“The Shape” Returns To Theaters This October In Re-Releases Of The Original ‘Halloween’, ‘Halloween 4’, And ‘Halloween 5’
Evil never dies… First reported by the good people at Bloody Disgusting, the season of Samhain draws closer, and with it will come an inundation of classic horror movies coming back to the big screen this October for one big nostalgia bash of frights all month long. Among them are the original Halloween (1978), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989).
In partnership with CineLife Entertainment, Trancas International Films will screen the three movies at 400 theaters across the United States and Canada. Malek Akkad, CEO of Trancas International, and son of longtime executive producer, the late Moustapha Akkad (Halloween to Halloween: Resurrection), is glowing like a Jack-O’-lantern over the joint effort that’s bringing Michael Myers back for another theatrical run this pumpkin season.
“Seeing Halloween in theatres is unlike anything else. It’s the way the film was intended to be experienced,” said Akkad (per BG).
“For many families and fans, revisiting Halloween in theatres has become a seasonal tradition—an annual chance to share the suspense, the dread, and the terror of Michael Myers on the big screen. We’re proud to once again partner with CineLife Entertainment® to bring not just Halloween, but also Halloween 4 and Halloween 5, to audiences everywhere,” he added.
Check your local listings for showtimes.
Released in 1978, John Carpenter’s groundbreaking ‘slash-terpiece’ Halloween begins on October 31st, 1963, in the fictional (but very familiar) town of Haddonfield, Illinois, when six-year-old Michael Myers (Will Sandin) stabs his older sister, Judith (Sandy Johnson), to death with a butcher knife that’s almost as long as his arm.
The very young Michael is committed to the Smith’s Grove sanitarium, where he would spend the next fifteen years being treated by Dr. Sam Loomis (the late/great Donald Pleasance). He was told that there was nothing left of this child. No reason. No conscience. No understanding ̶ in even the most rudimentary sense ̶ of life, or death. Of good or evil. Right, or wrong.
He meets the boy with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes – “the Devil’s eyes.” Loomis spends eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up. Because Dr. Loomis realized that what was living behind Michael’s eyes was purely and simply…evil
Then, when this evil turned twenty-one years of age, the court ordered a hearing to determine his future. The good doctor goes to personally oversee the transfer (with the Thorazine ready), but what the hospital staff didn’t expect was for Michael (Masked: Nick Castle/Unmasked: Tony Moran) to finally wake from his dark catatonia and escape. Dr. Loomis tried warning the hospital about how dangerous Michael truly was, but nobody listened.
They refuse to believe that he was even capable of driving all the way back to Haddonfield, but Loomis already knows that’s exactly where he’s going. It’s going to be a long Halloween for that fake Illinois town, but even more so for high-schoolers Annie (Nancy Loomis), Lynda (P.J. Soles), and, most certainly, a nerdy babysitter named Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis). Because this is the night that Michael Myers has come home.
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Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers takes place 10 years after the events of the first two films. It completely ignores everything that happened in the underrated Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
Having survived the hospital explosion at the conclusion of Halloween II (1981), a badly burned Michael Myers (Tom Morga and George P. Wilbur) awakens from a coma on October 30th, 1988, and he escapes from custody after being transferred from the Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium back to the highly incompetent Smith’s Grove Sanitarium.
With Laurie out of the picture, he sets his sights on her daughter, Jamie Lloyd (the extremely awesome Danielle Harris), with whom he shares a psychic connection. However, hot on his trail is fellow explosion survivor, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence).
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers takes place right after Halloween 4. Showing serious signs of homicidal urges, the young Jamie Llyod (Harris) is remanded to the custody of her uncle’s former doctor, Samuel Loomis (played again by a highly inebriated Pleasance, or so the legend goes).
Michael was presumed dead after catching a hail of gunfire from the Illinois state police and plunging into a mineshaft at the end of the last movie, but it’s obvious that they’re not paying attention to his track record with death. As the psychic bond between him and Jamie grows stronger, Michael sets out with his trusty kitchen knife to sever that connection…along with her spinal cord.
John Carpenter’s Halloween is currently available to stream for free on Xumo Play, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is streaming on AMC+, and the same goes for Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.
