Untangling the Halloween Franchise: Every Timeline Explained

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Spooky Season greetings and salutations and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. See anything you like? My name is Chris. I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur, Sean.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

You don't know what death is.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Today we're wrapping up Spooky Season by breaking down all the ways you can watch an iconic franchise. And we're diving into the tangled web that's been woven of the entire Halloween franchise so we can help you make sense of its timelines.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Yeah, because literally there's a lot that goes on with this franchise, and depending on where you start in the franchise, it could literally just be Michael with a knife, it could be some random shape, it could be Lori's brother. We don't even know, right? So you gotta know where to start.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

For sure. So let's start off with some of the basics. The Halloween franchise kicked off in 1978 with John Carpenter's original. Then over four decades, it's grown into 13 films, multiple timelines, a reboot universe, and even a few standalones.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, and it's not even that each film just builds on top of each other and continues the story properly, because at some point you just get movies that erase the ones before it, or erase multiple movies before it, or aren't even part of the actual timeline at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Yeah, and I know that I talk a lot of trash about Friday the 13th's continuity, but uh they're in two separate conversations, right? Because Halloween knows what it's doing, it knows it's erasing shit. Friday the 13th has the illusion of continuity, and then it messes it up. But I think for the first several movies, it actually had more stable continuity than maybe the Halloween franchise, which is the only time I'll ever say that on an episode. Now, what we're gonna do is walk through each continuity, explain what connects to who, and then tell you which order we personally think makes the best viewing experience. And we've actually covered the majority of these films on the show. I'm actually really excited about this, Sean, and also a little sad, but we're only missing two more before our entire coverage is complete.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Wow, that's wild.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

We're gonna have to do rewinds, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

I I'm not letting October go without a Michael Myers episode. It's gonna be an episode of us just playing the Halloween game. Now, while we're not gonna dive into the specifics behind the scenes for each film or its entire plot, you can find that in those episodes that we've done. And I'll be adding links to all those episodes in our show notes so you can follow along with your marathons. Now, I personally make a habit of watching the franchise in its entirety multiple times throughout October, Sean. But what's your usual approach?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Well, ideally, I love to try to get through all of them if I can, much like yourself, right? And what ends up happening is like I'll start off really strong and then I'll realize that I'm quickly getting to Halloween, so I'll have to like prioritize which ones I start watching. So I try to watch as many as I can, but in actuality, I end up maybe skipping a few in between, which is not always maybe the best way to do it, but depending on which ones you skip, you can kind of like jump into your own timeline of things.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

You absolutely can. Now, what I'm curious to see is looking back, which ones do you end up skipping the most subconsciously? Like you were just talking about Fright Night last night and how Ari you have the question of which one do we watch? And then she keeps picking the remake, even though she loves the original. So I'm wondering if there's like that unconscious bias for you.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, I mean, naturally, I will start with Halloween 1978, right? Like, that's just the way you start. So you start there, you get to Halloween too. I love Season of the Witch. I'm just, it's been something that I've always loved because it's just its own thing, but I feel like I just have to get there. So I'll watch that, and then I'll at some point realize that, like, oh, I really want to skip ahead. Because I actually do like to get to some of the later ones too, because they got a really cool vibe to them. So I end up honestly skipping sometimes somewhere in between four, five, six, not all of them, but those are the three that I feel like I skip a lot.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, I wish I could say that I skip, but I actually watch each movie multiple times at the expense of not watching other Halloween movies. Now we have a separate bonus episode on some of the best horror movies set on Halloween night, but I think what's important is let's just lay down the foundation and go through the 13 films that comprise this franchise. And technically, Michael Myers isn't every single one, it just depends on how much you want to credit it. So we start off with the original vision, Halloween, 1978. We then have Halloween 2, 1981, which if you saw The Strangers Chapter 2 but have not seen this movie, you should go watch this movie because it's gonna be a better version of The Strangers Chapter 2.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yikes.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Then we have Halloween 3, Season of the Witch. This is the one that you can honestly watch completely standalone without messing anything up. And in fact, in this movie, Halloween exists as a movie, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So Michael Myers, you do see him on a TV in an ad that's playing for Halloween, so you have that option.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah, it's actually kind of fun if you're watching the movie and you see it and you're like, oh, look, they did this thing. We got Michael in there.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

