Halloween

I met him, fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

Halloween has certainly been quite a unique review out of those I have written for the Blog from the Darkside this October 2012. I have watched it in full, bits and pieces of it (--as background while attending to other reviews I have written), the television version of it, and each time something else would pop in my brain, a scene plays out or something about Myers or the other characters, a set piece, or specific moment, that left an impression I wanted to articulate in some sort of written form. It has been quite a prolonged experience, writing this review. I may include markers just to indicate stops and starts. Actually, Halloween has been a month-long excursion, and as each viewing would come, a paragraph here, a paragraph there would emerge. It has been fun.

A film with a reputation is doomed to disappoint. Halloween is not blood and guts horror. It was built to scare. I recall my aunt telling me when I was a teen that during the pivotal scene where Laurie Strode thought she had once and for all ended the threat that is The Shape, as he sits up that she spilled her popcorn all over the place. Today’s horror fan finds this scene to be underwhelming because he doesn’t tie her up in a chair, using some sort of drill to separate her hand from its wrist. I realize this Halloween has left many really in a state of bewilderment wondering why this movie has endured as a classic. To even question the movie’s status may be more about personal preference instead of whether or not Halloween is really a masterpiece. Many consider it a minor horror film luckily named Halloween and therefore because of the title it can always remain on the lips of genre fans.

The marriage of music and image is often mentioned when talking about Dario Argento’s Suspiria, and Halloween is no different. A music score that grips you can work wonders. Equip a phenomenal visual elegance—Dean Cundy—along with a strong score that punctuates what we see, and a film can leave a mark far after it is over. It does still for many of us while some aren’t impressed.

There was an interesting take on Dr. Loomis, where someone had said one time that he failed as a psychiatrist and that if the hospital had followed protocol that another would have been assigned to Michael. A failed system kept Loomis in charge of Michael and that because of his own psychiatric failure, the kid grew into The Shape, a human figure with a silent rage that would eventually lead to further deaths once accidentally freed. I thought this was a thought-provoking take that might have some merit. In the television version, there’s this large conservatory with the features of a major university professor’s classroom where two doctors working at Smith’s Grove who talk with Loomis about what to do with Michael.  Loomis, in this film, does explain that he tried to get through to Michael, finally understanding that nothing but evil lie behind his eyes, after years of futile efforts. Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies further explored Loomis’ inability to heal his patient, Michael. In Carpenter’s film, there’s nothing behind the eyes, the kid Michael has a vacant look on his face as if something else controlled him. A robot.

But for most of the film, Michael Myers seems to be a maniac with a knife, human evil. But at the end when Laurie actually uses defensive measures (a hanger, sewing needles) that often drop Michael, with Loomis shooting him multiple times, Myers eventually falls off the balcony from two stories to the ground. This should be enough to kill “an ordinary man” and this is when Loomis’ claims that Michael “isn’t any ordinary man” may be accurate. You often read about how Michael is often referred to as The Shape. Even by those who made Halloween, he’s considered inhuman, the representation of evil incarnate. He is there one moment, not there the next. Almost a spectre off at a distance, in his car, behind those windswept sheets drying on the clothesline, behind the bushes, the hedges, looking from windows in the dark, that white mask as if he were a ghost looking on at the living in silence, quiet and waiting. When he does strike, those he targets will not  have a clue what awaits them.

Haddonfield is as much a star as The Shape. Evil invades suburbia. Evil invades the quiet small town where nothing extraordinary ever happens. There was very little notoriety, although Michael’s home was known as the “house where bogeyman lived” due to the murder of his sister, seen at the beginning. Michael changes all of that in one long night (if you include Halloween II that is..).  Besides the visual elegance of the film, its widescreen photography that captures the entirety of space that can allow Michael to move about unabated and without notice (he, to me, seems to exist as if no one notices him (unless he *wants* to be noticed)), Haddonfield (well, Haddonfield as it exists in this film..), cozy and quaint, the kind of comfy place you should feel safe to live, provides a great deal to digest with your eyes. Aspect ratio, something I rarely bring up when I write blog reviews (or imdb reviews), plays such an important part (as does that marvelous lighting) of this movie. Whether bright daylight or the sinister night, Haddonfield’s space is exploited to the fullest.

Sherrif Brackett, "A man wouldn't do that."

Dr. Loomis, "This isn't a man." 

