Halloween

I hope you've enjoyed the spooky season so far as today rings in ending of it as October 31st has arrived. I've enjoyed talking about horror movies this month and thank you for coming along for the ride. I hope you've enjoyed listening as much as I've loved hosting. I wanted to post today because, well it's the day to enjoy horror movies of all kinds. So far we've talked about two great low-budget wonders, which created marks in cinema for different reasons. Today, we'll follow that trend with a pretty literal celebration of today's holiday. A low-budget film from a legendary director. A movie that brought us a legendary monster, spawned a franchise, and is beloved by fans internationally that defied all the odds.

So if you're like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions they convey, then grab a glass of your preferred liquid and join me for the next little while. For me that's a mug of warm apple cider. So sit back, relax, and let's talk about the love of film. Welcome to Glazed Cinema.

Today's subject follows a young woman named Laurie Strode, who lives in a small town named Haddonfield, IL. Laurie is like a lot of high school girls. She studies and does well in school, has her group of friends with whom she spends time with, and babysits on the side for money. Not much out of the ordinary happens in Haddonfield and everyone goes about their lives within the quiet community. It seems the only place that has any kind of negativity around it is the old Myers home, which has been abandoned since a murder took place years before. The house now has become the town's urban legend and some say the Bogeyman lives there. Besides that though, Haddonfield is an idyllic community.

Laurie is a good kid who follows the rules and is a good role model for the kids she babysits for. We meet Laurie leaving for school one day in autumn. She runs into her dad on his way into work and Tommy Doyle, who she'll be babysitting later that night. As Laurie walks down the sidewalk alone, books in hand a man steps into frame, watching her. We can only see his left shoulder and tall shirt collar, but what we know of him so far from earlier in the movie is that he's dangerous. Later that day she is leaving school and meets up with her friends Annie and Lynda to walk home together. Being that it's October, 31st the town is decorated for the holiday and pumpkins adorn several houses as leaves fall form the trees. Soon the friends go off in different directions, each to their appropriate homes. For the remainder of the movie Laurie and this stalking figure will cross paths until when she babysits Tommy Doyle at his house when their run-ins come to a head in a horror classic for the ages.

Halloween is a film directed by John Carpenter and produced by his long-time collaborator Debra Hill. It's a movie about a group of babysitters in a small town being terrorized by a man out for blood on all hollow's eve. The idea, which seems so ingenious came from an unlikely source...a man named Irwin Yablans. Yablans was a film producer at the time, who worked at Warner Bros and who owned an independent production company. Yablans, out of frustration about climbing the business ladder began complaining to his wife. Hearing the same song and dance one too many times, she challenged him on it, stating, "If you know so much about making movies, why don't you make one?".

Running with that challenge his production company signed a young John Carpenter to make a film titled The Siege, which introduced Hill to Carpenter. While not successful, The Siege would give Carpenter and Hill a taste for filmmaking, who then went on to make Assault on Precinct 13, which was a hit. Wanting to work with the two again Yablans began thinking of ideas for movies and thought, why not make a horror movie that takes place on the scariest night of the year. A movie about babysitters being terrorized on All Hallow's Eve. He pitched it to his sleeping wife and then to Carpenter, who almost immediately said yes and pitched the budget he could make it for. After getting financing for the film, they were off to begin shooting their new picture.

Halloween draws inspiration from several films of the past including Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and creates something new and refreshing. Psycho in particular was a big influence on Carpenter's writing of our subject today. There are several threads connecting Halloween to Psycho and some of them fell into place almost kismetly. For instance, when writing the screenplay, Carpenter named him Doctor Loomis after the Marion's boyfriend in Psycho, Sam Loomis. Then later on when they began casting for Laurie Strode, Carpenter looked for someone like Janet Leigh in Psycho. Like puzzle pieces fitting into place, he cast her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis in the role and the rest is history.

