Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #461: Halloween

It’s taken me years, but I have finally watched John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), just mere weeks before actual Halloween. What’s more, we are about one week away from the release of the next entry in the franchise, which acts as a direct sequel to the original and ditches about 10 movies worth of convoluted continuity, so my timing is just about perfect. Overall impression of the original: it’s a pretty simple story, but I can see why it’s a horror classic because it is very well executed.

Even though I had never seen Halloween until yesterday it is one of those movies that you pretty much know the story without actually seeing it since it has become part of pop culture. Like with It’s a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol in December, there are plenty of channels that are playing Halloween all day on October 31. There is also the fact there are a bunch of sequels to Carpenter’s original movie as well as a remake and a sequel to that remake. Of those I have seen Rob Zombie’s remake, which I found a bit too brutal for my taste, and Halloween: Resurrection, the sequel in which rapper Busta Rhymes electrocutes Michael Myers. It was about time I pushed that mess aside and rented the original on iTunes.

One thing that struck me is the simplicity of Carpenter’s script, which he co-wrote with Debra Hill. In 1963 on Halloween night in the ordinary town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a little boy named Michael Myers stabs his sister to death with a knife while wearing a clown costume. This first kill is shot from the killer’s point of view, so when people first saw the movie on the big screen in 1978 they could have been forgiven for assuming the killer was a grown man. Instead the brutal murder is committed by an innocent-looking boy for apparently no rhyme or reason.

Fifteen years later the boy is all grown up and on the night before Halloween, just as he was due for a court appearance, he escapes from a mental asylum stealing. Despite never having taken any driving lessons he steals the car of his psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) who is convinced it is not a man who has escaped, but evil itself. He might be on to something, because in addition to magically learning how to drive, Michael sometimes seems to have the ability to pop out of corners when you least expect it. Plus, he is one strong son of a bitch.

At times Michael reminded me of the shark from Jaws, which came out two years before Halloween. Just like the shark in Steven Spielberg’s horror classic, Michael has a very scary theme music, composed by Carpenter, that lets you know the killing machine is coming. Also like a shark, Michael has the tendency to sometimes bop up to the surface and then dive back under water only to kill his prey later. Throughout the day of Halloween teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, in an early role that would define her career) could swear there is a tall man wearing a mask that keeps following her through the neighbourhood, but whenever she looks again the man has vanished.

Despite the movie’s iconic status, the fact is Michael’s kill count is actually relatively low. There are probably more people who die from car accidents than from being attacked by a random psycho. There are also plenty of classic horror moments in Halloween where modern audiences are tempted to scream at the protagonists so they can avoid being killed. You are tempted to scream at the screen and say, “look behind you idiot”, or “stab him again, he’s not really dead”. This is why Wes Craven had so much material to work with for his Scream franchise that is made up of the most self-aware horror movies ever made.     

Yet Carpenter’s film is scary in parts thank to many suspenseful sequences. Sometimes you know where Michael Myers will be hiding to kill his next victim and sometimes there are about three options. The scariest thing though is the randomness of these violent acts. No explanation is ever offered for why Michael behaves this way, there is apparently no motive for his murders and with his mask on Halloween night he can almost melt into the crowd as though he were just an ordinary guy walking the streets.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a force of pure evil, as Dr. Loomis believes, but given all the #MeToo allegations of late I think we can all agree even the most ordinary men are capable of the most random acts of violence, no matter what mask they wear. For years Bill Cosby was a beloved actor and comedian, but according to multiple allegations that was a mask hiding a serial rapist. Given the existence of many monsters like Cosby, I am looking forward to next week’s new chapter in the Halloween franchise and hope this time we will see a determined Laurie Strode show her attacker this time he is the one who should be afraid.