Unspeakable Horror!

While cardboard cutouts of pumpkins and witches spring up in windows across middle-class America and children prepare to don costumes fashioned in the likeness of their favorite ghost, goblin, or ghoul in celebration of All Hallows Eve, there is another auspicious occasion which deserves mentioning. October 25^th marked the twenty-eighth anniversary of the 1978 theatrical release of a low-budget film about a masked killer terrorizing babysitters with a butcher knife on Halloween night. Put together on a shoe-string budget of $300,000 and shot in 21 days in the spring of ’78 by an unknown film director and starring the then-unknown daughter of Psycho star Janet Leigh, Halloween defied industry conventions and went on to gross an astounding $47 million - becoming the biggest grossing independent film of its time. It holds the distinction of being the granddaddy of all slasher films, and it ushered in an unprecedented wave of low-budget horror fare that would later be dubbed “the golden age of the slasher film.”

Inspired by the giallo films of Dario Argento and Mario Brava coming out of Italy in the 70’s, indie film producer Irwin Yablans and late financier Moustapha Akkad first approached John Carpenter about their idea for a film about a psychotic killer terrorizing babysitters after seeing the up-and-coming horror maestro’s Assault on Precinct 13 at the Milan Film Festival in Italy. Another interesting anecdote floating around the industry tells of how the idea for Halloween was supposedly conceived as a sequel to another lesser-known slasher trendsetter, 1977’s Black Christmas. Director Bob Clark claims that his idea was for the killer in Black Christmas to escape the mental institution he was confined to and go on another holiday-themed killing spree, this time on Halloween night. As Clark tells the story in the Canadian documentary On Screen, he eventually gave the idea to friend John Carpenter. Although never confirmed nor denied by Carpenter in any of the interviews I’ve read, it’s interesting to note that the original title for Black Christmas was The Babysitter; Halloween’s original screenplay title was The Babysitter Murders.

Regardless of how the story idea was conceived, Halloween took a simple premise to dazzlingly scary new heights. The narrative begins with the stabbing death of Judith Myers by her clown costume-clad 6-year-old brother Michael on Halloween night 1963 in the fictional Midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Evil little Michael is locked away in a mental institution, only to escape the day before Halloween in 1978. Instead of celebrating turning 21 by going to his first bar, however, Myers celebrates turning the legal drinking age by going on his first killing spree. With his semi-deranged psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (the late Donald Pleasance), in hot pursuit, Myers lands (purposefully, we later find out in the film’s sequel) back in Haddonfield where he encounters a trio of all-American high school girls (played by Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis, and PJ Soles). What follows is a surprisingly bloodless bloodbath in which lighting, music, and ingenious camera work create a tense, roller coaster ride-like horror film experience.

Few could have predicted that the first Halloween would elevate the character of Michael Myers to the status of iconic slasher and spawn seven sequels, with a Rob Zombie re-imagining/remake on its way into theaters in October 2007. But Halloween has become in and of itself a cultural icon, making its way into the annals of film history. Originally lambasted for its perceived misogyny and sadism, many regard Halloween as a social commentary on the morality of teens in the late 1970’s. Indeed, the rather puritanical formula of sex and drug-engaging teens being slaughtered while the vice-refraining virtuous heroine survives became the blueprint for the film’s many successors and imitators. Curtis, in particular, would launch a career playing the chaste heroine in a string of Halloween knockoffs and become the preeminent scream queen of her generation. Twenty years later, she would turn the tables on the “Final Girl” stock character that made her famous when she reprised her role as survivor Laurie Strode, only playing her this time as an alcoholic, pill-popping adult haunted by her past experience. (This was the first and only time in cinematic history that an actress has reprised the same role twenty years after the original.)

