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| A snippet of my John Carpenter's Halloween collection. |
Inspired by the many recent discussions
and essays floating around the inter-webs about John
Carpenter's Halloween + the upcoming David Gordon Green
sequel of the same name, and with one week to go before the official opening, I decided to take a look at the roots of my own Halloween fandom.
Back on
October 25, 1978, I was nearly three and a half years old, and not at all aware
of the soon to be phenomena that was John Carpenter’s Halloween released in theaters on that date. Three years later,
when the movie aired on NBC TV for the first time on October 30th, I
didn’t realize that the opening music and flickering jack-o-lantern would be
stored away in my memory for a much later time. My mother quickly got up,
switched the channel, and Halloween
was forgotten.
Growing
up, my mother wouldn’t allow me to watch horror movies on TV (not that many of
those movies were on regular TV – no, we didn’t have cable), nor would she
allow me to see them in the theater. When I was around eight years old or so,
my mother’s boyfriend’s kids were babysitting me at the beach house our parents
had rented for a week down the shore (in NJ) while they had a date night. One
of the movies we watched that night was Friday The 13th Part 3. And
it scared the ever living life out of me. From that point on, I avoided horror
movies at all costs, even at sleepovers and summer camp. (The fact that my
woodsy summer camp was directly across the highway from a state institution was
horror enough for my summers, thank you very much!) When I was a teenager, my
then boyfriend took me to see the De Niro/Nolte remake of Cape Fear
Fast
forward 20 years from 1978. I was 23 and despite loving Halloween the holiday,
and movies in general, I was anything but a horror buff. My boyfriend at the
time was a horror buff (more like an addict, especially not just
compared with me, but with other people I knew at that time). One day after
work he mentioned Halloween and I
commented that I’d never seen it.
Honestly,
I think he would have been less shocked if I had told him I was
pregnant. (insert eye rolling emoji here) Anyway, his disbelief that the ‘Queen
of Halloween’ had never watched the Halloween
solidified our plans for the night.
As soon
as I heard the opening notes of the theme music and saw that flickering
jack-o-lantern, I was transported back to my childhood, sitting on the livingroom
floor, watching it on TV. I don’t remember much about that first watching of Halloween, at least not now, 20 years
later. What I do remember is afterwards; lying in bed, staring out of the
bedroom into the dark hallway at the moonlit shadows dancing on the front door.
And being scared out of my ever living mind. Because Michael Myers was a different
kind of monster, a different kind of evil. One that could easily be real at any
time, any place. One I had already encountered.
I had
been stalked by a violent ex-boyfriend and could easily relate to Laurie,
despite her not knowing who Michael was or why he was trying to kill her.
Typing this now, I’m wondering if that aspect had more impact on me than I’ve
ever given much thought to. (Yes, I know: Duh). Ironically, the same boyfriend
who introduced me to Halloween also
later stalked me when I broke up with him, and during our relationship I was
stalked and attacked by a complete stranger, who, unlike Michael in John
Carpenter’s Halloween, was caught,
but not until after he did the same to 3 other women.
In that
same week back in 1998, I watched Halloween’s II through 6. In spite of the
inconsistencies, and tending away from ‘telling vs showing’ (meaning the
increase in splatter kills with each installment), I was hooked. And yes, my
first in-theater Michael Myers experience was Halloween H20 in August of 1998,
and at the time, I loved it, for that reason alone, and for the fact that Jaime
Lee Curtiss was back.
But it’s
John Carpenter’s Halloween that I am drawn
to again, and again, and again… Why? That subconscious aha moment from earlier?
It’s set on my favorite day of the year during my favorite season of the year?
The friendships? The boundless theories that attempt to explain why Michael
Myers does what he does, even though sometimes in this world, evil is just
“purely and simply, evil”?
In 2017
when I first heard that there was going to be a new Halloween movie, and that
not only was Jaime Lee Curtiss back again as Laurie Strode, but John Carpenter
was involved as well? I may have jumped up and down a little. (Or a lot). I
mean, I never really believed Laurie actually died in the beginning of
Halloween Resurrection. It was too sad to think Michael had finally won,
especially after the incredible ending of H20 where Laurie finally conquers her personal boogeyman with her own hands! (In the world of movies, it was entirely possible for
her to survive being stabbed by Michael and falling from the roof of the
institution). Then I heard that this new Halloween movie was ignoring ALL
sequels and picking up directly from John Carpenter’s Halloween, forty years later. I thought, ‘Well that’s a first, and
there goes the brother-sister dynamic, so this might be interesting.’ (But, I
was initially excited for Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween, and then I saw an
advanced screening… Hey you either love his remakes or hate them. And I don’t
love them).
I want
Laurie Strode to Win. Not Michael Myers. Laurie deserves to overcome and
dispose of her boogeyman for good, once and for all. For all of us who never
had that chance so that maybe we too can move on.
My
Terminator-like “Once A Marine, Always A Marine” husband doesn’t understand my
enthusiasm for Halloween. He’s unable
to suspend his rational, problem solving brain and just enjoy it for what it
is. (Yet, give a magical ring to some Hobbits who battle the evil that’s taking
over Middle Earth with other assorted creatures & beings, and he’ll watch
those movies beginning to end Every Single Time They’re On). Halloween is unrealistic to him because
nothing scares him, nothing daunts him, nothing stops him. He’s a trained hunter.
(And truth be told, also a trained killer). He’s the most respectful yet
protective human being I’ve ever known. Since our first date, I’ve felt safe. At
6’3” 290lbs, not many people attempt to mess with him, because like Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk, they wouldn’t
want to see The Marine angry. When he says about Michael Myers, “He wouldn’t see
another Halloween if he tried to f*** with me or you.” I believe it.
Now I
just have to hide The Marine’s warm weather inspector uniforms before one of my
best girlfriends and I go for an early showing to see this new Halloween
on October 18th.
They’re
very similar to Michael’s mechanic overalls…
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