I watched Halloween at too young an age, and it’s probably because of this that I love horror but was petrified to revisit this entry for so many years.
There was one particular image that scared the shit out of me. Laurie Strode is at school, looks out the window, and Michael Myers is there, staring at her. Nothing dramatic happens. There’s no running toward Laurie, no knife-waving. Just Michael Myers, standing. Freaked me out.
When watching Halloween today, this is what makes Michael Myers so effective. Before the sequels took over and began to give Myers a history, he had something terrifyingly simple about him. No brother and sister storyline involving Laurie, no increasingly complex reasoning for his near-invincibility. He escaped, returned to Haddonfield, and began to stalk a group of babysitters.
Sometimes that’s all you need.
It’s hard to believe that John Carpenter and Debra Hill managed to create something so iconic with a miniscule budget. It’s true, however. Halloween was made for around $300,000, its working title was The Babysitter Murders, and Michael’s iconic mask was made from an altered Captain Kirk mask. They worked with what they had, and somehow that had helped to create one of the most iconic horror movie figures of all time.
Carpenter also knew that Michael didn’t have to constantly be killing people to be frightening. Some of the film’s best scenes are him simply standing. He stands outside Laurie’s school. He stands across the street from Tommy Doyle, who is babysitting with his sister Laurie. You catch Michael out of the corner of your eye more than once, and you find yourself screaming at the TV for the babysitters to turn around.
Donald Pleasence is perfect as Dr. Loomis. It’s hard to imagine Halloween without him. Loomis, who 100% knows Michael Myers’ terror before anyone else, is given such a human presence by Pleasence that every melodramatic warning he gives comes out as heartfelt.
Charles Cyphers is also good as Sheriff Brackett, who might doubt Loomis but at least listens to him. There’s a great moment after Michael gets into the hardware store, where Loomis is walking on the road with his back to the street and Michael simply drives past him. Every time, you want to scream, turn around!
What also makes Halloween special is the lack of blood. Carpenter spends time with our stalker trio of babysitters, Laurie, Annie and Lynda before everything kicks off. Which means you care about these people when Michael gets to them. The death scenes don’t need buckets of gore because the tension around them does the heavy lifting. The music and Michaels breathing can carry many of the suspenseful scenes.
And then we get to that finale.
Laurie realises something is wrong and crosses the street to see why her friends aren’t responding to her, only for Michael to reveal what he’s left waiting for her. Annie, Bob and Lynda have essentially been displayed in his own macabre diorama. Then Laurie backs into the darkness and Michael’s white mask slowly comes up behind her.
That’s when the shot of Halloween begins. From here, Carpenter turns everything up. Laurie is desperately trying to escape after an iconic slash to the arm and tumble down the stairs. Once she makes it back she throws a plant pot at window to get the young child she is babysitting to open the door, all the whole Michael is coming towards her in the background.
This whole chase sequence is brilliant and has you on the edge of your seat. Just when you think Laurie is safe in the house, the realisation of the window being open hits home.
Carpenter’s score, which has been getting under your skin for the duration of the film, suddenly enters you’re fucked territory. The moment that music starts, you know Laurie is in some serious trouble.
Jamie Lee Curtis is fantastic throughout, but those final scenes solidify Laurie Strode as one of horror’s great survivors. She’s terrified, but she battles Michael, protecting the children and finding another way to live whenever he gets up again.
Eventually Loomis gets there, hears the screams, and confronts Michael upstairs. He shoots him multiple times, sending him over the balcony. Laurie asks if that was the Boogeyman.
Loomis replies, as a matter of fact, it was.
A perfect quote, that often gets repeats.
He looks over the balcony again, and Michael is gone.
It’s the perfect ending. Carpenter doesn’t need another attack or one final jump scare. Instead, we see empty locations in Haddonfield while Michael’s breathing plays over them. The Shape could be anywhere.
Almost fifty years later, Halloween still excels because beneath the various sequels that came afterwards, the original premise was incredibly simple. Place an emotionless figure in a mask in the background, allow the audience to become aware of him, and then get him closer.
It scared the living daylights out of me as a child. I somehow doubt Michael Myers would have it any other way.
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