House of Horror

Demons 3: The Ogre
Tagline: What happens when the nightmares of your childhood suddenly become reality?
Released: 1991
Starring Virginia Bryant, David Flosi, Patrizio Vinci
Directed by Lamberto Bava
Written by Lamberto Bava, Dardano Sacchetti

Format: DVD
Distributed by Shriek Show
Released: August 19, 2003

Features:
Trailer
Interview with Lamberto Bava

Premise: Cheryl, a best-selling author of horror novels, goes on vacation with her family to an ancient villa in the Italian countryside. Legend has it the villa is said to be cursed, and very soon, Cheryl realizes that the hideous ogre that haunted her dreams as a child is alive and living in the basement of this very house. She becomes obsessed with his presence but fails to convince anyone else that he exists. It’s not until the ogre kills the babysitter and kidnaps Cheryl’s child that it becomes apparent that the stories she writes are becoming reality.

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): Ever since she was a child, Cheryl has had frequent nightmares of a fiendish ogre dwelling in the basement of a stately European castle. Years after the nightmares, Cheryl has now become a world famous horror author, and lives in Italy with her husband Tom and son Bobby. While on vacation in the Italian countryside, Cheryl and her family take up residence in an old Italian villa… that seems to look all too familiar to Cheryl. Now the nightmares of her childhood are coming true, as the monster in the basement of the villa begins to make its presence known. Cheryl must now find a way to stop the beast before it can harm her family.
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Demons
Tagline: They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs.
Released: 1985
Starring Urbando Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, and Fiore Argento
Directed by Lamberto Bava
Written by Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini, and Dardano Sacchetti

Format: DVD
Distributed by Anchor Bay
DVD Release Date: September 25, 2007

Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
Dolby Surround 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0
Audio Commentary with Director Lamberto Bava, Mechanical and Transformation artist Sergio Stivaletti, and journalist Loris Curci
Behind the Scenes Footage
Trailers

Premise: They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs! In 1985, Italian horror masters Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava unleashed this landmark splatter shocker about a group of strangers invited to a sneak preview at a mysterious movie theater, only to be trapped inside and transformed one-by-one into carnage-crazed monsters. It’s a one-of-a-kind combination of creepy terror and relentless gore-orgy, featuring a pounding soundtrack of ‘80s metal, a throbbing score by Claudio Simonetti (SUSPIRIA), and gut-churning special effects by Sergio Stivaletti (CEMETARY MAN, PHENOMENA). This is DEMONS as you’ve never seen it before, with every blood-drenched frame now fully remastered for the ultimate in ooze-spewing, flesh-flaying, spine-ripping madness!

Plot Breakdown: When Cheryl and her friend Kathy arrive in a subway station, they come across a mysterious man in a metal mask handing out flyers advertising the opening of a new theater. The two friends decide to visit the theater, where they sit down to a horror film along with a small group of other moviegoers. Meanwhile, a prostitute who cut herself on a metal mask hanging in the lobby goes to the bathroom to inspect her wound. Her cut festers and mutates, turning her into a ravenous demon that is able to transform others into demons with just a scratch. The demon plague spreads rapidly, forcing the desperate moviegoers to fight for their lives against a legion of hell-spawned beasts. With the help of two young men, George and Ken, Cheryl and Kathy must find a way to escape the madness before they too become hideous demons.
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Halloween: Resurrection
Tagline: Evil Finds Its Way Home
Released: 2002
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Brad Loree, Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kajlich, Sean Patrick Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Tyra Banks
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
Written by Larry Brand and Sean Hood

Format: DVD
Distributed by Dimension Films
DVD Release Date: December 10, 2002

Features:
Special Features:
Widescreen (2.35:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 Televisions
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Feature commentary with Director Rick Rosenthal and Editor Robert A. Ferretti
Deleted and Alternate Scenes with Director Commentary
Web Cam Special with Director Commentary
Photo Gallery
Tour of the set with Production Designer Troy Hansen
On the set with Jamie Lee Curtis
Head Cam Featurette
Storyboard Comparisons
Spanish Subtitles
French Track

Premise: Original Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween: H20, True Lies) is back and joined by Busta Rhymes (Shaft) and Tyra Banks (Coyote Ugly) in the terrifying Halloween: Resurrection – the latest in this electrifying horror film series! The reality programmers at DangerTainment (Rhymes, Banks) have selected Rudy (Sean Patrick Thomas – Save the Last Dance), Bill (Thomas Ian Nicholas – American Pie 1 & 2) and a group of thrill-seeking teenagers to spend one fun-filled night in the childhood home of serial killer Michael Myers. But the planned live broadcast turns deadly when their evening of excitement becomes a night of terror as Michael himself decides to crash the party!

