Author's Note: To kick things off, here's an article I wrote on my all-time fave horror movie, John Carpenter's "Halloween"- enjoy!
Originally self-published on Facebook on October 30th, 2015
Originally self-published on Facebook on October 30th, 2015
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-From Curtis Richards’ “Halloween”
“The horror started on the eve of Samhain, in a foggy vale in northern Ireland at the dawn of the Celtic race. And once started, it trod the earth forevermore, wreaking its savagery suddenly, swiftly, and with incredible ferocity. Then, its lust sated, it shrank back into the mists of time for a year, a decade, a generation perhaps. But it slept only and did not die, for it could not be killed.
And on the eve before Samhain it would stir, and if the lust were powerful enough, it would rise to fulfill the curse invoked so many Samhains before. Then the people would bolt their doors.
Scant good it did them, for the thing laughed at locks and bolts, and besides, there were the unwary. Always the unwary.”
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I'm not entirely sure what more can be said about “Halloween” that hasn't already been said a million times before, so I'm going to go personal with it. This isn't just my favorite horror movie, it's one of my favorite movies, period. It's also the movie I've seen more than any other, albeit mostly because of the holiday factor, granted. I had the privilege of seeing it on a big screen for the first time a few years back, and was almost shocked at how much power it had still, even after having seen it so many times.
I think the reason it fascinates me so even now is because it's just a simple, perfect little movie. Carpenter really captured lightning in a bottle for this one, and on a nothing budget at that. There are obvious ones you can name that came before it (“Psycho,” “Bay of Blood,” “Black Christmas”), but let's face it, "Halloween" was the one that truly launched an entire subgenre, for better or worse, and it's the one by which all other slasher movies must be judged.
I love everything about it. The way it takes me right back to my childhood, on that first rainy night cowering by my sister, having stayed up past our bedtime and snuck into the kitchen to watch it on cable as lightning struck outside, often scaring us as much if not more than the movie. Knowing we were doing something forbidden and doing it anyway, even while we knew we would pay the price for it later, snuggled no-so-comfortably in our beds.
Oddly, what got me wasn't the famed William Shatner-derived mask, but the scene where Michael dons the sheet and glasses of his victim. There was just something about a killer posing as someone you knew and you not realizing it until it was too late that unnerved me.
I had a closet just like the one in the movie Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) ends up in, in my room, and the door would never… quite… stay…shut and I would imagine I saw Michael in there, clad in that sheet...but wearing my glasses instead of Bob's. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep for a while there.
I think the first horror movie that scares you is like the first album you hear by an artist you go on to adore- it might not actually BE their best, but you love it the most anyway. That's how I feel about "Halloween"- I simply can't imagine Halloween the holiday without it. I think a big part of why it works is that aforementioned simplicity.
Unlike Rob Zombie's remake, which missed the point entirely by trying to have an explanation for everything (seriously, it's as if he went down a serial killer 101 checklist and proceeded to mark every box), Carpenter doesn't explain anything at all. Michael Myers is just "purely, simply evil." You really don’t need any more than that.
That’s not to say I don’t like Zombie’s version. If anything, he definitely made it his own, and that’s actually what you want in a remake. Otherwise, what’s the point? But by over-explaining things, Zombie took away that mystery, and replaced it with a very distinctly human evil. That’s not the “Halloween” I grew up with. The one I grew up with is more abstract, and that’s what makes it inherently scarier. It’s not what you can explain that’s scary- it’s what you CAN’T.
And isn't that what the Boogeyman really is? Just evil personified, without explanation, or back-story? That's what makes true evil so scary. It just IS. This movie gets that, and that's why it will always be my favorite.
So, as I sit back and watch Carpenter’s classic for the umpteenth time, I’ll allow that it isn’t that scary anymore, because at this point, I know exactly what happens and when it will happen. You know that scene in “I Am Legend” where Will Smith quotes the entire movie he’s watching word for word as it plays in the background? I could totally do that with “Halloween.” I’ve seen it that many times, more than any other movie by far.
But damned if it doesn’t perfectly capture that Halloween spirit in a bottle and then some. It just sets the mood for me, you know? When all is said and done, it just isn’t Halloween without “Halloween.” And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So, it might not be the best movie ever made, or even the best horror movie ever made, even, but it’s my favorite, by far. And before you dismiss it out of hand for being dated, or old-fashioned, I want you to close your eyes and think for a minute, and imagine a killer lurking outside your door, clad in an oddly faceless mask, a butcher knife at the ready, prowling the neighborhood, ready to strike at any instant.
That’s “Halloween” in a nutshell, and if the thought of that doesn’t scare you, I can’t imagine anything will. But, hey, it works for me. And maybe, those of you out there, laughing right now, saying there’s nothing scary about that, or this movie, when you least expect it…that’s when he’ll strike.
Because Halloween is the “Night He Came Home,” after all. You just better hope that rustling outside your window IS just the wind, because maybe, just maybe, one of these days it won’t be. It’ll be the Boogeyman, and the Boogeyman doesn’t care if you believe in him or not.
Don’t say you weren’t warned!
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