Welcome to the first of 30 days of Halloween. The decision of whether or not to include Halloween on this list was obviously a no-brainer…the problem came when choosing whether to start or end our ode to Samhain with the ultimate Halloween film. I decided that opening with John Carpenter’s slasher classic would be sure to get us all in the Halloween spirit as early as possible.
So why is it that Halloween is the ultimate horror flick for the season? Well, for one the title fits, but there’s really so much more than that to Michael Myers. The slasher genre was born in 1974 with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; it wasn't until four years later that John Carpenter introduced us to the masked killer that would truly create the template for the future of the genre. To find the root of what makes Michael so special one needs look no further than the movie’s tagline, “The night HE came home”…that home to which he came contained, at least at one point, his typical American family, in their typical American home, which just so happened to be in a typical American neighborhood. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre you had an obviously crazy cannibalistic family in a far off and isolated place all of which seemed very detached from any situation that any of us would ever find ourselves in. Halloween introduces us to the possibility of absolute evil hiding in mundane normality; it perfected a plot rule for horror writers; find somewhere that your audience feels safe and exploit it.
To me, the true genius of setting the film on Halloween is the effect it had, intended or not, on how the holiday was viewed. Obviously the setting made it easy to accept a six foot man in a mask walking around town without drawing too much attention, but it also draws to light how vulnerable we make ourselves on Halloween. Let’s think about our social process on Halloween and look at it objectively, if someone rang your doorbell on February 8th and was wearing a mask, would you be more likely to A) Open the door and give them candy OR B) Soil yourself and call the cops? John Carpenter pointing out that Halloween is the one time that evil can easily hide in plain sight is the reason the holiday is associated with fear. It’s always been a supernatural and mischievous holiday but it was Michael Myers that made it terrifying.
Rather than give you an obligatory rundown of the film itself I’ll just point out the aspects that really set this one apart. The most obvious is the score, arguably the most recognizable in the genre and definitely among the top 50 film themes among all genres, quite an accomplishment for a micro-budget indie movie. Once again proving its merits are more than the obvious, Halloween uses it’s creepy and simplistic theme not only during kill scenes but more importantly during the more hum-drum scenes like when Laurie is walking home from school adding a level of tension to otherwise boring scenes. The other thing that always struck deep with me was the way Carpenter used subtle touches to spotlight the truly psychopathic nature of Myers. The scene which points this out the best is possibly the most iconic scene in the film (unless you count P.J. Soles establishing the obligatory boob shot scene), of course I’m referring to the scene where Michael pins Lynda’s boyfriend to the wall with a kitchen knife. Michael steps back and slowly cocks his head to the side, examining his victim as a dog would with a new chew toy, it’s at this point that you KNOW there are no limits to the evil he is capable of simply because he doesn’t understand evil, there is no right or wrong, no conscience, no humanity.
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