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): Three years after the events of Halloween: H20, Laurie Strode has been confined to a mental institution on a count of murder. Flashback sequences reveal Laurie did not really decapitate Michael Myers at the end of the previous film, but rather a paramedic with whom Myers forcefully switched clothing and his mask. Laurie pretends to be heavily medicated, but in reality, dodges her pills and prepares herself for the inevitable confrontation with Michael Myers. When Myers finally does appear, Laurie lures him into a trap on the roof of the institution. Before she can kill him for good however, he turns the tables on her, and stabs her in the back. She gives Michael a kiss, tells him she will see him in hell, and falls off the roof to the ground below, dead.

A year later, a group of six college students win a competition to appear on a reality show produced by DangerTainment, on which they are to spend Halloween night in the childhood home of Michael Myers. Their mission is to find out what led him to kill. The investigation is done via live broadcast on the internet, with each student wearing a small camera. The participants think the show is entirely for entertainment purposes, and that the stunt will earn them some publicity and scholarship money. While in the house, the students undercover staged “secrets” of Michael’s insanity, only to inadvertently uncover a subterranean lair where Myers has been living for the past 20 years. The event goes horribly wrong however, when Michael returns home and one by one, kills the students and the crew involved in the broadcast.

Sara Moyer, the only student left alive, uses her PDA and pen pal on the outside to escape the house and into the adjoining garage, where Myers soon follows. After a brief confrontation, Michael is electrocuted and left to die in a conflagration, which destroys the garage. Only Sara Moyer and Freddie Harris, the host of the show, survive the night’s events. Later, Myers’s severely burnt body is taken to a morgue, where a frightened female mortician slowly opens his body bag. He opens his eyes and the mortician screams, just as the screen goes black.
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Halloween: 20 Years Later (H20)
Tagline: This summer, terror won’t be taking a vacation.
Released: 1998
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Adam Arkin, and Michelle Williams
Directed by Steve Miner
Written by Robert Zapia, Matt Greenberg, and Kevin Williamson (uncredited)

Format: DVD
Distributed by Dimension Films
DVD Release Date: October 19, 1999

Features:
Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1)
Unmasking the Horror
Trivia Game
Music Video – “What’s this Life For” performed by Creed

Premise: This smart and suspenseful thriller scares up a bone-chilling good time with original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies, Halloween I & II) and a hot cast of hip young stars! Now the headmistress of a private school, Laurie Strode (Curtis) is struggling with the horrifying, 20-year-old memories of the maniacal killer Michael Myers… when he suddenly reappears with a vengeance! And this Halloween, his terror will strike a whole new generation! Laurie’s rebellious son John (Josh Hartnett – The Faculty), his girlfriend (Michelle Williams – TV’s Dawson’s Creek), and the school security guard (LL Cool J) will become Michael’s newest victims unless Laurie can conquer her greatest fears and put evil in its place once and for all! The time has come again for you to experience the frightening fun of Halloween – the motion picture series that totally redefined terror!

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): On October 29th, 1998, in Langdon, Illinois, Nurse Marion Chambers-Wittington (Nancy Stephens, Halloween and Halloween II) returns home to find her house has been burglarized. Alarmed, she asks assistance from Jimmy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a teen who lives next door, and his accompanying friend. After calling the police, Jimmy investigates Marion’s house and is unable to find anything out of place, except that her office was ransacked. After the boys leave, Marion inspects the mess in her office. She notices a file folder labeled Laurie Strode, which has been opened and the contents taken. Feeling like someone is still there, she rushes to Jimmy’s house, only to discover he and his friend have been killed. As she tries to escape the murder scene, the killer makes himself known: Michael Myers. Marion attempts to flee, though Myers catches up to her and slits her throat. As the police finally arrive, answering the original burglary report, Myers manages to slip by them into the night. The next morning, detectives note Dr. Loomis’s files on Myers in Marion’s home and alert Haddonfield that Michael Myers, whose body has been missing for 20 years, might be returning home.

