Halloween (1978)

... aka: Alla helgons blodiga natt (All Saints' Bloody Night)

... aka: Halloween: Die Nacht des Grauens (Halloween: The Night of Horrors)

... aka: John Carpenter's Halloween

... aka: La noche de Halloween (Halloween Night)

... aka: Maskernes nat (Night of the Masks)

Directed by:

John Carpenter

I frequently get emails playfully chastising me for slacking in my coverage of some of the most famous genre films of all time here. How in the hell can you not have a review for Jaws up? Why haven't you done a real review for Invasion of the Body Snatchers or An American Werewolf in London or The Evil Dead or Psycho yet? And while I agree with everyone who's ever called me out on this, I do have an explanation: I've never been in a big hurry to cover famous genre films from this time period simply because they've been so well-covered everywhere else. I instead opted to concentrate mostly on obscure movies; namely those with little (sometime no) online representation. Now that doesn't mean there will never be reviews for the classics and better-known films here. My plans were always to occasionally fall back and cover them, just not make that the primary focus. After all, there's no dearth of literature out there on, say, Hitchcock's The Birds. There's also no shortage of write-ups and reviews for Halloween; one of the most famous, most discussed, most analyzed and most beloved genre movies of all time. I just didn't want to let another All Hallow's Eve pass by without giving this one its due, especially since it's probably one of the five most cross-referenced films around here. I suppose there's no better place to start than with the basics...

Halloween is entirely deserving of its place as an iconic film and pop culture phenomenon, as well as its place in history as one of the great classic horror movies. It's that rare, modestly-budgeted film that gets to share a table with the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); films that are so effective and well-crafted, and proved to be so influential over the years, that they managed to reshape and redefine the entire genre for years to come. Fans have never allowed Halloween to simply fade away and its popularity has endured throughout the decades. It was a huge theatrical hit upon release with its domestic gross of 47 million on a 300,000 budget, making it one of the most profitable independent productions of all time. It then became a top-selling VHS release, video rental favorite and seasonal TV staple in the 80s and 90s. And it now is one of the top streamed genre films, especially at this time of year. As of this writing, it's currently one of the Top 5 most searched horror films on IMDb... out of nearly 170,000 titles. Not bad for a movie that's now over 40 years old!

Just what is the key to the film's success and longevity, and its timelessness that seems to know no generational bounds? Well, that's impossible to really pin down to just one thing. The plot (escaped lunatic who murdered his sister as a child returns to his hometown fifteen years later, gets a mask and begins a new killing spree) barely even merits mention, but a film that's executed as well as this one doesn't need an intricate plot. In fact, that would have merely gotten in the way, as we'd see later with a spate of far-less-successful sequels attempting to expound upon the Michael Myers character.

The first plaudit surely needs to go to Carpenter's brilliantly simple piano / synth score, which was composed in just three days with assist from Dan Wyman and has become one of the film's most notable attributes. I was just at a horror-themed night at an amusement park last weekend and heard Carpenter's music countless times while I was there. Just like with the Jaws theme, everyone - regardless of age - knows this score. Just as you can't go to the beach or hop in the ocean without someone jokingly humming the Jaws theme, you won't attend many Halloween functions where the Halloween theme isn't played. Just as notable here is the smooth, gliding Steadicam work from Dean Cundey, eerily prowling around suburbia as the killer stalks his next victim, which is just as crucial to establishing the mood.

Another aspect that helps this withstand the weathering of time is its downright perfect evocation of the Autumnal / Halloween season. Despite being a suspenseful, scary film, there's still a pleasing, nostalgic feel to the whole thing... Cold wind blowing the leaves down vacant streets, laughing trick-or-treaters shuffling from door to door, Jack-O-Lanterns lining porches, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD playing on TV... It not only brings to mind everything that's great about this time or year, but also everything that's great about horror film atmosphere when it's done correctly.

