Raz’s Midnight Macabre Horror Review: “Halloween”

Somewhatnerdy would like to welcome guest writer Raz, please give him a warm welcome.

A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets.

Over the next few days I’ll be reviewing the “Halloween” franchise, film by film, as a build up to the great holiday itself, Halloween. If you enjoy what you read please sign up-to my blog at Razsmidnightmacabre.com

So, here it is, the film that gave birth to the legend that is “Michael Myers”, the silent killer of Haddonfield. John Carpenters breakthrough film is still beloved by Horror fans worldwide, even after over 30 years.

With a cast of Donald Pleasance, P.J. Soles and our beloved Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis and a small budget of $325,000, this film shows how big an impact a small budget film can make.

The blank, expressionless face of Michael Myers and his silence made his creepiness, the thing that always got me was that he never ran, he just walked, and no matter how much you ran, he always caught up with you. He was also emotionless, a man on a mission.

Let us not forget that this was Jamie Lee Curtis’s feature debut, reportedly paid a mere $8,000 for her role. The daughter of Janet Leigh (of “Psycho” fame) was outstanding in her role as Laurie Strode, you feel the characters pain and anxiety and you rarely get that from an actor or actress in their first feature.

John Carpenters genius really shone through in this film, a sign of things to come, he had big ideas on a little budget and it worked, but would it of worked on a big budget?

My answer is no, the fact the film was a low budget made everyone work together as a group and it really shone through.

“Halloween” will always be a fan favourite with Horror fans, it unknowingly revolutionised the Horror genre for the future slasher’s. And let’s not forget THAT tune…

Miscellaneous facts about the film:

As the movie was actually shot in early spring in southern California (as opposed to Illinois in late October), the crew had to buy paper leaves from a decorator and paint them in the desired autumn colors, then scatter them in the filming locations. To save money, after a scene was filmed, the leaves were collected and reused.

Due to its shoestring budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest mask that they could find in the costume store: a Star Trek William Shatner mask. They later spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eye holes. Shatner admitted that for years he had no idea his likeness was used for this film. It was only during an interview that someone mentioned his mask was being used. He has since stated that he is honoured by this gesture.

Halloween was shot in 21 days in April of 1978. Made on a budget of $325,000, it became the highest-grossing independent movie ever made at that time.

The character of Michael Myers was named after the European distributor of Carpenter’s previous film, “Assault on Precinct 13” as a kind of weird “thank you” for the film’s overseas success.

The opening shot appears to be a single, tracking, point of view shot, but there are actually three cuts. The first when the mask goes on, and the second and third after the murder has taken place and the shape is exiting the room. This was done to make the point of view appear to move faster.

Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the Sam Loomis role (that was eventually played by Donald Pleasence) but both turned him down. Lee later said it was the biggest mistake he had ever made in his career.

Anne Lockhart was John Carpenter’s first choice for the role of Laurie Strode.

None of the big studios at the time was interested in distributing the movie, so executive producer Irwin Yablans decided to distribute the film via his own company (Compass International). MCA/Universal produced and distributed the next two sequels in the early ’80s.

The original script, titled “The Babysitter Murders”, had the events take place over the space of several days. It was a budgetary decision to change the script to have everything happen on the same day (doing this reduced the number of costume changes and locations required) and it was decided that Halloween, the scariest night of the year, was the perfect night for this to happen.

When they were shooting the scenes for the start of the film (all the ones seen from Michael’s point of view) they couldn’t get the 6-year old child actor until the last day, so the movie’s producer, Debra Hill, volunteered to be Michael for any scenes where his hands come into view. This is why the nails on young Michael’s hands look so well manicured and varnished.

The “Myers” house was a locale found in South Pasadena that was largely the decrepit, abandoned place seen in the majority of the film. However, as the house had to look ordinary (and furnished) for the early scenes with the young Michael Myers, almost the whole cast and crew worked together to clean the place, move in furniture, put up wallpaper, and set up running water and electricity, and then take it all out when they were through.

Much credit for the concept must go to its producer Irwin Yablans, who had the concept originally for a horror film called “The Babysitter Murders”. Upon further research, Yablans discovered to his surprise that no previous film had been titled “Halloween” and thought it would be a great concept to set these “babysitter murders” on the holiday. With these ideas, Yablans convinced an excited John Carpenter to write and direct a film around them.

The wealthy film producer Moustapha Akkad had admittedly little interest in this film and helped make it primarily due to the enthusiasm of John Carpenter and Irwin Yablans. However, when the film turned out to be a huge box-office smash, Akkad saw an opportunity and facilitated every ‘Halloween’ sequel. This does not include the two remakes, which were produced after his death in 2005.

John Carpenter was quite intimidated by Donald Pleasence, of whom he was a big fan and who was easily the oldest and most experienced person on set. Although Pleasance asked Carpenter difficult questions about his character, Pleasance turned out to be a good-humored, big-hearted individual and the two became great friends.

Before Don Post became involved, Michael was going to wear a clown mask.

Laurie remarks that she would rather go out with unseen character “Ben Tramer”. The name came from Bennett Tramer, an old college friend of director John Carpenter.

A young Jamie Lee Curtis was so disappointed with her performance that she became convinced she would be fired after only the first day of filming. When her phone rang that night and it was John Carpenter on the phone, Curtis was certain it was the end of her movie career. Instead, Carpenter called to congratulate her and tell her he was very happy with the way things had gone.

The Halloween theme is written in the rare 5/4 time signature. John Carpenter learned this rhythm from his father.

According to an additional scene in the extended television version, Michael Myers’ middle name is Audrey.

Carpenter considered the hiring of Jamie Lee Curtis as the ultimate tribute to Alfred Hitchcock who had given her mother, Janet Leigh, legendary status in Psycho.

John Carpenter’s intent with the character of Michael Myers was that the audience should never be able to relate to him.

As the film was shot out of sequence, John Carpenter created a fear meter so that Jamie Lee Curtis would know what level of terror she should be exhibiting.

From a budget of $325,000 the film went on to gross $47 million at the US box office. In 2008 takings that would be the equivalent of $150 million, making Halloween one of the most successful independent films of all time.

On the 25th anniversary disc, John Carpenter states that the original title sequence was to show a long shot of a sidewalk ending with a Halloween mask on the floor. The idea was dropped and the more iconic title sequence of the Jack O’Lantern was used

Michael Myers’ full name is never mentioned in the final film. In fact, the only time anybody refers to him by name is in the opening scene.

Originally, Nick Castle was on set just to watch the movie be filmed. It was at the suggestion of John Carpenter that he took up the role of Michael Myers.

None of the comic books (“Neutron Man,” “Tarantula Man,” etc.) in Tommy’s collection are real. Copies of Howard the Duck comics stood-in for the fictional titles.

Dr. Sam Loomis is Michael Myers’ psychiatrist. Sam Loomis is also the name of Janet Leigh’s secret lover in Psycho.

Peter O’Toole, Mel Brooks, Steven Hill, Walter Matthau, Jerry Van Dyke, Lawrence Tierney, Kirk Douglas, John Belushi, Lloyd Bridges, Abe Vigoda, Kris Kristofferson, Sterling Hayden, David Carradine, Dennis Hopper, Charles Napier, Yul Brynner and Edward Bunker were considered for the role of Dr. Sam Loomis.

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