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

John Carpenter's classic horror film had the tagline:

"It was the night he came home."

The opening setting was Halloween night, 1963, in Haddonfield, Illinois, and the horror film's beginning 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.

At some point in the film, Loomis described the evil killer that he was forever pursuing:

"I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no, uh, conscience, no understanding and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six year old child with this blind, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes, the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply evil...He's been here once tonight. I think he'll come back. I'm gonna wait for him."

The masked Michael stalked a group of high-school girlfriends (and boyfriend) throughout the day, both outside the school and in the neighborhood before murdering them.

• En route to Haddonfield, he killed a Driver (off-screen) and stole his truck
• Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes), the sheriff's daughter, was murdered by strangulation, and then by slitting her throat from the backseat of her car
• Robert "Bob" Simms (John Michael Graham), Lynda's boyfriend, was killed by strangulation and stabbing with a kitchen knife, and afterwards pinned into the wall
• Lynda Van Der Klok (P. J. Soles), by strangulation with a phone cord

After this major killing spree, Myers' final stalking prey was:

• Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis in her feature film debut), a smart, independent-minded young 17-year-old teenaged girl

Wielding a knife, white-masked Shape/Michael (Nick Castle) struck and wounded Laurie on her left arm in the Wallace house, sending her headfirst over the stair railing and down the staircase. Then, the visceral and false climax of this classic horror film occurred across the street in the neighboring Doyle house where Laurie had fled.

She fought back throughout the house: downstairs with a knitting needle (plunged into his neck), and in an upstairs closet with a metal coat hanger (stuck into his eye), and with his own dropped knife (thrust into his torso) - but the white-masked Shape seemed indestructible, especially in the startling, scary moment when the seemingly-dead Michael Myers sat up in the background behind a sobbing Laurie after she had left the closet. After he approached and assaulted her again, as he grabbed Laurie's neck and strangled her, she brushed the mask from Michael's face. Michael let go of her neck to put his mask back on to restore his masked facade.

At that moment, 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 was propelled backwards and 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.."

Laurie: "[it]...was the boogey-man"

Dr. Sam Loomis: "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 Strode 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 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?

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

Laurie in Conclusion - In Shock

Michael's Mask Burning

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) was reintroduced and returned in this fourth film in the series, set 10 years after the first two films (see above) in the year 1988. He had been in a lengthy coma since the fiery explosion in the Haddonfield Hospital at the conclusion of Halloween II (1981). The film's tagline made reference to the previous films:

Ten Years Ago HE Changed The Face Of Halloween. Tonight HE'S BACK!

Michael was being transported in an ambulance from Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium to Smith's Grove Sanitarium, when a security guard provided back-story for the first two films:

"A decade ago, Halloween night, he murdered sixteen people, maybe more, trying to get to his sister. He nearly got her too. But his doctor, of all people, shot him six times. Then he set him on fire. Both of them nearly burned to death. Yeah, I'll be glad to see this one gone. Yes, indeed-y. Welcome to hell."

During transport, Michael Myers had revived and violently escaped (killing six people), while on his return to Haddonfield, Illinois. Miraculously, Michael's perennial pursuer, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) who had been stabbed and presumably expired in the hospital fire, was also alive (although scarred and crippled) and was renewing his search.

Myers was 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."

Jamie's mother Laurie at 17 years of age, had recently died in a car accident. Jamie was living in Haddonfield with a foster parent family for eleven months:

• Richard Carruthers (Jeff Olson)
• Darlene Carruthers (Karen Alston)
• Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell), their teenaged daughter, with unfaithful boyfriend Brady (Sasha Jenson) (who was cheating with the Sheriff's sexy blonde daughter Kelly Meeker (Kathleen Kinmont))

Jamie was experiencing frightening hallucinations and visions of her murderous uncle. Toward the film's ending, it appeared that Myers had been decisively killed, when Rachel driving a truck crashed into him. But after Jamie touched the burned/scarred hand of her uncle's seemingly dead body, he was revived. He 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 was assured that Myers was dead and the nightmare was over:

"Michael Myers is in hell, buried, where he belongs."

Although Myers was presumed dead, he survived in the next sequel.

The film ended with an astounding plot twist - psychically-linked Jamie was possessed by Michael's murderous instincts, and stabbed her foster mother Darlene to death in the upstairs of their house, where a bath was being prepared for her. Screaming denials ("No, no, no!"), Dr. Loomis saw Jamie (in her trick-or-treat clown costume) standing with bloody scissors at the top of the stairs, just like young Michael had done 25 years earlier. [Note: The sequence was reminiscent and similar to the opening of the first Halloween film.]

