Forty Years Ago
It’s hard to believe that it has been forty years since John Carpenter’s Halloween was released. While it wasn’t the first slasher film (many argue that 1912’s The Lunatics deserves that title), it was definitely the film that blazed the trail for future slasher franchises such as Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Sleepaway Camp, Silent Night, Deadly Night and Child’s Play. I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend came later, but they benefited from Halloween‘s success as well.
The film unintentionally established a set of rules for slasher films to follow. Those rules, best described in Wes Craven’s Scream franchise, included such items as virgins survive, never assume that the killer is dead, and never saying, “I’ll be right back,” among others.
Halloween also introduced us to Jamie Lee Curtis, one of the most popular and successful scream queens in all of cinematic history. Not only has she appeared in a number of Halloween sequels, she’s become a star in other film genres as well. Just a few of her most popular films include Trading Places (1983), Freaky Friday (2003), True Lies (1994), and My Girl (1991). It gave Donald Pleasence one of his most famous roles as Dr. Loomis, the man hot on the trail of the evil Michael Myers. P.J. Soles, already a veteran of the horror scene thanks to her performance in Carrie (1976), would go on to feature in other horror films and the cult hit Rock N’ Roll High School (1979) and have solid supporting roles in Stripes (1981) and Private Benjamin (1980).
The film’s simple piano score was composed and performed by Carpenter. Despite its simplicity, it ranks with the Star Wars theme and the Jaws theme as one of the most recognizable film themes in history.
The film is one of the most successful independent films of all time. It’s also one of the most influential horror films. It was made on a budget of $300,000 dollars and much of the cast wore their own clothes for the film. The legendary Michael Myers mask is actually a modified Captain Kirk mask that production designer Tommy Lee Wallace purchased for less than two dollars at a costume shop.
The film was followed by seven sequels and a remake by Rob Zombie in 2007 which had its own sequel as well. Later this month a new sequel to the original film will be released featuring Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode. The film will completely ignore all of the previous sequels and the remake, technically making it the first sequel to the original film.
I recommend watching the first film and the Rob Zombie remake. All of the sequels are hit and miss, but there’s no questioning their influence on horror films. I hope to watch the new sequel later this year. I hope it lives up to all of the hype.
Thanks for reading. I’m headed to Gulf Coast Fan Fest this weekend, so look out for my review of the convention early next week. I might post a photo or two from the convention on my blog over the weekend, so keep an eye out for that as well.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 