costume.

Jim Cunningham presents himself as a wholesome motivational speaker preaching about fear and love while hiding something horrific. Kitty Farmer presents her worldview with absolute moral certainty. The school itself appears orderly while underneath that order are frightened, confused, angry, lonely kids trying to understand themselves and each other. Donnie’s neighborhood looks like an ordinary, comfortable American suburb while the universe itself is quietly coming apart.

Then Halloween arrives and everybody finally puts on actual masks.

A part of the reason we don’t normally put Donnie Darko alongside Halloween movies is because we’ve spent the last 25 years trying to figure out what the hell Donnie Darko actually means.

People have debated Frank… debated whether Donnie understands what’s happening to him. and everything else including Frank.. The Director’s Cut even brought The Philosophy of Time Travel material more directly into the movie, explaining concepts such as the Tangent Universe, the Artifact, the Living Receiver and the Manipulated Dead, although Kelly himself described those pages as something to be interpreted rather than simply treated as unquestionable canon.

We’ve spent so much time trying to solve this movie that we’ve overlooked something sitting right there on the calendar.

It’s October.

It’s Halloween, and a Halloween movie doesn’t necessarily need Michael Myers, witches, or trick-or-treaters ..

Donnie Darko understands that peculiar feeling that there might be certain nights when ordinary reality isn’t quite as solid as we think it is when the veil gets thin.

Or, in this case, when the Tangent Universe and the Primary Universe collide.

SO THAT’S THE ARGUMENT.. underneath all of it is an October story and really a melancholy autumn story about masks, death, fate, strange things appearing in the darkness and a world in which the boundary between realities has suddenly become dangerously thin.

Donnie Darko is a Halloween movie.

And maybe Frank isn’t the Easter Bunny after all. Maybe he’s been a Halloween rabbit the entire time.

How dare they do Dr. Loomis this wrong!

The Halloween game has fast become one of the most live-streamed TikTok, at least on my feed… But in the midst of the murderous mayhem and weed smoking, something else happened and was removed from the game!

From Bloody-Digusting:

Headlines were made back in March when it was announced that you’d be able to smoke weed in Halloween: The Game, but that’s hardly the most controversial aspect of the game.

Launched this past Friday in Early Access for those who pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition, Halloween: The Game has a mini game feature that allows the characters to have sex!

Well, at least it did earlier this weekend…

How it worked was that when two civilian characters ended up in a closet together, one could “ask out” the other one. If both characters consented, it would trigger a mini game within the closet that allowed the characters to make love off screen. Sex is of course a staple of the early slasher movement, but it seems the unique mini game brought an unintended side effect along with it.

While most of the characters you get to play as in Halloween: The Game are Haddonfield teenagers, Donald Pleasence’s Doctor Loomis is also a playable character. And when a video went viral this weekend of Loomis having sex with a Haddonfield teen in a closet, well, it seems that Illfonic had no choice but to pull the “ask out” mini game feature out of the game entirely.

That really did Loomis wrong..

Here was someone discovering the ability before it was removed:

Now it looks like weed smoking and blood and gore is the only thing that game players still have..

In a world of Dr. Wynns, be a Loomis..

The missing scene from Halloween 2

The long desired footage of Michael Myers in a children’s ward in Halloween 2 has never been seen.. but reportedly existed.

In this post we explore the hidden scenes that we know of, and those we don’t.

We’re hunting down the lost footage from Halloween II.

And we’re probably not going to find it but still try anyway..

We’ve reached out to Trancas International Films and the Akkad family, and we’re thinking about who else we could possibly reach out to in an attempt to solve a little Halloween II mystery that’s been sitting around for more than four decades.

And before we go any further, there’s an important distinction here.

We’re not talking about the deleted Halloween II scenes that are already out there. We know those exist. We’re talking about footage that was apparently shot but, as far as we can determine, has never actually surfaced publicly.

Over the last couple of years we’ve seen plenty of supposedly “lost” Halloween images floating around online that turned out to be AI generated. But there are legitimate production stills from Halloween II showing material that isn’t in the finished movie, and one particular missing sequence has fascinated us.

