Is Halloween Ends the most violent film in the horror saga?
Released this Wednesday, October 12 in our theaters, “Halloween Ends” is presented as the last episode of the saga launched at the end of the 70s by John Carpenter. With a record number of deaths at stake?
Since 1978 and the release of the first film, Michael Myers comes to defend his title of king of the boogeymen at regular intervals. Wherever he goes (in Haddonfield and its surroundings), the people who meet him pass away, and often by the dozens. Released this Wednesday, October 12 in our theaters and presented as the latest installment in the horror saga, Halloween Ends is no exception. But does he hold the record for corpses?
If we could expect him to let go for his farewell and his last face-to-face with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Michael Myers kills less than in the previous episode, which can nevertheless explained by the astonishing approach of David Gordon Green, who completes his trilogy started in 2018.
Discover the ranking of films in the Halloween saga, ranked from least to bloodiest. Knowing that the total body count of the franchise is now 211 deaths spread over thirteen feature films. And that it is thanks to the latest that it crosses the 200 mark.
Tied #13 – Halloween (1978)
Universal Pictures
7 dead – The horror saga begins gently (compared to the following episodes) under the leadership of John Carpenter, since we owe only seven deaths to Michael Myers. Including that of his sister in the opening scene which will not have missed the spirits. Or the young woman he stabs hidden under a sheet. Few corpses on arrival but each of them counts in this seminal opus that many will have tried to copy without success. Including within the franchise.
#13 ex-aequo – Halloween: 20 years later (1998)
Universal Pictures
7 dead – Soft recovery for Michael Myers, who takes advantage of the revival of slashers due to the successes of Scream and Remember… last summer, to remind who’s boss, while Laurie Strode stands in his way again. From an accounting point of view, that’s not quite it. Neither does cinematic quality. But the boogeyman lines up a few future stars on his bloody list, including a very young Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
#11 – Halloween 2 (1981)
Universal Pictures
10 dead – John Carpenter left to see the side of Fog and New York 1997 if he was not there, it is Rick Rosenthal who takes control of this sequel. And with him, Michael Myers raises his level of play with three corpses more than in the first opus. It must be said that this Halloween 2 takes place largely in the hospital where Laurie was admitted. Which means more people, therefore more potential victims, in a reduced area.
Note a major difference in the novelization of the film, since a person who had survived the screen dies in the book.
#10 – Halloween Resurrection (2002)
Universal Pictures
11 dead – Including Laurie, who perishes at the end of the opening scene. This one, which marked the farewell (not definitive, in the end) of Jamie Lee Curtis to the franchise which revealed it, moreover turns out to be the only interest of this umpteenth sequel, the second and last directed by Rick Rosenthal , in which several contestants are selected for a reality TV show where they have to spend a night at Michael Myers’ childhood home. And there, as they say on YouTube, things go wrong.
#9 – Halloween (2018)
Universal Pictures
16 dead – Or the return of the resurrection. Which acts as a real sequel to John Carpenter’s film and erases all the others, including the one that saw Laurie perish in 2002. The heroine is back, still in the guise of Jamie Lee Curtis and in front of the camera of David GordonGreen. Coming from the independent circuit, the director remains on the rails of the franchise and the genre, but he goes straight to the point with more than fifteen deaths.
When his Halloween ended, there were even 17 of them, but we’re told that one of them (Agent Hawkins played by Will Patton) eventually survived his injuries in the following film.
#8 – Halloween 6 (1995)
Universal Pictures
17 dead – Including the saga itself. At least that’s what we thought, in the heart of the 90s, when this sixth Halloween came out. Shortly before Scream came to give the slasher genre a boost, the franchise seemed battered and as sluggish as Michael, still undecided to run. Although short-lived (because 20 Years Later was released in 1998), these temporary farewells had the merit of being violent if not bloody, since many murders take place off-screen.
#7 – Halloween Ends (2022)
Universal Pictures
18 dead – There too, it is about farewells. Maybe temporary but we’ll see. Failing to be the ultimate bloodbath, Halloween Ends is right in the middle of this ranking on the body counts of the opuses of the saga. By counting three corpses that we see, at the bend of a plan, at the beginning, when it is a question of deaths attributed to Michael Myers, reported missing as the story begins.
#6 tied – Halloween 4 (1988)
Universal Pictures
19 dead – For what was then his great return to business, after an episode 3 where he was conspicuous by his absence, Michael Myers had the ambition to catch up on his bloody accounts. And this is how he comes close to the bar of 20 corpses strewn on his way.
#6 tied – Halloween II (2009)
Universal Pictures
19 dead – In the Halloween saga, the sequels tend to be more brutal than the previous episode. Except at Rob Zombie, who had hit even harder with his reboot released two years earlier. But it would be quibbling to denigrate the winners of this Halloween II, which is also close to the bar of 20 corpses.
#4 tied – Halloween 5 (1989)
Universal Pictures
20 dead – Halloween 4 had 19 kills, 5 adds one more. Without more, in this opus which privileges the tension to the blood, and has for only merit to offer us an intriguing end which then left little suspense on the fact that another film was going to see the light of day. Even if the saga already seemed out of breath.
#4 tied – Halloween (2007)
Universal Pictures
20 dead – While John Carpenter’s classic was about to celebrate its 30th anniversary, Rob Zombie wanted to show that he was not afraid by attacking a reboot. Which insisted more on the past of Michael Myers, before he committed the murder of his sister, and with a sticky atmosphere which was already the salt of his cinema. And three times more deaths than in his model. A figure that even climbs to 22 in the long and uncensored version.
#2 – Halloween 3 (1982)
Universal Pictures
21 dead – For nearly three decades, the bloodiest installment of the Halloween saga was the only one… in which Michael Myers does not appear. When he made the first one, John Carpenter wanted each potential sequel to tell a different story, in a different place. The success of his film, however, forced him to bring back his boogeyman, whom he decided to kill in order to return to his initial plans with Sorcerer’s Blood, where a society kills through masks.
Despite a very high death toll (the highest until the 2020s), the producers demanded that Michael Myers be reborn from the ashes and it was then that John Carpenter disengaged from the franchise, never to return. than in 2018, with David Gordon Green’s first film.
#1 – Halloween Kills (2021)
Universal Pictures
26 dead – The big winner of this bloody top, unquestionably. And this even if the following episode reveals that one of the victims ofHalloween Kills eventually survived his attack. Even with 26 corpses instead of 27, the film by David Gordon Green dominates the others head and shoulders. And he could remain a leader forever, if the saga were to end for good with the film released in our theaters on October 12, 2022.
