10 Films and 40 Years Later, Hollywood Still Misses the Point of “Halloween”
By: Richard Lebeau
Tags: Culture, Feminism, Movies, Review, Film

Jamie Lee Curtis in the 1978 and 2018 “Halloween”s (Copyright: Compass International Pictures and Universal Studios)

The blockbuster sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 horror masterpiece “Halloween” aims to erase four decades of sequels, spinoffs, reboots, and imitations. The result is a well-intentioned thriller that is entertaining enough, but it misses the mark in some key ways that rip the debate about the cinematic and social legacy of the original wide open.

[Author’s Note: Mild spoilers for a film currently in wide release are included in the article below.]

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I was never much of a scary movie fan growing up. Maybe it was the influence of my parents and my church, who viewed horror films as being diametrically opposed to the types of morals they wanted instilled in their children. Or maybe it was simply the fact that as a teenager in a small town who frequently spent evenings home alone while his parents worked the night shift, I didn’t find the idea of watching small town teenagers getting graphically murdered while sitting home alone particularly appealing.

The first scary movie I ever saw was Wes Craven’s 1996 blockbuster Scream, which revitalized the slasher film genre that many believed was no longer commercially viable. The huge buzz and terrific cast drew me to it and it remains one of my favorite films of the late 1990s. I even have an affinity for the three sequels, all of which I am pretty sure I saw in theaters. But despite my love for the Scream series and the knowledge that by its very design it was constructed from the DNA of the films in the genre that came before it, I was never compelled to go back and watch any of them. Until now.

With all of the buzz surrounding the 40th anniversary of the original Halloween and the enormous success of its new sequel (it grossed a near-record $76.2 million on its opening weekend and has a strong 79% at Rotten Tomatoes), I decided I would finally get around to watching the original and check out its sequel. Well the new sequel, anyway. I decided to skip the 9 films in the franchise that came in between, because — well — who has that kind of time?

“Halloween” (1978)

The promotional poster for the original “Halloween” (Copyright: Compass International Pictures)

The plot of Halloween is exceedingly simple. Michael Myers was a 6-year-old in Haddonfield, Illinois when he brutally murdered his teenage sister by stabbing her to death. 15 years later, he escapes from a psychiatric hospital on Halloween and goes back to his hometown to go on another killing spree. He kills a number of teenagers before hunting down babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, in her film debut). Along the way he is pursued (rather unimpressively) by his psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) and Sheriff Leigh Brack (Charles Cyphers).

There are no motives provided for Michael’s sociopathic behavior in the film. His psychiatrist just argues that he is the embodiment of evil. There is also no clear connection between him and Laurie Strode other than the fact that she lives in his hometown and is roughly the same age that his sister was when he murdered her. The film has virtually no character development or obvious social commentary. (Many have argued that it was an indictment of teen immorality given that Laurie’s sex and drug loving friends all succumb to Michael while Laurie is spared, but the filmmakers have rejected that notion.) The film is not masterful because of the story it tells or the message it conveys, but rather in the style in which it is done.

Halloween is the brainchild of John Carpenter (who directed and co-wrote the screenplay) and Debra Hill (who produced and co-write the screenplay). Both Carpenter and Hill show impressive restraint throughout. The film is a lean 91 minutes, features surprisingly little gore (relative to the films it spawned), and — as mentioned — does not have an overly complicated plot. Nowhere is the restraint more evident than in the score, which consists of a simplistic, but exceedingly effective, piano medley composed by Carpenter. The restraint of the film’s pacing is also exceedingly effective. It follows the shocking prologue with a lengthy period of mounting tension before the final cathartic blowout.

The film also features a genuinely intriguing performance from Jamie Lee Curtis. She was cast in the role in part as a gimmick — her mother is Janet Leigh, the Hollywood icon most famous for her starring role in the mother of all slasher films, Psycho. But the performance works as far more than a gimmick. She beautifully evokes the contradiction in her character — she yearns to be accepted into the “cool” crowd, but it is too smart for their shenanigans. It is a truly underrated performance by a truly underrated actress.

The Exceedingly Confusing Chronology of Halloween Films Explained

The new Halloween is a direct sequel to the 1978 original. It ignores the nine(!) films in the franchise that followed, all of which were generally viewed by fans and critics alike as vastly inferior to the original.

In 1981, John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis returned for the mildly successful sequel Halloween II. A year later, a spinoff not featuring Michael Myers or Laurie Strode followed and did not fare well (Halloween III: Season of the Witch). Michael Myers was brought back for three more sequels, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995).

In 1998, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later was released, which featured the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie and served as a direct sequel to Halloween II (thus ignoring the entire Michael Myers plot lines featured in the 4th, 5th, and 6th films). Halloween: Resurrection, a much maligned sequel to H20, followed in 2002. After that film’s terrible reception, Rob Zombie was brought on board to write and direct a remake of the original film, which was released in 2007 and also titled Halloween. This was followed by a sequel, Halloween II, in 2009.

