Two
films released in the late 1970s had a disproportionate influence on the movie
business in the 1980s. Stars Wars was
one. This is the other. It inspired an army of imitators, a platoon of inferior
sequels, and what is still considered the most violent Atari game ever. Its
place in history has been codified by its selection for the Library of
Congress’s National Film Registry—and its still scary. John Carpenter’s Halloween screens tonight in New York
and probably somewhere near you, because its Halloween.
For
some reason, all the parents in Haddonfield, IL always choose to enjoy a date
night on Halloween, leaving their children in the care of sitters. Ordinarily,
that means good money for Laurie Strode and her friends, but this year they
will be stalked by a monstrous psychopath who has just escape from a criminal
insane asylum. You know his name: Michael Myers. You also recognize his iconic
William Shatner mask.
Logically,
Myers should not be such a superman, since he has sat silently in an apparent
catatonic state since murdering his older sister on a fateful Halloween at the
tender age of six. Unfortunately, there is nothing logical about pure,
unalloyed evil. Dr. Samuel Loomis understands that. He is a headshrinker with a
license to practice and to carry, the latter because Myers so profoundly freaks
him out. He will follow Myers back to his old hometown of Haddonfield, where
the escaped patient will become obsessed with Strode.
Even
in 1978, the screenplay, co-written by Carpenter and his producing partner
Debra Hill, was not exactly revolutionary, but the way the elements combined
was like lightning in a bottle. First and foremost, it is impossible to
overstate how much Carpenter’s music adds to the overall vibe of mounting fear.
It is not just the instantly recognizable opening theme. The entire soundtrack
potently enhances the mood and worms its way into your ear.
Halloween also establishes
the signature look of Carpenter’s films, thanks to Dean Cundey’s soft yet
sinister lensing. In many ways, Halloween
resembles an evil Norman Rockwell painting. Frankly, it is weird that there
haven’t regular Cundey retrospectives, since he also shot films like The
Thing, Jurassic Park, Psycho II,
and the Back to the Future trilogy.
Of
course, Halloween made Jamie Lee
Curtis a star as Strode, the term-defining “final girl.” Even after seeing who
knows how many psycho killer movies, her portrayal of Strode is still
appealingly resilient and down-to-earth. Genre fave P.J. Soles also helps
establish the naughty tradition of the non-final girl as Strode’s friend, Lynda
Van der Klok. However, for some of us, it is the great Donald Pleasence who
really stands out. As Dr. Loomis, he manages to be simultaneously arrogant and
utterly terrified, in ways that are completely believable in the context of the
film.
Carpenter
put on a clinic in horror movie mechanics that few of his copycats bothered to
study. He takes great pains to establish where each house in in relation to the
rest of the neighborhood and the sight lines between them. Haddonfield is a
fictional neighborhood, but you could easily find your way through it after
watching Halloween. This movie holds
up. In fact, it hardly feels exploitative thanks to Carpenter’s score and
Cundey’s cinematography, or at least not very much. Highly recommended as a
Halloween tradition, Halloween screens
tonight (10/31) in New York at the Roxy Cinema and in Brooklyn at the Prospect
Park Nitehawk—and who knows where else.
