A fitting end to the final day of our countdown: "John Carpenter's Halloween." A film that is largely unexplained, dark, and immensely scary. The film tells the story of Michael Myers, an escaped patient from a mental ward who is stalking baby sitters for seemingly no reason. Following his first two low budget features ("Dark Star" and the equally incredible "Assault on Precinct 13"), Carpenter honed his craft enough to make "Halloween" look like a multi-million dollar feature film. Shot for $325,000 dollars and filmed over the course of 4 weeks, the film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, and Charles Cyphers.
On Halloween night 1963, little Michael Myers murders his older sister Judith in her upstairs bedroom of their family home in Haddonfield, Illinois. 15 years after being committed to Smith's Grove Sanitorium, Doctor Sam Loomis (Pleasence) witnesses the escape of his patient, Myers (portrayed by both Nick Castle and Tony Moran). Loomis then warns Haddonfield Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Cyphers) that Myers is returning home to kill once more. Meanwhile, we meet Laurie Strode (Curtis) and her friends Annie (credited in this film as Nancy Loomis) and Lynda (P.J. Soles). Laurie is the conservative school girl in her wild and horny group of friends. The trio will eventually meet up later that night as Laurie is babysitting little Tommy Doyle while Annie is across the street with Lindsay Wallace. However, as the night progresses, Myers - who I will refer to as The Shape, get's closer and closer to the unsuspecting girls.
The mask used in the film is actually a Captain Kirk mask spray painted white, with the eye holes cut a bit larger.
"Halloween" night was originally titled "The Babysitter Murders" by Carpenter when the film was being written. It was producer Irwin Yablans who suggested setting the film on Halloween night and changing the title to "Halloween."The film's setting is a perfect plot to device for our characters to think The Shape is just another student from their high school in a mask playing a prank on them. Their dismissal of course eventually leads to Myers having the upper hand. The Shape's mask is the perfect symbol of evil. It's so clean, pale, and white that the audience can project whatever they're afraid of onto it. Beneath the mask could be anything. The devil, a monster, or just a man. Also, it's eerie shade of white stands out against Dean Cundey's darkly lit sets, popping out against the backgrounds like one of those dead lights that Penny Wise the clown talked about in "It."
Jamie Lee Curtis in her debut gives the film a sense of legitimacy, being the daughter of legendary actress Janet Leigh, who played Marion Crane in Hitchcock's "Psycho." This film is filled with homages to the classic horror films from the Hammer company across the pond. Hell, even Donald Pleasence is in it as The Shape's doctor, Loomis. A lot of the films urgency and terror comes as a result of Loomis' dialogue, talking about Myers as nothing but pure evil. Behind his two dark eyes, is nothing, according to him. No reason, no mind, just pure evil. That is the only real explanation that Carpenter gives us as to why The Shape is stalking these girls. He IS the Boogeyman and is alive only to strike feat into the hearts of those unfortunate enough to cross his path. Charles Cyphers provides an awesome foil to the seriousness of Loomis' character. Carpenter balanced out the film perfectly. We have loose, sleazy, and fun characters like Lynda and Annie, but Laurie holds the other side of the film down. We see this throughout "Halloween."
Jamie Lee Curtis in her debut role as "Laurie Strode" in "John Carpenter's Halloween."
After you watch the picture, John Carpenter's eerie minimalistic score will stay with you long after the credits role. The score perfectly captures the simplistic essence of the film and then embodies it in 5/4 meter. The majority of popular music is in a double meter (think of a rock back beat where you can clap on 2 & 4 easily), but Carpenter's score is in a bizarre meter that feels like something isn't quite right, which they're certainly not for our characters. Most interesting is the film's third act in which Laurie finally needs to defend herself from The Shape. Yes, surprise, there's a final confrontation between our villain and heroine. Instead of Laurie cowering in a corner, she actually gets to fight back against Myers. "Halloween" does not demean women in any way. We're seeing teenagers, but the type of teenagers we're seeing are not the 80's screwball, raunchy comedy characters.
John Carpenter is an absolute master. By the time he made this film, he had come into his own as a mature, masterful, and excellent filmmaker. He toys with his audience by denying them information, then creates characters that can seemingly go at any moment on screen. His point of view shots through The Shape's eyes force the audience to be a part of his world. The breathing we hear during a montage in the film tells us that he's out there, hiding in the dark. He could be anywhere. He could be anyone, after all, Carpenter didn't give us a monster, clown, or animal mask to fear. Instead Michael Myers wears the ambiguous pale face of a man.
10/10
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill
Runtime - 91 minutes
Suggested edition: 35th Anniversary Blu-Ray release from Anchor Bay or the 25th Anniversary Divimax Edition for it's excellent bonus features.
7.9 of 10 stars on IMDb
94% on Rotten Tomatoes
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