Classic Slasher

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2004)

Halloween, believe it or not, was not the first slasher film of it's kind. It was also not the last and continues to spawn imitators to this day. Four years before "Halloween" was released, the slasher film "Black Christmas" came and went
without much notice, even though it boasted a more seasoned cast and a
slightly better budget. So why was Halloween more popular than its
predecessor? I don't know for sure, but I have a few theories. #1 It has a great, catchy score going for it. #2 It didn't take itself quite as dead-serious as Black Christmas did and provided more than a few laughs, and #3 SEX!!! Halloween
may not have been the first slasher film, but, if memory serves me correctly, Halloween was the first slasher film to suggest a direct correlation between sex and death. The point of Halloween seemed to be that young, sexually active
girls die and good, virginal girls live.
Michael Meyers, very much like Rhoda in "The Bad Seed" was just born bad.
He is six years old when he commits his first murder, stabbing his sister to death after she finishes having sex with her boyfriend. Showing no remorse, or any other kind of emotion for that matter, Michael is locked away in an insane
asylum to await his 21st birthday, when he will stand trial for his crime. But on the eve of the trial, Michael escapes and heads home to Haddonfield.

No reason is ever given for Michael's urge to kill, nor is it explained (in the first movie, anyway) why he chooses the three main targets of the film; Annie, Linda and Laurie. Laurie is the good girl, the plain Jane with a brain wallflower played by Jamie Lee Curtis. Her two friends, Annie and Linda, are far more popular, better dressed and more confident, and seem to like having Laurie around if
only to make themselves look even better. Both have boyfriends and are
sexually active. Laurie is a little afraid of boys, and this may be what saves her. She is suspicious of the mysterious man who seems to be following her and her friends around, but her friends never take the threat seriously. For them, the shadowy form of Michael is either a potentially cute guy to flirt with, or a creep who needs to "buzz off." Linda and Annie never consider the danger. Laurie
does, and she is on the alert for the rest of the night. Annie is the first to die, after stripping down to her underwear in front of the window and having a
sexually explicit phone call with her boyfriend, whom she is on her way to pick up when she is murdered. Linda drinks beer and has sex with her boyfriend in the parents bedroom, and even flirts with Michael (thinking he is her boyfriend in a ghost costume) brazenly baring her breasts. Her boyfriend is stabbed to
death, she is strangled, and Laurie, left alone across the street, is next.

Laurie, shy and afraid of men as she is, cannot seem to fight back at first. She runs, screaming for help after finding the dead bodies of her murdered friends. But when no one will help her, she learns she must help herself if she wants to live. Her maternal instincts kick in when the killer invades the house where she is babysitting two small children. Laurie screams and whines and doesn't
always use good judgment (and, compared to today's butt-kicking heroines, she seems pretty wimpy and spineless) but she manages to fend off her attacker
long enough for help (in the form of Dr. Loomis - Donald Pleasance) to arrive. Laurie has survived, but the boogeyman is not dead. She will have to be
stronger next time.
Halloween showed us what happens when young adults engage in premarital
sex, the consumption of alcohol and marijuana and attitudes which suggest that they are too big for their britches. But it's also just a good, scary little film to watch with the lights off, if you're not one to be bothered with pseudo- psychological insights. Michael Meyers is a dark angel of judgment and death, making examples of Linda and Annie and pushing Laurie back into her place.
Laurie, who chokes and coughs over a joint that Annie has no problem with,
now understands; she is not meant to fit in with That Crowd. She has been
singled out forever, and now sees the danger that awaits her there.

Halloween is a classic of the genre and should not be missed by horror fans. No excuses: you cannot call yourself a true fan of horror until you've seen this film. Michael Meyers has indeed achieved immortality, right up there with
Jason, Freddy, Pinhead and many others. He will never die, and neither will the impact this film made on history.