It's even better because Dick Warlock is in this movie in Season of the Witch, and he plays Michael Myers in Halloween 2.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah. Well, for just a second, let's just stop here for just a second because there may be people that don't really understand why Halloween 3 exists.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Essentially, the original vision was for Halloween to just exist on its own, and then John Carpenter got essentially forced to make Halloween 2, wrote it with a six-pack of beer. And then the pay for that was essentially okay, no, but this is the last time I'm doing this, and we want to do an anthology. We want to make more Halloween and explore different shades of Halloween. So seen as Season of the Witch came, and there's a lot of turmoil. We talked about this a lot on the episode. You had a director who often had his work kind of double-checked and reassessed by John Carpenter himself. So this was a little bit of a hot mess, but it was the original vision of okay, if we have to keep making these movies, we want to make anthologies specifically.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

What a wild time that would have been if that actually carried over.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

But you know what? This is where I think we should come back. I want more Michael Myers 100%, but I also want more of this. Like, give me some more of that continuity, the Silver Shamrock of it all. I think it's it's a lot of fun. And we also saw Silver Shamrock make a comeback in the Blumhouse trilogy, which we'll discuss later with a little bit of Easter egg. I was just setting up my NECA figures yesterday, Sean, and I have the set from the trick-or-treaters from Halloween 3. And they have like a little TV prop. I was setting them up so they're all watching. And on the mask, like even the silver shamrock, even the silver shamrock emblem is there, and it looks really good, it's really high value. But then when I looked at the Halloween kills Michael Myers that I have, he comes with a prop that's the skeleton mask all bloodied up. Cool. But when you look at the back of the mask, it also has the silver shamrock emblem.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah, it's the little touches, it's the attention to detail 100%. Now, obviously, that movie didn't do super well financially, so they returned to Michael Myers with Halloween, the return to Michael Myers in 1988. Bring them back. Now, this is where you really explore the Thorn trilogy. We're gonna get into that in just a moment. But we also have Halloween five, The Revenge of Michael Myers in 1989. These are the two films that star Danielle Harris, who has become a scream queen in her own right and some of her finest work as a child actor.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

For sure. Absolutely, which is always unfortunate, is why somehow I end up skipping past these. Because I always what ends up happening is I watch Halloween one, two, season of the witch, and then I end up skipping past these more often than not. I try not to, but because I do really enjoy H2O, so I try to get to H2O, and then I I actually will also admit that I skip the Rob Zombie ones a lot too, because I'm like, I I really also want to get to the Blumhouse trilogy, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

So listen, you heard it here first, folks. Sean, the Rob Zombie guy, still skips the Rob Zombie movies. I can't wait to unpack that later. Then, of course, we have Paul Rudd making his screen debut in Halloween the curse of Michael Myers. You can watch this or the producer's cut, you have options. Then we have Halloween H2O 20 years later, Laurie Strode lives. I can't wait to get into the story of this in particular. But then we have Halloween Resurrection in 2002. We have then a five-year gap before Rob Zombie takes a crack at it. So we have Halloween from 2007 and Halloween 2 from 2009. Then, of course, nine years later, we are once again rebooting with our third film named Halloween. We have Halloween 2018 for the Blum House trilogy, followed subsequently by Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, where so far the franchise is at rest.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

What a journey.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

It is quite the journey. But you know what? The real journey is the friends that we make along the way. So let's go through all the different ways that you can watch this franchise. Now, Sean, I don't know about you, but sometimes there's just some things in life where you want to be a purist about it. Do you have anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

You know, yeah, I guess yes. Like, I not in the sense of a franchise, but in the sense of like, if anyone asks me, like, do you want to watch a Dracula or do you want to watch this? Or you know what I mean? If you want to watch the mummy with Brendan Fraser, I'm not gonna say yes off the bat to any one of those things. I'm gonna go ahead and start with the originals because that's where I feel like I'm a purist.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

100%. And actually, it's gonna make you really sad that I watched The Mummy with Brendan Fraser before I watched the mummy. Before I watch the mummy.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Listen, it happens. And I'm not saying I don't have fun with the Brendan Fraser mummies. Like they are fun movies, right? Like I enjoy them, but if I really want to set the mood for a mummy film, it's not gonna start there, and it's certainly not gonna be the fucking Tom Cruise one.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