To say that Halloween was ahead of its time is an understatement. While most people accept the idea that Halloween birthed the modern slasher film (I’ll have a counter-argument to this point in an upcoming December column – stay tuned!), many don’t realize that later genre efforts hailed as revolutionary essentially took their cues from Halloween as well. Cases in point are Wes Craven’s much-ballyhooed Scream films, in which the Nightmare on Elm Street director elevates self-reference to an art form. In the Scream films, Craven provides genre fans with multitudes of winks and nods – cleaver little inside jokes meant for the slasher connoisseur. But Carpenter was way ahead of his time with his own unique brand of winks and nods to the industry; here’s just a few:

~ The character of nurse Marion Chambers is actually a double nod to Psycho. Marion is the first name of Janet Leigh’s character in that film, while Chambers was the last name of the sheriff. Donald Pleasance’s Sam Loomis is named after John Gavin’s character in Hitchcock’s film.

~ Keeping with the homage to Hitchcock, Carpenter names Laurie’s young charge Tommy Doyle, Wendell Corey’s detective from the 1954 film Rear Window.

~ Charles Cypher’s Sheriff Leigh Brackett character is named after a screenwriter of the same name who penned Howard Hawk’s Rio Bravo, which inspired Carpenter’s earlier Assault on Precinct 13. Another Howard Hawk’s classic, The Thing from Another World, is playing on the TV in the Doyle house. Carpenter would later go on to direct a remake of Hawk’s sci-fi classic.

There’s also some little known history in the Halloween saga pertaining to casting. Fans of the film may be surprised to learn that Donald Pleasance was Carpenter’s third choice to play the crazed Dr. Loomis – his first two choices being Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, respectively. Can one even imagine Halloween without Jamie Lee Curtis? Well, it almost happened until scheduling conflicts prevented Carpenter’s first choice for Laurie Strode, Anne Lockhart (daughter of Lassie and Lost in Space star June Lockhart), from accepting the role. And John Michael Graham almost lost his role as Bob to Dennis Quaid, who was dating PJ Soles (Linda) at the time.

Indeed, it took some fortuitous turns of fate and some ingenious improvisations due to the film’s limited budget to create the final incarnation of Halloween as we know and love it. As is well known, the infamous Michael Myers mask is actually a cheap William Shatner/Captain Kirk mask that the resourceful prop department spray-painted white, reshaped the eye holes, and teased out the hair to create the iconic look of the Shape. Wardrobe was non-existent, with cast members charged with supplying their own clothes. Want to copy Jamie Lee’s preppy school girl look? Run down to JCPenney like Curtis did – she reportedly plunked down less than $100 of her own money for her wardrobe in the film. And forget hiring voice actors – when Nancy Loomis (Annie) is talking to boyfriend Paul on the phone, it’s actually the voice of John Carpenter himself. The prop department even commandeered vehicles for the film – using Carpenter’s own black Fleetwood that sits in the driveway when Laurie is talking to her father and the catering company’s truck for the Phelps Garage truck. And think needing autumn leaves when shooting in the spring is a problem? Not for Carpenter’s inventive crew who used painted paper leaves that were collected and reused from one scene to another.

Imagine where horror films would be today without Halloween. The gap in horror history would be enormous without this pioneering slasher and its myriad knockoffs. Would Jamie Lee Curtis have screamed her way to fame? Would John Carpenter have gotten lost in The Fog or encountered The Thing? Would Jason have risen from the depths of Camp Crystal Lake to kill…kill…kill…kill…cha…cha…cha…cha…his way through eleven films and counting? Would William Shatner have enjoyed a recording career and gone on to career resurrection on Boston Legal? (Ok, that last one’s a stretch!) I think horror film fans accept the debt of gratitude owed to this marvelously simple shocker and pay back that debt with their continuing allegiance to Carpenter’s original vision of a masked killer stalking suburbia on a cold Halloween night. It’s now a landmark on the pop culture highway that has ingratiated itself into our holiday observances right beside trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving. So, this October 31^st…before you answer that first doorbell to greet the ghosts, and goblins, and ghouls on the hunt for your candy, mouth a silent thank you to John, and Jamie, and Donald, and Michael for making horror history. Wish them a Happy Halloween…and a Happy Birthday.

For more on the Halloween phenomenon, I highly recommend the new documentary Halloween: 25 Years of Terror that chronicles the film franchise in delightful detail. Chock full of interviews, anecdotes, and panel discussions (many from the 2003 Halloween convention in Pasadena), this retrospective on Michael Myers and company is a must for any Halloween fan.