Trick or Trailers: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Even though the original Halloween was still regarded as the gold standard of the slasher genre, by the late '80s the competition had left Michael Myers behind. While the Halloween franchise had spent most of the decade languishing, Jason and Freddy had racked up body counts, sequels and multiple Fangoria covers. But for the tenth anniversary of Carpenter's classic, producer Moustapha Akkad was out to reestablish Michael's boogeyman cred. In the fall of '88, the long-awaited return of Michael Myers was finally due to hit theaters.

When the trailer was released, it had everything that fans had been waiting for, save for the return of Jamie Lee Curtis. The message was clear: Halloween was back, with none of that Silver Shamrock crap.  

 

After so long away, having a "real" Halloween movie again, with Michael back as the OG slasher was cause for celebration. While the fact that he kept coming back eventually made his return a case of "beware what you wish for," back then it was a legitimate thrill when 4 was released. All the better for the fact that 4 felt like it was assembled with real care rather than being just a crass cash in.  

After 4, the series frequently struggled to maintain the same level of quality but back in October of '88, it was exciting to be a Halloween fan. At the time, returning to what made Halloween work felt as natural as Loomis slipping back into his familiar trench coat again. 

Trick or Trailers: Halloween III Season of the Witch (1982)

I forget when opinion eventually started to shift on Halloween III: Season of the Witch, going from it being seen as the bottom of the barrel to a highpoint of the series, but I do know that it's been this way for so long that younger fans, while knowing that it wasn't a hit, can't fully appreciate just how vehemently this movie was rejected. 

A lot of movies bomb but this was something else altogether. This wasn't like, say, Cats where people laugh at what a turkey it is and move on. Or a dud like The Fog remake that is quickly shrugged off as a nothing movie. No, when I was in junior high, it was like "Fuck this movie." You didn't even have to see it yourself. You were just told it was the worst movie ever and everyone would immediately back that up, even if they hadn't seen it for themselves. The hate for III was so hardcore that there was no dissension. It sucked and we all knew it. 

If there had been an internet back then, oh man. 

Now, of course, it's a different story. Now it's actually weird if someone doesn't like III, which just blows my mind. In the '80s, you couldn't have imagined anyone saying anything even vaguely favorable about Season of the Witch. If anyone had said in '84 or whatever that, "you know what's actually good? Halloween III?" they would have quickly found themselves upside down in a trash can. 

But times change, right?   

Fans say that they should have just called this Season of the Witch but I get why Universal wanted to brand it, for commercial reasons, as a Halloween film. What I don't get is why they did not do a better job - or any kind of job - of explaining what was going on. 

Sure, there's no mention of Michael Myers in the trailer. There's no Laurie or Dr. Loomis but the Halloween III of it all supersedes that. That III says to audiences that this is the next chapter in the story. Of course they're going to feel burned when they don't get that. 

  

I love that III eventually came to be celebrated. I remember seeing it for the first time on TV while I was in college in the late '80s and thinking "Holy shit, everyone said this sucked but it's pretty awesome!" But I get the initial reaction. When I see documentaries about III on Shout Factory discs or whatever, I always wish that, aside from talking to Tommy Lee Wallace and Tom Atkins and so on that they talk to whoever was working in marketing at Universal back then. That's the story I really want to hear. I mean, really. You can put All-New on a poster and think that covers it but people are still going to look at that and think "Yeah, all new Michael Myers. Got it!" 

Season of the Witch has enjoyed such a surprising rebirth that I sometimes wonder if it could actually spawn its own stand alone remake/reboot one day. I just wonder how they'd decide to sell it. 

 

Trick or Trailers: Halloween II (1981)

At one time, when a horror movie was successful it didn't automatically mean that a franchise was born. For decades, Norman Bates remained incarcerated. After Leatherface danced by daybreak in the wake of Sally Hardesty's escape, his chainsaw stayed silent for years. 

So even though Michael Myers disappeared from the lawn of the Doyle house after taking six bullets in the chest at the end of Halloween, it didn't necessarily mean that audiences would ever see him again.

Halloween's open ending may look like an obvious, even cynical, sequel set up from today's standpoint but it was simply ambiguous. The only curtain call Michael needed to make was the sound of his breathing playing over the film's final shot of his childhood home.  

That said, in 1981 it was hard not to be excited by the prospect of More of the Night He Came Home. The trailer promised to give us more of Dr. Loomis' dogged pursuit of Michael and more of Laurie Strode in peril. Slasher movies were booming and surely this sequel would show the makers of all the Halloween knock-offs how it's really supposed to be done. As it turned out, though, not so much.

Halloween II began the long tradition - celebrating 40 years now! - of fans finding themselves largely disappointed in Halloween sequels. 