On October 31st, in Summer Glenn, California, a secluded private school is planning a field trip. The buses leave that night, and students are expected to be packed and ready by time the buses leave. Keri Tate (Jamie Lee Curtis), headmistress of the school, begins the morning by arguing with her 17 year-old son, John (Josh Hartnett), about going on the trip. She feels he isn’t ready to go alone without her supervision. As the day goes on, Keri is haunted by the tragic events that took place on Halloween 20 years ago, when Michael Myers tracked her down and tried to kill her. Since then, she has become a functioning alcoholic, overbearing parent, and unable to maintain intimate relationships. Her boyfriend, Will (Adam Arkin), who works as a counselor at the school, notes her mood and her attempts to distance him. Later, before the buses leave, Keri has a change of heart and gives John her permission to go on the trip. However, unbeknownst to Keri, John, his girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams), and friends Sarah and Charlie, plan on having a covert Halloween party in the empty school. As the buses depart, Michael Myers unnoticeably gains entrance onto the grounds, and disconnects the phone lines.

Later that night, Keri confides in Will that she is really Laurie Strode, the survivor of the 1978 Halloween murders. She had faked her death in a car accident years ago to go into hiding under an assumed name. She prays every year that her brother, Michael Myers, will be unable to find her. While Keri discloses her past to Will, John and his friends continue with their private Halloween party. Myers stalks the unsuspecting teens, and after the pairs separate, kills Charlie and Sarah. John and Molly, concerned that their two friends have not returned, set out to find them. Meanwhile, Keri notices that John’s camping equipment is still in his room and believes him to be somewhere on campus. Worried, she grabs a gun under her pillow and sets out to look for him, with Will in tow.

As John and Molly continue their search, they soon discover the dead body of Sarah, with Michael Myers revealing himself soon after. The two teens escape with Myers in pursuit, eventually ending up outside the doors of the locked dorm. Keri and Will, who could hear the kids’ screaming, get to the locked door moments before Myers catches up to them, and after kids are safely inside, Keri and Michael come face-to-face through the door’s port window. While Keri reaches for her gun, Myers disappears. Afterward, Keri and Will secure the kids in a closet and go looking for the elusive killer. Myers soon emerges, killing Will and prompting Keri to run. She gathers the kids and the three make it to her SUV, driving off toward the school’s front gate. When they arrive, Keri gets out and instructs the kids to drive to the nearest house and call the police. After the vehicle leaves, Keri destroys the gate’s controls, locking herself in with Myers. She grabs a fire axe and sets off into the school looking for Michael.

Upon entering the school’s second level, Keri shouts out at Michael, only to have him come down behind her. Knowing, she strikes him in the chest with the axe, albeit to no effect. The two engage in a game of cat-and-mouse, until Keri is able to surprise Michael, stabbing him numerous times, and pushing him off the second floor balcony to the ground below. Later, after the police arrive, Myers’s body is placed in a body bag and loaded into a coroners’ van. Keri, knowing Michael’s not really dead, grabs her axe and steals the van, driving off with Michael’s body. Under Keri’s watchful eye, Myers eventually escapes the body bag and tries to kill her. Keri slams on the brakes, sending Myers through the windshield. In a desperate attempt to kill him, she drives full speed at Myers, pinning him to the front of the van and then sending the vehicle tumbling down a hill, where it pins Myers against a tree. Keri, now wounded from being thrown from the van, finds her axe and approaches the trapped killer. Michael reaches out to her. Instinctively, she reaches out, and pulls back while remembering everything he’s done to her. Keri chops his heads off with the axe, finally killing him. Michael’s head then rolls down the hill.
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Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Tagline: Terror Never Rest in Peace!
Released: 1995
Starring Donald Pleasence, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan, and Mitch Ryan
Directed by Joe Chappelle
Written by Daniel Farrands and Joe Chappelle (uncredited)

Format: DVD
Distributed by Dimension Films
DVD Release Date: October 10, 2000

Features:
Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1)

Premise: For pulse-pounding suspense and relentless thrills, nothing can match Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers – one of the most frightening chapters in the chilling Halloween series! In a single horrifying night, Michael Myers’s masked reign of terror changed Halloween forever! Now, six years after he was presumed dead in a fire, Myers has returned to kill again – and this time there’s no escape! As the homicidal fury builds to a spine-tingling climax, the long-hidden secrets of the screen’s most maniacal murderer are revealed… with shocking results! Starring a thrilling cast, including legendary Donald Pleasence (Halloween, The Advocate) and Paul Rudd (The Cider House Rules, Clueless).

