History Main / Halloween

* The ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' film franchise .

* The ''Film/{{Halloween}}'' film franchise .

[[redirect:Film/{{Halloween}}]]

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/halloween-1978-poster.jpg]]
-> ''"These eyes will deceive you. They will destroy you. They will take from you your innocence...your pride...and, eventually, your soul. These eyes do not see what you and I see. Behind these eyes, one finds only blackness, the absence of light. These are the eyes...of a psychopath."''
-->-- '''Dr. Samuel Loomis''', ''Halloween'' (2007)

''If you're looking for the actual holiday, then please proceed to AllHallowsEve.''

''Halloween'' is a series of ten SlasherMovies. The original film, directed by JohnCarpenter and released in 1978, popularized the genre and inspired other similar franchises such as ''Film/FridayThe13th''.

With the exception of ''[[InNameOnly Halloween III]]'', the franchise centers on serial killer Michael Myers. At the age of 6, Michael was sent to a mental hospital after stabbing his older sister Judith to death. Fifteen years later, he escapes from the hospital and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to stalk teenager Laurie Strode and her friends. The only man who might be able to stop Michael is his former psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis.

First, we have:

* '''''Halloween'' (1978):''' Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital on the night before Halloween, 15 years after murdering his sister Judith. Michael heads to Haddonfield to stalk some teens, with Michael's former psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis, hot on his tail.
* '''''Halloween II'' (1981):''' Set on the same night as the original film (but filmed a couple years later). [[FinalGirl Laurie]] is taken to a hospital to recover from Michael Myers' attack, but the serial killer follows her there, and the reason Michael is targeting Laurie is [[TheReveal revealed]]: [[spoiler:Laurie is Michael's sister, a fact that was covered up to protect her]].

Then we have:

* '''''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch'' (1982):''' A toymaker uses some rocks from Stonehenge to create masks that cause children's heads to explode into writhing piles of snakes and bugs if they watch Halloween commercials. Also, robots and [[DeathRay lasers]]. The only movie of the series that ''doesn't'' feature Michael, since it's not a direct sequel to the previous film; this was because Carpenter originally envisioned the ''Halloween'' franchise as a GenreAnthology series. Poor reception to this film killed that idea...

...and from there, the films go off into a couple of different continuities. First are the direct sequels:

* '''''Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers'' (1988):''' Laurie Strode's young daughter Jamie is living with a foster family, the Carruthers. Unfortunately, Michael Myers awakens from a ten-year coma just before Halloween, and he returns to Haddonfield, intent on killing Jamie.
* '''''Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers'' (1989):''' Jamie is in a mental hospital after the events of the previous film. Michael, using his psychic link to Jamie, lures his young niece to him by stalking Jamie's friend Tina.
* '''''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers'' (1995):''' The Cult of Thorn try to kidnap Jamie's newborn baby Steven, and Michael is also still trying to kill his niece.

Then we have the alternate continuity:

* '''''Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later'' (1998):''' This film [[RetGone ignores the events of the previous three films]] and is set 20 years after the first two films; it also features the return of Laurie Strode, who faked her death to escape Michael and is now running a boarding school under the assumed name of Keri Tate. Michael finally manages to track her down to finish the job he started 20 years ago.
* '''''Halloween: Resurrection'' (2002):''' Michael [[spoiler:finally kills Laurie]], returns to Haddonfield to find that an Internet reality show is being filmed in the Myers' old house, and decides to kill the contestants.

After ''Resurrection'', the franchise lay dormant until 2007:

* '''''Rob Zombie's Halloween'' (2007):''' A remake of the original film, directed by Rob Zombie. The first half of the film serves as a 'prequel' that focuses on Michael as a child, while the second half follows the events of the original film, [[BloodierAndGorier with more graphic violence tacked on for good measure]].
* '''''Rob Zombie's Halloween II'' (2009):''' The direct sequel to the remake, picking up right where the first film left off, then fast-forwarding some time after the events of the previous film.
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!!This film series provides examples of the following tropes:

