Greetings, Happy Horror faithful, and I hope you had an excellent Halloween! We had a great one here, breaking our previous records for trick or treaters by five kids, and getting alot of compliments from people coming to the house. The night before, I decided to watch Halloween as soon as I got home from work. I should have worked this review out right after that, but I didn't, and didn't realize just how busy I'd be all day for Halloween, so now I'm extremely late in getting this done. But, as I always say, better late than never!
So, Halloween! The film that started it all for slasher films (outside of Psycho, of course). In 1978, John Carpenter (no relation to me) was hired to make a film about babysitters being stalked by a mysterious killer, when the producer suggested theming the film around Halloween. Made on a $300,000 budget, the film was made over a period of twenty days and filmed around the South Pasadena area. Despite the theme, the film was actually made in April, which produced quite a few problems production-wise. How did they do?
The film centers around the figure of Michael Myers (billed as "The Shape" in the end credits), a young man who killed his sister when he was 6 years old and was institutionalized for 15 years, only to escape the hospital he'd been living in 15 years later. Arriving in his hometown of Haddonfield, he spies young Tommy Doyle and his babysitter, Laurie Strode, and fixates on them, following them around town and generally scaring the daylights out of them in general. Come the night of Halloween, Michael starts doing more than stalking them...
This movie has come to be known as the progenitor of modern horror, or at least the slasher genre. It features everything that the genre has come to be known by: a masked killer following and stalking several teenagers, then getting them alone and ending their lives in relatively gruesome ways. It also seems to start the tradition of the "final girl", the survivor of the film who proves to be more resourceful than her friends (or, some would say, just more lucky). John Carpenter mixed and wove together the elements that brought the characters to life.
The cast brought together for the film was excellent. Donald Pleasence played Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael's psychiatrist and hunter, a part originally offered to Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (who, according to Wikipedia, later told Carpenter that declining the role was the biggest mistake of his career). Pleasence played Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, Dr. Kobras in Pumaman, as well as The Devonville Terror and Escape from New York. Jamie Lee Curtis made her film debut here as our heroine, Laurie Strode. She became known as a "scream queen", going on to star in such films as Prom Night, Terror Train and The Fog. P.J. Soles played one of Laurie's friends, Lynda, who heads to the house another friend is babysitting at for a romantic tryst with her boyfriend. She was also in the original Carrie and cult film Rock 'n' Roll High School. Nick Castle played The Shape in most of his appearances. He went on to direct The Boy Who Could Fly and The Last Starfighter, as well as Tag: The Assassination Game.
A true classic film, marred only by the one thing I'm guaranteed to dock a film for, so I give it a 4 out of 5. Thank you for bearing with me throughout this whole month, and for being patient with my delayed article posting. I'll be back soon with another article, but for now, I'll be taking a short break. Thanks again, take care of yourselves, and this is Red Hawk signing out!