So yeah, I still refuse to watch it. I watched Bubba Hotep before I watched that movie.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

But what you can do, if you just want to be a purist, if you want to go straight to the original vision of this movie, you will go with the movie that started it all following 1978. I'm so excited. We actually get to watch this in theaters together today.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Super excited. This is your first time watching it in theaters.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

First time that I will be able to enjoy this movie in theaters, which I'm super stoked about.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

It's gonna be magical. Honestly, I got chills. I watched this in theaters in 2016, and when you hear the score in a theater setting, it just hits differently.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Oh, I bet. This bucket list items, this is definitely one of them, so I can mark this off. But I also haven't seen Halloween in a drive-in, and I really want to see it in that format too.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

I haven't seen it in a drive-in either.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Bucket list.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Next Halloween, we gotta find a place that's doing it. Now, again, this movie wasn't originally intended to be anything else. So if you want this movie to exist in line with John Carpenter's initial wish, this is where you start and this is where you end.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

But also, where would the fun be? So let's go into what I affectionately refer to as the more money, more problems timeline.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Not the more money, more problems.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

It's true. Listen, when the slasher subgenre really took off, you had looking backwards, Halloween with a little less violence, but also it really perfected the slasher formula. So there was room on the table for more financial success. At this point, we already have right in the 13th, and John Carpenter was really pressured into making a sequel. He wrote this one while he was drinking a six-pack of beer.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

It's the six-pack of beer that really gets me every time. Like the fact that he just like, fuck it, let me just knock back these cold ones and and just write out this movie real quick.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Yeah, and this is actually the classic Lori Strode's Michael's sister timeline, which he often cites as a big regret. It's something that he doesn't actually like.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

That's so interesting because I think that's something we all love.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah, well, I appreciate both sides of it. I think because it's become something that I've just known for so long. Yes, I have this like affectionate tie to it, but I also love the mystique and the mystery of the original Halloween, where Michael Myers was just this little fucked-up kid next door who seemed perfectly fine and a really cute little kid, and then suddenly murdered his 16-year-old sister. What? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

True.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Really, what we get here is you start with Halloween from 1978, and then you go straight into Halloween 2 from 1981, which very impressively picks up the same night as the original film, and it introduces that sibling twist later on.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Yeah, I mean, it's always good when we can pick up right where the last one left off, and especially thinking of like this one not being made right after this movie. You know, there's some movies that pick up the continuity, but they were literally either filmed at the same time or they were filmed like within the next year. This one was multiple years later, so the fact that they were able to actually pick up pretty well right where the last one left off feels good.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

A hundred percent. And this is also a really fun one to play where you can just break down the continuity errors between the two. Like, for example, you have in one film a lush green yard, and then the other film dirt. But you know, Loomis goes down and just touches and feels a lot of blood. It's just those little things like that. And of course, Jamie Lee Curtis didn't have the same hair that she had in 1978, so she wears a blonde wig in this one.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah, I mean, you gotta work with what you got, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 14:02

But you do, you do, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, what I love about this though is it matches the energy and the violence that we get in other slasher films, but it still feels very Halloween for me. So for me, this feels like very one and the same. Now, this is where you can also squeeze in Season of the Witch 1982, because again, yes, the Midas Touch, they got money from Halloween 2 1981, and then they flew a little too close to the sun with Season of the Witch, and it was before its time, they weren't ready.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

No, no, they weren't ready, but it is a good place to squeeze it in because I feel like if you're watching this for the spooky season, it just adds like a nice touch to the vibes because it has such great Halloween vibes.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

It absolutely does. Now, this is where you have those first three films, and it's like, okay, no, but really we're done. This is it. John Carpenter's walking away at this point.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Wash my hands of this.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Exactly. So to catch up, that was Halloween, then Halloween two, then Halloween season of the witch. Now we go into the Thorn trilogy, which again introduces Jamie Lloyd, who is Lori's daughter. But they have the task of having to handle why we don't have Jamie Lee Curtis in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

So they completely write her out.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Yep. It's pretty wild, actually. Yeah. Well, this is this is where she dies.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

In this canon, and again, this is just to set you up. This isn't like a huge spoiler alert, but in this canon, when we pick up in Halloween four, Lori does not exist anymore.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Her daughter's a character that we focus on and follow because she is with a foster family.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

