Forty years later, one of this film’s sequels is setting box
office records. Yet the original Halloween cost only $300,000 (though
$300,000 meant a lot more at that time), and had a running time of only 93
minutes. It was also the start of a long
film career by Jamie Lee Curtis, cast in the lead victim role as Laurie. Yet Laurie survived all of the mayhem.
We never figure out in that early film why Michael Myers in
his Halloween mask so much wants Laurie dead.
Even Dr. Loomis, the intrepid psychiatrist played so adeptly by Donald
Pleasance, can’t ever figure the serial killer out. All Loomis knows is that Michael Myers should
never go free.
Michael ended up in a psychiatric ward when only
six-years-old after stabbing his sister, Judith, to death. Fifteen years later, when Dr. Loomis was
already planning on putting Michael away permanently, Michael makes his
escape. Of course, he breaks out just in
time for Halloween.
Everyone knows pretty much the rest of the story. Michael returns to his hometown and virtually
kills anyone getting in his way. Most of
his victims are teenagers just a few years younger than himself. We think many times that Michael Myers is
dead. Yet he keeps coming back to
life. (This trend was to continue
through all of the Halloween sequels
and remakes – most of them very bad.)
Halloween is superior
to most other slasher films because of its director, John Carpenter. Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis obviously
helped as well. Carpenter not only
directed, but he also helped write and create the screen music. He also had an
uncanny sense of timing. Right when he
made the audience feel they could relax, something sudden and terrible would
occur. This low-budget film at times can
be frightening. Carpenter also never
makes the mistake of trying to pretend this movie was something more than it
really was.
The problem with this kind of film is you’d think it has to
end at some point. Yet forty years
later, Jamie Lee Curtis keeps making appearance and keeping this sort of film somehow
relevant. And some critics say that the
current version of Halloween is as good as this original. (The fact that critics keep saying such
things mean we’re going to see more of the same. What’s truly astounding is they say the same
thing about other movies that are also sequels.)
That the success of this original film was in large part
accidental should surprise no one.
October 31, 2018
© Robert S. Miller 2018
