Halloween (1978)

The Serial Killer Michael Myers Began His Killing Spree at Six Years Old With the Stabbing of His Sister, In Their Home in Haddonfield, Illinois; Years Later After His Escape, Psychiatrist Dr. Loomis Would Pursue Him Back to Haddonfield; Loomis Saved Laurie; 'Evil' Michael Myers Miraculously Survived - and Disappeared Into the Night

The setting was Halloween night, 1963, in Haddonfield, Illinois, and the horror film's opening four-minute sequence was striking. Six-year-old Michael Myers (Will Sandin) wearing a clown costume was unmasked after he had repeatedly stabbed to death his 17 year-old sister Judith (Sandy Johnson) with a butcher knife following her upstairs love-making in their house with her boyfriend. The clown-costumed, insane boy stood there motionless on the front lawn, surrounded by shocked adults (his parents).

Subsequently, the disturbed, psychotic boy was institutionalized for the crime for 15 years in Smith's Grove, Illinois at the Warren County Sanitarium, observed by quirky psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). At age 21, Michael Myers (Tony Moran) escaped from the institution, headed for Haddonfield and the abandoned Myers' house - still unsold, vacant and dilapidated.

Among others in the town, he stalked smart, independent-minded young 17-year-old teenaged girl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis in her feature film debut). After a major killing spree, the visceral and false climax of this classic horror film occurred in the neighboring Doyle house. The white-masked Shape (Nick Castle) seemed indestructible, especially in the startling, scary moment when the seemingly-dead Michael Myers sat up in the background behind a sobbing Laurie.

The psychiatrist rushed up the stairs and finally caught up with his prey, saving her from strangulation. The doctor fired six rounds, emptying his gun into the masked figure. The crazed killer fell from the second floor balcony and tumbled to the ground below. Bloodied and in near-shock, Laurie quizzically stated: "[it]...was the boogey-man," while Dr. Loomis confirmed: "As a matter of fact, it was.."

In the film's final moments, the apparently super-human body of Michael Myers vanished into the dark night even after being stabbed three times by Laurie (with domestic tools: knitting needle, coat-hanger, and kitchen knife), lethally shot six times, and after suffering from a second-story fall. Psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis seemed unsurprised as if he expected or was resigned to the fact that the 'evil' Myers would vanish - thus opening the door to future sequels.

[Note: Many imitative horror and slasher films would turn this type of ending into a cliche, deemed famously by film critic Roger Ebert as "the undead dead" movie plot device.]

Halloween II (1981)

Traumatized and Hospitalized Laurie Strode Continued to Be Pursued and Stalked by Resurrected, Murderous Michael Myers. The Major Plot Twist Revelation Was That Laurie Was Myers' Sister. She Had Been Adopted By the Strode Family. Both Psychiatrist Dr. Loomis and Myers Perished In the Film's Conclusion, Although Were Miraculously Revived in the Fourth Film

This sequel film opened in Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween (October 31, 1978). The film reprised the last major scene of the original 1978 film, in which 17 year-old babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) sent two young children, Lindsay Wallace (Kyle Richards) and Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) away from the Doyle house to run to the neighbors and call the police. Laurie was left to confront the masked 21 year-old killer Michael Myers (Tony Moran) by herself. As in the earlier film, the body of the assailant after stalking Laurie, had escaped sure death and vanished from the lawn into the night. He left only an imprint on the grass and blood stains. Loomis told the next-door neighbor to call the police: "...he's still on the loose..."

Laurie was taken to the Haddonfield Hospital, and Michael Myers followed her there on foot. She learned that Myers had escaped and was targeting her - and she asked: "Why me?" As she slept, Laurie experienced flashback dreams about her childhood, in which her adoptive mother Mrs. Strode (Pamela McMyler) told her: "I'm not your mother." As a young girl (Nichole Drucker), she had a glimpse of her young brother Michael (Adam Gunn) sitting in an institution.

During a killing spree in the hospital, the Shape also continued to pursue and stalk Laurie. Assistant Nurse Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens) from the Sanitarium told Michael's psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) the film's major twist. She described a secret sealed Myers file which revealed that Laurie Strode was actually Myers's sister - confirming Laurie's flashback dreams:

"She was born two years before he was committed. Two years after, his parents died and she was adopted by the Strodes. They requested that the records be sealed in order to protect the family."

Loomis was fearful of Myers' intentions in Haddonfield: he was there to kill his second sister. He ordered the Marshal, at gunpoint (after firing one warning shot), to drive to the Haddonfield Hospital in order to attempt to save Laurie. Myers pursued Dr. Loomis and Laurie, and cornered them in an operating room, where he broke down the door and stabbed and mortally wounded Loomis in the stomach with a scalpel, when the doctor's gun clicked empty.