For the last 9 years, the franchise has remained missing from the screen, by far the longest gap between films in the franchise’s history.

“Halloween” (2018)

The promotional poster for the current “Halloween” (Copyright: Universal Studios)

The new Halloween picks up nearly 40 years to the day from where the first one left off. The film begins with two true crime podcasters tracking down Michael Meyers at a psychiatric hospital and unsuccessfully attempting to get him to sit down for an interview. They then make an equally fruitless attempt to get Laurie to bare her soul about the 1978 murders.

Laurie now lives in a compound on the outskirts of Haddonfield that has barbed wire, security cameras, weapons, and safe rooms galore. We learn that her daughter Karen (played by the gifted Judy Greer) was removed from her care by Child Protective Services at the age of 12 due to her mother’s erratic behavior. The relationship between mother and daughter remains strained and is complicated by the fact that Laurie is determined to be a part of her granddaughter Allyson’s (Andi Matichak) life.

The psychiatric hospital inexplicably (and convolutedly) decides to transfer Michael to a new facility on Halloween and, well, things play out pretty much just as you would expect from there.

The film isn’t particularly scary, but it has more than its fair share of nail-biting moments. The film is hardly a character piece, but it does feature solid performances, particularly from a committed Curtis and an effective Greer. The plot isn’t particularly fresh, but it is not as mind numbingly reductive and insulting as it could have been. The screenplay has its moments of inspiration, particularly with several winks at the prior entries in the franchise.

For me, the film falls far short of the original and also short of the generally positive buzz it has been generating. My issues with the film are threefold (presented below from least to most egregious).

A Failure to Embrace Technology. If it wasn’t for the fact that ill-fated journalists worked for a podcast and not a newspaper and the fact that Allyson’s cell phone is destroyed in a punch bowl, you would never know it’s 2018 instead of 1978. Ignoring the technological advances made since the release of the original film not only highlight the preposterousness of the retreaded plot, but also represents a great deal of missed opportunities. The Legacy of Laurie Strode. I commend the filmmakers for realizing that it is Laurie, not Michael, that makes the first film interesting and deciding to focus things on her. Michael is not a flesh and blood character in any meaningful way; he is a terrifying entity that stalks and slashes without rhyme or reason. Although I love the fact that the focus is on Laurie here, I do not love what they have done with her character. She is absolutely crippled by her PTSD in the most extreme possible way. She has alienated everyone around her and lived a life full of pure misery since Michael came back to Haddonfield. It’s not an unrealistic trajectory, but it is highly unsatisfying. The problematic development of Laurie’s character seems to go back to one of Hollywood’s age-old problems — hiring a bunch of men to tell a woman’s story. The director, producers, and screenwriters are all men and, perhaps unsurprisingly, their vision of Laurie is empowered in the least empowering of ways. She takes control but at the expense of everything — joy, love, family, autonomy, and femininity. The Lingering Mythology. To me, one of the most unsettling aspects of the original Halloween was the randomness of it all. Myers’ motivation to kill and by extension, his targeting of Laurie Strode, was random. That means that Laurie was a stand-in for all of us, a fact that made the film much more engaging and terrifying. This one focuses on the special connection between Laurie Strode and Michael Meyers, which is based on … nothing. At least nothing that is evident in the 1978 or 2018 versions. Presumably there is mythology that emerged in the 9 other films that bind them together, but for anyone who skipped those (as viewers were led to believe they could), it makes very little sense. There is a scene in the new film in which the Dr. Loomis stand-in says something about how Michael and Laurie’s mutual desire to destroy one another was likely all that is keeping the other one alive. Why? Because she was the one that got away? Or because they have some special connection that is never made clear? In reality, the sociopathic Michael probably would not have given her a second thought (I would imagine he would be more preoccupied with the person that actually shot him in the original) and Laurie would have eventually moved on with the help of a lot of PTSD treatment. But while that movie would have made a lot more sense, it wouldn’t have made $127 million in the last 10 days.

Final Thoughts

I always find it fascinating to watch early genre films for the first time and see how much of all of the films I have consumed for decades are simply retreads of themes, tropes, and visuals established long ago. Finally watching the original Halloween was one of the most intriguing examples of this yet. It was amazing to me how much of the horror and thriller films made in the past few decades owe so much to that film. [Not that Halloween invented the genre, of course. There were creepy serial killers terrifying filmgoers long before Michael Myers (1960’s Psycho) and slasher films were already well established by 1978 (see 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).]

But just because a film is massively popular and influential does not mean it needs to spawn its own cinematic universe. The original Halloween developed an aesthetic and captured an emotion better than nearly any film in its genre’s history. And no matter how many times and ways Hollywood tries to replicate it, it’s always going to result in a pale imitation.

Ratings:

Halloween (1978): 5/5 stars

Halloween (2018): 3/5 stars

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