The killer’s monotonous panting behind his emotionless white mask. A point ofview shot from his perspective, so that the viewer is forced to watch as theunsuspecting victims are attacked. The Puritan message that teens survive notindulging in drink or sex, while promiscuous peers are laced to a knife ormachete almost instantly. In 2022 they are all horror film clichés.
But that wasn’t the case in 1978, when thirty-year-old director John Carpenterand his young crew single-handedly rewrote the conventions of the genre. To be_Halloween_ , shot in less than three weeks for just under $300,000, stunnedcritics and audiences. Thirteen sequels and reboots followed, each moresuccessful than the other.
The original film was added to the library of the United States Congress as asignificant masterpiece in 2006. The minute-long opening shot still impresses– a tribute to Touch of Evil by Orson Welles – the minimalistic repetitivepiano music and the universally recognizable heroine Laurie, who at the timeproved to be stronger and more resourceful than her attacker.
Halloween: Timelines and Reboots
The Halloween franchise started in 1978, followed by twelve more sequels andreboots. Jamie Lee Curtis played her Laurie Strode in seven of them. Theseries has chosen to erase sequels from its timeline several times. This ishow the new trilogy ignores all inferior sequels Halloween II (1981) to getStrode back. In previous sequels, Curtis’s character has died several times:in Halloween 4 (1988) she died in a car accident, in Halloween:Resurrection (2002) killer Michael Myers throws her off a roof. Director RobZombie made two remakes in 2007 and 2009 that are separate from the ‘Curtisseries’ and in which Strode is played by another actress.
The best parts:
3. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) The idea for this successful’reboot’ after twenty years came from screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who_scream_ wrote. Strikingly nice cast, including Michelle Williams, JoshHartnett and Janet Leigh (with a nice Psycho -Wink).
2. Halloween (2018) Strode is weighed down by PTSD after forty years andwaits for the moment when she can deal with her taciturn assailant, whoembodies patriarchy. In the MeToo era, the gray Strode finds her daughter andgranddaughter by her side.
1. Halloween (1978) Director John Carpenter created a slasher withminimal resources in which evil is incomprehensible and lurking everywhere.Smart Laurie sees all the less virtuous friends die. Numerous clones and spin-offs followed.
scream queen
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis laughs during an online interview about the honorarytitle ‘scream queen’ that the role as Laurie in the Halloween films earnedher. The daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh (who became world famous forthe shower scene from Psycho ) turns in Halloween Ends back as primalvictim Laurie Strode, now a spry sixties who wants to leave all the traumaticexperiences from the previous films behind. “Of course I’m proud of such aterm,” Curtis nods eagerly. “It is a sign of ultimate appreciation by thefans. But it’s not like I look in the mirror every day and say: You ‘relooking good, queen!”
The now 63-year-old actress plays Laurie Strode, the woman pursued by theserial killer Michael Myers, for the seventh time. “It’s special to watch acharacter grow with you as you get older,” she explains. Her character’scharacter is clearly marked by the horror in Halloween part 1 (1978) andpart 2 (1981). in part 7, H20 which came out in 1998 and which featuredactress Jamie Lee Curtis for the first time, also saw the elderly Lauriesuffer from PTSD.
Curtis: “I don’t write the movies, so I’m only partly responsible for Laurie’sjourney. But she does fit into my oeuvre. I’ve always tried to choose rolesthat show how strong, brave and smart women are.”
unfathomable psychopath
The first 1978 film owed its iconic status not only to Carpenter’s technicalbrilliance, but also to the raw panic that the unfathomable psychopath MichaelMyers evoked in both his victims and the public. Myers has no deeper motives,the viewer actually knows nothing about him. He kills imperturbably and neverquickens his drawstring. The tension that arises under the skin appeals to abasic, almost childlike fear that there is no way of escaping the greatdanger.
The strength of the most effective scenes in the series lies in theirsimplicity – Strode hiding in the corner of a wardrobe while Michael hacks hisway through the wardrobe door ( Halloween 1 ).
The Halloween franchise has thirteen parts (so far). Jamie Lee Curtis thinksthe series has remained successful for so long because the creators dared totake risks. For example, according to the actress, the last three partscontain social criticism that is unusual for horror films.
Slasher films, for example, are often criticized for portraying women aswillless creatures, but in three Halloween films that came out since 2018, wesee women who take matters into their own hands, no longer wait and choose theattack. Curtis: “The first part of this trilogy came out when the MeToomovement peaked, but the film was written and developed before the hashtagdidn’t exist.”
Halloween Kills (2021) came out the year of the Capitol siege by supportersof Donald Trump. Here too, director David Gordon Green sensed the zeitgeist,with a story about ‘mob violence’ and citizens taking the law into their ownhands. The final section explores how deeply Michael Myers’ hatred andtoxicity has permeated the small town of Haddonfield. That also fits perfectlywith the world in which we unfortunately live now.”
‘Death’ is a very flexible concept for psychopaths in horror films
Stabbed and beheaded
‘Death’ is a very flexible concept for psychopaths in horror films. MichaelMyers – just like superhuman colleagues like Freddy ‘A Nightmare on ElmStreet’ Krueger and Jason ‘Friday the 13th’ Voorhees – has been shot, stabbed,burned and even beheaded in previous installments. Yet he managed to returnevery time on All Saints’ Day. Curtis’ character also died several times insequels and remakes. “I have said goodbye to the series several times in mylife,” says the actress. She decided to participate in the reboot of thefranchise in 2018, in which her character is alive again, because she felt thefilms were telling more than the “scary-man-with-mask-assaults-teen story”.
The success of the most recent reboot __also brought the actress back toHollywood ‘s attention. The successful return followed a decade in which shehardly stood in front of the camera and mainly focused on raising herdaughters. In recent years, Curtis has again played important supporting rolesin hit films such as Knives Out (2019) and Everything Everywhere All atOnce (2022).
„Everything I have been allowed and able to do in my life as an actress hasarisen from Halloween and the fact that director John Carpenter chose me tostar in the original half a century ago,” Curtis realizes. “It has provided mewith a platform I could never have dreamed of: I ‘m a fucking boss now! ButI think with this movie the book is really closed. I can’t imagine that in thefuture another director or producer will come knocking with an idea that Iwant Laurie to come back for again.”