The other big casting parts had to be played by seasoned actors, which were the town sheriff and of course Doctor Loomis. For the sheriff, Carpenter called back Charles Cyphers who played Starker in Assault on Precinct 13 to play the role of Sheriff Brackett. For Loomis, Carpenter envisioned Donald Pleasance in the part and approached him for the role. Not knowing much about the rookie director, Pleasance said yes, but only after seeing the passion the young filmmaker spoke about the project with. With the three biggest roles in place, the other roles of Laurie's friends Annie, and Lynda were cast. Carpenter would bring back Nancy Kyes from Assault on Precinct 13 to play the quick witted, sassy, and caring Annie while PJ Soles would play the daffy, goofy, and fun-loving Lynda.

The movie took a total of $300,000 to make and was shot entirely on location in Pasadena, CA. Filming took all of twenty days to complete and due to the low-budget nature, the crew consisted of all young people. Almost nobody on set was over twenty-five and was a fun-loving atmosphere. Jamie Lee Curtis recalled filming in an interview once stating:

"Everyone on that set was 19, 20, 21 and it was mostly men. It was just these people and then everyone's girlfriends doing makeup, wardrobe, set dressing..."

Another way to save money was to limit the amount of effects used. Instead of showing a lot of blood and gore, they opted to have the audience's imagination do the work for them. This was an old trick from Hitchcock, who believed that by not showing what's happening the audience fills in the blanks themselves, which is usually worse than what you might or could show. It's a great attribute of Halloween and something that really stands out.

Another great attribute of Halloween is the score of the film. It's incredibly simple, but so effective in the eerie atmosphere it delivers. There are few more iconic songs in film as the Halloween theme devised and recorded by John Carpenter. Even if you've never seen Halloween, it's likely you've hear the theme song. It's as tied to the holiday of Halloween as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is to Christmas. One listen and instantaneous memories of the film will either induce a smile on one's face or chills down one's spine.

One of the scariest parts of Halloween is obviously in its villain, Michael Myers. One of the goals with this frightening character though was to keep him largely faceless. Part if this is in the character's background as an escaped inmate. It would make sense for him to want to hide, but this also made the character more universally scary. It evokes the ancient fear of the unknown. This meant they needed a mask of some kind to hide his face. Needing a way to hide the escaped inmates face, the crew began searching for masks that would fit their film. Going to a few costume shops they narrowed their search down to a few options, one of which was a clown mask. It wasn't until they spotted an almost blank face mask that gave them cause to pause. It was almost featureless, void of any expression, and without any standout features. It was perfect. A featureless mask providing the key of anonimity, which makes it so much scarier. Interestingly enough the mask was that of William Shatner, based on his role of Captain Kirk. A mask that has become iconic and the face of fear for so many.

Of course, it's not all fright and eerie atmosphere with this movie, there's a decent amount of humor sprinkled in there as well. The humor provides brevity in situations that feels welcomed and provides a good laugh at times. One of my favorite moment of these is when Dr. Loomis is waiting for Sheriff Brackett outside the abandoned Myers' residence. A group of young boys turn up, the same who bullied Tommy earlier on in the film. On a dare one of them, Lonnie goes up to the front door of the rumored haunted house. Loomis, panicking to get them away suddenly thinks of an idea. Lurking down he loudly whispers, "Lonny, get your ass away from there." As the spooked boys tun away from the house, Loomis rises up, a satisfied smile on his face. A second later the Sheriff appears behind him, placing his hand on his shoulder and spooking the doctor, thus returning the favor. It's a pretty funny moment in the movie and one my dad and I quote from time to time.

Now, there are a lot of scenes that stick out to me, but there's one in particular that stands out. It's when Sheriff Brackett and Dr. Loomis are in the Myers home together, inspecting it to see if Michael had been there. It's a scene with great buildup as a slow piano greets our ears as the two men walk up to the dark and foreboding home. Upstairs, in the room where Michael killed his sister all those years ago Loomis recalls his experience in dealing with Michael. It's a great monologue, delivered expertly by Pleasance that brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. It also gives us, maybe our first real sense of what the town and specifically Laure is dealing with. He states:

"I met him, 15 years ago. I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sese 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 another seven tying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simple...evil."