Really excellent use is made of widescreen Panavision, especially the foreground and background in the shot compositions. Some of the spookiest images here are the quietest ones, with the blank-faced killer standing solemnly and silently off in the distance watching. And waiting. We never know what makes him tick or even what drives him to kill. Keeping the character's psychology and history shrouded in mystery turns out to be another big plus, as is the decision to keep the potential supernatural elements surrounding the killer muted. Carpenter and his co-writer Debra Hill (also a producer) wisely opted to present Myers as an abstract, enigmatic boogeyman; a pure distillation of evil.

We also have a star making turn for 19-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut as heroine Laurie Strode. What struck me as interesting in this re-watch is that Laurie isn't exactly the impossibly chaste final girl trope she's often made out to be. While she is more studious, mature and responsible than her peers (and likely still a virgin), she also smokes weed and shows an interest in boys and sex. Her comparably virtuous nature isn't by choice, but due to the fact she's awkward, shy and, as she puts it, "too smart." There's a nice little hidden gem moment tucked away in here where Laurie and her more outgoing and brash friend Annie (Nancy Loomis) are cruising around town headed toward their babysitting jobs right as the sun is setting that gives us a little insight into Laurie's lack of self-esteem and vulnerability which instantly gets us in her corner for the remainder of the film.

Curtis would, of course, use this film as a springboard to launch a successful career. After this, the 1981 sequel and four other genre films in rapid succession, she grew tired of the typecasting and mostly sought out projects in other genres for the remainder of the decade and throughout most of the 90s. However, she has wisely kept Halloween in her back pocket and continued to use her association with this series to sustain any career lulls she's come across. In the late 90s, after the success of Scream, she returned for Halloween H20 (1998), which was also a big box office hit. Twenty years later, she was back again for Halloween (2018), a direct follow-up to the original which was also a huge money-maker and broke a number of box office records, including having the highest opening weekend for a film with a female lead over 55. The latest franchise installment, Halloween Kills, which is in theaters as we speak and seems headed to a 100 million domestic gross. Just like the boogeyman, this is a property that simply refuses to die. Unfortunately, none of the sequels, nor the endless imitators that followed, were quite able to recapture the deceptively simple magic found here.

Donald Pleasence also memorably contributes as intense psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, who has "spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up." The film became an unlikely signature role for the veteran British character actor... and a role he almost didn't even get as both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee previously passed on it. The cast also includes Charles Cyphers as the Sheriff Leigh Brackett, P. J. Soles as vapid ("Totally!") cheerleader friend Lynda, future Real Housewives reality TV star Kyle Richards as babysitting charge Lindsay, Nancy Stephens as a nurse and Playboy Playmate Sandy Johnson as Michael's sister in the memorable opening scene. Most of these actors would subsequently appear in later Halloween films.

Myers is played by a number of different actors, though predominately by future director Nick Castle. In his unmasked form, he's briefly played by Tony Moran, brother of Happy Days star Erin. Another notable future director, Tommy Lee Wallace (who went on to make the unrelated third Halloween film), served as an editor and production designer. In 2018, Robert Englund revealed that he also spent a single day on the set helping to make Southern California in the Spring look like the fictional Midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois in the Fall by helping to throw dead leaves around!

In 1981, Carpenter returned to direct brand new scenes for a TV-friendly version. This footage, roughly 11 minutes worth of dialogue, was used to replace some of the more violent content in the original. Pleasence, Curtis, Loomis and Soles all returned to reprise their roles and a few new actors (including Jennifer Rhodes) were brought in for smaller parts. In addition to spawning a ton of sequels, a remake, a sequel to the remake and a whole slew of unofficial fan films, there was a novelization, a comic book adaptation, a 1983 Atari video game and seemingly endless documentaries dedicated either solely to this original film or the entire series. Halloween has received many accolades over the years, culminating with it being inducted into the National Film Registry in 2006.

