“I met this... six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and... the blackest eyes - the Devil's eyes.” - Dr. Loomis
It almost feels cliché to include this movie on the list. It is the quintessential slasher flick. It established so many rules of horror that are still abided by to this day. It provided not just one of the most iconic horror characters to ever exist, but the theme song to match. Personally it is the first movie to ever give me nightmares.
The inhuman nature of a man just stoic and lifeless yet moving and pursuing was and is endlessly terrifying. The ambiguity of his very nature - Is he human still or something else entirely? Surely no man could take the kind of abuse he does. So if he’s not human, what the hell is he?
He demonstrates no true human traits beyond his physical appearance. He doesn’t eat, sleep or use the restroom. He never sneezes or coughs or appears physically exhausted. He never requires medical attention. He never speaks and doesn’t seem to blink either. If he began as a boy, he transformed into something else entirely within the depths.
Another aspect of Michael Myers that sends shivers down the spine is his motivation, or lack thereof. Freddy Kreuger kills as an act of vengeance against those who abused him as a child. Cruel but comprehensible. Jason Voorhees’ reasons for killing have been theorized as acts of vengeance over the death of his mother, over his accidental drowning as a boy and even as a misguided attempt at containing the immoral actions of his victims. Some say he does it simply because he knows it would make his mother happy. Again, twisted and contorted reasoning but it still allows for reason to enter into the equation of why. Michael Myers kills because it is seemingly his life force. It is the only thing that gives him purpose.
His pursuits, usually contained to Haddonfield, Illinois, feel personal. He kills his family members, he kills the neighbors and the local police department. He slaughters the firemen and the babysitters and the babysitters’ boyfriends. His kills seem plausible, they feel in some caustic alternate reality, as if someone in the neighborhood could be senselessly brutalized by a troubled local. A stretch maybe but not impossible. It’s local and it feels personal. One of their own has turned against them for reasons they cannot understand.
Halloween is a simple story and therefore quite discomforting. It’s not on some distant land or from an ancient time. It’s the 1970s in middle America. It’s down the block, around the corner and just across the street. It might as well be in your very living room. In 1963, a six year-old Michael Myers donned a clown mask and unprompted, began to slash and stab his older sister to death. He is discovered by his parents standing in the front yard, knife in hand, covered in blood and completely catatonic.
Because of his young age he is sentenced to life imprisonment at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. Deemed too dangerous to ever be released, he is left there to rot. With the exception of Dr. Loomis who for eight years attempted to help Michael before ultimately determining there was no helping him. He was considered “purely and simply evil.” At the age of 21 he escapes during a transfer from prison to a court hearing. He immediately returns to Haddonfield and begins his terror once again. His focus this time? Laurie Strode. And why her? Wrong place, wrong time. Unfortunately for Laurie, it was nothing to be avoided. He saw her and that was it. Begin Laurie’s nightmare.
Beyond simply being one of the first true slashers, the stories behind the scenes are every bit as famous as the movie itself. Like the origins of the mask, a William Shatner or Captain Kirk mask altered and cut and painted to eventually reach that iconic, white, emotionless killing mask. It is in many ways the literal face of Michael Myers and the face of an entire franchise. It’s also well known that in order to help Jamie Lee Curtis reach the right level of fear for each scene, as most movies are shot out of order, the director created a “fear meter.” He would give her a number for a particular scene and she would adjust and proceed accordingly. It was also a famously low budget forcing creative decisions that would alter and even improve the final product although they couldn’t have known at the time what the impact of their choices would have on the genre as a whole for the next almost fifty years and counting.
It is a concoction of inspired slasher criteria and a lot of yet to be established “rules of slasher movies” all destined to shape the next several decades of horror. While already a presence in the scene, John Carpenter became a staple of horror after the release of Halloween. He not only directed it, he cast Jamie Lee Curtis based on her potential and lineage in the industry. Her famous and talented mother, Janet Leigh (perhaps the very first scream queen ever starring in Psycho) certainly helped capture Carpenter’s attention. And perhaps beyond the very creation of the movie, one of his greatest contributions to the genre is composing the theme song of Halloween. Not only is it synonymous with the movie, it’s practically a theme for the very holiday itself.
Halloween is lasting because it was one of the first of its kind. It popularized the slasher subgenre and shaped the following five decades of horror. It led to John Carpenter directing other classics like The Fog, The Thing, Escape from New York and a personal favorite of mine, 1984’s Starman. It forever cemented Jamie Lee Curtis not just as a household name in cinema, but as one of the quintessential scream queens who set a precedent for all future queens yet to find their limelight. It has shaped and influenced nearly every aspect of horror to some degree, even if in miniscule ways, its influence is vast and lasting. If horror had a Mt. Rushmore, Michael Myers would be an undeniable choice.
Rated R For: Horror violence, blood, terror, sexual content and brief language
Runtime: 91 minutes
After Credits Scene: No
Genre: Horror
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Brian Andrews, P.J. Soles
Directed By: John Carpenter
Out of 10
Story: 9/ Acting: 7.5/ Directing: 9/ Visuals: 8
OVERALL: 9/10
Buy to Own: Yes.
Check out the trailer below:
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