* AbandonedHospital: The hospital from the second film is conspicuously empty, with Laurie and some babies being the only patients that are seen. Likewise, in ''Resurrection'' the mental hospital where Laurie is being held seems pretty understaffed, with only two guards seen.
* AccidentalMurder:
** In the original ''Halloween II'' a speeding cop isn't able to brake in time and winds hitting the drunken Ben Tramer, slamming him against a parked vehicle.
** In ''The Return of Michael Myers'' a group of vigilantes accidentally shoot to death parkgoer Ted Hollister, thinking he might have been Michael.
** Laurie seemingly kills Michael by chopping his head off with an axe in ''H20'', only for the sequel to reveal that Laurie actually killed a paramedic whose larynx Michael had crushed before knocking him out and switching clothes with him.
** In the remake Patty tries to blast Michael with a shotgun during his escape from Smith's Grove. Michael grabs an earlier downed guard and uses him as shield.
* ActionGirl: Laurie in ''H20''.
* TheAdjectivalMan: Before any of the characters knew Michael Myers' name, they simply referred to him as "The Boogeyman".
* AllHallowsEve: Speaks for itself.
* AllJustADream: The entire beginning of the ''{{Halloween}} II'' remake.
* AllThereInTheScript: Michael is never called "The Shape" in the movies.
* AnachronismStew: It's a slight case, but in the remakes it's utterly baffling to try and figure out just when they take place. The openings with the Michael Myers as a child are definitely somewhere in the early 1980s judging from the clothing and hair styles, but after the TimeSkip to "Seventeen Years Later" (which should put the events with Laurie somewhere in the mid to late-nineties), people talk on post 2004 cellphones, make references to Austin Powers, and watch flatscreen [=TVs=] like they're in 2007 (when the film was made). To confuse things even more, no one references music beyond 1990, all the cars are pre-2000, and nearly all the things seen on TV are pre-1970. No one at all seems to know when the movie actually takes place.
** WordOfGod says this was deliberate. In a deleted scene from the sequel, Mya says she was born in 1990, though.
* AnAxeToGrind: Michael uses one in ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' and Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II''.
* AndStarring: ''H20'' had "introducing Josh Hartnett". He has done quite well for himself ever since.
** ''Resurrection'' has two "and" credits — One for Tyra Banks and one for Jamie Lee Curtis.
* AssholeVictim: John Strode and Barry Simms in ''The Curse of Michael Myers'', and a number of people in the remakes.
* AutobotsRockOut: In ''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers'', several of Carpenter's themes from the original are remade on the electric guitar.
* AxeBeforeEntering: Michael Myers likes this trope.
* BadassGrandpa: Dr. Loomis in every appearance he makes. This guy took so many ass-kickings from Michael and still came back for more.
** DonaldPleasence in real life. According to the writer of ''Halloween 4'', he did most of his own stunts in the film. He did all this while pushing 70!
*** In addition to that, he also survived a plane crash and torture in a POW camp during WorldWarII.
* TheBadGuyWins: At the beginning of ''Resurrection'', Michael finally manages to kill Laurie.
* BattleAmongstTheFlames: The ending of ''Halloween: Resurrection''.
* BedlamHouse: The mental institution in Rob Zombie's ''Halloween'' remake. Michael Myers is kept chained at all times, his wardens degrade and insult him on a daily basis, and he is beaten at night. Even if he ''was'' a mentally stable individual, that sort of treatment would turn ''anybody'' into a CompleteMonster.
** Not to mention the female inmate that the orderlies gang-rape in front of him.
* BedsheetGhost: Michael kills Lynda while dressed as one in the original and the remake.
* BerserkButton: In the remakes, don't tease Michael Myers about how his mom is a pole dancer.
* BigNo: Loomis has the biggest no of history in ''4''.
* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]]: Laurie to Tommy and Lindsey in the first movie; Rachel to Jamie Lloyd in the fourth movie.
* BillingDisplacement: The original film had Donald Pleasence billed ahead of then-unknown Jamie Lee Curtis. By the time of ''Halloween II'' three years later, Curtis was enough of a star for them to employ diagonal billing.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted in ''Resurrection''. Freddie, played by Busta Rhymes, is the only person (besides the FinalGirl, of course) to survive the movie.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: See page quote.
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: The remake.
* BloodlessCarnage: The original only contains two shots with blood, and neither is particularly explicit. This is mostly because the film relies on lighting and suspense for its scares. The sequels avert the trope to an increasing degree, and Rob Zombie's versions avert it ''hard''.
* BloodierAndGorier: ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' and the remake. The original, oddly enough, is pretty tame when it comes to blood.
** The new ''Halloween II'' [[BeyondTheImpossible is even more violent, bloody and brutal than the remake.]]
*** The original ''Halloween II'' was written with this concept in mind. It even has a character slip in a pool of his co-worker's blood!
** Arguably, the original sticks out so much because it was as scary as it was without massive amounts of blood. It was just scary and didn't rely on awful imagery.
*** Except for the two victims killed while completely naked.
* BloodyHandprint: In ''H20'', Laurie leaves a bloody handprint on the door of a closet, tricking Michael Myers into thinking she was hiding inside.
* BookEnds: The ending of ''Halloween 4'' '''would''' have applied this to the entire series, had the film bombed and no more sequals been made.
** The theatrical cut of Zombie's ''2'' ends with [[spoiler: Laurie committed to Smith's Grove, and having the same vision young Michael had at the beginning of the film]].
* {{Break|TheCutie}} [[KillTheCutie (and subsequently kill)]] [[BreakTheCutie the Cutie]]: Jamie Lloyd and remake Annie. Both happen to be played by Danielle Harris.
** Laurie in Zombie's ''2''.
* BuriedAlive: Michael kills Lisa this way in the comic ''Halloween: Nightdance''
* CampingACrapper: Averted in ''Halloween: H20''. A woman and her daughter go to a public bathroom and Michael Myers follows them in. After a tense scene in which the audience assumes he is going to kill them, he ends up stealing the woman's car keys instead.
* CanonDiscontinuity: ''Halloween: H20'', the seventh film in the franchise, completely ignores the fourth, fifth, and sixth films.
** The third film may or may not be ignored as well, considering that it has nothing to do the Michael Myers plot of the other movies.
* CarFu: In ''Halloween: The Return of Michael Myers'', Rachel uses her car to run Michael Myers over. But since Michael is Michael, it doesn't faze him in the slightest.
** Also, in ''H20'', Laurie hijacks an ambulance van with Michael in it, and runs it off a cliff in order to kill Michael once and for all.
** He also tries to run down Jamie, Billy, and Tina in ''Halloween: The Revenge of Michael Myers'', and in ''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers'', runs Jamie off the road.
* CassandraTruth: Dr Loomis' entire career in regards to Michael is this. No one ever listens to his warnings about the danger Michael poses to society...even after the dead bodies start piling up.
* CatScare: In the first film, there's a scene where Loomis and Brackett are exploring the abandoned Myers house and a broken gutter suddenly crashes through a window, causing a startled Loomis to whip out a handgun.
** In ''Halloween II'', a bumbling security guard stumbles around outside the hospital checking for a disturbance. He gets startled by a spring-loaded cat, sighs and relaxes. Three guesses who he encounters next...
* CharacterDevelopment: Laurie goes from shy wallflower to action girl between ''Halloween II'' (1981) and ''H20'' (1998).
* ChaseScene: Lot of chasing will happen when Michael Myers makes himself properly known.
* CleanCut: Michael is quite fond of this trope.
* ClothesMakeTheLegend: Michael's mask and boiler suit.
* ClusterFBomb: Various scenes in the remake, to the point where it's practically a second language there.
* ContinuityNod: In the original ''Halloween'', Laurie mentions having a crush on one of her classmates Ben Tramer. In the sequel, the police accidentally kill a costumed teenager after mistaking him for Michael Myers. Turns out that poor teenager was Ben Tramer.
** Burn scars on Michael and Dr. Loomis in Halloween 4.
** Tommy Doyle in Halloween 6, still traumatized by the events of the first Halloween.
* ContinuityReboot: Twice. ''H20'' was a partial continuity reboot, ignoring ''Halloween''s 4-6. Rob Zombie's 2007 film was a remake, ignoring all previous films.
** H20 is more broadstrokes. The newspaper article of Laurie's "death by car crash" is pinned to Loomis' wall during the credits.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Conal Cochran of ''Season of the Witch''.
* CutPhoneLines: Michael does this in practically every ''Halloween'' movie.
** In ''The Return of Michael Myers'', Michael doesn't just cut the phone lines of his victim's house. He cuts the phone lines ''and'' causes a blackout in ''the entire town''.
* CryForTheDevil: Remakes.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: Michael Myers is savvy of a genre ''[[UnbuiltTrope he helped to create]]''.
* DangerTakesABackSeat: How Annie gets killed in the first film.
** Michael pulls this off by clinging to bottom of a pickup truck in ''The Return of Michael Myers''.
** Also, Barry's death in ''The Curse of Michael Myers''.
* DeathByMocking: Anybody who mocks Michael Myers in the ''{{Halloween}}'' remake doesn't last very long.
* DeathBySex: According to director John Carpenter, this was actually unintentional - in the first film, at least.
* {{Determinator}}: Michael spent fifteen years in a mental hospital, waiting for a chance to escape so that he could kill his sister. When he failed in killing her, he then spent the next ten years massacring everybody related to her. Then, depending on which canon you follow, he spent 10-20 years searching for his sister again.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: In "Halloween II", Laurie is barefoot but justified since she had been admitted to the hospital.
* DontGoInTheWoods: ''Revenge of Michael Myers'' ends with Michael Myers chasing the protagonists into an eerie, foggy woodlands with a car. When he crashes the car, he gets out completely unscathed and proceeds to stalk the victims through the forest with a butcher knife.