Laurie briefly stopped the killer's approach to her by calling him by name: "Michael?" With a second gun, Laurie shot the unstoppable, seemingly-indestructible homicidal killer in each of his eyes with the last two remaining bullets - causing the killer to weep and bleed red tears down the front of his mask. The blinded killer slashed around wildly as both Loomis and Laurie released oxygen and ether gases from tanks in the room and Loomis ignited the fumes with his cigarette lighter ("It's time, Michael"), causing a self-sacrificing explosion as Laurie escaped. Covered in flames, Michael struggled toward Laurie before finally collapsing in the corridor, as his mask slowly melted from his burning face. But was he conclusively dead?

[Both Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis miraculously survived, and reappeared at the start of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).]

In the film's conclusion the next overcast morning (November 1), Laurie was wheeled to an ambulance for transfer to another hospital, as she replayed in her mind the burning of Michael's mask - to the tune of "Mr. Sandman."

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

The 'Spirit' of Dead Michael Myers was Transferred into the Body of His Young Niece Jamie

Masked-serial killer Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) returned in this fourth film in the series, set 10 years after the original film (see above), in pursuit of his sister Laurie Strode's (Jamie Lee Curtis) daughter Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), his eight year-old niece ("He's here to kill that little girl and anybody who gets in his way").

Toward the film's ending, Jamie touched the burned/scarred hand of her uncle's seemingly dead body, and he was revived.

But then Michael was relentlessly shot dozens of times by state police before he fell down into the entrance of an abandoned, collapsing mine shaft. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) was assured that Myers was dead and the nightmare was over: "Michael Myers is in hell, buried, where he belongs."

The film ended with an astounding plot twist - psychically-linked Jamie was possessed by Michael's murderous instincts, and stabbed her foster mother Darlene (Karen Alston) to death, in a sequence reminiscent and similar to the opening of the first film. She wore her clown costume and stood with bloody scissors at the top of the stairs, just like young Michael had done 25 years earlier

Hancock (2008)

Hancock and Mary Were SuperHero Partners Who Could Not Be Paired Together, So She Sacrificially Became Mortal and Married Ray

In this fantasy super-hero film set in present-day Los Angeles, hard-drinking amnesiac, unfocused and misunderstood superhero 'John Hancock' (Will Smith) learned to his disbelief from Mary Embrey (Charlize Theron), the wife of his struggling public relations agent Ray (Jason Bateman), about their origins.

After Hancock confessed that he was lonely and unloved at dinner ("What kind of bastard must I have been that nobody was there to claim me?") and then later kissed Mary in her kitchen (after which she superhumanly tossed him out her front door onto the windshield of a parked neighborhood car!), she explained how both of them were superheroes (or "Gods, angels...Different cultures call us by different names").

He was further surprised to find out that Mary was actually the stronger of the two (illustrated in a gargantuan struggle between them on an LA street when she unleashed the forces of nature with a tornado). She described how they were created in pairs and were the sole survivors of an ancient race of angels ("They all died. It's just the two of us"), but they could not be together, for if they paired up, they would die: ("It can't work, it always ends the same way - Persia, Greece, Brooklyn").

Mary explained how they were technically 'husband' and 'wife' for thousands of years ("We're drawn to each other"), but had to be separated in order to give each other strength and prevent weakness or mortality ("It's us being close to each other. It's never happened this fast before"). After her relationship with Hancock ended 80 years earlier in 1931 (when they were mugged going to the premiere of Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff), Mary had tried to live a quiet normal, human life by marrying Ray ("Finally I am happy. You are not gonna mess with that!...Love, connect, grow old, die").

Hancock realized that he was becoming mortal, human and vulnerable when he was bruised and then shot during a liquor store robbery, drawing blood. As he lay dying in a hospital bed, she told how the 3-4 past relationships with Hancock all ended destructively:

Summer of 4 BC. We were becoming mortal, like now. They came after me with swords. But you saved me. 1850. They set our house on fire. You pulled me out of the flames. (Eighty years ago) We were living in Miami and a new movie was playing in town...And after we walked down Flagler Street and you took my hand and you held it so tight. And they attacked us in an alley. They hit you so hard. There was so much blood...By the time I got to the hospital...but you didn't know me so I left. Every time we're together, they come after you through me.

