The Joy of the Franchise Rewatch

On the intersection between Michael Myers and Tom Cruise.

Most people – even most cinephiles –  probably don’t have strong feelings about which of the Halloween Thorn trilogy is the best. 

But then again, most people probably haven’t subjected themselves to a watch-through – let alone a rewatch – of that now thirteen-strong horror franchise.

And most people probably have no idea what the “Thorn trilogy” is. 

For the uninitiated, the “Thorn trilogy” refers to Halloweens 4-6: The respective Return, Revenge, and Curse of Michael Myers. The movies pick up where Halloween II left off by (spoilers) resurrecting our favorite masked killer after he burned to a crisp, allegedly along with his doctor, in the Haddonfield hospital during the fiery climax of the sequel to the 1978 John Carpenter masterpiece. 

The Thorn trilogy is an oddity in the franchise because the trilogy resurrects Michael Myers and spends a great deal of screen time explaining his origin and the source of his seemingly otherworldly powers. With Halloween VI reaching the then-nadir of the horror franchise, Halloween: H20 wiped the slate clean by retconning the previous trilogy from the franchise and starting things from (relative) scratch.

My bizarre devotion to this rewatch did not quite click with me last October when I passed the leafy fall days by watching these objectively worsening sequels.

But last week, as I sat down to rewatch the Mission Impossible movies before Dead Reckoning: Part I, I thought that perhaps I do spend too much time rewatching old franchises that I’ve seen time and time again. 

I was determined to get through the *good* Mission Impossible movies – which, in my opinion, encapsulates five of the six pre-Dead Reckoning releases.

Surely that would be comprehensive enough, I thought to myself. Clearly, I don’t know myself well enough. The day I was set to see Dead Reckoning, I couldn’t help myself and put Mission Impossible II – by far my least favorite – on just so I could have the intrinsic satisfaction of a full rewatch. 

Was it worth the time? Was the movie any better than I remembered? Unfortunately, no to both.

But there’s a real joy in revisiting an entire franchise.

First, there’s the satisfaction derived from the pleasure of getting to every single movie and knowing that there is no corner of a cinematic experience that is left undiscovered for you. You also get to see how franchises grow and change.

For example, take Mission Impossible.

The first film allows Brian DePalma to superimpose his psycho-sexual sensibilities onto a spy thriller and craft a film with a needlessly tangled (and by many accounts, horribly unfaithful to its origin) story while giving us one of the most iconic setpieces in Hollywood history.

The second lets John Woo bring his slow-motion, stunt-heavy, gun-fu-infused sensibilities to a biological warfare thriller. The third brings JJ Abrams’s frenetic style and features the most emotionally compelling, if most straightforward, storyline of the series. 

But the third was also the least financially successful of the series – given the lukewarm-at-best reception to the second and Tom Cruise’s off-screen issues. Returning for 2011’s Ghost Protocol, Cruise understood exactly what made the series so appealing: the intricate and essentially practical setpieces, with concerns about the story secondary. He also began rebuilding his producing power and his credibility as a movie star.

Revisiting a franchise like Indiana Jones also has its joys. With that series, the three originals stand unparalleled, with the recent two being worthy, if flawed, entries in the franchise. But it’s also a joy to watch Steven Spielberg and George Lucas grow, struggle, return to basics, and revisit an iconic character that’s an integral part of both men’s careers before handing the baton to a successor.

And a rewatch can help reappraise movies as a viewer’s tastes change with time. For example, I was utterly repulsed by Temple of Doom’s darkness as a kid. As an adult, I can appreciate the movie's bold swings and its efforts to differentiate itself from its predecessor. 

That’s exactly what makes franchise rewatching so fulfilling to me. I get to revisit movies that I only barely remember to see if my initial feelings were right about them or if they deserve a second look. Sometimes I even assess a movie downwards, determined not to revisit it (until years from now when I inevitably partake in another rewatch). They reflect my changing tastes and priorities – for example, I still love the mystery and awe invoked by Raiders while growing a deeper appreciation for the perfectly-drawn emotional character arc between Indy and Henry Jones Sr. in Last Crusade. 

I hope to one day pass these franchises along to my children – be it the ones mentioned above, or Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Batman, the list goes on. And I hope, too, that they can learn to take away the littlest bit of positivity from even the worst of these movies, as well as the value of tradition and revisiting old things past.

Oh, and for the record, Halloween IV is the best of the Thorn trilogy. It’s a better version of Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends put together.

If you’re a sane non-completionist, the essential and comprehensive Halloween watch is: I, II, III, IV, H20, Halloween ‘07, and the 2018 Halloween.

Mark your calendars in October — I know I will.

---

Reader, have you watched the most recent Mission: Impossible movie? Do you have plans to see it? Let us know in the comments below!

---