* DramaticIrony: Virtually the entire first film, and much of the later ones, is simply "Hey! There he is in the background! And the characters can't see him! [[OhCrap Crap!]]"
* DramaticUnmask: At the end of the original ''Halloween'', Michael Myers is finally unmasked to reveal...a surprisingly attractive man.
* DrivenToSuicide: Mrs. Myers in the remake.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim / RealLifeWritesThePlot: Sam Loomis dies offscreen at the end of the sixth movie due to Donald Pleasance's death.
* DropTheHammer: Michael Myers uses a claw hammer to off a security guard in ''Halloween II.''
* DyingDream: [[WordOfGod Rob Zombie confirmed]] the ending of the director's cut version of his ''Halloween II'' is this for [[spoiler:Laurie]].
* DysfunctionalFamily: Zombie's remake has Michael growing up on one of these.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: The [[{{Revision}} extended scenes]] found on the [[{{Bowdlerise}} TV version]] reveal The Shape's full name to be Michael '''Audrey''' Myers. We now know the real reason behind his homicidal rampage.
* EmptyPromise: Loomis to Jamie, in the school in ''4''. Subverted when she asks him if he ''really'' believes they'll make it out alright, and he gives a barely audible LittleNo.
* EnemyRisingBehind: Memorably in the first film. Also in the fifth, where Michael lurks ''right behind'' the oblivious Rachel. . .yet doesn't kill her. Not yet, anyway.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Michael is quite fond of his mother in the ''{{Halloween}}'' remakes. Not only does he kill the kids who insult his mom, he also has hallucinations about her [[WomanInWhite wearing completely white]] and urging him on while he murders.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: After ''Halloween II'' sparked controversy as inspiration for R.D. Boyer's crimes, the ''MoralGuardians'', of all people, decided not to campaign against this or other horror movies, as "it would be silly, after all, to ban horror films just because Boyer claims to have thought that he was reenacting Halloween II."
** At the conclusion of the Halloween: Resurrection prologue, Michael, after [[spoiler: killing Laurie]] goes to give his knife back to the orderly that he took it from. When he does so, he hands it to him with the "safe" end first. That's right, kids. Even a psychotic, inhumane serial killer/mass murderer knows the proper way to hand someone a sharp object.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: In ''Revenge of Michael Myers'', Michael chases the protagonists in a car. Even though the car is barely going at a running-pace, it still explodes when it collides with a tree. Though this ''does'' add to the creepy factor when Michael nonchalantly gets out of the car completely unscathed.
* EvilClown: Michael's childhood Halloween costume.
* EvilDetectingDog: Lester the family dog barks at Michael Myers hiding behind the bushes in the original film, and Max does precisely the same thing in the fifth.
* EvilIsNotAToy
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Michael Myers went from a [[SuperStrength super-strong]], [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] human with plans to kill his sister to a [[JokerImmunity completely unkillable]] [[CompleteMonster supernatural being]] hell-bent on massacring half of Haddonfield. And if you follow the sixth movie's canon, his power is making him grow bigger in each movie.
* EvilOverlooker: The posters for ''[[http://i.imgur.com/6N8XZ.jpg Halloween: H20]]'' and ''[[http://i.imgur.com/kQcnf.jpg Halloween Resurrection]] do this with Michael Myers' BlackEyesOfEvil looming over the frightened-looking protagonists.
* EvilPhone: In the original movie, Michael strangles Lydia to death with a phone cord just as she calls Laurie. Michael then picks up the phone to listen to Laurie's frantic cries, before calmly hanging up.
* EvilUncle: Michael, to both Jamie Lloyd and John Tate.
* EyeScream: Two of Michael's victims in ''Halloween II'' are killed with a syringe jammed to the eye.
* FakingTheDead
* {{Fanservice}}: Numerous examples, but probably the reason Laurie dresses as [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Magenta]] in Zombie's ''II''.
** FanDisservice: ...before she winds up hysterical and covered in blood. The series really seems to like this trope...
* FauxSymbolism: Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II'' is ''LOADED'' with this.
* FinalGirl: Laurie Strode and Jamie Lloyd.
** [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And Sara Moyer]] from ''Resurrection''.
** Rachel from part 4 counts too.
* {{Fingore}}: The opening of the new ''Halloween II'' has a particularly {{squick}}y scene involving Laurie's fingernails...
* FlashbackNightmare
* {{Foreshadowing}}: ''H20'' has an excellent example of this. Laurie Strode (who now goes by the name Keri Tate) is teaching an English literature class on Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. Molly, one of the students, responds to a question about the book and fate with this: ''"I think that Victor should have confronted the monster sooner. He's completely responsible for Elizabeth's death. He was so paralyzed by fear that he never did anything. It took death for the guy to get a clue."'' She goes on to say that Victor finally confronts the monster because he ''"had reached a point in his life where he had nothing left to lose. I mean, the monster saw to that by killing off everybody that he loved. It was about redemption. It was his fate."'' This foreshadows the final scenes in the movie where [[spoiler:Laurie finally decides to stop running from]] [[CompleteMonster Michael Myers]] [[spoiler:and confront her monster. After 20 years of living in fear and seeing her loved ones murdered, she had nothing more to lose. It was time to face her fears and end the nightmare.]]
* FranchiseZombie: John Carpenter, in a 1982 interview, stated that Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis both died at the end of ''Halloween II'' and that he intended to make the series into an anthology "like ''TheTwilightZone'' but on a larger scale." After the financial flop of ''Halloween III'' Carpenter opted out of doing any more films in the series and signed away the rights to producer Moustapha Akkad, who quickly revived the original formula. Michael Myers went on to appear in five more films after his canon death, not counting the remakes.
* FreakOut: Laurie at the end of ''Halloween (2007)''. Further explored in the sequel, where Laurie is depicted as an embittered, psychological wreck that is further destabilized not only by the return of her accursed tormentor, but also a traumatizing revelation about her past.
* GeniusBruiser: Micheal has proved that he ain't just a dumb brutish killing robot. He usually observes his victims closely, figures out their weaknesses, take advantage of it, kills their friends and family in order to make them weak mentally, cuts out all escape routes before he goes in for the kill and he knows when and who he can kill and when not.
* GenkiGirl: Tina from ''Halloween 5''.
* GoingByTheMatchbook: In the original, Loomis finds a plumber's abandoned pickup, and in it is the same matchbook carried by the nurse who was with him when Michael Myers escaped the previous night; she left her matches in the car Michael stole, and they wound up in the truck of the guy he stole his jumpsuit from.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: Freddie tries to bring Michael Myers down with his fists in ''Halloween: Resurrection''. Surprisingly, [[spoiler:Freddie actually survives this encounter]].
** Surprisingly? It's common knowledge that being played by [[spoiler:a rapper]] is the strongest PlotArmor in existence.
* {{Gorn}}
** Ironically, the first film in the franchise, which arguably invented the modern, Gorn-loving slasher genre, features very little gore.
* GroinAttack: Laurie knees Michael in the groin in ''H20''. It doesn't do anything except cause him to give her a nasty glare.
** And Freddie actually electrocutes Michael in the groin in ''Resurrection''
* GrossUpCloseUp: Rob Zombie seems to like these. In his ''Halloween II'', we're treated to close views of Laurie having her head sewn shut, a man's face after he's mutilated by a crash, a guy having his head sawn off with broken glass, Big Lou Martini getting his arm snapped...
** There's plenty in the original series as well from ''Halloween 2'' onward (for example, when he kills a nurse by repeatedly dunking her head into scalding water, and that's just ONE of many instances in the film). Or ''Halloween 5'', where he impales two coupling teenagers with a pitchfork. Or ''Halloween 6'', which finds Jamie being impaled on a corn thresher.
* HalfEmptyTwoShot: The first movie has a famous example, when Michael emerges from the closet to attack Laurie.
* {{Hallucinations}}: In ''Rob Zombie's Halloween II'', Michael Myers has hallucinations about his [[WomanInWhite mother]]...and some rather random things, including pumpkin-headed aristocrats and white unicorns.
* HeroicSacrifice: In Part 5, Tina sacrifices herself to give Jamie a chance to get away from Michael.
** Inadvertently done by Brady in Part 4 who tries to shoot Michael, then futilely struggles with him, ultimately giving Jamie and Rachel a chance to escape.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Almost. By the fifth film, Dr. Loomis is ready to use blackmail, threats and physical force to make sure Michael is gonna be put down. It goes so far that he used Jamie as a bait to lure Michael in to a trap, and then beat him savagely with a plank so that Michael got unconscious yet he continued to beat him, all while screaming "DIE! DIE!" for each hit.
* HollywoodDarkness: ''Halloween'' was one of the first horror movies to use the blue filter.
* HollywoodKiss: Most of the characters kiss this way.
* [=~Horror Doesn't Settle For Simple Tuesday~=]: Halloween was a trope codifier for this too.
* HospitalHottie: [[http://halloweenmovie.wikia.com/wiki/Jill_Franco All]] [[http://halloweenmovie.wikia.com/wiki/Janet_Marshall of]] [[http://halloweenmovie.wikia.com/wiki/Karen_Bailey the]] [[http://halloweenmovie.wikia.com/wiki/Virginia_Alves nurses]] in ''Halloween II''.
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: At the end of ''H20'', in what is Laurie's SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, she turns the tables on Michael Myers and hunts him down with an axe.
* IGotBetter: Dr. Loomis surviving the explosion of the first floor of a hospital in ''Halloween II'', returning in ''The Return of Michael Myers'' with a slightly burnt face, a limp and mangled hands.