POV of Killer, About to Stab Foster Mother Darlene Carruthers (Karen Alston)	The Halloween-Costumed Figure at the Top of Stairs
Michael's Niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris): The Killer

Dr. Loomis was prevented from shooting Jamie by Sheriff Ben Meeker's (Beau Starr) intervention.

Hancock (2008)

Hancock and Mary Were SuperHero Partners (and Technically Husband and Wife), But Could Not Be Paired Together - Otherwise Their Powers Would Fade and They Would Die; After Their Last Coupling in 1931, She Had Married Ray, But Hancock Reappeared, and They Both Began to Weaken

This fantasy super-hero comedy-drama was set in present-day Los Angeles. Its tagline was:

There are heroes. There are superheroes. And then there's...

It had three main characters, two of whom were revealed to be superheroes:

• 'John Hancock' (Will Smith), a hard-drinking amnesiac, unfocused and misunderstood superhero (with many super-powers), apparently immortal; his first memories were from 80 years earlier in 1931
• Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a struggling public relations agent, a spokesperson for charitable corporations (signified by an All-Heart logo)
• Mary Embrey (Charlize Theron), Ray's blonde wife

Due to his clumsiness and rampant property damage during his use of superhero powers, Hancock was often derided and the subject of numerous lawsuits. After Hancock saved Ray from a freight train accident, Ray offered to improve and restore Hancock's public image. His subsequent efforts were successful - and Hancock became more popular as a crime-fighting superhero.

Over dinner with the Embreys, Hancock described his first memories from about 80 years earlier. When struck in the head while stopping a mugging, he lost his memory and became an amnesiac. He described how he had acquired his alias name in the Miami hospital:

The only thing I had in my pocket was bubble gum, two movie tickets. Boris Karloff, uh, Frankenstein. But no ID, nothing. I went to sign out and the, uhh nurse asked me for my 'John Hancock'. So I actually thought that's who I was...It was in the papers 80 years ago...I don't age.

Then, Hancock confessed that he was lonely and unloved: "Gotta wonder though. What kind of bastard must I have been that nobody was there to claim me?" Later that evening, he passionately kissed Mary in her kitchen after Ray had fallen asleep from drinking too much. Her reaction was to superhumanly toss him out her front door onto the windshield of a parked neighborhood car! She then warned: "If Ray finds out about me, you're dead."

However, she soon answered most of his questions about their origins. When he asked: "Who are we?" - she said that both of them were superheroes (she was the stronger of the two) who had lived for 3,000 years with their powers. She explained that they had been given various names, including gods and angels:

"Gods, angels...Different cultures call us by different names. Now all of a sudden, it's superhero."

They were the sole survivors (the last of their kind) of an ancient race of angels: "They all died. It's just the two of us." When she wouldn't answer any more questions, and he threatened to speak to Ray, they had a gargantuan struggle between them on an LA street when she unleashed the forces of nature (ending with a tornado). During their monumental fight, she threatened:

"Stay away from me and my family. You are not gonna do this to me again...It can't work, it always ends the same way - Persia, Greece, Brooklyn...I have put up with your bullshit for the last 3,000 years and I am done...I am happy, okay, finally, I am happy. You are not going to mess it up."

Ray, who had witnessed their struggle: Mary's flying and superstrength, wanted answers about the special characteristics she shared with Hancock. She explained to her husband the best that she could - that she was immortal and many other things. Mary told how they were technically 'husband' and 'wife' for thousands of years:

"Technically speaking, he's my husband...We broke up decades ago long before you were born. He just can't remember... Whatever we are, we were built in two's, okay? We're drawn to each other no matter how far I run. He's always there. He finds me. It's physics...I've lived for a very long time, Ray. And the one thing I've learned. Fate doesn't decide everything. People get to choose."

After her relationship with Hancock ended 80 years earlier in 1931 (when they were mugged going to the premiere of Frankenstein (1931) starring Boris Karloff), Mary had tried to live a quiet normal, human life by marrying Ray.

