Halloween: Revisiting the Thorn Trilogy
The good, the bad, and the baffling of parts four through six
It’s the first day of October, so what better topic to discuss than the Halloween franchise? I know. I’ve spent more than a few words on the franchise over the years, but can you blame me? Michael Myers is to Halloween as Santa is to Christmas, and these three films helped to return him to prominence. It’s easy to forget now, but Michael Myers was nowhere near as popular in the late-1980s as some of his slasher contemporaries. Going into 1988, Jason Vorhees (and one Jason Vorhees impersonator) had headlined seven films in the Friday the 13th franchise, and Freddy Krueger had already been the star of three films in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series despite only starting in 1984. Michael Myers had only appeared in the original Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) before being left out of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) altogether. Michael Myers was out of sight and out of mind for the better part of a decade dominated by the horror subgenre he helped create. What has since become known as the “Thorn Trilogy” changed all of that.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) directed by Dwight H. Little
“Ten years ago he changed the face of Halloween. Tonight, he’s back.” That’s how the poster for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers announced the triumphant return of The Shape to the big screen. It also prominently featured the masked face of Michael Myers that can best be described as “false advertising.” While this is by no means a perfect Halloween film, it’s still easily the best since the original up to this point. The opening montage during the title sequence perfectly captures the feeling of Halloween in the Midwest.
From there, the film is carried by its cast. Ellie Cornell does a fine job in the lead as Rachel the babysitter, but the real stars are Donald Pleasance (reprising his role as Dr. Loomis) and Danielle Harris as Jamie, the orphaned daughter of Laurie Strode who apparently died offscreen between films.
The premise of this one is pretty straightforward. Michael Myers (who has been comatose since the events of Halloween II) regains consciousness, does some murders, and then makes his way back to Haddonfield to try and murder Jamie (his niece). Jamie also has some sort of strange (possibly supernatural) link to her uncle. She has frequent visions and nightmares of him in his new mask before he even puts it on for the first time. There are plenty of spooky moments and fun kills throughout this entry. Michael even kills someone with a gun (but not in the way you’d expect). Tom Morga and George P. Wilbur both do a solid job as Michael Myers (Morga plays him pre-mask while Wilbur plays him with mask), though the padding of the suit makes him look more like a linebacker than the lean killer from the first two films. This entry also has arguably the best cliffhanger ending of the entire series. Can’t wait to see how it’s handled in the sequel!
All in all, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers achieves exactly what it sets out to do. It injects much needed life back into the franchise, and it returns Michael Myers to his status as one of the scariest horror movie villains of all time. Audiences apparently agreed as it made $17.8 million at the box office on a $5 million budget. That all but guaranteed a sequel would be rushed into production to hit cinemas the following year.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard
The first thing Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers does is undo the incredible cliffhanger ending of the previous film. Not a great sign of where things are headed with this film. Danielle Harris, Donald Pleasance, and Ellie Cornell all reprise their roles from the previous film, but two of those roles are greatly diminished. Danielle Harris as Jamie still plays an important part, but now she’s entirely mute and spends most of the film trying to communicate to the rest of the characters where Michael Myers (now played by Don Shanks) is based on a psychic link she has with her murderous uncle. I am never a fan of leaning too far into the supernatural when it comes to Michael Myers, so this gimmick really falls flat for me. It also reduces Danielle Harris’s Jamie to little more than a plot device after she had gotten so much character development in the previous film. Even worse is what happens to Ellie Cornell’s Rachel. Spoiler alert for this thirty-five year old movie, but she is killed off by Michael Myers barely twenty minutes into the film. That leaves Loomis as the sole returning character with any real agency. Unfortunately, Loomis spends most of this movie being a real piece of shit. He treats Jamie terribly throughout the movie and comes across as an unhinged madman for much of the runtime. Taking over the final girl role from the dearly departed Rachel is Tina (played by Wendy Kaplan). Tina is a radically different character than Rachel or Laurie before her. She’s much more of a hyperactive party girl. It’s an interesting change up for this franchise, and I don’t think it really works. She’s a difficult character to sympathize with in comparison to those other two.
Far and away the most important addition to the franchise to come from this film is the mysterious Man in Black (not Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones). Also played by Don Shanks, the Man in Black is a character dressed (you guessed it!) all in black including a black trench coat, hat, silver tipped black boots, and carrying a black bag. He also has a tattoo on his forearm of some kind of ancient rune. Mysterious! We never see his face, but he’s constantly lurking on the periphery of the film. He seems to be quietly observing Michael’s killing spree.
The climax of the film involves Dr. Loomis using Jamie as bait to trap Michael Myers in a net (seriously). He then shoots him with a tranquilizer dart before beating him with a piece of wood and collapsing on top of him after having a stroke. Michael is then taken to jail. It’s a strange ending to say the least. But wait! There’s one final cliffhanger to set up the next sequel. The Man in Black shows up at the jail, massacres all of the cops in a hail of gunfire like he’s Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator, and frees Michael. What?! It’s a wild bit of sequel bait.
If it hasn’t been obvious yet, this is one of my least favorite entries in the franchise. It greatly diminishes the characters I liked best from the previous film, emphasizes a new character I do not particularly care for, and brings in a lot of confusing subplots and supernatural elements that don’t do much for me. The highlight of the entire film is probably when Michael Myers kills a couple of horny teenagers in a barn with a pitchfork and scythe. There aren’t a lot of great kills or scares other than that. Seeing character actor Troy Evans as one of the cops is a fun treat at least.