And sh her mom died in a car accident.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Right. Okay. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Now this actually explores a lot more of the Michael mythos, right? So you have to obviously have the continuity of the brother-sister angle because this is no longer just Michael hunting down his sisters, this is hunting down Halloween bloodlines.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Oh my gosh. It gets a little bit wild here, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

It does. There's a baby involved later in this franchise. Paul Rudd comes in, you got cults.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Cults and weird, all kinds of weird shit. Yeah, the baby of it all was a little bit out there for sure. Paul Rudd, that whole thing, I don't know about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah. Now, what's interesting is that this actually also explores an element and an aspect of the original film that was written in the novelization for the original film. Oh, really? Yeah. If you haven't read the Halloween book, the actual physical copy of it is really hard to find. You can find it electronically. Okay. That's easier to get your hands on. There's also a great rendition that's like nice and hardcover by Printed in Blood. I got it last year. Nice. And I've left it sealed because on Halloween I'm gonna crack it open and just start rereading the novelization. It's gonna be sick.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Now, if you want to explore this continuity, the Thorn trilogy, yeah. You start with Halloween 1978, you transition into Halloween 2, 1981, and then you do Halloween, The Return of Michael Myers from 1988, Halloween 5, The Revenge of Michael Myers from 1989, and lastly wrap it up with Halloween six, which is just Halloween, The Curse of Michael Myers.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Listen, it's not a bad one to watch. Like you said, if you want to really start from where it started and kind of go with obviously there's a little bit of a rough patch there with season of the witch, right, which we talked about earlier, but if you really want to get like the semi-original vision for Michael Myers, right? Before we started having other people pick up all these different things, this is where it's at, and probably what most people are familiar with, at least from maybe our generation.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Absolutely. Now the great thing is that you did have the Akkad family very close to this and just their hands were in it, which is why I can, at least for me, I'm completely fine with the level of restarts, reboots, refreshes, because at least uh while it changes studio hands and it changes creative vision from directors, etc., at least they are the central force of the as the rights owners who just try to keep a a nice through line. Now, what kills me is in this movie, and and I know that I I describe this as the the son that you don't love, who's not a good son, but but you love him anyway because he's your son. I have grown a little bit more distaste for the revenge of Michael Myers, specifically because of the director.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

We'll talk about that more later. But getting into our next timeline, our next option of continuity, we have what happens if Lori didn't die.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Let's explore that for a second.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah, so the great thing is that Jamie Lee Curtis in all her power said, Hey, the 20th anniversary of this film that's launched my career is now coming back around. We should do something special. So she reaches out to John Carpenter, she reaches out to Deborah Hill, and she says, We got one more in us, baby. She wanted to do it as a thank you to them. And she wanted to do this as a thank you to not only them for starting her career, but also to the fans that started her career with all that support and Halloween 1978. So this movie started with the best of intentions. For sure. And I cannot wait for you all to get to listen to the H2O episode that we just did. It's releasing on Halloween, so you can get to enjoy that. But essentially, this franchise uh takes a turn here because this entry ignores everything that came after Halloween 2. That wasn't always the case. There was a moment where there was a lot of consideration for keeping the Thorn trilogy canon.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

And there are some vague hints to that in the movie. But officially, this movie goes Halloween, Halloween 2. Then you had Lori faking her death, moving to California, and raising Josh Hartnett.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

We love raising Josh Hartnett. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

You had to get a little Josh Hartnett in there. It is the 90s, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

It absolutely is. It absolutely is. And after that came Halloween Resurrection.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Listen, I don't know how you feel about this movie, Sean. And I guess we'll find out when we review it next year. But also, I unapologetically love this movie. It's not great, but it's not fun.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

It's not a great one, but it is kind of a fun one. You got Buster rhymes in there, you know what I mean? It's got some good one-liners in there too. I think there's like one of my favorite quotes from that movie is trick-or-treat, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yeah, absolutely. That's the good shit. Now, Halloween Resurrection and a lot of the reason why it gets the hate it does for a decision that it makes at the beginning, I'm personally okay with it because that decision came straight from Jamie Lee Curtis herself. And it was a little bit of a power move, so to speak. Now, if you want to really follow up on this franchise in this continuity, you're then gonna be joining a reality show at the Myers House, and Buster Rhimes dropkicks Michael Myers. It's canon, it happens.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Gotta love it.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Yeah, he's got the kung fu moves. So this continuity, and again, this is just the Lori Lives continuity, is Halloween 1978, Halloween 2 1981, Halloween H2O 20 years later, 1998, and Halloween Resurrection from 2002.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