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): Six years have passed since the events of Halloween 5. Michael Myers, his niece Jamie Lloyd, and the mysterious stranger have all disappeared after the conclusion of the last film; now thought to be dead. Unbeknownst to the public however, the mysterious “Man in Black” had actually kidnapped Jamie and had her impregnated. Jamie (J.C. Brandy) gives birth to a baby boy on Halloween Eve, and with the help of her midwife, manages to escape into the night with her infant. While on the run, she is able to call into a nightly radio show requesting help. Michael Myers, who had been in pursuit since Jamie escaped, eventually catches up to her and finally murders his niece.

Meanwhile, Tommy Doyle (the child Laurie Strode babysat for in the original film, portrayed by Paul Rudd) has his eye on the family who’s moved into the old Myers house. The family living there are extended relatives of Laurie Strode’s adoptive family. Tommy has become obsessed with Michael Myers over the years and plans to be ready if he ever returns. After hearing Jamie screaming for help on the radio show, Tommy retraces her steps, finds the baby, and hides him. Also listening to the radio show was Dr. Loomis, who now retired, is writing a book about his experiences with Myers. Dr. Loomis, along with his old colleague Dr. Terrence Wynn from Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, return to Haddonfield to follow up on Jamie’s plea.

While Loomis and Wynn follow the police trail to Jamie’s body, Michael stalks the Strode family. Danny, the illegitimate son of Kara Strode, has been hearing voices similar to ones Michael heard when he was a child. The voices tell Danny to murder his family, unbeknownst to be the influence of the Man in Black. While Kara and Danny are away at school, Michael murders Kara’s mother, then later her father, brother, and his girlfriend.

Tommy, concerned for the baby, takes him to Haddonfield’s hospital where he runs into Dr. Loomis, who recently arrived with Jamie’s body. He explains to Loomis that Jamie was not the last of Michael’s bloodline and Loomis should meet with him later so he can explain further. Tommy hastily leaves, only to end up confronting Kara Strode about her house’s past. Tommy reveals that Michael has been marked with a runic symbol called Thorn (or Thurisaz), an ancient Druid curse that drives those who are marked with it to wipe out their entire family for the good of civilization. For their safety, Tommy escorts Kara and Danny back to his apartment, and tells them to stay with the baby until he is able to meet with Loomis.

Later, Jamie’s autopsy confirms she recently gave birth, prompting Loomis to meet with Tommy immediately, with Wynn in tow. Tommy and Loomis meet, only to find the baby missing. The plot takes a turn when the Man in Black is revealed to be Dr. Wynn. Wynn, part of a Druidic cult which has been experimenting with pure evil all these years, has kept their work secret within the bowels of Smith’s Grove Sanitarium (where Michael was held for most of his youth). The cult captures Kara, Danny, and the baby, taking them to Smith’s Grove, leaving Loomis and Tommy unconscious.

After regaining consciousness, Tommy and Loomis follow to Smith’s Grove, where Tommy manages to free the imprisoned Kara, and Loomis confronts Wynn. Wynn reveals to Loomis that the baby is to be Michael’s final sacrifice, with the curse being passed on to another, Danny. Wynn then has Loomis knocked out, while he and fellow cult members continue with an experiment, with Danny and the baby held close by. Tommy and Kara, now on the run and with Michael close behind, free Danny and the baby, but not before Michael murders the cult members in a gory bid for the group to expose themselves. In a desperate attempt to hide from Michael, the group takes refuge in a room geared for genetic engineering. Michael soon finds them, though Kara escapes with Danny and the baby, leaving Tommy to confront Michael. Tommy manages to inject Michael with various chemicals, and bludgeons him numerous times with a lead pipe, leaving him for dead. Afterward, the group plans to leave “far away from here,” while Loomis stays behind to “take care of some unfinished business,” never to return.
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Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Tagline: Michael lives… and this time they’re ready!
Released: 1989
Starring Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, and Wendy Kaplan
Directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard
Written by Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othenin-Girard, and Shem Bitterman

Format: DVD
Distributed by Starz/Anchor Bay
DVD Release Date: September 5, 2000

Features:
Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1)
Full-Frame Presentation
Theatrical Trailer
Inside Halloween 5 – Documentary featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage, a cut scene, and interviews with Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, Executive Producer Moustapha Akkad, Cinematographer Rob Draper, and Don Shanks who played Michael Myers.

