Halloween (1978)

For many years now I have been wanting to make my thoughts about this movie known, but have always resisted for fear that my writing wouldn’t be able to do the film justice. Even now, the fear of this is present, thus I have no idea if I will actually post this piece or let it sit buried in a folder on my desktop for several years. Even if I do post it, there is no guarantee that I will leave it up, not if I re-read it again in the future and decide it wasn’t good enough and needs to be destroyed. This has happened before with other written works that have appeared on this webpage and I’m sure it will happen again.

I first experienced the Halloween when I was in the seventh grade, which would have been in 1996 I believe. It occurred on Halloween night after I had finished trick or treating with my little brother. As I have mentioned before my mother was a huge horror fan and loved sharing her joy of the genre with me, so when she saw that Halloween was going to be aired on one of the local channels that evening she quickly suggested the two of us watch it. Of course, as I’ve also mentioned before, my little brother and my dad were not horror fans, thus we were forced to watch the movie in the back bedroom, which, at that time, was the only spot where a TV outside of the TV room was located (younger horror fans may not realize this, but there was a time not that long ago when most households didn’t have a TV for each person, or more TVs than people -- same thing with computers). Now, as was often the case back then, I agreed to watch the movie with a little bit of apprehension, my love of horror somewhat offset by my terror of being terrified. It is a state of mind that I wish I could still experience, but sadly is one which has pretty much faded completely. I’m not sure why this has happened, but have a feeling my total immersion into the horror genre is partly to blame. Growing up also may have taken its toll, but can’t be the full explanation, not when I know there are adults out there who still startled by this movie the first time around.

For those that are unfamiliar with the story, which is kind of hard to imagine yet is possible, Halloween is the tale of a two characters, Michael Myers and Lori Strode, and the events surrounding them on Halloween night in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1978. Though no one really knows why, Michael Myers, at the age of six, stabbed his older sister to death with a large kitchen knife on Halloween night in 1963, and has been locked up in a mental institution ever since. For fifteen years he sits in his room at the institution staring at a wall until October 30, 1978 when he escapes. Dr. Sam Loomis, a man who has feared the evil with Michael Myers for many years, goes to Haddonfield where he expects to find his patent. Not wanting to cause a panic he notifies the local sheriff of his intention and tells him to keep a lookout for Michael Myers, and then waits outside the empty Myers’s home, his thinking being that Michael will return there. As it turns out Michael has set his sights on Lori Strode, possibly because she dropped a key off at the Myers’s house for her dad’s real estate company earlier in the day, and follows her throughout the daylight hours until she settles down to baby-sit for a young boy named Tommy. Lori isn’t the only one watching a kid that night, her friend Annie is watching a girl across the street named Lindsey. Of course Annie’s reason for babysitting is a bit different than Lori’s. She watches the girl for the sole purpose of getting to spend time with her boyfriend once the girl goes to sleep. In addition to this she agrees to let their third friend Linda bring her boyfriend over for the night and use one of the bedrooms in Lindsey’s house. What none of them realizes is Michael Myers is watching the house and slowly but surely killing the teenage girls whenever the opportunity arises. Concerned of what may be happening in the house across the street Lori eventually heads over. It is an unwise decision, one that finally puts her face to face with Michael Myers and the death he has caused.

Halloween is one of my all time favorite movie, yet of all the movies I love it is the least watched of my collection. The reason for this is simple; I don’t want to wear it out and will only watch it on or near Halloween, an event that I eagerly await each year as the holiday draws near. The viewing of the movie grows even better when I have someone over that has never seen it before. I’m not sure why, but getting to watch as one experiences this movie (and other scary movies) for the first time is a lot of fun. The only exception to this was the viewing I had this year with people who had never before seen the film, people who talked through the entire movie and then proclaimed it not scary. I was pissed at the lack of respect shown and will never again watch anything with that group. Thankfully this was the only time this has occurred. During all other viewings the people that sat down to watch the movie for the first time were blown away with how terrifying it was, their minds realizing that just because a movie is old and lacks modern day special effects doesn’t mean it won’t be scary and a well made piece. Now if only I could experience that terror again, if only I could go back in time and sit in the back bedroom with my mother watching in horror as the events of the Halloween night unfolded, my eyes always getting a sneak peek of a coming scene whenever a commercial would air. Whenever I saw these sneak peeks I would always wonder if I could last long enough once the movie returned to actually see that scene. Would I be brave enough, or would I flee in terror and never know what happened to Lori and her friends and Michael Myers picked them off one by one.