The real legacy of this movie is introducing the Man in Black and his strange tattoo. He was added to the film late into production in order to generate interest for a sequel, but he was never given an agreed upon identity or backstory. It would be up to the filmmakers of the sequel to figure that out. Unfortunately, the film underperformed at the box office making only $11.6 million during its entire theatrical run. That meant there was no rush to make a sequel. It would be six years before the questions posed in this film would finally get answers.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) directed by Joe Chappelle
The final entry in the “Thorn Trilogy” is upon us, so that means we finally get to figure out why these three films are referred to as the “Thorn Trilogy” in the first place!
First things first, we need to discuss the two different cuts of the film. There is a theatrical cut and a producer’s cut. I honestly don’t think these two cuts are appreciably different. The producer’s cut is slightly longer (ninety-six minutes versus eighty-eight minutes), and it provides a little more context for what’s going on. It’s also better on a technical level. The color palette is cooler, the score utilizes the original Carpenter pieces, and the ending is more satisfying. The theatrical cut is a bit more confusing in terms of explaining the bizarre plot, but it does have some extended kills (read: more gore). It also eliminates an especially gross subplot that is featured in the producer’s cut. If you’re going to watch only one or the other, then I suggest the theatrical cut. Yes, I rewatched both cuts for this piece just so I wouldn’t lead you astray. You’re welcome.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the final chapter of this little trilogy. This installment features the return of multiple characters who have appeared at various points in the franchise, but all of them have been recast except for one. That one would of course be Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis. Sadly, this would be the one of the final performances of Pleasance’s life. He would pass away seven months before the film’s release. The other returning characters are Jamie (now played by J.C. Brandy), Dr. Wynn (the doctor who tells Loomis that Michael Myers doesn’t know how to drive a car in the first Halloween and now played by Mitchell Ryan), and a grown up Tommy Doyle (played by Paul Rudd). You read that correctly. Paul Rudd is in this movie. The most prominent new additions are Marianne Hagan as Kara Strode and Devin Gardner as her preteen son Danny Strode. I should also note that George P. Wilbur is back as Michael Myers, and he’s wearing what is easily the best looking mask since the original Shatner one up to this point.
The plot of this movie is completely bonkers. Jamie has just given birth to Michael’s baby (gross) or clone (depending on the cut), and she is promptly hunted down and murdered by her serial killer uncle (in one of the most brutal ways possible in the theatrical cut) to kick things off. The baby is found by Tommy, and he starts watching over it while Dr. Loomis makes his way back to Haddonfield. Tommy has also become obsessed with Michael Myers (understandable), and he’s been trying to figure out what makes him an unstoppable killing machine. Turns out that rune tattoo the Man in Black had in the previous film indicates that he is a member of an ancient Druidic cult called the Cult of Thorn. What this cult is doing differs depending on which cut you watch. The one in the theatrical cut is trying to conduct scientific experiments in order to harness the power of true evil. Jamie’s baby is implied to be the clone of Michael Myers conceived through in vitro fertilization. Sure. In the producer’s cut, the cult is supernatural in nature. They periodically place a curse on a child in their tribe who is then possessed by an evil entity called Thorn who is then compelled to murder their entire family on Halloween night. The cult essentially worships this evil entity. In this version, Jamie’s baby is Michael’s son and not a clone (again, gross). In both versions, Dr. Wynn is the secret leader of the cult and true identity of the Man in Black. Have I mentioned that this movie is bonkers?
All of this is where the “Thorn Trilogy” moniker comes from. Obviously Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers includes none of this lore. It’s only grouped in with the other two due to introducing Jamie and her strange connection to Michael. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers introduces the Man in Black and the Thorn tattoo, but the filmmakers never really had an explanation for any of it. It’s Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers that does all of the heavy lifting in explaining what all of this means, and even it has two different explanations depending on which cut you watch.
Ironically, I think all of the Thorn nonsense is the weakest part of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers and distracts from what is actually a pretty solid slasher when everything else is stripped away. As I previously mentioned, it has some of the best and most brutal kills of any movie in the franchise (the Jamie kill and a later kill involving electrocution are especially deranged). There are also some genuinely creepy moments of Michael stalking his victims that call back to the original film (one particular scene involving lightning illuminating him behind a window is really well done).
The other thing that really jumped out at me on this rewatch is how anachronistic this film is. It was released in 1995 (only a year before Scream!), but it feels more like a slasher from 1985 (aside from the ‘90s fashion and a painful Beavis and Butt-Head reference). It almost serves as the line of demarcation between ‘80s slashers and ‘90s slashers even though it was released at the midway point of the latter decade. It’s truly the last of its kind before the wave of Scream inspired slashers (including Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998) that would dominate the horror genre deep into the ‘00s. I do wonder what would have become of the franchise if not for the release of Scream the following year. This entry made a respectable $15.1 million at the box office on a $5 million budget, so it was presumably profitable enough to spawn another sequel. The runaway success of Scream the following year ($173 million at the box office on a $15 million budget) made it virtually impossible for the rights owners to continue with the previous style. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later would make a whopping $75 million at the box office on a $17 million budget, so it’s tough to argue that this wasn’t the right move financially.
Overall this trilogy isn’t as bad as some might lead you to believe. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a legitimately good Halloween entry, and it’s one of the better slashers of the ‘80s in general. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers might be a needlessly convoluted mess, but the actual slasher elements are pretty strong (especially in the theatrical cut for any gore hounds out there). It’s worth watching despite committing the cardinal sin of over explaining Michael’s motivations. In fact, I liked it enough on this rewatch that I have bumped it up on my personal rankings. The only one of the three that I truly dislike is Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. It’s simply too dull and formulaic for its own good, but it at least has a couple of fun kills. The timeline of this trilogy would ultimately be retconned out of existence by Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998 (which would itself be retconned out of existence by the David Gordon Green Halloween reboot in 2018), but it remains a fun little artifact of its time that’s worth revisiting.