Not much later, Hancock realized that he was becoming much more mortal, human and vulnerable when he was bruised and then shot in the chest during a liquor store robbery, drawing blood. As he lay dying in a bed in Los Angeles' Mercy General Hospital, Mary told him that he was becoming weak and mortal due to their closeness. She described again how they were created in pairs, and warned that they could not be together, for if they were in close contact for too long, they would eventually weaken each other and die:

Mary: "You're becoming mortal. It's us being close to each other. It's never happened this fast before. You have to leave. The further away you get from me, the better you're gonna feel. You'll start getting your powers back. And you'll be flying and breaking things. And saving people before you know it. It's like I said, we were built in pairs. And when we get close to our opposites, we lose our power."
Hancock: "Why?"
Mary: "So we can live human lives. Love, connect, grow old, die."
Hancock: "What happened to us?"

In the 3-4 past relationships with Hancock, all had ended destructively because they had become mortal by choosing to be a couple:

Mary: "Summer of 04 BC. We were becoming mortal, like now. They came after me with swords. You saved me. 1850. They set our house on fire. You pulled me out of the flames."
Hancock: "80 years ago. What happened then?"
Mary: "We were living in Miami and a new movie was playing in town."
Hancock: "Frankenstein."
Mary: "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. They wouldn't let me ride in the ambulance with you. By the time I got to the hospital, you were awake, but you didn't know me, so I left. Every time we're together, they come after you through me. You're built to save people more than the rest of us. That's who you are, you are a hero. The insurance policy of the gods. Keep one alive, you, to protect this world."

Suddenly, assassins arrived in the hospital room, and Mary was shot. As Hancock fought off the attackers, he was taunted and shot repeatedly by one-hook-armed bad-guy Kenneth "Red" Parker, Jr. (Eddie Marsan) - and each shot further weakened Mary, who was struggling to live:

"Upon us all, Hancock, you're no different. Time to shut her down, Hancock. It's been a nice run. Oh, we are all sincerely gonna miss you. But it is time for you to move on. And maybe to a happier place. You can thank me if you want to, superhero."

Ray came up from behind, severed Parker's other hand with a fire axe and stopped the torment. However, Mary 'flatlined' - and 'died' - but her death rejuvenated Hancock. And as he moved further and further away from her, she soon came to life.

In the epilogue, one month later, Hancock revealed by a phone call from New York that he had been on the moon, where he had painted it with Ray's logo - the "AllHeart Symbol" representing world-changing charitable giving - and provided him with a worldwide advertisement that could be seen everywhere.

Hancock called Ray (and family) and told him:

"You're gonna change the world. Good job, Ray."

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, known as the Wolfpack:

• Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis), the bride's perverted and bearded brother
• Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), a married schoolteacher
• Doug Billings (Justin Bartha), the bridegroom, soon to be married to Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese), Alan's sister
• Stu Price (Ed Helms), a Jewish dentist

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 Alan 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), Stu 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 from retracing their steps, the following:

1. Phil 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. Strange, naked and gay Asian gangster Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), who was locked in the car's trunk, beat them up with a crowbar
5. Boxer Mike Tyson's (Himself) Bengal tiger had been taken from his mansion (and found in their hotel villa's bathroom), and they 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. 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 and mean 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

Writer/director Woody Allen's comedy-drama with an ensemble cast was about three sisters:

• Hannah (Mia Farrow), the most perfect and oldest of the three, a talented and successful actress, matriarchal; her financial advisor husband Elliot (Michael Caine) (her second marriage) had fallen in love with Lee and was engaged in an affair with her
• Holly (Dianne Wiest), a reformed cocaine drug addict/punk-rocker; insecure and nervous; an aspiring writer or actress (often unemployed); working part-time in a catering business with actress friend April (Carrie Fisher); in a relationship with Hannah's ex-husband Mickey Sachs (Woody Allen), a neurotic hypochondriac facing many existential crises and worried about his imminent mortality; employed as a TV producer and comedy show writer
• Lee (Barbara Hershey), sensuous, associated with Frederick (Max von Sydow), an old, reclusive and misanthrope artist/painter full of contempt for life

In the 'happy' conclusion, after a period of a few years (over three successive Thanksgiving family celebrations), it turned out that all three sisters were married (Lee ended her affair with Elliot and married someone she met while taking classes at Columbia University, and Hannah reconciled with Elliot, while Holly married Mickey).

In a dim hallway, Holly made a surprise announcement to husband Mickey, who had been diagnosed as infertile with a low sperm count:

Holly: "Mickey?"
Mickey: "What?"
Holly: "I'm pregnant."

