In the past year or so, I’ve really gotten into the better movies in writer/director/composer John Carpenter’s filmography. But somehow, I’d never seen the original Halloween. That’s mostly likely due to the fact I’ve only recently gotten into horror movies.
But my pal Jimmy Impossible has been bugging me to watch this one for a while. So, here we are, Jimmy. Happy now?
With Carpenter getting a directing, composing, and co-writing credit, this is the movie most site as one of the first slasher movies ever. Arguably, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho can hold that title, though Hitchcock’s movie only features two deaths and Norman Bates is far from the usual indestructible killing machine that most slasher killers appear as.
But Michael Myers sure does fit that bill. A silent man aside from his heavy breathing, he seems to appear and disappear as needed, doesn’t do much of anything aside from kill people, does so to people going for or having sex, and even seems to possess superhuman strength. Why does he do what he does? He’s just evil according to his defeated psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (top billed Donald Pleasence). At the age of six on Halloween night, he suddenly murdered his older sister and has been in an asylum ever since. Then, 15 or so years later, an adult Michael breaks out and returns home to kill, well, whoever he wants to.
That seems to mostly be unsuspecting teenager Laurie Strode (then-newcomer Jamie Lee Curtis). Michael spends a good chunk of the movie’s run time just following Laurie around town, appearing and disappeared in his creepy Captain Kirk mask almost at will. His victims tend to be misbehaving teenagers, with the only person who escapes him being a hapless nurse.
But what really set this up for me was the set-up. This movie only runs a little over 90 minutes, and after the opening scene of young Michael killing his sister, there is a really long gap in time for Michael’s next onscreen kill. We spend a good deal of time getting to know Laurie and her friend Annie (Nancy Kyes, though billed as Nancy Loomis…huh). It’s not much of a surprise Michael will kill Annie. She isn’t the female lead, and we see him lurking just out of her line of sight for quite some time. The surprise is that kill doesn’t happen right away. We get a long delay and it just keeps going, and somehow, Carpenter keeps the suspense tight up until the moment Michael finally decides to act. It reminds me a bit of Carpenter’s The Thing. That movie likewise had a long, tense bunch of scenes where the audience just knows something is going to happen but Carpenter just takes his old, sweet time allowing it to happen. That happens here, complete with Carpenter’s iconic score ratcheting up the tension. By the time adult Michael finally does kill Annie, the movie has only about 30-40 minutes left.
By the by, nice touch that the original version of The Thing is playing on various televisions.
And then when we finally get to Laurie and Michael’s cat and mouse game, we know a good deal about Michael’s skill set. But, since this is Laurie, the fated Final Girl, said skill set seems to dip a bit to allow the character we’ve gotten to know the best do what she has to in order to not only survive but the protect the kids she’s babysitting. Michael will kill dogs for kicks, and if a killer will take out a dog, then a kid might also be a target. As it is, while none of the kids die, it isn’t too big a stretch to assume Michael would kill one if he could.
But instead, we get a sequel hook for a movie that maybe was never intended to have one. Indeed, the original plan for Halloween was to make it a horror anthology with a different story each time. The series left Michael behind exactly once, and the audience wasn’t there. Instead, we got the unstoppable Michael Myers back, for better or for worse.
For this first one, it’s for the better.
Grade: A
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