Premise: Following her mysterious behavior at the conclusion of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, young Jamie (Danielle Harris) is committed to the psychiatric care of Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Meanwhile, Michael Myers is presumed dead following a shootout with the Haddonfield Police and a fatal fall down a mine shaft entrance. But all is not as it seems. A well-meaning derelict nurses Michael back to health, and one year later he is back to kill again! Jamie finds herself the object of Michael’s murderous rage, and along with new friends and Dr. Loomis, she tries to prevent Michael from continuing his bloody rampage. However, there is a new visitor in town – a man dressed in black who quietly walks the streets with an unknown but sinister purpose. Why is he here? What is his connection to Michael? By the end of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, many will be dead – you will be screaming!

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): The film begins with a recap of Michael Myers being shot and falling into the mine shaft from Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Michael finds a way out shortly after falling and stumbles into a nearby river. After floating downstream, he staggers into a small shack by the river owned by a local hermit. Once there Michael collapses and remains in a comatose state for a full year. On October 30th, 1989, Michael reawakens, revealing a mark of the rune Thorn (or Thurisaz) on his right wrist, and kills the hermit. He then returns to Haddonfield, where his young niece, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) continues to live after nearly being killed by Michael the year before.

Jamie has been unable to speak since attacking her foster mother in a state of shock at the end of part four, but exhibits signs of a telepathic link with her evil uncle. Dr. Sam Loomis realizes that this link exists, and plans to use it to put an end to Michael. Michael begins stalking Rachel (Jamie’s foster sister, portrayed by Ellie Cornell), and her friend Tina (Wendy Kaplan). After both are killed, Jamie agrees to put herself in danger to help Loomis stop Michael for good. With Jamie’s help, Loomis lures Michael back to the old Myers house.

Michael makes many attempts to kill Jamie, finally getting the chance to kill her in the attic. In a desperate move, Jamie tries appealing to Michael’s humanity by saying “Uncle.” This causes Myers to pause. When Jamie asks to see his face, he takes off his mask. A lone tear runs down his face. Jamie reaches up to wipe it away, and Michael is thrown into a rage. The killer pursues Jamie who runs into Loomis. The good doctor seems to turn on the girl as he shouts for Michael to come and take her. It turns out that he has used the girl as bait and Michael walks beneath a heavy chain net that is dropped over him. After two ineffectual shots from a tranquilizer gun, Loomis ends up beating him repeatedly with a 2×4. They take Michael to the local police station. However, a mysterious stranger, dressed in all black and marked with the same Thorn rune, has come to Haddonfield. Jamie, sitting in a patrol car outside the station, hears multiple guns shots, followed by an explosion. Jamie gets out of the car and walks through the station, finding bodies of dead police officers. She goes over to Michael’s jail cell to discover that it’s empty. Jamie begins to sob, realizing Myers is once again able to get to her.
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Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Tagline: Ten years ago he changed the face of Halloween. Tonight he’s back!
Released: 1988
Starring Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, and Beau Starr
Directed by Dwight H. Little
Written by Alan B. McElroy

Format: DVD
Distributed by Starz/Anchor Bay
DVD Release Date: October 9, 2001

Features:
Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1)
Halloween 4 “Final Cut” – An all-new 17 minute documentary Produced and Directed by Mark Cerulli
Theatrical Trailer

Premise: It is a decade after the original Halloween massacre in Haddonfield, and Michael Myers lays comatose in a maximum security prison hospital. But when he learns of the existence of his young niece Jamie (Danielle Harris), he escapes to return home and fulfill his destiny of destruction. Can Michael’s relentless killing spree be stopped by Dr. Loomis (the legendary Donald Pleasence) or will this inhuman evil again survive the most frightening night of the year? Halloween 4 marked the triumphant rebirth of the series and is considered by many fans and critics to be the best of all the sequels. This is the Return of Michael Myers like you’ve never seen or heard it before, now loaded with extras and better than ever!

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): Michael Myers has been in a coma since the events of Halloween II, when his massacre was stopped by Dr. Sam Loomis. At the beginning of this film, Myers is being transferred from Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium back to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. He awakens when he hears that Laurie Strode, his sister, is deceased, but her daughter is alive and well in Haddonfield. He kills the ambulance crew and escapes. Dr. Loomis, disfigured from the events of Halloween II, races to Haddonfield in an attempt to bring Myers’s killing spree to an end once and for all.

In Haddonfield, his niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) has been adopted by the Carruthers family. She has frequent nightmares about Michael, though she does not know who he is. On Halloween night, Jamie goes out trick-or-treating dressed as a clown (a costume that is very similar to the one worn by young Michael Myers at the beginning of the original Halloween) with her teenage foster sister Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell). Her uncle, Michael, follows them.

Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield after an exhausting journey, and contacts the police department to inform them of Myers’s escape. He and Haddonfield’s new Sheriff Ben Meeker (Beau Starr) begin to search the town for Michael and Jamie. They find that Myers has singlehandedly annihilated the entire police force and taken out the town’s power. After Loomis manages to locate the two girls, they are taken to the sheriff’s house for protection. While the sheriff attends to the chaos ensuing due to the lack of police coverage, Loomis returns to the Carruthers’ home, thinking Michael will go there looking for Jamie. Soon after, Michael finds Rachel and Jamie at the sheriff’s house, though they manage to elude him and leave Haddonfield. Unbeknownst to them however, Myers managed to hide in the back of the pick-up truck they used to escape. Michael soon emerges and tries to kill Rachel while she frantically tries to drive the vehicle. Eventually, Michael is thrown from truck and Rachel hits him head on, throwing him off the road and knocking him out. After Rachel stops the vehicle, Jamie gets out, goes over to Michael and holds his hand. When Michael rises, the Illinois state troopers catch up to them and shoot Michael relentlessly. He falls into an abandoned mine shaft which collapses on him when the troopers throw dynamite down the shaft.

Back at the Carruthers house, Jamie puts on her clown mask and stabs her foster mother. Dr. Loomis attempts to shoot her, but Sheriff Meeker prevents it. The film ends with a shot of Jamie, wearing the clown mask and the holding bloody scissors, reminiscent of young Michael Myers after killing his older sister Judith.
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Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Tagline: The night no one comes home.
Released: 1982
Starring Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy, and Michael Currie
Directed and Written by Tommy Lee Wallace

Format: DVD
Distributed by Goodtimes
DVD Release Date: May 1, 2001

Features:
Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1)
Foreign Subtitles

Premise: Tom Atkins, who also starred in John Carpenter’s The Fog, uncovers a new kind of Halloween horror in this third entry in the successful series from producer-composer Carpenter (Escape from New York). Dr. Daniel Challis (Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin) stumble onto a series of gruesome murders when her father, who sells Halloween novelties, is killed by an emotionless assassin. An Oscar nominee for The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Dan O’Herlihy is Conal Cochran, a demented toymaker who wants to return the holiday to its dark roots using his Silver Shamrock masks. His unspeakable scheme will unleash death and destruction across the country, unless Challis can stop him in time, in this nightmarish thriller from Tommy Lee Wallace, the director of Stephen King’s It.

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): Halloween III: Season of the Witch takes the Halloween franchise in a new direction, with the intent of creating an anthology based horror series set around the holiday.

On Saturday, October 23, shop owner Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) is chased by mysterious figures wearing business suits. He collapses at a filling station clutching a Silver Shamrock jack-o’-lantern mask and is driven to the hospital by the filling station attendant (Essex Smith), all the while ranting, “They’re gonna kill us. All of us.” Grimbridge is placed under the care of Dr. Daniel “Dan” Challis (Tom Atkins). While Grimbridge is hospitalized, another man in a suit enters his room and pulls his skull apart, killing him immediately. The man then enters his vehicle, douses himself with gasoline and lights himself on fire, causing the car to explode.

Challis, together with Grimbridge’s daughter, Ellie, begins an investigation that leads them to the small town of Santa Mira, California, home of the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory. They learn from a hotel manager, Mr. Rafferty (Michael Currie), that the source of the town’s prosperity is Irishman Conal Cochran and his factory, and that the majority of the town’s population is made up of descendants of Irish immigrants. Challis learns that Ellie’s father had stayed at the same hotel. Other guests of the hotel included shop owners Marge Guttman (Garn Stephens) and the Kupfer family: Buddy (Ralph Strait), Betty (Jadeen Barbor) and their son “Little” Buddy (Bradley Schacter). All have business at the factory and eventually meet gruesome ends because of the Silver Shamrock masks.

A day after arriving in Santa Mira, Challis and Ellie tour the Silver Shamrock factory with the Kupfers and are alarmed to discover Grimbridge’s car in a storage building guarded by more men dressed in suits. They return to their hotel, but find they cannot contact anyone outside Santa Mira. Ellie is kidnapped by the men in suits from the factory, and in an attempt to locate her, Challis breaks into the factory. There he discovers that the men in suits are actually androids created by Cochran. Although Challis succeeds in neutralizing one of the androids (Dick Warlock), he is eventually captured by them, while Cochran reveals his plan to kill children on Halloween night. He explains that the Silver Shamrock trademark on the masks contain a computer chip embedded with a small fragment of a five ton sacrificial stone stolen from Stonehenge. When the Silver Shamrock television commercial airs on Halloween night, the chip will activate, causing the wearers’ heads to dissolve and spew insects and snakes. Cochran further explains that he is attempting to resurrect the more macabre aspects of the Celtic festival Samhain.