** The same goes for Michael seeing as before the explosion, he got shot in the eyes by Laurie, causing him to become blind. To be fair, it's implied that he isn't exactly human...
** Loomis could've always been blasted out of the wall as the writer of ''4'' wanted to do.
* ILoveTheDead: The {{Squick}}-tastic ambulance driver in the ''H2'' remake.
* ImmuneToBullets: Michael Myers alternates between bullets hurting-but-not-killing him and bullets causing nothing more than a minor nuisance.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice:
** Bob being pinned to the wall with a knife in the original film and the remake.
** Kelly being impaled to the wall with a shotgun in ''The Return of Michael Myers''.
** Spitz getting impaled with a pitchfork in the midst of sex in ''Halloween 5''.
** Jamie getting impaled on a tractor in ''The Curse of Michael Myers'', plus John Strode being pinned to a fuse box later on.
** Rudy's impalement to a door with ''three knives'' in ''Resurrection''.
** A redneck's impalement on antlers in ''Halloween II''(2009).
* ImpendingDoomPOV: The beginning of the original film.
** And at the end of the fourth.
* ImplacableMan: Guess who. A particular example is in the seventh film, after getting an axe in the chest, Michael nonchalantly rips the weapon out and keeps going.
* InNameOnly: ''Halloween III'' has an entirely separate story and characters from the other films.
* {{Joisey}}: Averted. Michael Myers' hometown of Haddonfield is in Illinois. The real Haddonfield is actually located in New Jersey.
* KarmaHoudini: Josh Pinder in the spin-off book ''The Old Myers Place''. He at first appears fairly normal, but his status as a [[ItsAllAboutMe spoiled]], [[{{Jerkass}} assholish]] RichBitch soon becomes apparent, and he eventually tries to rape the main character (with it being revealed he tried doing the same to another girl the previous year). You'd think all that would cause Michael to zero in on him like a homing missile, but no, he survives.
* KickTheDog: Michael ''really'' seems to hate dogs.
** In the original film, Loomis and Brackett find a dead and partially eaten dog in the Myers house, and later Michael kills Lindsay's dog Lester by strangling him to death when he starts barking at him.
** Michael kills Jamie's dog Sundae in ''The Return of Michael Myers''.
** Michael kills Jamie's ''other'' dog Max in ''Halloween 5''.
*** Ironically, from Michael's point of view, this might be {{justified|Trope}} in the cases of Lester and Max--he didn't necessarily kill the dogs because he hated them. It's more likely he killed them because their incessant barking would have eventually alerted his would-be victims to his presence.
** In the 2007 reboot, the young Michael begins to satisfy his bloodlust by killing various animals including dogs, cats, and his pet rat Elvis.
** In ''Halloween II'' (2009), after murdering some rednecks Michael kills, rips open and graphically eats their dog.
** The first thing we see The Man In Black do in ''Halloween 5'' is kick a dog.
* KillEmAll: Zombie's ''Halloween II'' has [[spoiler: Loomis, Michael, and Laurie all dying]].
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Jamie Lloyd]], who winds up impaled on and ripped open by tractor harrows courtesy of Michael.
* LampshadeHanging: How ''did'' Michael learn to drive?
* LateArrivalSpoiler: Laurie Strode is Michael's sister; something that is spoiled on the ''Halloween II'' DVD cover.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The simple piano melody played throughout the series.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Laurie to Michael, probably.
* LoonyFan: The radio show callers in ''The Curse of Michael Myers'', Harold in ''Resurrection'', Chett in ''Halloween II'' (2009).
* LongestPrologueEver: ''H20's'' prologue goes for almost 20 minutes before the opening credits begin.
* MacheteMayhem: One is briefly used by Michael to massacre the Cult of Thorn in ''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.''
* MadArtist: Some see Michael as one of these, due to how he sets up and, in a few cases, seemingly admires the corpses of his victims.
* MadeOfPlasticine: Practically every victim in the series is this.
* MadeOfEvil: Dr Loomis believes that Michael is this....and he may be right.
* MadeOfIron: Michael Myers started out Made of Iron, but it was later RetConned into supernatural NighInvulnerability.
* TheManTheyCouldntHang: Michael in ''Resurrection''.
* MaskOfPower: Especially in the first film; Michael doesn't kill anyone except when wearing a mask. In the intro he froze when his dad removed his clown mask, and later when Laurie knocks his mask off he takes the time to put it back on, giving her a better chance of escaping. First thing he does before starting his spree is steal the mask, but not for disguise since he never takes it off and few people would recognise him. In the sequel, he still wears the mask (getting an innocent lookalike killed) and is discovered to have scrolled ''Samhain'' (basically, Halloween) on the wall of the mask store he robbed, suggesting he somehow links dressing up with murdering people; he ''becomes'' the Boogeyman.
* MenacingStroll: Michael's highest level of speed, at least [[OffscreenTeleportation when the camera isn't on him]].
* MirrorScare: Michael Myers.
* TheMountainsOfIllinois: Literally.
* MuggingTheMonster: In Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II'' a redneck duo decide to pick a fight with Michael when they find him crossing their property on his way to Haddonfield.
* MurdererPOV: Sometimes accompanied by VaderBreath.
* MythologyGag: The 2007 version includes many of these referencing the original.
* NeckSnap: Grady's death in ''The Return of Michael Myers'', the hermit in ''The Revenge of Michael Myers'', and Mrs. Strode's death in the remake.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Michael has a habit of pulling disappearing acts after seemingly being killed.
* NightmareSequence: Michael and Laurie have these in the remake of ''Halloween II''.
* NonchalantDodge: Michael's response to Laurie's knife throwing act in ''H20''
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: In the remake, the only security guard in the institution who ever showed Michael compassion and stopped the others from bullying him is given an over the top and painful death.
** In the sequel, the daughter of one of the rednecks who beat down Michael for trespassing pleads with them to leave him alone, and at least apologizes when they leave him for dead. Dead just the same.
* NotQuiteDead: Done again and again throughout the series, but used to full effect to justify ''Halloween: Resurrection'': [[spoiler:it turns out that Laurie had killed a paramedic instead of Michael at the end of ''[=H20=]''; Michael had attacked the paramedic, crushed his larynx, and switched places with him before "Michael's" body was carted out to the ambulance]].
* ObviouslyEvil: Averted. Unlike [[ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy]], [[Film/FridayThe13th Jason]], and [[TheTexasChainsawMassacre Leatherface]], when Michael is (briefly) unmasked in the climax of the first movie, he's revealed to have an almost ''angelic'' face.
* OffscreenTeleportation
** Possibly justified; Michael seems to take joy in scaring people, not just killing them, so he may very well be running when they can't see him in order to invoke this trope.
** Though its played with beautifully in some of the movies, there are the films where he appears in one part of the town mere moments after appearing in another part of the town.
* OffWithHisHead:
** The paramedic Laurie beheads with an axe in ''H20'', thinking he was Michael.
** The deaths of both an asylum guard and Jenna in ''Resurrection'' (the latter being decapitated [[YouFailPhysicsForever with a single swing of a regular kitchen knife]]).
** The ambulance passenger having his head sliced off with a glass shard in ''Halloween II'' (2009)
* OneSceneWonder: Ken Foree in the remake - ''"I'M BIG JOE GRIZZLY, BITCH!"''
* OnlyAFleshWound: LL Cool J can survive getting shot in the head.
** The bullet apparently only grazed his head, rather than entering.
* OopsIDroppedTheKeys: Molly in ''H20'' does this.
* OrderliesAreCreeps: Practically everyone who works in the [[BedlamHouse Smith's Grove Sanitarium]] in ''RobZombie's'' remake.
* PeekABooCorpse: Michael is a master of this.
* PetTheDog: For a CompleteMonster, Michael Myers has some moments where there is some humanity left in him. He does not attack kids like one of Tommy's bullies in the original Halloween, nor does with Lindsay when she is watching ''The Thing From Another World'' in ''Halloween (2007)'' (in fact he is watching the end of the film as he had not been able to see the end) and a small boy treat and treating in in ''Halloween II (2009)''. He takes off his mask when Jamie gets through to him near the end of ''Revenge''. He also kills two orderlies who had raped a woman inmate inside his room while Michael was inside (sparing the woman oddly enough) in the director's cut of ''Halloween (2007)''.
* PoliceAreUseless: The Haddonfield Police Station gets massacred in both ''The Return of Michael Myers'' and ''Halloween 5''.
** In Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II'', Sheriff Brackett asks Andy, one of his deputies, to protect Annie. To say he fails horribly shouldn't come as a shock.
* ThePublicDomainChannel: Laurie watches it in ''Halloween II''.
* QuizzicalTilt: Michael Myers does this when examining some of his victims.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath[=/=]StupidSacrifice: Loomis, in Zombie's ''2''.
* RetiredBadass: Loomis in the sixth movie.
* TheReveal: ''Halloween II'' reveals Michael is Laurie's brother. ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' reveals the Man in Black is Dr. Wynn.
* SassyBlackWoman: Ronnie's wife in ''H20''.
* SayMyName: Laurie at the end of ''H20'':
--> "MICHAAAAEEELLL! MICHAEL!"
* SeriesContinuityError: Several.
