THERE’S A SLIGHT change in this week’s surgery podcast as not one, but three movies go under the knife.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers.

The reason for combining these three movies from the Halloween franchise together is due to the shift in focus for the movies.

The bold attempt to turn the franchise away from the Michael Myers storyline and launch it into an anthology series would prove to be way ahead of its time.

Halloween lll: Season of the Witch may have its core fans but ultimately it would fall foul of dumping its much-loved villain.

The people spoke and the producers listened.
Bringing Myers back was the easiest part in resurrecting the franchise.

The tricky part was to encourage its writers John Carpenter and Debra Hill back into production. A task that would be too great as no amount of persuasion could encourage them to do so.

Not only that but their lead protagonist, Laurie Strode aka Jamie Lee Curtis turned down the chance to return, citing other commitments.

Laurie would be written out (at this stage), killed in a car crash.
So what is an antagonist without its protagonist to hunt down and kill?

The writers would have to come up with something fast if the game of cat and mouse was to mount to anything on screen.

The answer was to bring in another Myers relative to continue the bloodline in the form of Laurie Strode’s daughter, Jamie Lloyd played in the next two installments by 8 year old, Danielle Harris.

The only trouble was that being a kid, Jamie Lloyd was no match for Myers.

So another nemesis would be brought back from the ashes, Dr Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance once again taking on the role) to outwit Michael.
The series owes a lot to Pleasance’s gravitas on screen – a legend in his time.

Throw in a cult and Paul Rudd and you have a mixture of twisted storylines to keep the beating heart of the Halloween franchise going.

But what do the Surgeons of Horror make of this round of movies in the franchise.

Does it take too many twists and turns on its journey?

Listen to the podcast to catch our thoughts and opinions.