Holly (Dianne Wiest) with Mickey (Woody Allen): "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, Canada)

The Killer Was Ann (Wearing a "Virginia" Mask), Who Was Stabbed by the Framed Virginia/Ginny in the Film's Twisted 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." Further promotional details (inaccurately!) elaborated:

"JOHN WILL NEVER EAT SHISH KABOB AGAIN. Steven will never ride a motorcycle again. Greg will never lift weights again. Who's killing Crawford High's snobbish top ten? At the rate they're going there will be no one left for Virginia's birthday party...alive."

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 senior year student. She was part of a snobby, co-ed social clique known as the Top Ten, whose members were being murdered. The murders were, in order:

• Bernadette O'Hara (Lesleh Donaldson), a slit throat with razor
• Etienne Vercoures (Michel-René Labelle), a French foreign exchange student, a scarf strangling when it was wound around his motorcycle wheel
• Greg Hellman (Richard Rebiere), a neck-crushing weight-lifting barbell accident
• Alfred Morris (Jack Blum), stabbed in the gut with garden shears, in the cemetery where Ginny's mother was buried
• Steve Maxwell (Matt Craven), a shish-kebob into the mouth/throat

Dr. David Faraday (Glenn Ford), Ginny's on-call therapist, was also murdered with a fireplace coal poker.

The fourth and fifth murders clearly showed a person looking like Ginny (wearing black gloves) committing the murders. There were flashbacks to Ginny's troubled past four years earlier regarding her aborted 14th birthday party, when six invited rich kids - future "Top Ten" members - refused to attend (they attended friend Ann's party instead) because they regarded Ginny's mother Estelle Wainwright (Sharon Acker) as a whore, socially beneath them.

A year earlier, Ginny was with her drunken, angry mother recklessly driving on a road with a drawbridge over a canal. When the drawbridge was opening, the car fell into the water and drowned Mrs. Wainwright. Following the freak accident, Ginny underwent experimental brain surgery.

The over-the-top, multi-twist ending of the film was during a replay of the similar birthday party four years earlier. It was now Ginny's 18th birthday (with the macabre scene of the six murdered "Top Ten" victims - those who had not attended the 14th birthday party) and Mrs. Wainwright sitting slumped around the table. Ginny slit her father Mr. Hal Wainwright's (Lawrence Dane) throat with the cake-cutting knife.

The revelation was that the real killer, Ann Thomerson (Tracy Bregman), had been wearing a "Virginia Wainwright" mask during the many murders, and that the real Ginny at the table was alive, but sedated. Ann was unmasked during a struggle with Ginny, when she intended on having Ginny murdered and then make it look like suicide. Ann explained her deception:

I planned it so you'd never suspect a thing. None of them did. I dressed like you, walked like you, I even talked like you. You made it all so easy for me. I was your best friend. You trusted me. I could come and go as I pleased.

It was then fully explained by a vengeful and bitter Ann why Ginny's promiscuous mother Estelle was vilified as the town whore years earlier, and why she was angry enough to commit murder. Ann was very upset that Ginny's mother had engaged in an affair with Ann's father, causing the illegitimate birth of Virginia - now Ann's half-sister:

And now it's your turn. You deserve to die. You're just like her! A f--king whore! My father's mistress. And you're his daughter, my sister. Something she never let my father forget. That's why my mother left us. She could never forgive him for having you. It's all your fault. You've ruined our lives. You should've died that night at the canal. You never should've been born!

Ann blamed Ginny for all her misfortunes in life, and then set up the six murders to look like they were a personal vendetta being committed by Ginny.

Innocent heroine Ginny stabbed Ann to death in the stomach when they struggled for a knife.

A detective (Earl Pennington) arrived as Ann slumped to the floor, dead, amongst all of the other bodies. The officer asked Ginny: "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 the Roof To Suicidally Hang Himself; Hayley Implied She Wouldn't Keep Her Promise of Cleaning Up Jeff's Incriminating Evidence

This was a very thought-provoking, exploitative female revenge thriller, the debut feature film of director David Slade.

The two main characters were:

• Hayley Stark (Ellen Page), a seemingly-innocent 14 year old femme fatale, with screenname Thonggrrrrrl14
• Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson) - a 32 year old photographer, with screenname Lensman319

They had met in an Internet chat room. To seek revenge for his murderous pedophilia, she went to the potential jail-bait predator's Hollywood Hills home with premeditated determination. She drugged his drink, tied him up, and then threatened to castrate him (as "preventative maintenance") with a scalpel and anesthetic ice.

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")

When 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.

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!"