laurie strode | the m0vie blog

363. Halloween Ends – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guests Niall Glynn and Richard Drumm, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends.

In the aftermath of his second brutal massacre, Michael Myers has disappeared. He has retreated into the memory of the suburban town of Haddenfield, leaving only open scars in his wake. The survivors, like Laurie Strode, have done their best to move on with their lives in the wake of unimaginable tragedy, but there is something stirring beneath the surface of Haddenfield, just waiting to bubble up in the right circumstances. Evil is stirring. Evil is growing. Evil is waiting, but not for long.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: corey cunningham, david gordon green, endings, expectations, Folklore, halloween, halloween ends, horror, intellectual property, Jamie Lee Curtis, joey keogh, John Carpenter, laurie strode, male anger, michael myers, niall glynn, podcast, richard drumm, sequel, sexuality, slasher, stephen king, The 250, trilogy | Leave a comment »

362. Halloween Kills – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on January 13, 2024 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guest William Bibbiani, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills.

Michael Myers has returned to Haddenfield, and the town is not prepared. As Laurie Strode is rushed to hospital, fire fighters scramble to extinguish the flames consuming her house. However, something more primal is unleashed. As the serial killer murders his way through the suburbs, Haddenfield descends into an all-consuming madness that might prove just as dangerous as any masked killer.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: america, brutality, crisis, horror, Jamie Lee Curtis, joey keogh, laurie strode, masculinity, mob, nihilism, podcast, slasher, streaming, The 250, violence, western, william bibbiani | Leave a comment »

357. Halloween (2007) – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on December 9, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guest Doctor Bernice Murphy, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, Rob Zombie’s Halloween.

One October, the small town of Haddenfield is shocked by the brutal murder of young Judith Myers. The culprit? Her younger brother Michael. Committed to a psychiatric institution under the care of Doctor Samuel Loomis, Michael escapes fifteen years later to continue his reign of terror. This time, he has got young babysitter Laurie Strode in his sights.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: bernice murphy, brutality, dimension films, doctor bernice murphy, donald trump, gore, halloween, hollywood, horror, joey keogh, John Carpenter, laurie strode, Malcolm McDowell, michael myers, new wave, nostalgia, podcast, remakes, rob zombie, scout taylor compton, slasher, violence | Leave a comment »

348. Halloween (1978) – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Darren

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, John Carpenter’s Halloween.

In October 1963, the small town of Haddenfield is shocked by the brutal murder of young Judith Myers. The culprit? Her younger brother Michael. Committed to a psychiatric institution under the care of Doctor Samuel Loomis, Michael escapes fifteen years later to continue his reign of terror. This time, he has got young babysitter Laurie Strode in his sights.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: american cinema, bernice murphy, debra hill, doctor bernice murphy, donald pleasance, halloween, horro, iconic, importance, influence, irwin yablans, Jamie Lee Curtis, joey keogh, John Carpenter, laurie strode, loomis, michael myers, moustapha akkad, podcast, slasher, The 250 | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Meanness and Meaninglessness of “Halloween Kills”…

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the upcoming release of Halloween Ends, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the last entry in the horror franchise.

Halloween Kills is a divisive addition to the slasher movie canon, a grubby and nihilistic horror movie that completely lacks a central ordering principle. Halloween Kills is a movie without a hero. Instead, it is just a monster and his victims. The result is a surprisingly brutaly and bloody slasher movie from a major studio, at a point in time where these films are becoming increasingly homogenised by the logic of intellectual property brand management. Halloween Kills is a film in which there is no reason or logic for the horror that unfolds, and that only serves to make it more scary.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: brutality, escapist, halloween kills, Hero, horror, horror franchises, in the frame, laurie strode, meaninglessness, michael myers, murder, nihilism, slasher, slasher movies, studio horror | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On The Enduring Appeal of Michael Myers…

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Halloween Kills, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the larger Halloween franchise.

What is it that makes Michael Myers such an enduring and unsettling figure? Why has the character remained so popular and iconic across four decades? Why are audiences constantly drawn to the serial killer, who is remarkably straightforward in many ways? Indeed, it seems like the relative simplicity of Michael Myers is part of the appeal. Myers is somewhat uncomplicated as far as slasher movie antagonists go. However, he is also fundamentally unknowable, and all the more effective for that.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: david gordon green, halloween, halloween kills, horror, John Carpenter, laurie strode, michael myers, mystery, serial killer, slasher, uncanny | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Halloween Kills is a Bloody (and Ambitious) Mess – Review”

Posted on October 17, 2021 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of Halloween Kills, which released theatrically and on Peacock this weekend.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 3mr, david gordon green, guns, halloween kills, John Carpenter, laurie strode, michael myers, nihilism, review, slasher movies, the escapist, three minute review, vigilantism | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Halloween Kills

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Darren

Halloween Kills is an ambitious sequel, if a little messy – and not just in the way that one expects a slasher movie to be messy.

Halloween Kills is a direct sequel to David Gordon Green’s Halloween. It picks up in a very similar place to where the two other direct sequels to a movie named Halloween start. Like Rick Rosenthal’s Halloween II and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, the film follows Laurie Strode to hospital as Michael Myers continues his rampage through Haddonfield, Illinois. Although Zombie’s Halloween II takes a sharp turn in its second act, all three direct sequels extend the eponymous night into the early morning that follows.

Gripping stuff.

There is a lot going on in Halloween Kills. The film effectively splits across three main plot threads that only intermittently overlap with one another. One of these threads centres on Laurie’s recovery in the hospital, while the second follows the reaction of the local community to the carnage, and and the third focuses on Myers’ continuing rampage through an Illinois suburb. The film is disjointed, with Green inheriting a lot of continuity and character baggage from his previous film while heaping even more connections back to the original film upon it.

Still, perhaps the best and worst thing that can be said about Halloween Kills is that it marks a return to the grim nihilism that defined John Carpenter’s original.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, halloween, halloween kills, laurie strode, michael myers, Mike Myers, Movie, non-review review, review | Leave a comment »