When they were last together in the 1930s, Hancock lost his memory when he was struck in the head - and that's when Mary decided to disappear from his life. Now to sacrifice herself for him ("You're built to save people more than the rest of us. That's who you are. You're a hero. The insurance policy of the gods. Keep one alive. You. To protect this world"), she took a bullet from one-armed bad-guy Kenneth "Red" Parker, Jr. (Eddie Marsan), and as a result of her 'death', she gave him enough power to defeat the criminals, and to fly away to be a superhero - and also save herself as a mortal (as she earlier told him: "You have to leave. The further you get from me, the better you're gonna feel. You'll start getting your powers back").

In the epilogue, a month later, Hancock revealed by a phone call from New York that he had been on the moon, painting it with Ray's logo - the "AllHeart Symbol" representing world-changing charitable giving.

He called Ray (and family) and told him: "You're gonna change the world. Good job, Ray," as the loving couple kissed, and Ray asked himself about the defacement: "Will I get in trouble for that?"

The Hangover (2009)

Digital Pictures Revealed Happenings During the Night of a Bachelor Party in Las Vegas

The highest-grossing (domestic) R-rated film of all time, this vulgar, obscenity-filled quasi-comedy/bromance caper, told the outlandish story of four guys in Las Vegas for a bachelor party for soon-to-be married Doug (Justin Bartha) to Tracy (Sasha Barrese).

After occupying a spacious villa at Caesar's Palace for the night, they awoke the following morning with no memory of the night before, because the bride's perverted and bearded brother Alan (Zach Galifianakis) had offered them, during a toast on the roof of Caesar's Palace at the beginning of the evening, what he thought was ecstasy, but in fact was Rohypnol (the date-rape drug) causing total memory loss.

They found themselves in their wrecked hotel villa, with a burned couch, a baby, a tiger, a chicken, and more... As they tried to piece together their long night together, they also searched for the missing Doug.

At the end of the film after they had just made it back to LA in time for Doug's wedding (with tuxedoes delivered to them 'on the road' by The Tux Shop), Jewish dentist Stu (Ed Helms) found his digital camera in the backseat of their car, with candid snapshots of their long evening together. They learned from the collage of photos and retracing their steps, the following:

(1) married schoolteacher Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper) had a hospital wrist bracelet - he had been briefly admitted with bruises in the middle of the night

(2) before that, Stu had participated in a marriage ceremony in Vegas' THE BEST LITTLE CHAPEL (run by Eddie), hitching up with a stripper/escort named Jade (Heather Graham) who was the single mother of baby Tyler left in their villa's closet

(3) the group had 'borrowed' a police car, and after they were arrested and released from a police station after being subjects in a taser demonstration, they retrieved their own prized Mercedes from the impound lot

(4) a strange naked and gay Asian gangster (named Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong)) locked in the trunk beat them up with a crowbar

(5) they also had taken boxer Mike Tyson's (Himself) Bengal tiger from his mansion (found in their villa's bathroom) and were threatened with harm if it wasn't returned

(6) Chow later returned with gang members to demand $80,000 he claimed was stolen from him (satchels were accidentally switched) at the Bellagio in exchange for kidnapped Doug, although when the exchange was made (after the trio played blackjack and Alan counted cards to win over $80,000), they discovered that they had mistakenly ransomed a "black Doug" (Mike Epps) (the drug dealer who had sold Alan the roofies)

(7) Doug was found severely sunburned, trapped for a day and a half on the roof of Caesar's Palace - where he had tried to signal his whereabouts by throwing his mattress from the rooftop onto a statue below

(8) it was revealed that Stu pulled out his own front tooth with a pair of pliers as part of a dare from Alan

(9) on the way home, Doug found Chow's $80,000 in Bellagio chips in his pocket

(10) Stu broke up with his controlling fiancee Melissa (Rachael Harris) at the wedding, and planned on returning to Vegas to take Jade out to dinner

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Infertile Husband Mickey Had Somehow Impregnated New Wife Holly

In the film's conclusion set in a dim hallway, reformed drug addict/punk-rocker Holly (Dianne Weist) made a surprise announcement to her infertile (low sperm count) husband/comedy writer Mickey Sachs (Woody Allen):

"Mickey, I'm pregnant."

The Happening (2008)

The Pandemic Mysteriously Ended, But Then Reoccurred in France

Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's first R-rated film was this apocalyptic horror-thriller film, generally considered less effective than many of his other plot-twisting tales. It posited the idea of a wave of mass suicides sweeping across the populated northeastern part of the United States (first in Central Park in New York, then the Philadelphia area, Boston, Princeton, New Jersey and then into rural areas) for a period of approximately one day.