The made for TV movie version may have excluded the boob-shot but it definitely had in other scenes that made more sense when considering… In theatrical cut we didn’t get why Laurie was seemingly drugged and the hospital was dark.. it was the made for TV scenes that explained she was drugged by the doc and the power was cut by Mike..

These scenes, if included, would have made our favorite Halloween movie even better..

The children’s ward scene is what we’d really love to see..

In the deleted scene, Michael wandered through rooms of sleeping children before accidentally activating a cymbal-playing toy monkey. Nurse Karen heard the noise and investigated while Michael hid nearby, nearly being discovered before she walked away.

The sequence was ultimately cut as the film was tightened in editing, along with several other scenes. The children’s-ward footage has never officially resurfaced

But the photo from Warlock’s collection proves there was at least one more scene we never saw–presumably more than that..

In the behind the scenes photo, Warlock as Mike making a kid laugh, is surprisingly wholesome..

Director Rick Rosenthal has actually discussed it.

On material associated with Halloween: 25 Years of Terror, Rosenthal described a deleted sequence involving Michael Myers hiding in a closet in the hospital nursery. A nurse comes into the room and nearly opens the closet where Michael is hiding. The suspense builds because you expect her to find him but ultimately she doesn’t open it.

The scene was cut.

As far as we can determine, the actual footage has never surfaced publicly.

There’s also a sequence involving reporter Robert Mundy and a television news crew arriving at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital that was reportedly scripted and filmed. Production stills survive from that material, but again, the actual moving footage appears to have disappeared.

So where is it?

We all know the complicated history of Halloween II. John Carpenter didn’t particularly want to make another Halloween and has certainly never hidden his feelings about the sequel. The second movie also became considerably more violent and gory than the original .. although compared with today’s standards, it’s really not very gory at all.

Then television came calling.

When Halloween II was prepared for TV, some of the nudity and gore couldn’t exactly make the trip to network television, so material had to be removed and other footage was used to fill out the running time.

That’s where things sometimes get confusing when people talk about “deleted scenes” from Halloween II, because some deleted footage absolutely does exist and has been released.

There are additional hospital scenes, Michael cutting the power and, most memorably, the alternate ending.

Laurie is being taken away in the ambulance when suddenly somebody under a sheet behind her starts moving.

One last scare!

Except it’s just good old Jimmy.

So calling all Carpenters and Akkads.. we are searching and want the nursery scene.. and that television crew arriving a the hospital.. Maybe there is another Dana Carvey hidden gem somewhere in the pile of deletions..

Is there a reel sitting on some film rack somewhere or an unmarked box in a studio archive that nobody has opened since Ronald Reagan was president?

Is something sitting in a basement or storage facility belonging to the Akkad family?

Did Donald Pleasence take the film to the grave?

We’re not claiming that these reels still exist. We’re not claiming that somebody secretly has them. We’re just acknowledging something that makes this mystery worth pursuing: there is evidence and testimony that scenes were filmed that, more than 40 years later, apparently nobody in the general public has ever seen.

And that’s fascinating.

This goes in phases.. right now this is in an active phase again with fans talking about this deleted scene on social media..

We’ve sent out some messages, including reaching out to Trancas International Films, and we’re thinking about who else might be worth contacting. If we get responses, we’ll let everyone know what we find — even if the eventual answer is simply, “Sorry, that footage is gone.” We anticipate no responses.. but if there was some miracle, maybe someone out there will get lucky.

But we’d also love to hear from everyone out there in Internet Land.

Has anyone else ever gone hunting for this footage?

Did anyone contact people involved with Halloween II years ago and get an answer?

Has anyone ever claimed to actually see the nursery footage?

Was something shown at a convention decades ago? Did somebody have an old workprint? Is there an obscure interview, photograph, VHS tape or story from someone involved with the production that we’ve somehow missed?

Maybe they’re resting in that strange final resting place of lost cinema.. existing only in production stills, scripts and the increasingly distant memories of the people who were actually there.

Because now we’re left with a very Halloween version of an old philosophical question:

If Michael Myers hid in the children’s ward at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, but the scene was cut and nobody ever saw it… did Michael Myers actually hide there at all?

You can’t play Halloween the game and land down under

Smoke em if you got em .. except in Haddonfield

The rumors you hear are true: Halloween: The Game, coming out this September, has essentially been banned in two countries — Australia and New Zealand.