It also began the cherished tradition of fans continuing to hope, against all logic, that the magic of that first film might one day be recaptured. 

The fact that II, even in the hands of Carpenter and Debra Hill, entirely missed the point of Halloween, though, should have been a strong indicator that this ship would never quite be righted. I don't think there's a single franchise that so immediately got off on the wrong foot with its first sequel as Halloween did. All the subsequent mistakes that other Halloween films have made were born from the mistakes of this one. They stumbled on the first try and they've been falling forward ever since. 

Some of the Halloween sequels and reboots have been better than others. Some have been pretty nifty in their own right. But none of them have really, truly made a convincing case that Halloween should have ever gone past the first movie. 

What Halloween II had that none of the other entries would (because of Halloween II!) is the benefit of the doubt. Once II was released, every future Halloween was forced to live in the shadow of that first disappointment. It will forever be the only sequel where the trailer had fans mostly expecting a treat rather than being wary of a trick.   

 

Trick or Trailers: Candyman (2021)

In a different world, we would have already seen director Nia DaCosta's Candyman remake by now. It was originally meant to premiere in June, then was pushed to this October, and now is scheduled to hit theaters in August of next year. Will the world be in a better - or at least a more normal - place by then? Will theaters be busy again with new releases? We'll see. As we know, everything is so tenuous and uncertain the these days.  

When it comes to Candyman, all we have for now is this effective trailer:    

 

I'll admit, I was highly skeptical of a Candyman remake or reboot (although I guess this is actually more of a sequel of sorts) but this trailer immediately turned me around on that. 

Candyman, as a franchise, always had a tough time replicating the success of Bernard Rose's original. Both 1995's Farewell to the Flesh or 1999's Day of the Dead were weak follow-ups so the prospect of a new Candyman seemed likely to be yet another so-so entry. And, for all we know, it still might be. 

But hey, you gotta say the trailer looks extremely promising, right? 

Sure, that's what trailers do - convince us to part with our money for the cost of a ticket. Even when they have to deceive us about the movie in question. But I always like to take the optimistic view. No matter how many times I get burned by a horror trailer, it doesn't stop me from getting excited all over again for another new movie. 

At this point, of course, the idea of getting excited for a new movie in the theaters seems like something of a distant memory. There's so much real tragedy attached to the pandemic that whining about the lack of movies on the big screen is just a trivial concern but yet it's these trivial distractions in our lives, those reliable sources of escapism, that are often able to buoy our spirits in tough times. 

I know that a lot of people are happy streaming and maybe for them not going to the movies on a regular basis doesn't feel like much of a loss. But to me it does. Even if these delayed movies, like Candyman, were released to streaming, it just wouldn't be the same for me. 

I like the ritual of going to the theater, I like the experience of seeing a movie on a big screen, with a crowd. Without it, life feels a bit, well, empty. 

Whether or not I end up liking the new Candyman, if I do see it on the big screen, I know I will consider the experience to be a sweet one. 

Trick or Trailers: Wishmaster (1997)

I believe that only a certain type of person could ever be hyped for Wishmaster. That isn't a knock on it at all, just a statement of fact. 

No matter how this movie was marketed, it was only going to speak to a certain segment of movie goers. While there's definitely a non-genre audience that can get excited for the likes of, say, Misery or Bram Stoker's Dracula or whatever, Wishmaster is another matter. 

Released in 1997, Wishmaster had '90s direct to video written all over it and yet was given a wide theatrical release. Anyone catching this trailer knew immediately whether it was for them or not.  

 

Every second of that trailer is pitched squarely to FANGORIA subscribers, not to the kind of wider audience that was fueling the then-resurgence of theatrical horror, kicked off by Scream in '96. 

Right from the Live Entertainment logo to the "Wes Craven Presents" label to the appearance of genre faves like Tony Todd and the corny vibe of the Wishmaster himself (played to hammy perfection by Andrew Divoff), this was not the stuff of mainstream blockbusters. 

No, this was something that you'd grab off the shelf of your local video store, alongside Leprechaun 4: In Space. But that's what I love about Wishmaster. It's a movie for hardcore horror nerds that somehow got an unlikely break and played on the big screen. 

The month after Wishmaster's release, both Devil's Advocate and I Know What You Did Last Summer were released to theaters, just in time for Halloween. Both of those films had the kind of mainstream appeal that Wishmaster didn't. In the case of Devil's Advocate, you've got big stars like Keanu Reeves and a big budget and in the case of I Know What You Did, you had stars on the rise like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt and a screenplay penned by Scream's Kevin Williamson. With Wishmaster, on the other hand, you had a screenplay by the guy who wrote some of the Hellraiser sequels and cameoes by Ted Raimi, Kane Hodder, Robert Englund and Tony Todd - with a voice over appearance by Phantasm's Angus Scrimm to boot!  