And there it is. That's the power four for this one. But these aren't the ones you skip. These are not the ones I skip. Yeah. So this is kind of right now, we're kind of in this territory where this is like actually if you throw Season of the Witch in there, this is kind of the timeline that I watch more often.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

You know how they Make sandwiches and they name them after people.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah. This is like the Sean special, the Sean combo. The Sean bow.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

The Sean bow. We love it.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Which is surprisingly enough, excluding the next two entries, which I would have expected to be in the Sean special, which is Rob Zombie's Halloween.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Yeah. I mean, listen, I do enjoy the Rob Zombie Halloween for what they are. I do think that it, you know, when you compare them to the original Halloween, I don't think you can. I think that Halloween 1978 and Halloween 2 by far gonna outshine. But I do think that there was this level of intensity in Rob Zombie's Halloween that I do appreciate. I just think it started to go off the rails a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

That shit went off the rails in the first few minutes of the movie, Sean.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

I think he just had to find a way to like feature his wife even more.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah, okay. We get then into the second movie of it all. Okay, sure. This is the Rob Zombie universe. It's a full reboot, it's a reimagination, a reinterpretation. It's new continuity, new tone with no connection to the original, apart from reinterpreting the source material. So, as you mentioned, it's that gritty reimagining. And it explores and spends a lot of time on Miles Michael's childhood because, yeah, that's exactly what we fucking needed. We needed more of his childhood. And come on, sir. We didn't need that. Now, what's also frustrating is that this movie excluded and ignored some of the other potential for what happens in Michael's childhood. We get a little bit of it in Smith's Grove, but there was so much other shit that happens in Smith Grove that would have been ripe for this kind of content. So Halloween 2 then takes us in a totally different direction. It's way more psychological, it's way more surreal. And I I love that you appreciate the reinvention, but I personally see it as being way too far from what Halloween was. I do think the best thing he did was in the second half of the first Halloween movie he did, and we get Daniel Harris returning to the franchise as Annie. And the decisions that he makes surrounding Annie, I'm a big fan of. And I think she continues to be the shining spot in those movies for me.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

And I can't wait to actually review Halloween to I I know. We're like two years out from that, I think. It hurts me to even say it. I can't even get it out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

It's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

But I am excited to revisit Halloween 2007 before reviewing Halloween 2009. But hey folks, if you want to be fucking down with Rob Zombie and you don't want an old 70s movie, you can in fact just watch Halloween 2007 and Halloween 2 from 2009. That is an option to you.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

You know, there may be people out there that actually prefer this one.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

No, no, no, no, no. That's rough. Yeah. I also want to shout out one of my uh team members at work. I guess it's a jeep thing to duck Jeeps.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

It starts with a Wrangler and then I guess it expanded to some other Jeeps. She gave me a little Halloween Michael Myers rubber ducky, but it is the Rob Zombie version. However, it's thought that counts. So I'm still cool with it. This is the most affection I'll ever show for Tyler Main as Michael Myers.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Alright, well.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

I'm okay with him fucking being tall. I'm not okay with him having that long scraggly hair and a beard and then talking in the second movie. Okay, we're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

I get ya.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

We'll get there, we'll get there. So you have the Rob Zombie continuity. Then we get into the more recent addition to this franchise, the Blumhouse trilogy, the modern timeline. Now, this one starts with David Gordon Green's Halloween 2018, but it ignores everything after the 1978 original. So that means Lori is not Michael's sister, she's instead a survivor who spent 40 years preparing for his return. How did you feel about that take when it was announced?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Uh it's an interesting take, but in my mind, she's just like his sister still, right? So, like, I feel like even though they do negate everything past 1978, right? So Halloween 2 and whatever, up until Halloween 2018. To me, I just always still see it in my mind as they're still related for some reason. That's just still in the back of my mind. So it's just there. But I'm not mad at it. I think it's still a great continuation of the story, and it still works really well.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah, I do think it works really well. I love not having the brother-sister angle. I'm okay with it just being a random act, but what I don't love is losing the continuity from Halloween 2 with how much she endured in one night. Because I do think that decision and doing it that way almost hollows out for me what she's still traumatized by like this is 40 years later. So that's where I have a little bit of a of a umbrage with, but I do think that it continues the story nicely. Now, I do also think that it fumbles the ball a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yeah, for sure. But I see what you're saying, like, and I think you've even talked about this. Like, is there a way to cut in part of Halloween 2 into this so that you can have that piece that it's missing going into 2018?

