Halloween ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Put me in the crowd that enjoyed Halloween III: Season of the Witch. It wasn’t on par with the first film, of course. The first one is iconic, the second is sort of typical also-ran horror sequel fare, but the third movie took a totally different and potentially fresh direction. I thought what those masks did were horrific — and loved it!
(even if the tech made like zero sense, it was freaky to see snakes and other creepy crawlies emerge from a “fun” mask)
John Carpenter thought we were done with Michael Myers, The Shape and wanted to give us a new Halloween movie every year without the knife-slashing psycho. Alas, Halloween III was panned for not having Michael in it. Seems ironic, but Halloween III historically has earned a warmer cult following.
There was a story for a Halloween movie that dealt with where Michael Myers was at during Halloween III and it sounded promising.
“The concept was this: If Halloween is ‘The Night He Came Home’, I started to think – ‘Wait a minute. Yeah, okay, that’s the night he came home. But his real home was the asylum. That’s where he really grew up.’ So the concept of The Missing Years was to begin the film by exploring a bit of his childhood in the asylum, and kind of fill in some of the pieces we didn’t know about him. Like, ‘Why specifically that mask?’, and just kind of fill in some of the fun lore that came specifically from that institution. So then the concept would be – cut to the present (back then, of course) when Season of the Witch is unfolding. I never did address it specifically, that film, but I filled in that there was a missing year that he didn’t come home, so where did he go? He went to Smith’s Grove. He went to his real home. He was returning back to what was essentially the place he grew up during his formative years. It was basically going to be him wreaking havoc on this asylum.
‘Halloween: The Missing Years’ Would’ve Explored Where Michael Was During ‘Halloween III’ [Phantom Limbs] – Bloody Disgusting
This was to be Halloween 9, would you have dug this? I mean assuming it was done better than an average ninth horror movie sequel? I’m thinking horrifically bad sequels like Jason In Space (ok, maybe for comedic value).
Horror sequels have a long history of being mostly embarrassingly bad. For me, horror sequels that try to take the story a fresh direction are worth more serious consideration. Maybe it’s too late for the idea above, but you never know in this era of streaming. Maybe somebody finances and makes this film someday. Maybe I’m just one horror movie fan, but I’d be interested. You?