** At the end of the first film, Loomis shoots Michael six times, and he falls off a covered balcony at the back of the house; in the sequel, this scene is shown again at the start - and Loomis shoots Michael ''seven'' times (despite only having a six-chamber revolver), sending him flying off an ''uncovered'' balcony at the ''front'' of the house. Made all the worse when Loomis goes around shouting "I shot him six times!" in the first few minutes of the film.
** In the original ''Halloween'', the Myers house is a modest two-story home. By the time we get to ''Halloween 5'', it's a huge, Gothic-style mansion. Then when we get to ''Halloween 6'', it's back to being a typical two-story house--that still looks completely different from what we saw in the original film. At the time these movies were made, they were on the same continuity as the first one, so there's no excuse for the discrepancy.
** Following the end of the second movie, Michael had burn scars (which we typically saw on his hands) in ''4'', ''5'' and ''6''. No such scars are seen in ''H20''. While the preceding three movies are ignored by ''H20'', the second movie isn't. [[WildMassGuessing Unless you think the reason why he didn't turn up for twenty years was because of extensive skin grafts.]]
* TheSheriff: Leigh Brackett, in the first two films (and Rob Zombie's remakes); Ben Meeker, in ''4'' and ''5''.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: Myers finally kills Laurie in ''Resurrection'', along with several RedShirt characters, and he's still NotQuiteDead at the end.
** Jamie takes the cake though. She gets mocked for being related to Michael, becomes mute due to a powerful connection with Michael, has all her friends, her sister, and her dogs killed, gets kidnapped by a cult and is forced to have sex with Michael, and she's finally impaled by farm equipment. Jamie has to be the most depressing character in all of horror.
*** She literally gets shot to death in the Producer's Cut of ''The Curse of Michael Myers''.
* ShootingSuperman: In a non-superhero example, Michael Myers. This trope gets referenced in the commentary of ''Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers'' - in a scene where a cop clumsily shoots at Michael, one of the commentators mentions that, as a lifelong resident of Haddonfield, the guy should have realized shooting Michael just pisses him off.
* TheShrink: Loomis.
* SingleMomStripper: Note to [[KidsAreCruel cruel kids]]: Do not tease Michael Myers in the remake about how his mom is a pole dancer.
* SingleTear: Strangely enough, Michael Myers has a SingleTear moment in the fifth film...before reverting back to his CompleteMonster self, of course.
* SinisterScythe: Used to kill Samantha in ''5''.
* SlashedThroat: Appears to be Michael's default method of killing.
* SmokingHotSex: Lynda and Bob in the original ''Halloween''.
* SoftGlass: Probably one of the craziest examples ever happens in ''Curse of Michael Myers'' when Kara flies face first through a window and belly flops to the ground two stories below with no discernible injuries from either the glass or the fall. Honestly, with MadeOfIron abilities like that, why the hell is she afraid of Michael Myers?
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch''.
* SoundtrackDissonance: ''Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream...''
** ''Love hurts...''
* StalkerShrine: In ''H20'', it is revealed that Dr. Loomis' office is a shrine to Michael Myers, with three decades worth of newspaper clippings about Myers taped all over the office walls. To add to the creepiness, he also has high school photos of Laurie (Michael's sister) stuck to the wall too.
* StockSubtitle: ''Halloween Resurrection.''
* StoppedNumberingSequels: Textbook example.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome:
** Doctor Loomis and Michael in ''Halloween II'' ([[IGotBetter they get better]])
** Rachel Carruthers in ''Halloween 5''.
** Jamie Lloyd and possibly both Doctor Loomis and Doctor Wynn in ''The Curse of Michael Myers''.
** Marion Whittington and Doctor Loomis (again) in ''H20''.
** [[spoiler: Laurie]] in ''Resurrection''.
** Annie, Laurie and Doctor Loomis (''[[RunningGag again]]'') in ''Halloween II'' (2009)
* SuddenlyVoiced: The director's cut of Rob Zombie's ''Halloween II'' actually has Michael scream "DIE!" before killing Loomis.
* {{Tagline}}: "The night ''he'' came home!"
* TakeMeInstead: When confronting Michael at the diner in the fouth movie, Loomis invokes the trope - saying Michael could kill him in exchange for leaving the people of Haddonfield alone. Michael remains still following this, suggesting he turned it down and prompting Loomis to try to shoot him.
* TakeThat: In ''Part 4'', Michael is coincidentally looking for a new mask at a store the same time Jamie is. He grabs a RonaldReagan mask and walks off screen. A few seconds later, he throws it away and grabs the bleached WilliamShatner mask instead. The scene was cut for being too funny.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' has Michael preparing to kill a bunch of sanitarium employees by overlooking a tray filled with medical tools. At first, it looks like he's going to grab a scalpel, but, having apparently gotten tips from Jason Voorhees, he decides to grab a ''huge'' machete (that was there for some reason) instead.
** In 'the new 'Halloween II'', Michael stabs a nurse in the back. And then does it again. And again, and again, until after about an entire minute filled with stabbings, he rams the knife into her skull and leaves it stuck there.
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: The Shape (aka Michael Myers), from the original ''Halloween'', is repeatedly compared to the boogeyman, apparently unkillable, and deeply enigmatic. He also seems to particularly target teenagers who are [[DeathBySex transgressive against social norms]]. In a subversion of this particular trope, he doesn't show much if any interest in actual children.
* TimeSkip: The original film skips from 1963 to 1978, while both of Zombie's films open in Michael's childhood and then the Laurie storyline 17 years later. There is a second time jump in the sequel to two years AFTER the events of ''Halloween (2007)''.
* TooDumbToLive: Countless examples, though especially prevelant in Zombie's films when several people insult and even strike Myers. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that Myers in those films is A SEVEN FOOT TALL GIANT!!!
** Justified in-universe. It's implied in TheRemake that Michael took the janitor's words about about living in a world inside your own head to heart - aside from his mask-making and when they occasionally drag him out for probation hearings, he is functionally catatonic most of the time.
* TragicDream: In the remake, Michael just wants to meet Laurie and live happily with her.
* TraumaticCSection: In a flashback sequence in ''Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode'', a young Michael Myers is shown daydreaming about cutting baby Laurie out of his mother during a meal.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The original theatrical trailer gives away the first scene's twist - that the killer is the victim's six-year old brother.
* TropeCodifier: The first film, along with ''[[Film/FridayThe13th Friday the 13th]]'', is this for the entire slasher genre.
* TwentyMinutesWithJerks: While the earlier ''Halloween'' movies aren't so bad, the later ones revolve around the typically unlikable, rebellious teens with ~teen issues~ that are standard in many slasher flicks. In fact, Michael Myer's killings come off as more of a background issue to the love-triangles and teen angst of the protagonists.
** This is especially prevalent in the Rob Zombie remakes where practically every character is a mean, brainless JerkAss who's scenes revolve around how awful they are. It seems to be Zombie's way of making the viewer sympathize with Myers, but it makes the scenes with any character who isn't Myers downright painful to watch.
* TwoPersonPoolParty: In ''Halloween 2'', Nurse Karen and Budd get busy in the hospital's hydrotherapy pool before Michael Myers [[DeathBySex strangles Budd with a length of cord and drowns Nurse Karen after dunking her face into scalding water, causing her face to blister and boil]].
* TheUnreveal: In the first film, Michael is unmasked - and he looks like a normal 23 year old boy.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The Cult of Thorn apparently believe Michael killing his relatives will bring world peace... or something.
* VaderBreath: Michael.
* VillainBasedFranchise: Played semi-straight, in that Dr. Loomis (the hero in the first movie) came back for every sequel until [[AuthorExistenceFailure Donald Pleasence's death]], with Laurie Strode (the original's final girl) appearing in the remainder of the sequels. Whilst Michael is the only character in every installment (barring the third one), he is always opposed by one of the survivors from the first movie.
* TheVoiceless: In the original series Michael never spoke and only ever uttered generic noises like grunts, which themselves are barely audible in most cases. In the remake series Michael's shown to talk, but only as a child.
** ... until [[spoiler: the director's cut for ''Halloween II'' (2009), where screams "DIE!" at Loomis before stabbing him multiple times.]]
** An early version of ''H20'' also had Michael speak. Right before Laurie kills him with a javelin, he would've said her name.
* WeaponOfChoice: The knife. Also strangulation.
* WhatTheHellHero: Loomis himself realizes what an asshole he's become in Zombie's ''2''.
* WhiteMaskOfDoom
* WomanInWhite: Mrs. Myers in the ''Halloween 2'' remake.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Michael in the Zombie directed films.
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Michael takes Howard down with a choke-slam in ''Halloween II'' ('09), before he stomps his face in.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: In Zombie's ''2'', Laurie and her new friends Mya and Harley attend a party dressed as [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Magenta, Columbia, and Dr. Frank N. Furter]], respectively, but none are identified by name. Harley only describes herself as [[RecursiveCrossdressing "...a chick, dressed as a guy, who wants to be a girl."]]
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: One of the Chaos! comics has Laurie taking Michael's place after killing him in ''H20''. This was ultimately rendered non-canon by ''Resurrection'' though.
** The ending of ''Halloween II'' (2009) on the other hand ends with Laurie becoming as crazy, evil and twisted as Michael, even briefly putting on his mask, after killing him.
* YouLookFamiliar: In 2009's ''H2'', the actor who gets stomped to death behind the strip club later turns up as the green-faced host of the big Halloween party.
** Which itself becomes funny when Bill Mosley, the original actor, dropped out from playing the role. The reason why its funny is because he had a victim role in the reshot scenes of the 2007 remake, appearing the theatrical cut of the film.
** ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' includes appearances by Nancy Loomis as Challis' ex-wife and (via voiceover) Jamie Lee Curtis as a telephone operator.
* YourHeadASplode: John Strode's death in ''The Curse of Michael Myers''. Michael impales him to a fuse box, electrocuting him to the point that his head messily blows up.
--

