Max’s Drive-In Movie – Halloween

Halloween Header

Que that spooky piano part now. This 1978 film is a horror classic that I still enjoy watching. While I’m at it…Happy Halloween Everyone! Sometimes, sequels can ruin a franchise and it gets silly. We sometimes forget how great the original is. I’m not a fan of the no-brain slasher movies that followed this.

From the very beginning, Halloween grabs your attention with its eerie, minimalist score—also composed by Carpenter himself. The haunting piano melody sets the tone for the entire film, creating a sense of dread even before it begins. It’s one of those soundtracks that sticks with you long after the credits roll. The two main leads…Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence do an excellent job. I’ve liked Pleasence in anything he has done.

What’s surprising about Halloween after rewatching it, is how little blood and gore is actually shown. The movie relies more on atmosphere and suspense than graphic violence, which is why it remains such an effective horror film today. Carpenter’s use of shadows, lighting, and camera angles makes everything feel off-kilter.  Halloween doesn’t go overboard with its horror… just enough to leave a sense of unease.

There are little things as well that this movie does well. Before it all starts Lauire (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Annie (Nancy Kyes) are smoking a joint in a car while Michael is following them. While this was going on…Don’t Fear The Reaper was playing on the radio faintly. Annie’s dad is the sheriff and his name is Brackett. Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasence) tells him that he and his town better be worried. Michael Myers escaped a facility and was headed toward the town where Myers lived when he killed his sister when he was a kid.

This is another movie that has been ingrained in pop culture. After this film, there was a part 2. John Carpenter did not want to make it but was sued to make it. He made sure to blow Myers up in the 2nd film and part 3 had nothing to do with Myers. Halloween II was written by Carpenter and Debra Lee…the two who wrote Halloween. He refused to direct it and he never liked it. “I had to come up with something. I think it was, perhaps, a late night fueled by alcoholic beverages, was that idea. A terrible, stupid idea! But that’s what we did.”

Rob Zombie remade the film in 2007 and a sequel with much more blood and gore. He traded mystic for the obvious, which didn’t work as well for me…but I’m glad he put a little more reason on why Michael did what he did.

Plot IMDB

The year is 1963, the night: of Halloween. Police are called to 43 Lampkin Ln. only to discover that 15-year-old Judith Myers has been stabbed to death by her 6-year-old brother, Michael. After being institutionalized for 15 years, Myers breaks out on the night before Halloween. No one knows, nor wants to find out, what will happen on October 31st, 1978, besides Myers’ psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis. He knows Michael is coming back to Haddonfield, but by the time the town realizes it, it’ll be too late for many people.

Quotes

  • Loomis: I met him, 15 years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this… six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and… the blackest eyes – the Devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply… evil.

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  • Brackett: I have a feeling that you’re way off on this.
  • Loomis: You have the wrong feeling.
  • Brackett: You’re not doing very much to prove me wrong!
  • Loomis: What more do you need?
  • Brackett: i going to take a lot more than fancy talk to keep me up all night crawling around these bushes.
  • Loomis: I-I-I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room, staring at a wall; not seeing the wall, looking past the wall; looking at this night, inhumanly patient, waiting for some secret, silent alarm to trigger him off. Death has come to your little town, Sheriff. Now, you can either ignore it, or you can help me to stop it.
  • Brackett: More fancy talk.

..,

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – Halloween”

  3. An excellent scary movie, Max. I watched the original release in a packed theater in Biloxi, Mississippi. The audience was so involved with the movie, people were yelling out at the screen, giving Curtis’s character warnings. It was a unique experience for me, who was raised to be quiet at the theater while a film is running. I’ll always remember how scary the movie was and how fun it was to witness the reactions of the other moviegoers.

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    1. That was a cool time to see it! I would have loved to have seen it on the big screen. Next year I want to catch it somewhere….but watching it at the release date like you did…would have been the best.

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    1. I know….it’s always something but I did like the sequel…it was the one after that I hated…the sequel was just a continuation of that day…which was pretty cool.

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      2. It feels great… baseball has a different kinship with fans than football. You follow these guys 162 games…that is 162 box scores and highlights…thats a lot of time invested…but last night made it worth it.

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  9. Pingback: Max’s Drive-In Movie – Halloween – MobsterTiger

    1. Yeah, he adds a ‘real’ element to most films he’s been in. An actor who could make a script more believable. It’s been a long time since I saw this other oldie but at the time I remember thinking he’s creepily brilliant in ‘Cul-de-sac.’

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      2. You know…they are better. Back in the 70s and 80s the crowd in NY would chuck batteries and bottles from time to time….but yes…over all you are right.

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