Challis escapes, and rescues someone he believes to be Ellie. They manage to destroy the factory and Cochran in the process. However, Challis finds that Cochran replaced Ellie with an android. After destroying it, Challis returns to the same filling station where Ellie’s father had come eight days earlier. Challis contacts the television stations and convinces all but one of the station managers to remove the commercial. The film ends with Challis screaming into the telephone, “Turn it off! Stop it! Stop it!” while the commercial runs uninterrupted.
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Halloween II
Tagline: More of the Night HE Came Home.
Released: 1981
Starring Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Charles Cyphers, and Dick Warlock
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Format: DVD
Distributed by Universal Studios
DVD Release Date: September 18, 2001

Features:
Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1)
Theatrical Trailer
Press Kit Notes

Premise: Picking up right where its predecessor left off, Halloween II follows the same ill-fated characters as they encounter the knife-wielding maniac they left for dead in the first Halloween. Is seems the inhuman Michael Myers is still very much alive and out for more revenge as he stalks the deserted halls of the hospital where Laurie Strode lays waiting. As he gets closer and closer to his terrified target, Dr. Loomis discovers the chilling mystery behind the crazed psychopath’s savage actions. Written by horror masters John Carpenter and Debra Hill, Halloween II is a spine-tingling dark ride into the scariest night of the year.

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): After the film replays a re-shot version of the last scene from Halloween, it moves on to Dr. Sam Loomis warning Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers) that although he has shot Myers six times, Myers still lives. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, while Myers wanders Haddonfield in search of her. One of the EMS attendants, Jimmy Lloyd (Lance Guest) begins to show an interest in her.

Jimmy tells Laurie that the man who attacked her was Michael Myers, the infamous boy who murdered his sister fifteen years earlier on Halloween night. After Jimmy leaves, Laurie drifts in and out of consciousness, having strange flashbacks about her adoption by the Strodes and visiting an unpleasant boy in an institution. Myers soon learns Laurie was taken to the hospital, and after arriving, systematically murders the hospital’s staff one by one. Laurie manages to elude him, but she is limping badly and sedated, thus unable to move very quickly.

Dr. Loomis and the Haddonfield police continue to search the town for the elusive Myers. At the local elementary school they discover Myers has broken into a classroom and scrawled the word Samhain in blood on the chalkboard. Loomis explains that it is a Celtic word that means “lord of the dead,” the “end of summer,” and “October 31st.” Nurse Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), Loomis’s assistant, arrives and tells Loomis that she has discovered a secret file on Myers to which he was not privy. The file reveals that Laurie is actually Myers’s sister, adopted by the Strodes shortly after Myers’s parents died. Chambers also informs Loomis he has strict orders to return to Smith’s Grove from the Governor.

Instead, Loomis forces the escorting marshal (John Zenda) and Chambers to drive him to the hospital, knowing Myers will have already tracked Laurie there. Once again, he finds Laurie in the nick of time, and shoots Myers several times in an effort to stop the murderer, albeit to no avail. Loomis and Laurie are forced to retreat into an operating room, where Laurie shoots Myers in the eyes after Loomis is stabbed by Michael. While Myers swipes at empty air, Loomis turns on the oxygen and ether tanks in the operating room, and motions to Laurie to run. After Laurie escapes, Loomis lights his cigarette lighter, causing an explosion that engulfs him and Myers. A shocked Laurie watches Michael slowly burn to death. The next morning, Laurie is transferred to another hospital, deeply haunted by the night’s events.
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Halloween (1978)
Tagline: The Night HE Came Home!
Released: 1978
Starring Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis, and P.J. Soles
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Format: DVD
Distributed by Starz/Anchor Bay
DVD Release Date: August 5, 2003

Disc 1 Features:
Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16×9 TVs
Audio Commentary with Writer/Director John Carpenter, Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, and Producer Debra Hill