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Yeah, now you have this continuity with Halloween 1978, Halloween 2018, Halloween Kills 2021, and Halloween ends in 2022. But here's why this works for me. Halloween Kills, a lot of it takes place at Haddon Film Memorial Hospital. And there is a moment where we are introduced to Sheriff Brackett, who's now a security guard, and he has a little flashback to Annie. And what clip do they use of Annie?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Oh, what clip is it that they use?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

They use the clip of her being wheeled out of the house in Halloween 2.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

That's right. So they are still taking snippets from Halloween 2. Wow, actually never connected that dot.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

A tiny, tiny little snippet more. It's enough for me to latch on to. That random bullshit in H2O with the fact that she had to fake her death.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

That for me canonizes the Thorn trilogy. This little snippet with this little flashback canonizes Halloween 2. That's all I need. You give me a centimeter, I'm taking 30 miles.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Yeah. You give an inch, you take a mile for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah. So again, you can watch Halloween from 1978, then pick right back up in 2018, 2021, and then 2022. But what I do think is fun, that's one continuity, is to think about different mashups. Yeah. Have you ever created your own Frankenstein of the franchise?

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Well, I would say yes, because really, you know, what ends up happening is if I want to watch some kind of order that doesn't throw you off the rails too much, right? It is technically Halloween 1978, Halloween 2, and then going into the Blumhouse trilogy, right? So I think like that can be a really good mashup. Otherwise, I don't think I really mash it up too much, other than skipping from Halloween 1978, Halloween 2, and going straight into Halloween H2O, which is already a timeline.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Yeah, for sure. Now, another thing that you can do, people do, I think as you just mentioned, right? Halloween, Halloween 2, H2O, and then the Blumhouse trilogy, because it adds a little bit more dimension and that weight. So the 20-year meetup and then the 40-year meetup.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

The only thing with that for me is like, what happened to Josh? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Fuck Josh.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

He just disappeared.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Yeah, again, I think I need to carve out some time. Maybe the next time I take vacation, I just need to get my hands on the files of these movies, and I'm gonna make the cris cut. I'll share it with everybody on Patreon, then you and I can have a watch along of the cris cut and just see how it goes. Because here's the thing, Sean. For me, I also watched the TV cut of Halloween, which has other scenes in it.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Have you ever seen it?

SPEAKER_00 30:37

I don't know if I've seen, or maybe I have watched a TV cut, but I don't remember it because maybe it was a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

So when Halloween 1978 came to television, they had to add some time to it. And what they do is they add a couple scenes. One, you have the hearing with Dr. Loomis at Smith's Grove, and it's basically him trying to like stop the transfer from happening in the first place. This is where we learn Michael Myers' middle name. And then we also have later on where Lori Strode is getting ready, and Linda comes over to her house to borrow the blouse from Lori that she ends up wearing that night.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yeah, I feel like I've probably seen that at some point when it was aired on TV.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Yeah, so I need the TV cut of Halloween, I need the producer's cut of Halloween 6, and I just need to fuck around with some stuff, and I think we can make something nice. Now, another thing that you could do is you could then go to the Lori Strode saga, which isn't really anything canonical, but you could watch Halloween 1978, Halloween 2 1981, then you could watch Halloween H2O 20 years later, Halloween Resurrection, Halloween 2007, Halloween 2009, then Halloween 2018, Halloween Kills, Halloween Inns, basically everything except Season of the Witch and the Thorn trilogy. You could watch all of those just to see Lori's arc.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

