No, I'm not talking about the needless Rob Zombie remake. The true Michael Myers story is John Carpenter's 1978 classic. Now, I know it's hard to call a movie that is almost 30 years old a "modern classic", but in an amazing way Halloween is still very relevant today. Who hasn't seen this movie? If you look at the big films from the 1970's, whether it be The Godfather, Taxi Driver or Apocalypse Now, it seems that those films are becoming too old for people today. It's not so with Halloween. It's as relevant today as it was in 1978, if not more so. When people refer to best of the horror genre Halloween is always mentioned. So, while the original Halloween may not technically be "modern", the film is still a classic that is very much apart of our current cinematic psyche.
"The Boogeyman is coming!"
John Carpenter's Halloween tells the story of Michael Myers, a man who is imprisoned in a mental institute after murdering his older sister when he was a child. Now as a grown man, Myers escapes his captivity and sets out to take his rage out on his hometown. He manages to make his way back to his childhood home where his earlier atrocities occurred. While staying at his home, Michael Myers sees the daughter of the realtor selling his house drop off a key for potential buyers to use. Myers stalks the girl, Laurie Strode(Jamie Lee Curtis) and two of her high school friends. Now, we learn in Halloween II that Laurie Strode was adopted by her current family and was in fact the sister of Michael Myers. It's a great horror movie twist, but I prefer what seems to be the original idea of why Myers went after these high school kids.
"He came home!"
In the first installment of Halloween Michael Myers isn't on a mission to find his little sister. He's just a homicidal maniac that by chance encounters young girls that resemble the sister he murdered. Being completely nuts, he sets out to stalk and kill the girls. There's no great secret with the first Halloween. The girls become the victims of a psycho killer by a simple unlucky twist of fate. Halloween's simplicity is what makes it such a haunting movie. It's what Rob Zombie didn't understand. We, the audience, don't need to know why Michael Myers kills teenagers. He's an escaped mental patient! That's all the character depth we need. The more you go into Michael Myers and why he's who he is the less of an enigma he becomes.
"Damn you for letting him go!"
In the recent remake we see Michael as kid and his development into a murdering madman. John Carpenter relied more on the unknown for his vision. We rarely follow Myers in the story. He interjects himself into it. He's a man in a blank, emotionless white mask hiding and waiting for his moment to strike. It's the slow and calculating pace of the character that makes him so frightening. If we're being chased by a man running after us and yelling his anthems of hate we know that he's at least human. Michael Myers never talks or runs, and it makes him seem that much more imposing. As it is with Jason's hockey mask or Leatherface's stolen faces, most of Myers' image is due to the brilliant white mask. For a character that is supposed to be emotionless and minimal the topper is the mask of nothingness.
"You must be ready for him... If you don't, it's your funeral!"
You can't write a column on Halloween without mentioning John Carpenter's brilliant score. As it is with all of his great movies, Carpenter incorporates the music so much that it becomes a huge part of the film. Carpenter's score is almost another character in the movie. The main theme is so frantic that it's almost annoying, but puts forth a mood of bone-tingling dread. Once you hear that theme blast through on the title credits it just sounds evil. It's a mood that carries throughout the entire score. You don't throw on the Halloween soundtrack on a road trip or for a calm night at home. The score is so frenetic and brutal with the imagery that it completely sets an ambiance that can't be duplicated beyond the original film. The score is apart of the setting that makes a Halloween movie it's own entity. It's been tried so many times, but Halloween's feel has never been able to be duplicated
"Was that the boogeyman?"
What makes Halloween so worth writing about, or shall I say "classic", is that it's simply a great movie. The biggest complaint about the horror movie genre is that the movies are just plain bad. It's all about the blood and guts and the story is sacrificed. Michael Myers has five victims appear on screen in Halloween, but there's very little blood. Halloween isn't about grossing you out, but rather creeping you out. The murder isn't the whole focus in Halloween. The build up is what made Halloween so scary. It's not scary seeing some be stabbed with a kitchen knife anymore, but being made to wait for it happen when you know it's coming is. As much as Halloween has been imitated, none of the wannabes have ever been able to get that quite right.
"Yeah, you know every town has something like this happen."
How many times have you went out and had to grab something out of the shed in the dark of night? How about when you're alone and you hear that creepy noise outside that you just have to check out? It's those eerie moments that we all have that Halloween plays on. We're all afraid of what might be in that dark shed even if we know nothing is there. In Halloween, Michael Myers is there with a big knife. Horror movies are supposed to leave their images in your head and make it hard for you to go to sleep or cautious when entering a dark house. Halloween has given it's viewers that paranoia as well any movie ever has or will. The 1978 classic had many horrible sequels follow it and one pointless remake, but it is in and of itself, a modern classic. So cheesy, I know.
"It's Halloween, everyone's entitled to one good scare."
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| Andy York |
Andy is a life long movie fanatic. The first movie he saw in the theater was Back to the Future, Part 2 at the age of 3 and he has loved movies ever since.
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