And yet, Wishmaster did well enough to spawn three direct to video sequels! So many efforts to deliberately create a new horror icon tank that you have to give Wishmaster credit for actually successfully launching a franchise. True, Wishmaster may not be a household name like Freddy or Jason but, hey, he's got four movies to his name and that's the kind of success that the people behind Dr. Giggles or the Trickster would have made their own wish to the Djinn for! 

Trick or Trailers: The Forgotten (2004)

It's a weird thing that, somehow, the early 00's seem like a far more ancient, mist-enshrouded time to me than the '90s and even the '80s do. Maybe it's because I spend so much time revisiting the films and TV shows of the '80s and '90s that those years are still somehow able to seem "current" to me whereas I hardly give the 00's much thought and when I am occasionally reminded of a film from that era it seems like unearthing a relic from a lost, long ago age. 

Case in point, ironically, is 2004's The Forgotten. This trailer was on a DVD for another movie that I recently watched and as soon as it came up it was shocking to be suddenly reminded that it ever existed.   

   

I probably haven't thought about this movie since seeing this in the theaters back in '04. Never mind probably, I can guarantee I haven't. 

Even seeing the trailer again, I couldn't recall a thing about what the big reveal in the film was, how people's memories were being taken from them or why. 

I'm guessing it wasn't a very good movie but *checks Wikipedia* oh, man, it was directed by Joseph Ruben, who directed some of my favorites, like Dreamscape and The Stepfather. And with Julianne Moore, Anthony Edwards and Gary Sinise, it certainly has the kind of cast that would give anyone hope that they were going to see a quality movie. But, *checks Wikipedia again* yeeeah, I just read the synopsis and I can see why this one didn't stick with me. It's a safe bet that I walked out of this one disappointed, vowing never to think of it again. What a letdown this must have been after the trailer!   

Maybe some movies should exist only as trailers. So many mediocre-to-bad movies have such cool and intriguing trailers that it's a shame that seeing the actual movie causes them to evaporate from memory entirely, after months of anticipation.  

There's such a Schrodinger's Cat thing with trailers, isn't there? If we never looked at the movies themselves, the movie that the trailer conjures in our imagination would forever be a living thing. But often times, as soon as we see the movie, we discover that what we were so excited for was already dead long before the first trailer was cut.

That just makes me love trailers all the more, honestly. They may occasionally trick you into getting your hopes up but, in the end, these disappointments are easily forgotten. So much so that, years later, you may be surprised to be reminded that they ever happened at all.  

   

Trick or Trailers: My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)

A lot of times I find that modern attempts to recapture the slasher heyday of the '80s fall flat. It's just a vibe that isn't easy to nail and seem authentic rather than second hand. One notable exception, in my book, is 2009's My Bloody Valentine remake. The original is one of my favorites and yet I find the remake to be a completely satisfying update, boasting some wonderfully nasty creative kills that would have made it a legendary gore flick had it come out in the early '80s. 

One of the best aspects of My Bloody Valentine '09, though - the element that it was primarily marketed on - is sadly lost on home viewings. This was a movie that really had to be seen in the theater in order to get the full effect. 

This was the first horror movie to utilize the new 3D technology that was ushered in with 2007's Beowulf and this trailer goes all out to hype the exciting novelty of seeing a modern horror movie in 3D: 

 

Cinema snobs typically label 3D as a cheap gimmick but I say screw that. Anything that makes for a more exciting experience should be used to its full potential. I'm sure back when color was introduced to film, some wet blankets probably rolled their eyes and saw it as just pandering to people who needed too much to hold their interest.  

I say not only is there no shame in milking 3D for all its worth, I say it's a crime against the audience if you don't! When this trailer shows me Harry Warden hurling his pick axe over an audience, I say that's a ride I want to take!   

To its credit, this movie absolutely goes all out to squeeze everything it can out of the 3D format - perhaps more than any modern 3D horror movie has since (although I remember Final Destination 5 being very solid in this regard). And it's not just about objects flying at the screen, it's about using depth, too. Director Patrick Lussier is consistently ingenious in finding ways to immerse viewers in the action, like having a victim holding a spring bed frame between themselves and Harry Warden as he swings his pick axe. 

Some might say that the 3D format is long played out, that the novelty isn't there anymore. I say not even close. I think too few filmmakers have even tried using 3D to its best potential, with My Bloody Valentine being one of the exceptions. When the theatrical experience eventually comes back, as I fully believe it will, I think 3D could be one way to entice audiences back. 

Watching the My Bloody Valentine 3D trailer is a reminder that there's just some experiences that you can't have sitting at home.