That's an option.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

I don't know why you want that option, but it's there for you. You can do it. I have to know, Sean. What is your personal favorite way of watching this franchise?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Well, listen, all timelines aside, right? I really just enjoy watching one as many of these as I can squeeze in, but realistically, I think my favorite preference of just like trying to get as much out as possible while still getting to some of these more modern ones is literally to do Halloween 1978, Halloween 2, Season of the Witch, because you have to have it. In my mind, you have to have it. So it's like a good little, what do we call it? Like a a palette cleanser, a palette cleanser or an intermission. You know what I mean? Like, hey, we're we're stopping here for a second. Let me show you this side story really quick that kind of still fits the vibe. And then we go into like Halloween H2O and Resurrection and then into 2018 and through the Blumhouse trilogy. So, like, that's kind of like if I had to get it done, that's probably what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

I like it. My problem is that they're all my favorites, Sean. And here's what I do I watch on one day Halloween, and then the following day, I'll watch Halloween and Halloween two, then I'll watch Halloween three, standalone, then I watch Halloween one, Halloween two, Halloween and Return of Michael Myers, then Halloween five, then Halloween six. And then I go back and I watch the first Halloween, I watch Halloween two, I watch H2O, then I watch Resurrection, and then I watch just the Rob Zombie movies, and then I watch You Bet It! Halloween 1978, and then Halloween 2018 kills and ends. So I watch every fucking continuity and I repeat watch Halloween 1978.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Amazing. So there's a couple things that stand out here. One, you almost watch Halloween 1978 as much as you watch every other Halloween movie, right? In that year, because you're going back and restarting it, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

I think it's important to ground ourselves in the story.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

It's great. The other thing that stands out is you still make time for the Rob Zombie Halloweens, even though you hate them.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

I do. I do. And then you know what happened, Sean? When it strikes midnight on Halloween, I'm always awake. Sure. So I start the franchise, and here's where I will change the order based on preference. I'll probably start with Halloween and Halloween 2 because I prefer to, but I kind of get the bullshit out of the way. So I'll get the Rob Zombie movies out of the way, and then I'll watch The Curse of Thorn, I'll watch Season of the Witch, and then I carry on with the rest of the franchise from there. I'll try to also do the Blum House trilogy earlier in the day because my preference, if you time it just right, is to watch the original Halloween and then Halloween 2 1981 because when you again when you time it, I did it perfectly last year. You actually end Halloween 2 on November 1st, just like it ends in the movie. Oh yeah, it's it's definitely my preference of things.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Very nice. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Yeah. Now, folks, you have so many ways that you can watch this franchise. So a little advice if you've never seen them before, obviously you've heard me say Halloween, I don't know how many times in this episode, just pick a lane and know what you're getting into. Similar to Star Wars, you have to find the right point to jump into Star Wars to really find your groove. Don't watch the original if you need something more modern. I made that mistake one time with an ex-girlfriend, showed her a new hope, she fell asleep. Showed her Revenge of the Sith, she was like, oh shit, this is great. Let's okay, I'm invested, let's revisit. So that's what you have to do here, right? Also, I know that I'm on some crazy level of shit here, but don't marathon all 13 in a single order unless you want to feel like you've slipped into the multiverse.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Just find the order that works for you.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Yeah, start with the original and then branch out. Each timeline is a different what if story, right? What if Laurie died? What if she didn't? What if Michael was in the cult? What if he wasn't her brother at all? That's what makes Halloween fascinating, right? It's not just one story, it's like 30 stories in one. It's like in its own anthology. So not no. They still kind of got what they wanted.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yeah, for sure. And it's kind of cool. It's like one of those books where you like choose your path, you know?

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yeah, a little choose your own adventure. So we want to know what adventure you're choosing, right? Or you have it every Halloween timeline untangled, at least until the next reboot inevitably arises from the grave, which I welcome personally.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

It's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

I'm open to it. We're also gonna post our recommended watch orders on Patreon and Discord so you can see which timeline fits your style. So that means you can be Team Thorn, Team H2O, Team Grandma with a shotgun. You have you have options.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Love it. We love it. And if you've got your own preferred order, we also want to hear that. So you can drop that in the comments or tag us online so we can kind of collaborate and see maybe there's something we haven't heard of. I don't know. We're curious, but if you want to find out how you can go further than this episode, consider supporting the show by visiting patreon.com/slash hackerslash. This is truly where you can enjoy even more of the show, including bonus content like this with early access for episodes as well, extended episodes with our B sides, which are free sides for the spooky season, by the way, and movie nominations and of course live shows.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember evil doesn't die. It changes shape.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

I've said goodbye to my boogeyman.