★★★★

Trick or Treats (1982)

... aka: Blodig Halloween (Bloody Halloween)

... aka: Decapitator

... aka: Fatal noche de brujas (Fatal Halloween)

... aka: Terror na Noite (Terror in the Night)

Directed by:

Gary Graver

For strictly mainstream viewers, Gary Graver will probably be best remembered for his work on various Orson Welles projects, especially the ill-fated, all star cast The Other Side of the Wind, which was shot from 1970 to 1976 in seven different countries, partially financed by a relative of the last Shah of Iran, spent years being edited, fell into numerous legal problems and wasn't completed and actually released until 2018; over 10 years after Graver, and over 30 years after Welles, had passed on! For the rest of us horror, exploitation and cult film fanatics, Graver is a man who doesn't really need much of an introduction. His name is always popping on various films made from the 1960s all the way up to the mid 2000s. He was a man who wore many different hats: director, writer, editor, actor and, most especially, cinematographer.

Graver worked alongside many of the big names in U.S. exploitation drive-in films of the 70s like Roger Corman, Al Adamson and Harry Novak, later worked with the biggest names in U.S. direct-to-video films of the 80s and 90s like Fred Olen Ray, Charles Band and Jim Wynorski, directed some of his own exploitation films, shot a number of commercials, documentaries and music videos and periodically got mainstream work like heartwarming made-for-TV movies. What's really amazing is that in between his R-rated exploitation work and gigs working for Disney and NBC and doing uncredited second unit work for the likes of Steven Spielberg and John Cassavetes (among others) he was pulling double duty as a director of hardcore porn films using the alias "Robert McCallum." Graver started making them in the mid 1970s and continued on for another 20 years. Of his 140+ directorial credits, most are X rated.

I really could go on for hours about Graver's impressive and seemingly endless Z movie credentials but we'll just say that the man certainly should have known how to throw together a good exploitation movie by 1982. Should being the operative word here. Unfortunately, this painfully unfunny horror-comedy is certainly not it. In the pantheon of genre films set on All Hallows Eve, this would be the Halloween candy equivalent of those peanut butter taffy chews that come in orange and black wrappers that always lurked in the bottom of your trick-or-treat bag along with candy corn and boxes of raisins. Even as sugar junkie kids, my siblings and I were never desperate enough to actually eat those things. Straight into the trash they went!

Clearly made for the sole purpose of cashing in on the slasher movie boom of the early 1980s using Carpenter's Halloween as the basis, this is actually mostly a trick on the viewer as there's very little actual horror content here, no suspense, no gore, no style and a massive amount of fake scares, filler and flagrantly unfunny "comedy" bits. However, the meagerly budgeted movie (made for just 55 thousand dollars and released to theaters just two days before Halloween) was pretty much money in the bank... just not for Graver. Ironically enough, he ended up being tricked himself by a shady distributor who kept all of the profits!

Here's what the director had to say about the film, why it was made and how he got stiffed in an interview in Penny Blood magazine (#11)...

Millionaire industrialist Malcolm O'Keefe (Peter Jason), face buried in the Wall Street Journal, and his wife Joan (Carrie Snodgress), are having breakfast on the back patio when the doorbell rings. Next thing Malcolm knows, two orderlies are going after him with a straight jacket. After a struggle in and out of the swimming pool, they finally get it on him and haul him off to Western State Hospital. "Several years later" struggling part time actress Linda (Jacqueline Giroux) is called by her employment agency to take a babysitting job and in doing so has to pass up a chance to see her small time actor boyfriend Bret (Steve Railsback) perform a part in a Shakespeare play. Linda shows up at the Adams residence where Joan and her new husband Richard (David Carradine), who's something of a pervert, are planning on going to a Las Vegas Halloween party for the night. She's to watch over their ten-year-old son Christopher, played by Chris Graver, the director's real-life son. After the parents leave, Linda's in for a rather unpleasant night... and she's not the only one.

The chubby Christopher is a Houdini-obsessed amateur magician and prankster who spends most of the evening trying to horrify his babysitter using his arsenal of tricks. He pretends to kill himself with a guillotine, pretends to slash his own throat, pretends to drown himself, pretends to chop off his finger, shocks her with a joy buzzer, sets off firecrackers, scares her with a succession of monster masks, throws mice and cats on her and more. He's also probably the most insufferable little shit in a holiday horror until Luke in Better Watch Out (2016). What's especially annoying is that Linda falls for his lame gags over and over and over again.

