October 2021 Review: Recollections of Michael Myers

So it’s the end of October and boy, has it been one hell of a month! I’ve done so much writing… Like so much. Before the month started I already had a backlog of posts to fill it up – Having finished writing my review of Halloween 5 on the 1st or 2nd, checking back on those posts only for proofreading and editing purposes. This has given me a lot of time to fill up the schedule for November posts, which I’ll happily give you a few hints about.

Tieing into those hints is that I went to the cinema twice this month for the first time since they opened after the whole pandemic business. The first film I went to see is No Time To Die which I will say I very much enjoyed – it was nice to see an action movie where the protagonist was human for once, and not some invincible superhero. I missed the kind of tension that provides, and seeing it in the cinema just elevated everything it was going for. A full review will be coming later in November if you want my full thoughts.

The second film I saw was Halloween Kills. I have written a review of it but will not be releasing it for a while, as I’d like to stick to reviewing the Halloween films in chronological order of release. I’d also like to see the film maybe once more before publishing my thoughts on it, just to make sure I have my head straight. For now, I’ll say it was disappointing – for a film that wanted to pay respect specifically to the original 1978 movie, it sure takes a lot of influence from every film except that one and doesn’t even pick the best parts of them for inspiration It’s not without its moments but, y’know, it’s just another Halloween film, I guess.

On the topic of Michael Myers, I thought I’d tell you all a cheeky Halloween story:

When I was 13/14 years old I went to a comic con and memorabilia in (if memory serves me) London where I met Tyler Mane, who played Michael Myers in Rob Zombies 2007 and 2009 Halloween remakes. However, I didn’t know this at the time and was more interested in getting his autograph based on his role in the original X-Men film as Sabertooth. As a kid I was incredibly nervous going up to talk to him, sarcastically asking how long he had to grow his nails out for the role (in reference to his Sabertooth claws), which he didn’t pick up on. He measured with his fingers how long they were and said they were prosthetic. He shook my hand and my dad took a photo of us. As I walked away I noticed photos of him from other movies, which is when I realized he played Michael Myers! I overheard some teens behind us talking to him saying how much he had scared them in those movies and told my dad what I had figured out. My dad, who’s quite the film buff, was also very surprised to learn of his part in Halloween.

So, yeah, that’s my Halloween story for you, albeit one that happened quite a few years ago and not on Halloween.

I also want to give a heads up on how I intend to keep the movie review schedule going, as I would like to break up the Halloween reviews a little so I can talk about other movies that have interested me. After my review of Halloween 6 goes up, I figured I’d take a short break, since it marks the end of the original run of movies, which is when my review of No Time To Die will be posted. I will then review Halloween H20 and Ressurection consecutively because they take place in a rebooted timeline, after which I shall take another break and post another movie review – probably of Joker (2019), which I have begun writing but not finalised. Then I will review Halloween (2007) and Halloween 2 (2009) before taking a break to post a review of The Lighthouse (2019), of which I have notes on but haven’t quite formed into a proper review. Finally, I’ll round off the Halloween review series with Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills (2021), which will be the climax of this horror escapade until the inevitable Halloween Ends gets released as a conclusion to the new rebooted series.

With all this movie talk, I suppose I should address the gaming side of things; not to worry, I have gaming reviews scheduled and a handful of titles I’d like to start writing about after that, so there’s no slowing down there.

It was also my birthday this month, and I thankfully got my hands on a few things you might see reviews of here in the future. First is Life is Strange: True Colours, which I’m eager to play just to see what direction they took the franchise in after the second game. It’ll also help me wrap up my reviews on the Life is Strange series. I also got Age of Empires IV which I am very intrigued by. Despite being a fan of AoE2, I never was able to get into AoE3, so I’d like to see how the latest game fares. I also got a new movie to watch; John Carpenter’s Assault of Precinct 13. My Dad recognised a pattern in my reviews on this site (that being that I liked John Carpenter movies) and decided to grab me one. I already have a huge backlog of reviews that need to go up and be edited, so I can’t say when reviews of these things will go up if I decide to write on them. All I can say is that you can expect them at some point – knowing my scheduling habits and behind-the-scenes editing and proofreading delays, it will probably be in December or, at the latest, 2022 (narrow and specific time-frame, I know) when all of these things are done.

Anyway, I’ll save you from my self-indulgence by wrapping up this post here. I hope you had a good October and Halloween, and wish you all an even better November.