Disc 2 Features:
Halloween – A Cut Above The Rest: An all-new 87 minute documentary featuring interviews with Writer/Director John Carpenter, Actors Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles, Nick Castle, Charles Cyphers, Producer Debra Hill, Director of Photography Dean Cundey, Editor & Production Designer Tommy Lee Wallace, Executive Producers Irwin Yablans, Moustapha Akkad and others!
On Location – 25 Years Later: An all-new 10 minute featurette with Actress P.J. Soles and Producer Debra Hill revisiting the original Michael Myers house
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots
Radio Spots
Poster and Stills Gallery
Talent Bios for John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Donald Pleasence
DVD-ROM: Screenplay
DVD-ROM: Screen Savers

Premise: 25 years ago, director John Carpenter changed the shape of terror forever with the immortal story of babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) and the night that Michael Myers came home. Roger Ebert still proclaims it “superb.” Entertainment Weekly calls it “the granddaddy of teen- slasher flicks, still more primal and frightening than any of the gazillion knock-offs.” 25 years later, Halloween remains one of the greatest horror movies ever made. For this landmark 25th Anniversary Edition, Anchor Bay has created a stunning new high-definition widescreen transfer of the classic film, plus an unprecedented collection of bonus features that will surprise even the most hardcore fans. Celebrate this remarkable milestone in horror history with the ultimate two-disc edition of Halloween like you’ve truly never seen or heard it before!

Plot Breakdown (spoilers): On Halloween night in 1963, six-year-old Michael Audrey Myers (Nick Castle) stabs his seventeen-year-old sister Judith (Sandy Johnson) to death with a large kitchen knife at their home in Haddonfield, Illinois. After his mother and father arrive home and find him in a trance like state, he is immediately sent to Smith’s Grove Warren County Sanitarium in Illinois and placed under the care of child psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). After years of treatment, Loomis begins to suspect there is more to Myers than meets the eye and plans to have him committed indefinitely after a failed attempt to convince the hospital staff that he needs to be placed in a maximum security facility. Loomis, sensing that a tremendous amount of rage and emotion stir behind Myers’s blank catatonic stare, describes Myers, “…this catatonia is a conscience act…he’s waiting….” Loomis is unsure as to what he is waiting for, but is sure that “it” poses a threat. Upon arriving for his transfer to be prosecuted as an adult in 1978, Myers escapes from Smith’s Grove, steal’s Loomis’s car, and returns to Haddonfield. Loomis knows where he is going and pursues him.

In Haddonfield, Myers, who disguised in a mechanic’s suit and white Halloween mask, stalks teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and some of her friends. Laurie occasionally sees a man in a white mask (Michael Myers) from her classroom window, behind a bush while she walks home, and in the clothesline from her bedroom window.

Later in the evening, Laurie meets her friend Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis) who is babysitting Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards) across the street from where she is babysitting Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews). After arranging to pick up her boyfriend, Annie sends Lindsey to stay with Laurie at the Doyle house but is murdered by Myers (who had followed them). Tommy sees him carrying Annie’s body into the Wallace house and thinks Myers is the Boogeyman. Laurie dismisses the boy’s terror and sends Tommy and Lindsey to bed. Later, Laurie’s other friend Lynda Van Der Klok (P.J. Soles) and Lynda’s boyfriend, Robert “Bob” Simms (John Michael Graham) arrive at the empty Wallace house and are soon murdered by Myers.

Laurie, worrying after receiving a strange phone call from Lynda at the Wallace house, walks across the street and discovers the three bodies and Judith Myers’s missing tombstone. She is soon attacked by Myers, but manages to escape back to the Doyle house. Myers follows, gaining entrance into the Doyle house, where Laurie stabs him in the neck with a knitting needle. Thinking her attacker defeated, Laurie checks on the kids, only to have Myers follow. Laurie, after securing the kids in the upstairs bathroom, hides in a bedroom closet, where Michael eventually finds her. In a desperate attempt to save her life, Laurie stabs Myers in the eye with a clothes hanger, and after he drops his knife, stabs him in the torso with it. Michael collapses, allowing Laurie to instruct the kids to run for help. Shortly after, Loomis, who having been working with Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers) to locate Myers, spots Tommy and Lindsey running from the Doyle house. As Laurie tries to leave the room, Myers comes from behind and begins strangling her. Loomis, who followed the commotion, finds Myers in the upstairs hallway and rescues Laurie, shooting Myers six times and causing him to fall from the house’s second-story balcony. Upon looking out the window for Myers’s body, however, Loomis discovers that he is nowhere to be found. “Was that the boogeyman,” cries Laurie. Loomis responds, “As a matter of fact…it was.”
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