The deaths were marked by screams, people standing still, whistling wind across grass surfaces or in the trees, disoriented speech, power outages, incomplete radio transmissions, and other outward signs. Immediately after the appearance of those signs, an infected individual would find a convenient means to kill him/herself, such as:

• impaling one's jugular vein with a hair-bun needle
• shooting oneself with a gun
• jumping off a roof or building
• a zookeeper offering his arms to a lion
• slitting one's wrist with glass shards
• hanging oneself from a tree
• crashing one's vehicle into a tree
• lying down in front of a giant lawnmower
• smashing one's head through a window

There were numerous speculative explanations for the epidemic (none definitive), such as bioterrorism, secret government experiments with drugs having psychotropic properties as a defense against terrorist chemical weapons, toxic airborne plant emissions, a strange virus, the effects of nuclear power plants, or nature turning against humanity - or forces at work beyond our understanding.

One opinionated scientist, Dr. William Ross (Stephen Singer) - from the Department of Botanical Toxocology at the University of Chicago predicted on television that the happening was only a "prelude, a warning, like the first spot of a rash - we have become a threat to this planet."

After a three-month lull, the same pandemic wave began to occur in the Louvre's Tuileries Gardens in Paris, France as dark clouds gathered, when the film ended.

Happy Birthday to Me (1981)

The Killer Was Ann (Wearing a "Virginia" Mask), Who Was Stabbed by the Framed Ginny in the Film's Conclusion

This Canadian classic slasher film by director J. Lee Thompson from the early 1980s was advertised with the tagline as having "six of the most bizarre murders you will ever see" (including a scarf strangling a guy when it was wound around his motorcycle wheel, a neck-crushing weight-lifting barbell accident, and a shish-kebob into the mouth/throat).

It starred Melissa Sue Anderson (of TV's Little House on the Prairie, in her sole feature film role) as troubled, blackout-suffering Virginia "Ginny" Wainwright, a prestigious Crawford Academy student who was part of a social clique known as the Top Ten, whose members were being murdered, and she even suspected herself.

However, the over-the-top, multi-twist ending of the film on her 18th birthday (with the macabre scene of the murdered victims sitting slumped around the table, set up to look like a similar birthday party four years earlier) revealed that the real killer named Ann (Tracy Bregman) was wearing a "Virginia Wainwright" mask, and that the real Ginny at the table was alive but sedated.

It was explained that years before, Virginia's promiscuous mother (Sharon Acker) had an affair with Ann's father, causing the illegitimate birth of Virginia, her half-sister. Ann blamed Virginia for all her misfortunes by setting up the murders as a personal vendetta to look like they were being committed by Ginny.

The film ended with the innocent heroine Ginny stabbing Ann - as a detective (Earl Pennington) arrived amongst the bodies and asked: "Dear God, what have you done?" as she was singing to herself: "Happy Birthday to Me..."

Hard Candy (2005)

Jeff Finally Admitted Involvement to Hayley, And Then Jumped From Roof To Suicidally Hang Himself; Hayley Implied She Wouldn't Keep Her Promise of Cleaning Up Jeff's Incriminating Evidence

In this thought-provoking, exploitative female revenge thriller, the debut feature film of director David Slade, seemingly-innocent 14 year old femme fatale Hayley Stark (Ellen Page) (screenname Thonggrrrrrl14) - who had met 32 year old photographer Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson) (screenname Lensman319) in an Internet chat room, went to the potential jail-bait predator's Hollywood Hills home with premeditated determination to seek revenge.

She drugged his drink, tied him up, and then threatened to castrate him (as "preventative maintenance") with a scalpel and anesthetic ice, as he both berated her and pleaded with his raging and sadistic captor. She told him: "I am every little girl you ever watched, touched, hurt, screwed, killed."

She forced her repentant victim to confess to a murder that he may/may not have committed of a young model named Donna Mauer that he once photographed.

There were a few key plot twists:

(1) she faked Jeff's castration although it was gruesomely performed (off-screen)

(2) it was revealed that Hayley had already kidnapped and tortured another pedophile named Aaron, Jeff's partner-in-crime during the murder of Donna (Hayley admitted: "Aaron told me you killed her, before he killed himself")

(3) as Jeff's ex-girlfriend Janelle Rogers (Jennifer Holmes) arrived at the house, Hayley and Jeff were on the roof, where she had strung a rope off the side. She offered to clean up incriminating evidence of him as a sexual predator in his home (he would also avoid prosecution and clear his name with Janelle) if he jumped and committed suicide by hanging with a noose, but at the last second after he stepped off the roof and the rope went taut, she promised with a caveat: "I'll take care of it all - or not!"