The Horror Of...Halloween Night, Daughter of Darkness (1990)

Halloween has plenty of big-budget gore and terror going for it in the modern era of horror. But the smaller scale endeavors in horror are often just as rewarding to fans. And among the golden age of TV movies, you can find many odd films that can fit in nicely into a night's scares.

One I can across earlier this year was a small 1990 film for CBS. Daughter of Darkness.

Halloween Movie Timelines

For the Halloween season and for the upcoming Halloween sequel it might do us all well to review just how these films, scattered over decades all fit together. Surprisingly, a series that comes from a one-off dream film in the late 70's that has had a number of creatives take it over is not as seamless a tale as you might think. We have different avenues to follow if it is bothersome for films to contradict or retcon each other.



SPOILERS ahead for the whole of the Halloween franchise.


It starts with the original, Halloween. a grown-up Michael Myers comes back to his hometown bent on killing a group of teenagers. In the end, he is gunned down by his psychiatrist.

A simple and tense tale that works perfectly well on its own. And with this film, you have all you need to see before the new film comes out this month.

In the new film, Michael survives being shot and seems to have been locked away all the decades since that story. Laurie Strode has gone on to marry and have kids, but she has been left mentally marked by the events. She has tried to carefully plan for his inevitable return when she'll kill him.

But that is something we can see later this month.

The Horror Of...Universal Monsters, Dracula (1931)

Dracula, when I was a kid still had a certain sway. Yes it was old, and a new era of slasher killers was coming into prominence, but those Universal Monsters couldn't be denied. The black and white, the misty streets and forest, the baying wolves, and the creatures walking out of the shadows seeking their prey.

They were also conveniently available for us to watch, or sneak a viewing of. I remember the first of my viewings of Dracula came late at night when I got up and turned on the old portable TV near my bedroom. It had a broken antenna on it, and the wiring to the back of the tv was not great, but if you fidgeted with it, you could break through the static and get some channels, and some UHF. (...I know most of you have no idea what I'm talking about. I clearly come from some dark age of entertainment.) And as I moved the lousy antenna a bit, the opening of Dracula came into focus. A carriage racing through mountains.

It was thanks to Shock Theater that we all had these movies ingrained in us at a young age. Creatures of the night. Cinematic terrors, that by my childhood became more agreeable for the whole family to enjoy. How horrible!


Now let's go back to where we left off, Universal had finally gained the rights to Dracula (They got the rights to the book and stage play for $40,000.), and Tod Browning had been brought on board to direct.

Tod Browning had a good career as a director: London After Midnight (which was sadly mostly lost -- But I plan to cover down the road.), Thirteenth Chair (his first talking movie, and his first time working with Bela Lugosi), Freaks, Mark of the Vampire (with Bela Lugosi again), The Unknown, The Unholy Three, The Blackbird, The Road to Mandalay. Several of his movies were made working with Lon Chaney. They were good friends.

Chaney was one of the leading men they wanted to have in the film. In fact, it's one of the reasons that Carl Laemmle, Sr. greenlit the movie. He expected they could get Chaney onboard at Universal. But that didn't happen, as he stayed at MGM. And he ended up remaking Browning's The Unholy Three without Browning. Shortly after, Chaney died.

The Horror Of...Halloween (1978), Halloween Night's Finest

Is it Halloween time again?

...I'll take that as a yes.