** DonaldPleasence in real life. According to the writer of '''Halloween 4''', he did most of his own stunts in the film. He did all this while pushing 70!

* BolivianArmyEnding: Though he seemingly dies, Conal Cochran's plan in ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' is still seconds away from coming to fruition as the protagonist frantically ''yells'' for the last station to pull the ad off the air... ''right before the film ends then and there.''

* ConspicuousCG: Michael's mask, in the scene where he confronts Charlie, in ''H20''.

* DawsonCasting: The series seems to love this:
** 17/18 year old Laurie Strode played by 20-year old Jamie Lee Curtis. Which isn't too bad, except that in Halloween 2, Laurie was the same age, but Jamie Lee Curtis was now 23.
** Teenagers Annie and Lynda were played by actors in their late 20's/early 30's in both the original and the remake.
** Ellie Cornell and various other actors in their early/mid-20's were cast as the teenage Rachel and friends in ''Halloween 4'' and ''5''.
** Quite more funnier is when they get one of the TropeNamers, MichelleWilliams of ''DawsonsCreek'' fame and one of the few actors to ''avert'' this trope, to play one of the main teens in ''Halloween H20''.

* DeathRay: Cochran's masks shoot powerful energy beams in ''Season of the Witch''.
* DeletedScene: Played straight ''and'' subverted at the same time - due to content cuts, the original film actually received a few ''additional'' scenes for its network TV premiere (which were filmed during production of ''Halloween II'').

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: "It's time, Michael..."

* EnforcedMethodActing: Averted. During the filming of part 4, much care was taken to ensure that Danielle Harris, who played Jamie, was not frightened, especially by the actor playing Michael, who repeatedly removed his mask in order to reassure her that he was not going to hurt her.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: Freddie tries to bring Michael Myers down with his fists in ''Halloween: Resurrection. Surprisingly, [[spoiler:Freddie actually survives this encounter]].

* IronicNurseryTune: ''The Season of the Witch'' features a recurring advertising jingle for Silver Shamrock novelties sung to the tune of 'London Bridge is Falling Down'. This becomes increasingly sinister as we learn of Silver Shamrock's actual purpose.

* NoodleIncident: How the bad guys got the piece of Stone Henge in ''Season of the Witch''.
-->'''Conal Cochran:''' Ha ha. We had a TIME getting it here. You wouldn't believe how we did it.

** Doctor Challis essentially whacking the robotic Ellie's head off in ''Season of the Witch'' with a tire iron, and Starker getting his head ripped off.