I love that scene so much. There's so many good moments and that dialogue is absolutely phenomenal. Other than that scene, another thing I love about Halloween are the random Michael appearances we see as he follows Laurie early on in the movie. Maybe my favorite of these is when he appears amongst laundry hanging on a clothesline outside staring up at Laurie, but on a second look, he's gone. Little moments like that provide uneasiness and creepiness as things buildup to later on. That's something that's really well done in Halloween as a whole is the slow and methodical buildup and that brilliant pacing helps to aid on the delivery of the movie's scares and atmosphere.

Once the movie was done, the production company had to start thinking about a marketing plan. Part of that plan hinged on the need of a poster to promote and accompany the film in theaters around the world. Irwin Yablans helped develop what would become the movie's iconic poster image. He sat down with an artist by the name of Robert Gleason and ran through three ideas he had. Yablans traced an outline of his clenched fist and pointed out the curve that his knuckles made. He then said to the Gleason:

"You notice how the curve of that goes? You notice how a knife curves and how a Halloween pumpkin curves? There's a symmetry to that and I want something that incorporates those three ideas. Gleason began work on the poster and nailed it on the first try."

The poster is extremely inventive and an iconic image that is undeniably linked to this film. That level of branding in large part is thanks to the idea of Yablans and the execution of Gleason. Also, something you may not have noticed is in the area of the knuckles and veins of the hand there is a face that can be seen, which is a cool easter egg. If you've never seen the poster, look it up. It's a really well done image and a great example of what a solid image can do for a product.

Between the movie, the music, and the poster, everything was in place for the debut of Halloween, which occurred in Kansas City, MO. The first night is made $200 per theater. The second night it made $400 per theater and by the end of the week it was making thousands per theater.

Halloween quickly became a success and had audiences buzzing. For a lot of debuting movies box office returns ebb and flow, but with Halloween it seemed to only continue to grow as time went on. Word of mouth spread quickly and soon everyone around the country was hurrying to their nearest theater to see it. If people weren't seeing it for the first time, they were bringing their friends to see it for the first time. My parents were of that generation, flocking to the theater to see the horror movie of the season. By the time Halloween left theaters it made a total of $70,000,000 worldwide.

After the success of Halloween, John Carpenter began making more films and has since built up an impressive filmography spanning several genres. Despite all if the other successes Carpenter achieved, Halloween stands as one of his crowning achievements. It took horror into an all new realm of possibilities and inspired future horror franchises. It has also become a seasonal must-watch, going hand in hand with the holiday it shares its name with. If you're looking for something to watch tonight while handing out candy, relaxing for the night, or to entertain friends and family, look no further than this holiday classic.

If you'd like to watch Halloween for yourself you can find it on a variety of streaming services. At the time of this recording you can find Halloween on Redbox. Redbox is a streaming service offering nee and old movies alike for free or to rent. You can enjoy our subject today on the platform free of charge.

You can also find it on Plex and Crackle. Plex is a streaming service with a catalog of wide ranging options and Crackle offers a diverse catalog of offerings. The best part is that you can watch this classic for free on both platforms.

You can also watch it with a subscription of AMC+ or Shudder including through their add-ons at Prime Video and YouTube.

Lastly, you can also watch this holiday gem on Vudu, Apple TV, Prime Video, and Google Play for $3.99 to rent.

If you like this podcast tell your friends and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Each week there will be new content including hints about episodes before they air. If you'd like to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at glazedcinema.com. There you'll find more info about the show and a place to submit ideas for future episodes. For film fans who are hearing impaired the blog page on our website features each episode in written form as well. As always, thanks for listening and I hope to see you next time with another beverage and another fine film on Glazed Cinema.