Okay, cue the jokes, because surely you’re thinking the game was banned for the bloody depictions of gore, the endless slashing of Michael Myers, or perhaps just the generally inhuman nature of all those murder scenes.

Nope.

Marijuana.

The official Halloween: The Game account announced that the upcoming video game has been denied classification by the Australian Classification Board. And without a classification, the game cannot legally be sold physically or digitally in Australia … with the decision also keeping it off the market in New Zealand.

And apparently the problem isn’t Michael Myers stalking people through Haddonfield with a giant knife. The problem is a controlled substance featured in the game … reportedly cannabis, which can actually be used by players as part of the gameplay.

So apparently Michael Myers can stalk you, slash you and brutally murder you, but heaven forbid somebody lights up a joint while he’s doing it.

The game is still scheduled to arrive September 8 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, but Halloween fans Down Under are apparently going to be left out of Haddonfield for the time being.

Which brings us to a much bigger question:

What does this mean for GTA VI?

Because if the drug use in Halloween: The Game was enough to run afoul of Australia’s classification rules, the government censors Down Under probably haven’t seen anything yet.

And suddenly Michael Myers might be the least of their problems.

When we shop, we shop with the spirit!

Spirit Halloween’s parent company is adding Hot Topic, BoxLunch and Her Universe to an empire that increasingly looks ready to haunt the American shopping experience all year long.

A couple of years ago, when Spirit Halloween somehow managed to turn itself into an actual movie, it pretty much solidified what had already been happening for years: Spirit Halloween had become part of pop culture and annual traditions..

For decades, the annual appearance of a Spirit Halloween has been one of the first unofficial signs that summer is dying. Suddenly, your favorite dilapidated former Ames, Kmart, Sears, or whatever other retail chain disappeared 15 years ago has a giant orange SPIRIT HALLOWEEN banner hanging across the front.

Those sliding doors open once again.. and large animatronics greet you in earnest..

THE HAUNTING EXPANSION

Spirit Halloween is part of Spencer Spirit Holdings, the company behind Spencer’s, and now that retail family is apparently about to become a behemoth.

Spencer Spirit Holdings, Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with Sycamore Partners to acquire Hot Topic, Inc. and its portfolio of brands: Hot Topic, BoxLunch, and Her Universe.

That would put six pretty recognizable retail concepts under one corporate umbrella and give the combined company a footprint of more than 3,000 stores across North America.

Think about that for a second.

Spirit Halloween. Spencer’s. Hot Topic. BoxLunch. Her Universe.

This is basically the Avengers of people who buy Halloween decorations, Stranger Things shirts, anime merchandise, lava lamps, Funko Pops, and things they absolutely did not intend to purchase when they walked into the mall.

And this also has us wondering about something else.

Spirit Christmas has already started appearing. So if the Spirit empire keeps growing, how long before the abandoned retail spaces of America simply belong to Spirit year-round?

Spirit Christmas.

Spirit Easter.

Spirit Valentine’s Day.

Spirit Fourth of July.

And while we’re at it, why not Spirit Indigenous Peoples’ Day?

The Spirit will never leave.

I think everyone would be fine with that.

Because Spirit Halloween openings over the last couple of years — and especially this year — have started becoming more than just a date on the calendar. They’re becoming actual events. There’s music. There’s cosplay. There are crowds waiting for the doors to open.

Adults temporarily pausing their day jobs, bills, responsibilities and ordinary lives for a brief lapse into ghoulish immaturity.

No judgment here. We will most likely be stopping at just about every Spirit Halloween we see over the next several weeks as the fall decorating season begins.

So get ready.

A lot more retail space may soon be donning the Spirit family logo.

And we have a feeling that someday it might not just be Halloween.

Coming soon to a closed-down former retail space near you:

Spirit Everything..

Getting the early Spirit

Welcome to Augtober ..

Spirit Halloween’s are slowly opening across the country now that it’s august, the Augtober tradition continues.

This year’s big draw seems to be the five nights at Freddy’s animatronic along with the really tall Michael Myers.