* {{Recut}}: The ''Halloween'' films had many TV Cuts made:
** During the filming of the sequel, John Carpenter shot more scenes for the ABC broadcast of the original to help it pad out the alotted time. While largely just character exposition, one scene ([[spoiler:a visit to Michael's asylum room where the word "sister" is carved in the door]]) serves to help validate the twist of the second movie..
** The sequel itself has a few new things for the TV Cut. These include some alternate cuts of scenes, some scene and dialogue extensions, and a scene added to the end that takes place in the ambulance.
--> Laurie: We made it. ''We made it!''
** Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers has the most stunning example of this. Apparently, the film ran over time and budget, so [[ExecutiveMeddling the suits decided to take it over to see how they could screw it up]]. Their version is the Theatrical Cut. When the film was shown on TV, someone got a hold of the now infamous Producer's Cut. While the violence and cursing were trimmed, an ''assload'' of alternate takes and different opening narration were shown, ''and the entire last 20 minutes of the film is RADICALLY different from the Theatrical Cut''. The main change is that the explanation for Micheal's killing ways is altered: The Theatrical version offered a scientific reason, but the Producer's Cut says the reason is supernatural (which also explains why Micheal is also growing bigger in each previous film. It's because his power is growing). It also shows a final scene with Dr. Loomis realizing that he has been cursed by Thorn. This was likely altered when Donald Pleasance died. An early trailer showed that the film was originally going to called "Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers." This version is only available through bootleg video releases.
** Halloween: H20 has a TV Cut that does the violence and cussword trim, but also has some alternate scenes fun. One added scene gives the counselor played by Alan Arkin some development by revealing that his mother cheated on his traveling salesman father, and he got blamed for knowing, but doing nothing.

* ShoutOut: A large number of them in the first film. To give but one example, Sam Loomis was the name of a character in ''{{Psycho}}''.
** By coincidence (or perhaps not), Jamie Lee Curtis is [[{{Psycho}} Marion Crane's daughter]]. In fact, Janet Leigh has a cameo in the seventh film playing a character named "Norma".

* StockSubtitle: Halloween Resurrection.

** He also tries to run down Jamie, Billy, and Tina in ''Halloween: The Revenge of Michael Myers''.

* BottleEpisode: Despite the length of each film and all the action that takes place, each movie takes place on Halloween (of course), with a brief prologue set the day/night before.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: The death of series producer Moustapha Akkad effectively erased the chances of a ninth film in the original series.

* CreatorBacklash: Rob Zombie's reaction to the studios intent to resurrect Michael for a third film, despite his insistence (and refusal to direct) that the ''2'' was the end of the franchise.

* DoingItForTheArt: As hard as it is to believe, Zombie's vision of the series.

* ExecutiveMeddling: ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' really got butchered.

* FridgeLogic: In the 1978 film, when Laurie tells Tommy and Lindsay to go to the [[=MacKenzies=]' house and have them call the police, why the hell didn't she just go with them? What the hell was keeping her there, anyway?
** She's exhausted, injured, and thinks that Michael's dead and no longer poses a threat to her. She probably figured that the best thing to do was stay put and rest until the police and ambulance got there.

* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]: Borders on YouLookFamiliar in that it occurs between the original and remake continuity. Danielle Harris, who played Jamie Lloyd in the Thorn films, takes the role of Annie in the remake and its sequel.
** The 2007 film has [[AClockworkOrange Alex the Droog]] as Dr. Loomis, [[OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest Billy Bibbitt]] as Sheriff Brackett, and [[DawnOfTheDead Peter Washington]] as Big Joe Grizzly.

* PlayingAgainstType: Donald Pleasance had been primarily playing villains (most famously as [[YouOnlyLiveTwice Ernst Stavro Blofeld]]) up until this point. Also, the remake had Danny Trejo, mostly known for playing badasses, crooks, gangsters and assassins as the kindly janitor in the asylum holding Michael.

* TheShrink: Loomis
* SinisterScythe: Used to kill Samantha in ''5''.

* ShootingSuperman: In a non-superhero example, Michael Myers. This trope gets referenced in the commentary of ''Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers'' - in a scene where a cop clumsily shoots at Michael, one of the commentators mentions that, as a lifelong resident of Haddonfield, the guy should have realized shooting Michael just pisses him off.

* SingleTear: Strangely enough, Michael Myers has a SingleTear moment in the fifth film...before reverting back to his CompleteMonster self, of course.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Before the "Cult of Thorn" plot was fleshed out, the writers of ''Part 6'' toyed with the idea of having the Man in Black be revealed to be Michael's father.
** Donald Pleseance died during the shooting of ''The Curse of Michael Myers'', so we never got to see his personal confrontation with Michael.
** An early version of ''H20'' didn't ignore the previous three films.
** The plan for the third film was to turn ''Halloween'' into a GenreAnthology film series, as Carpenter and Debra Hill felt that the story laid out in the first two films was finished.
** There was also some discussion of killing off Michael for real at the end of Halloween 4, and making ''Jamie'' the new killer.
** Danielle Harris wanted to reprise Jamie in the sixth movie, but was turned down because they would've had to pay her more money.
** BillPaxton was offered the role of Bob (Lynda's boyfriend) since he was dating P.J. Soles at the time but had to turn it down due to work on another movie.
** Carpenter did pen a script for the fourth movie, though it was far more cerebral and Michael was more akin to a psychic force (as in this version, he was actually dead).
** [[ClarissaExplainsItAll Melissa Joan]] [[SabrinaTheTeenageWitch Hart]] auditioned to play Jamie.

* '''''Halloween II'' (1981):''' Set on the same night as the original film (but filmed a couple years later). [[FinalGirl Laurie]] is taken to hospital to recover from Michael Myers' attack, but the serial killer follows her there, and the reason Michael is targeting Laurie is [[TheReveal revealed]]: [[spoiler:Laurie is Michael's sister, a fact that was covered up to protect her]].

* BloodierAndGorier: ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' and the remake. The original, oddly enough, is pretty tame when it comes to blood

* [[BreakTheCutie Break]] [[KillTheCutie and (subsequently kill)]] [[BreakTheCutie The Cutie]]: Jamie Lloyd and remake Annie. Both happen to be played by Danielle Harris.

* CanonDisContinuity: ''Halloween: H20'', the seventh film in the franchise, completely ignores the fourth, fifth, and sixth films.

* CreatorBacklash: Rob Zombie's reaction to the studios intent to resurrect Michael for a third film, despite his insistance (and refusal to direct) that the ''2'' was the end of the franchise.

* ExecutiveMeddling: ''The Curse of Michael Myers'' really got butchered.

* FanService: Numerous examples, but probably the reason Laurie dresses as [[TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Magenta]] in Zombie's ''II''.
* FanDisservice: ... before she winds up hysterical and covered in blood. The series really seems to like this trope...

* {{Foreshadowing}}: ''H20'' has an excellent example of this. Laurie Strode (who now goes by the name Keri Tate) is teaching an English literature class on Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. Molly, one of the students, responds to a question about the book and fate with this: ''"I think that Victor should have confronted the monster sooner. He's completely responsible for Elizabeth's death. He was so paralyzed by fear that he never did anything. It took death for the guy to get a clue."'' She goes on to say that Victor finally confronts the monster because he ''"had reached a point in his life where he had nothing left to lose. I mean, the monster saw to that by killing off everybody that he loved. It was about redemption. It was his fate."'' This foreshadows the final scenes in the movie where [[spoiler:Laurie finallly decides to stop running from]] [[CompleteMonster Michael Myers]] [[spoiler:and confront her monster. After 20 years of living in fear and seeing her loved ones murdered, she had nothing more to lose. It was time to face her fears and end the nightmare.]]

* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: At the end of ''H20'', in what is Laurie's CrowningMomentOfAwesome, she turns the tables on Michael Myers and hunts him down with an axe.

* IronicNurseryRhyme: ''The Season of the Witch'' features a recurring advertising jingle for Silver Shamrock novelties sung to the tune of 'London Bridge is Falling Down'. This becomes increasingly sinister as we learn of Silver Shamrock's actual purpose.

*** Ironically, from Michael's point of view, this might be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in the cases of Lester and Max--he didn't necessarily kill the dogs because he hated them. It's more likely he killed them because their incessant barking would have eventually alerted his would-be victims to his presence.

* LoonyFan - The radio show callers in ''The Curse of Michael Myers'', Harold in ''Resurrection'', Chett in ''Halloween II'' (2009).

* MadeOfIron: Michael Myers started out Made of Iron, but it was later RetConned into supernatural NighInvulnerability.

** In the sequel, the daughter of one of the rednecks who beatdown Michael for trespassing pleads with them to leave him alone, and at least apologizes when they leave him for dead. Dead just the same.

** Halloween: H20 has a TV Cut that does the violence and cussword trim, but also has some alternate scenes fun. One added scene gives the counselor played by Alan Arkin some development by revealing that his mother cheated on his travelling salesman father, and he got blamed for knowing, but doing nothing.

* RetiredBadass - Loomis in the sixth movie.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch''

* TheManTheyCouldntHang: Michael in ''Resurrection''.

* '''''H2'' (2009):''' The direct sequel to Rob Zombie's remake, picking up right where the first film left off, then fast-forwarding some time after the events of the previous film.

* EnemyRisingBehind: Memorably in the first film.

* GeniusBruiser: Micheal has proved that he ain't just a dumb brutish killing robot. He usually observes his victims closely, figure out their weaknesses, take advantage of it, kills their friends and family in order to make them weak mentally, cuts out all escape routes before he goes in for the kill and he knows when and who he can kill and when not.

** Inadvertently done by Brady in Part 4 who tries to shoot Michael, then struggles with him, ultimately giving Jamie and Rachel a chance to escape.

*** Ironically, from Michael's point of view, this might be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in the cases of Lester and Max--he didn't necessarily kill the dogs because he hated them. It's more likely he killed them because they were barking and would have eventually alerted his would-be victims to his presence.

* SeriesContinuityError: A small one. At the end of the first film, Loomis shoots Michael six times, and he falls off a covered balcony at the back of the house; in the sequel, this scene is shown again at the start - and Loomis shoots Michael ''seven'' times (despite only having a six-chamber revolver), sending him flying off an ''uncovered'' balcony at the ''front'' of the house. Made all the worse when Loomis goes around shouting "I shot him six times!" in the first few minutes of the film.
** In the original ''Halloween'', the Myers house is a modest two-story home. By the time we get to ''Halloween 5'', it's a huge, Gothic-style mansion. Then when we get to ''Halloween 6'', it's back to being a typical two-story house--that still looks completely different from what we saw in the original film.

** And Jamie Lee Curtis is [[{{Psycho}} Marion Crane's daughter]]. In fact, Janet Leigh has a cameo in the seventh film playing a character named "Norma".

** Michael pulls this off by clinging to bottom of a pickup truck in ''The Return of Michael Myers''. Also, Barry's death in ''The Curse of Michael Myers''.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Averted. During the filming of part 4, much care was taken to ensure that Danielle Harris, who played Jamie, was not frightened, most notably by the actor playing Michael, who repeatedly removed his mask in order to reassure her that he was not going to hurt her.

* EvilDetectingDog: Lester the family dog barks at Michael Myers hiding behind the bushes in the original film.

** Her injuries. Between them and the exhaustion of the fight, she was probably unable to move well and figured that the best thing to do was stay put until the police and ambulance got there. Remember, she thought Michael was dead and no longer posed a threat to her.

** There's plenty in the original series as well. For example, in ''Halloween 2'' (which is where the gorier trend of the series began), Micheal kills a nurse by repeatedly dunking her head into scalding water. Every time he pulls her out, we get an up close look at the effect this has on her skin. Suffice it to say, it's horrifying. Or ''Halloween 6'', which finds Jamie being impaled on a corn thresher.

* HeroicSacrifice: In Part 5, Tina sacrifices herself to give Jamie a chance to get away from Michael.

** In the original ''Halloween'', the Myers house is a modest two-story home. By the time we get to ''Halloween 5'', it's a huge, Gothic-style mansion.

* '''''[[HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch Halloween III: Season of the Witch]]'' (1982):''' A toymaker uses some rocks from Stonehenge to create masks that cause children's heads to explode into writhing piles of snakes and bugs if they watch Halloween commercials. Also, robots and [[DeathRay lasers]]. The only movie of the series that ''doesn't'' feature Michael, since it's not a direct sequel to the previous film; this was because Carpenter originally envisioned the ''Halloween'' franchise as a GenreAnthology series. Poor reception to this film killed that idea...

* DyingDream: [[WordOfGod Rob Zombie confirmed]] the ending of the director's cut version of his ''Halloween 2'' is this for [[spoiler:Laurie]].

* TimeSkip: The original 1978 film skips from 1963 to 1978, while both of Zombie's films open in Michael's childhood and then the Laurie storyline 17 years later. There is a second time jump in the sequel to two years AFTER the events of ''Halloween (2007)''.

* TimeSkip: Both of Zombie's films open in Myers' Childhood and then the Laurie storyline 17 years later. There is a second time jump in the sequel to two years AFTER the events of ''Halloween (2007)''.

* FridgeLogic: In the 1978 film, when Laurie tells Tommy and Lindsay to go to the MacKenzie's house and have them call the police, why the hell didn't she just go with them? What the hell was keeping her there, anyway?

* FranchiseZombie: JohnCarpenter in a 1982 interview stated that Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis both died at the end of Halloween II and that he intended to make the series into an anthology "like ''TheTwilightZone'' but on a larger scale." After the financial flop of Halloween III Carpenter opted out of doing anymore and signed away the rights to producer Moustapha Akkad. Michael Myers went on to appear in five more films after his canon death, not counting the remakes.

* BloodlessCarnage: The original only contains two shots with blood, and neither is particularly explicit. This is mostly because the film relies on lighting and suspense for its scares.

** When Principal Chambers is showing Mrs. Myers disturbing pictures of mutilated animals he found among Michael's possessions in the remake dogs can be seen in some of them.
** In ''Halloween II'' (2009) after murdering some rednecks Michael kills, rips open and graphically eats their dog.

** Following the end of the second movie, Michael had burn scars (which we typically saw on his hands) in ''4'', ''5'' and ''6''. No such scars are seen in ''H20''. While the preceding three movies are ignored by ''H20'', the second movie isn't. [[WildManGuessing Unless you think the reason why he didn't turn up for twenty years was because of extensive skin grafts.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: Though he seemingly dies, Conal Cochran's plan in ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' still comes to fruition.
** At the beginning of ''Resurrection'', Michael finally manages to kill Laurie.

* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: The Shape (aka Michael Myers), from the original ''Halloween'', is repeatedly compared to the boogieman, apparently unkillable, and deeply enigmatic. He also seems to particularly target teenagers who are [[DeathBySex transgressive against social norms]]. In a subversion of this particular trope, he doesn't show much if any interest in actual children.