Halloween (1978) - The Walk Home

While watching “Halloween” (1978) this evening, as Laurie, Annie, and Lynda were walking to their neighborhood homes from school, the sun still quite bright soon to set when Laurie was riding with Annie to their babysitting gigs at separate houses across town, I thought to myself: this could have been felt just right for the close of a summer day. You know it occurred to me writing this…summer never was a time of the year I would consider watching “Halloween”. Maybe September as horror fans prepared for the Halloween season, but June or July? Nah. But watching the girls walking home from school, the green lawns and hedges, sidewalks and trees, windy leaves, sunny brightness as school was over and the girls were preparing for the big dance the next evening; I could see why this film might call to me during some late July Wednesday. So perhaps 2020 might be the year I watch this film three times in three different seasons. Leaving books at school and talking about how books are always left at school, the car from Smith Grove Sanitarium driven by Michael passing by as Annie shouts at him that “Speed Kills!”, egging shenanigans preventing hookups, Michael behind a hedge eyeing Laurie, the jokes about a place to shit, plentiful babysitting money stashed away, and “Poor Laurie” driving boys away, & Michael looking on at Laurie briefly from within flowing sheets pelted by the wind on the clothesline as she eventually settles onto bed to lament her inability to land a date: I appreciate the efforts of Debra Hill to flesh these teenagers out, giving credit to the casting for each role, especially Jamie Lee Curtis. And even before the walk home, as Carpenter captured the entire space in Panavision, you get to see Laurie following orders from her dad to stop by the Myers house as Strode Realty hopes to finally sell the “haunted house”, talking with Tommy before heading to school, spending time in a class as her teacher discusses Samuel Clemons and fate while the Smiths Grove car parked outside, not longer after reminded of Halloween as kids get started on trick-or-treating early. It is about the entire day and evening of Halloween. Michael escaped the Eve of Halloween but Halloween was the day he planned to have his “fun”.