[HorrorScience] Halloween (1978)

As I had already mentioned once, in the introduction to the HorrorScience dedicated to the great Stake Land, would begin a cycle within the section dedicated to one of the most famous sagas of the genre: halloween. In this cycle I will review all the films that make up this saga, both the good and the bad, including the remakes directed byRob Zombie, which will also complement another cycle we had at HorrorScience dedicated to this director.

Unlike Rob's cycle, in this one I will follow the chronological order, reviewing one by one the 10 films that make up the successful franchise.

Many people are unaware that this film, which gave rise to a prolific and successful saga, was a modest and independent film, having a very low budget and being directed by John Carpenter when he was not yet a known or experienced director. The success of halloween was total, obtaining an exorbitant profit, leading Carpenter to glory, making a rookie Jamie Lee Curtis famous, creating one of the most famous slasher movie killers of all time, and also laying the foundations for the subgenre that would later follow other important sagas such as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

One Halloween night (October 31) in 1963, in Haddonfield, Illinois, something happens that will mark the birth of one of the worst serial killers in the history of cinema. The camera will put us in the shoes of a subject who is unknown to us, and will guide us from his point of view through the interior of a house, until taking a knife and putting on a mask, which will cause us to now see everything through the two eye holes. This individual will circulate through the house until he encounters a young woman who is naked and combing her hair in a room, and will immediately approach her which will cause her to scream while we see the masked man's arm rise holding the knife and begin to stab the woman repeatedly until she dies.

Next we will see how he goes outside the house and goes out onto the street, just at the moment when a car arrives from which a man and a woman get out, and they call this guy by his name: Michael. Now we will see the scene from a third-person shot, and we will discover that the person carrying the knife, the mask and a clown suit is a child, who has just stabbed a woman to death, and that we will later know that it was his own sister, Judith Myers..

15 years later, on October 30, 1978, Dr. Samuel Loomis and a nurse drive in their car to the Smith's Grove psychiatric hospital, where Michael has been hospitalized since that year in which he inexplicably decided to kill his sister, with the aim of taking him to a court hearing to discuss his case and analyze the possibilities for his release despite the fact that Loomis, who was his personal psychiatrist during these 15 years, is fervently opposed to This since he considers Michael to be Evil personified and states that freeing him would be a disastrous idea.

When they arrive at the hospital they discover that there are many loose inmates, walking freely through the outside area in the middle of the night, and Loomis gets out of the car to approach the panel that activates the opening of the access gate to the place. Just as he is away from the car, one of the inmates attacks the nurse, gets into the car and escapes. And of course, it couldn't be other than Michael Myers.

Along the way, Michael enters a store, steals a blue jumpsuit (his classic clothing), a white mask, and continues his journey. And where is he going? Well, to Haddonfield, just as Loomis assumes he would do after checking Michael's room in the psychiatric hospital where he was admitted and finding the word “sister” written on the door.

In the morning, Laurie Strode heads to the old Myers house, which is now quite neglected and for sale, at the request of his father, who is a real estate agent, who told him to leave a key there since he would later visit the house with some potential buyers. Laurie leaves the key under the mat in front of the front door and we will see what From inside the house Michael watches her, and then continues on her way to school, while Michael leaves the house and watches her carefully.

Later Laurie is at school and looking out the window she sees a stopped car and Michael standing outside looking directly at her. Then, after leaving class, the same car from before passes slowly down the street, and Laurie informs her friends Annie and Lynda that she has the feeling that someone is following her, to which they respond not to worry, it's probably nothing, and while they also talk about that that night they will work as babysitters taking care of some neighborhood children, and they will take advantage of the fact that they are left alone to invite their respective boyfriends to those houses, except Laurie, of course. Minutes later Laurie arrives home and enters her room, and as she approaches a window to close it she sees that Michael is in the patio watching her, although he immediately disappears.

Meanwhile, Samuel Loomis heads to Haddonfield Cemetery and discovers that Judith Myers' gravestone has disappeared. He then goes to see Sherrif Bracket (the father of Annie, one of Laurie's friends), and explains to him what is happening, convincing him to look for Michael before he commits more crimes. The two then begin the search for Myers, first going to his old house, and then around the neighborhood, but although they don't know it, they will always be one step behind the masked man.

halloween It is considered by many critics to be the first film of the subgenre. slasher (where a murderer kills a lot of people, usually teenagers), but the truth is that there have been others before, like Black Christmas (1974), or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). However, Carpenter's creation was the one that popularized several resources and clichés that would be used in many other productions during the 80s and 90s, such as the murder of characters who are abusive or sexually promiscuous, the survival of the protagonist who is also the most innocent or politically correct of the women who appear in the story, and even the use of a special musical track for the murderer's on-screen appearances.

It has generated a lot of controversy, especially among feminist groups, some defending the role of the strong woman represented by Laurie, and others stating that it is just the opposite, that women are shown as weak and even as an object in a similar way to pornography. It has even been said that it encourages sadism and misogyny by causing the viewer to identify with the murderer, accentuated by the technique of showing us some things from Michael's perspective with the use of close-up cameras.

Beyond any criticism, There is no doubt that this is a film that has left its mark on cinema. It is a pioneer in many things, and the director has known how to make the most of his scarce resources. Unlike other films that used halloween as a model, here we will have little graphic violence or gore, and many scenes play with a light and shadow effect in mostly dark locations. Myers represents an evil that exceeds that of a human murderer, he is shown to us as an intelligent and violent entity by nature, and he is absolutely expressionless not only because he has a mask but also because he does not utter a single word or make any sound, not even when wounded. Without a doubt, one of the best films of the subgenre slasher and an immortal classic of horror cinema.

Some curiosities:

• In 2006 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Archive by the Library of Congress, considering it “culturally, historically or aesthetically important.”
• It cost $325,000 to produce and ended up grossing around $70 million, becoming one of the most profitable independent films in film history.
• Una de las razones de su éxito es también el apartado musical, especialmente la melodía principal del filme. Estas melodías fueron creadas por el director de la cinta, John Carpenter, y en una entrevista afirmó lo siguiente: “puedo tocar casi con cualquier teclado o piano, pero no puedo escribir ni leer una sola nota musical”.
• La actriz protagonista, Jamie Lee Curtis, se convirtió en una estrella de Hollywood. Sin embargo poca gente sabe que ella es la hija de Janet Leigh, la protagonista de otro filme ícono de la historia del cine: Psycho.
• La anterior no es la única relación entre halloween y el cine de Alfred Hitchcock: Tommy Doyle, el nombre del niño para el que Laurie Strode hace de niñera, proviene del Tte. Detective Thomas Doyle de la película de Hitchcock Rear Window (1954). Por su parte, el nombre del Dr. Loomis viene de Sam Loomis, el novio de Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) en Psycho (1960).
• La máscara que usa Myers es una máscara de la cara del Capitán James T. Kirk, interpretado por William Shatner en la serie original Star Trek y en varias películas de esa franquicia. El diseñador de producción la compró en una tienda por $1.98, agrandó los ojos, y la pintó de un color blanco azulado.