Cut in between all of the pranks are equally awful scenes at the asylum where Malcolm, who was actually sane when first falsely committed but is now pretty crazy, plots to escape from the loony bin to get revenge. He gets his buddy Bert (Jean L. Clark) to distract a nurse while he stuffs rags in her mouth. He then steals her outfit and wig, punches out a night watchman and drives off in the nurse's car. He keeps making pit stops on his drive back to the house to call his former home with threatening messages ("I'm coming home to take care of you, darling!"), loses his car and forces a wino (Paul Bartel) to trade clothes with him at knife point. He doesn't even arrive home until an hour into the movie. And no one even dies until the last 20 minutes. That maybe would have been OK if the earlier scenes were any good. They're not!

With the door constantly being knocked on by trick-or-treaters, the phone constantly ringing, the sociopathic little abortion constantly running around, sticking out his tongue and spouting awful one-liners and the endless barrage of false scares, this is simply irritating to sit through. Even when it finally remembers to be a horror movie during the last 20 or so minutes with a long chase scene and a couple of tame kills (which mostly occur off-screen), it doesn't improve much.

The director's decision to cast his own son was, as is usually the case, a mistake. Yes, we know you think your child is cute and charming and entertaining, and you want to show the world how adorable and talented you think they are. Problem is, the only reason you think that is because it's your kid and no one else is going to be as enamored with them as you are especially when they can't act. So if you're planning on casting a kid and giving them an irritating lead role, the least you can do is hire a child actor with some experience so at least they don't come off so awkward.

What makes this seem like an even bigger waste is that the rest of the cast is actually pretty good, or at least they can be good in other movies. Snodgress, Railsback (who is talking on the telephone during all of his scenes), Bartel, Jason and Carradine are all actors who've had their great moments in film and TV but this is a career low point for nearly all of them. Graver's future wife Jillian Kesner has a supporting role playing Linda's film editor friend. During one bizarre scene, she and another female coworker (Nike Zachmanoglou) bitch about having to cut together cheap horror movies while we get to see footage from one of those movies that very poorly attempts to parody them.

Giroux amusingly started out in the religious film The Cross and the Switchblade (1970) starring Pat Boone but was appearing in all manner of sleazy exploitation films just a few years after that, often using aliases like Robyn Whitting or Valdesta. Among her more notable roles was playing a man-hating lesbian murderess in the fun WIP film Sweet Sugar (1972) and the lead prisoner Rosette in the classic ILSA, SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1975), though she opted not to be credited there. She also starred in the Bigfoot nudie movie The Beauties and the Beast (1973), which probably sucks but I'm still kind of intrigued by it and want to see it, and even appeared in some hardcore porn films like Graver's engaging comedy Garage Girls (1980), though she merely did still photography and acted in those and never participated in any of the sex scenes.

Giroux, who was married to Railsback, was already in her mid 30s at the time of filming and became the subject of criticism by people complaining that she was too old to play an imperiled babysitter. Personally, I never got why this was ever an issue. Who says a babysitter has to be a teenager? Besides, it's made clear that she works for a nanny agency and women of all ages do that. I thought she was actually pretty likable all things considered. There's just nothing she can really do about the terrible script and pacing, the unsure tone, the generic library music, the unimaginative direction and the numerous other issues this film has.

The cast also includes Catherine E. Coulson (The Log Lady from Twin Peaks) and X-rated actress Tara Aire as nurses, former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Tim Rossovich and former Houston Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini as orderlies and John Blyth Barrymore in the horror parody. Graver, who also wrote, produced, edited and shot it, also appears in a brief cameo as a diner worker. Welles is given a credit as "magical advisor" even though he merely lent them some props to use.

This was first distributed on VHS by Vestron and became a fixture on late night TV afterward. In 2013, Code Red released this on DVD along with a slew of extras, including a commentary track with Giroux, Jason and the young star.

★