What I personally love most is how Michael is framed as if a ghost. I have already mentioned, but just wanted to reiterate, this because I love how he seems to just creep about. You ever, as a kid (or maybe even as an adult) are walking alone at night and something motivates you to move just a little bit faster? What you run from, Michael is. Like that scene where Laurie is standing in front of a door and appearing from behind, a white image becomes clearer and clearer until we see the mask, and, eventually, the entire Shape is in full view. He doesn’t run but also doesn’t lumber.  There’s an intent in the walk but not to be in any hurry, The Shape pursues his quarry with a restraint, allowing her to scream and plead for help, patiently taking his time. The night seems to be his and Laurie will have to use whatever means are available if to survive.

The final girl. Death to sin. The slasher genre seems to follow a template established in this film, but this has been explained and critiqued to death. I love the character of Laurie because she does look and act like just an average, likable, friendly, but awkward, timid, and nerdy. How many slashers have featured a lead actress with similar qualities introduced in the character to be hunted by a maniac?

Halloween is the kind of film that may not give certain types of horror fans what they most desire..brutal violence, T&A, or vulgarity. I think the girls (as written by Debra Hill), and Pleasence (his veteran presence, even in small doses, gives the film extra gravitas, the way his eyes and demeanor express fear and the possible uncomfortable knowledge that “the evil” could be anywhere in town and have already brought the murder to some innocents), are finely characterized, providing the movie with a backbone while The Shape ruins their world with his path of destruction (that will only envelope a larger group of Haddonfield citizenry once he makes his way to the general hospital to find “the one that got away”). And, to top it all off, the panic beats of Carpenter’s memorable score and soundtrack that layers the tension and, at times, establishes the presence of The Shape when out of frame, emerging from a corner of the screen…and here’s the thing; we know he is there while the potential victims have no idea.

``I was admiring, once again, the last seconds of Halloween as Michael’s body was missing, his imprint in the ground where he fell, now only his breath and the places he once was shown to us, telling us that The Shape is still out there, somewhere, anywhere, and no one is safe. His breathing, hard and intense, just engulfs; this movie has its way with me, for sure. Can’t help but love it.

-- 

 Hey jerk…speed kills!

I was thinking as I was watching Halloween (yes, again..) tonight, that I was glad that this film features heavily young women in the leads, Debra Hill responsible for their dialogue (another good idea because their interactions and conversations feel realistic and I find them very funny at times) and the casting of Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis, and PJ Soles to me are reasons the film has remained endurable. I hate bullying but the playful jabs from Annie (Nancy) towards virginal nerd Laurie (Jamie), all in good fun, no  harm done, always brings a smile to my face. I had a best friend who took playful jabs at me as well, so this is extra special.
 

Poor Laurie…scared another one away.

You must have a small fortune for babysitting so much.

You know, it’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.
 

I think one of the main reasons I enjoy this movie is that it really feels like an entire day (if you include Halloween II as part of the deal, a complete Halloween day and night that goes into the dawn of November the 1st), seeming like any ordinary Halloween for Laurie and her friends, and as you infuse The Shape into their lives, with only the main heroine aware of his presence (she doubts her senses, however, another nice touch that I like because it has Laurie accepting that he’s just a figment of her imagination), it all turns into a nightmare. If Halloween II is partnered with this movie, no one (Laurie and Dr. Loomis, included) is ever the same again.
 

He came home..
 

I have read from many that consider Michael just a man, but there are two instances where this could be challenged. Laurie sees Michael near hedged bushes, with Annie immediately going to see only for him to be gone. Another scene has Michael noticed near a clothesline, sheets caught in a breeze, then suddenly gone in an instant. Also, how could “just a man” unearth and carry away an entire tombstone of Judith Myers? I just love to speculate—forgive such folly. If you include all the *boogeyman* talk mentioned obviously to further engender more of a mythos around Michael, then I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to conclude John wanted The Shape to be emphasized more than just a maniac in a mask.

One of my favorite daytime scenes has Dr. Loomis, finally in Haddonfield after the long trip, meeting Sheriff Brackett at the hardware store robbed by Michael: Carpenter sets up a shot where we see the stolen Smith’s Grove car in the background driving from behind an unknowing Loomis, wrought with concern. The Shape follows his prey to the neighborhood where they are to babysit (hence the previous potential title, The Babysitter Murders), and this is where night takes over and a killer can hide even easier than during the day.
 

I agree with the assessment that if you were to turn the volume down, Halloween wouldn’t be the same movie. It would still have the great visual work of Cundy (independent film really allowed such talented cinematographers to cut their teeth and develop their craft); John and Cundy’s decision to shoot their film anamorphic widescreen also is so important to the overall success and lasting popularity of the film.
 

Blab, blab, blab. Yes, I’m done. Thanks for those who stuck it out through this mammoth poor excuse for a review.