When we visited the closest spirit Halloween that’s open near us in Pennsylvania we were greeted with the animatronic of Freddy fazbear but it was sold out. And shockingly the Michael Myers was available but something looks strange about his hair and his giant overbite.

But that’s okay, ’tis the season and it’s time for the spirit.

So welcome to the Halloween season of 2026, ready or not the summer heat will fade and the fall leaves will shower your local Spirit parking lot..

So they want to make another Halloween movie. We have an idea..

No ideas are bad! Except all of the ideas so far in the previous several Halloween movies. So think different..

This week brought disappointing news for horror fans. The long-planned and heavily rumored Halloween television series centered around Michael Myers is apparently dead before it ever even began.

Word coming from insiders suggests that the Moustapha Akkad family believes another Halloween movie makes more sense than a television series, and honestly, that is probably the right call. There also appears to be lingering friction involving David Gordon Green and the family, largely because they were not particularly thrilled with the recent Blumhouse Productions trilogy. While the films gave us a fantastic soundtrack and certainly had their fans, that final movie was, quite frankly, abysmal. Wrecked. Terrible.

The truth is, Michael Myers feels like a character built for the big screen. He belongs in dark theaters, not on a smaller screen or viewed on a phone. But there is a problem. If we look back over the last twenty years, most of the Halloween films simply have not been very good.

That said, I think there is one silver lining buried inside Halloween Kills that filmmakers should seriously consider exploring.

If you remember the opening sequence of Halloween Kills, we were suddenly back in the 1970s. Michael Myers had survived his confrontation with Dr. Loomis and was still on the loose that same terrifying night. Those first several minutes were incredible. The aesthetics were perfect. The gritty atmosphere captured the spirit of the original film almost flawlessly, and for a brief moment it felt like we were watching a continuation of John Carpenter’s original vision.

That is exactly where this franchise should go next.

I think fans are hungry for something new, and ironically the freshest idea might actually be continuing the original Halloween night itself. Pick up directly after the events of the 1978 film and follow the chaos unfolding across Haddonfield as the town realizes a serial killer is still roaming the streets.

The beauty of this idea is that it does not even need to center around Laurie Strode. Remember, originally Michael Myers was not hunting Laurie because she was family. That idea came later. In the original film, she was simply random. Wrong place, wrong time.

So why not embrace that again?

Keep Michael random. Keep the other characters from the original movie in the background while the Haddonfield massacre continues through the night. Show the town descending into chaos as police scramble, citizens panic, and Michael continues his rampage.

What makes this even more interesting is that this version of Michael Myers existed before he fully evolved into the supernatural force the sequels turned him into. There was still mystery there. He had survived six gunshot wounds from Loomis, hinting at something unnatural, but he still largely felt human.

That tension worked.

Honestly, if they made a movie like this, I would not even care if Michael dies again by the end. Bring him back later if you want. It does not matter.

The original Halloween remains the best film in the franchise, even if time has softened some of its horror impact for modern audiences. But a new movie that fully embraces that 1970s gritty Haddonfield atmosphere, exactly what we briefly saw in Halloween Kills, could absolutely work.

And here is the interesting part. If you ask true Halloween fans, those opening minutes of Halloween Kills are still often ranked among the best moments in the entire modern franchise.

One final thought, and this might be unpopular.

If someone wanted to revisit Halloween III: Season of the Witch and give us a modern remake?

I would be all for that too.

Because despite not featuring Michael Myers, Halloween III had something the franchise desperately needs right now.

An original idea.

And maybe that is exactly what horror fans have been waiting for all along.

Beau Starr, Sheriff Meeker from Halloween 4, dead at 81

Beau Starr had multiple roles but he was best known for his role in multiple ‘Halloween’ movies and so much more.. he is dead at 81..

Mike Starr — Beau’s younger brother who is also an actor — told TMZ that Beau passed away on Friday, April 24 in Vancouver, Canada. He says Beau passed peacefully of natural causes.

TMZ further reported, Mike says his brother was loved by many who knew him … calling him a “very unique and special.” He adds Beau and his other brothers helped raise him alongside his parents, and he was such a tremendous influence on his life.

He was a great addition to Halloween 4, he was in so much more but loyal Halloween fans treated him the greatest over the years..

May he rest in peace..