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My Favorite Horror Movie: Matt Mercer on John Carpenter’s Halloween

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With the re-release of 1978’s Halloween taking place next week (the film returns to theaters on September 27th via CineLife Entertainment/Trancas International Films/Compass International Pictures), we’re continuing at HalloweenMovies.com our celebration of the John Carpenter classic, via a series of essays on the subject.

Culled from the 2018 best-selling book My Favorite Horror Movie, which features 48 essays by horror creators on the films which shaped them, they serve to explore just why 40 years later, The Shape still terrifies.

Second up (on the heels of our first essay is a piece by Beyond the Gates and Contracted star Matt Mercer, who found that as a child his all-encompassing fear of that shark from Amity was supplanted by that of a featureless masked murderer from Illinois, during one simple VHS viewing.

HALLOWEEN
by
MATT MERCER

In July of 1986, ABC aired Jaws as the Sunday Night Movie. I was six years old, visiting my grandparents in Culpeper, VA, and, with my mom’s “okay”, they let me stay up late to watch it to the end. It changed my life.

For the next few months, I literally couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I convinced my mom to buy the VHS cassette of Jaws and I watched it constantly. Watched it until certain sections of the tape (mainly the attack sequences which I replayed over and over) were so demagnetized that one couldn’t make out what was happening on-screen entirely. Adjusting the tracking on the VCR didn’t make a lick of difference. Just as Bryan Adams played his guitar until his fingers bled…I played Jaws until the tape was in shreds.

I became a shark fanatic. I wanted to be Matt Hooper, the Richard Dreyfuss character. I projected a future in which I became a marine biologist – specifically an ichthyologist – who studied all kinds of sharks. I’d get myriad scars from my encounters with them. I’d live the Hooper Life, traveling the world to find giant sharks and study them. Amity Island, Brisbane, aboard the Orca or the Aurora… bring it on. I’d read every book about sharks. I was ready.

I tried to convince my mom we needed to switch our summer beach trips from Myrtle Beach, SC to Amity Island. It’d be safe… they didn’t have a shark problem anymore. The issue I encountered was when I looked on a map to find Amity Island, I could only find an Amityville in New York. The heck?! Where was the island? Must be some mistake.

We had a fish tank and I cruelly tried to tie a soda can to one of my pets with a string to see if I could recreate the yellow barrel scenes from the film. It didn’t work. Beta fish are slippery. And fast. (As Hooper would say, “Fast fish.”) I also “recreated” several attacks from Jaws in the bathtub with little green plastic army men and a rubber Great White. These reenactments came to a halt when my stepmom couldn’t find her McCormick red food coloring and I got in trouble for stowing it under the sink in the bathroom, having used almost all of it for the attacks.

When the school year started, my first grade teacher Mrs. Jones expressed concern when, for the first show-and-tell of the year, I didn’t share my shell collection from a summer trip to the beach, or cookies I’d baked with Mom, or a wood shop project made with Dad… No. No, no, no. I performed Quint’s death from Jaws in all its glory. I laid on the floor in front of the entire class, and while kicking and screaming, slid down the stern of the Orca into the shark’s mouth. In my mind, it played beautifully. I flailed wildly. I kicked at the imaginary chomping maw of the shark. I maneuvered my body to make the slide seem natural, as if the floor were at an angle. I aped Robert Shaw’s giant blood- puke. And, I very clearly recall the army of blank stares I got in return from my classmates when I was done.

Further explanation of the scene and the events leading up to it didn’t help, and Mrs. Jones quickly invited me to sit down before the details became more grotesque. Enough already. I wanted to yell at them, “Don’t you get it?! I’ve experienced this incredible thing, and so help me God, you’re going to take the journey with me!”

What had this movie done to six-year-old me? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about it and wanting to relive and recreate its thrills over and over in any way possible? Was any of the movie real? How did they make it? Was Robert Shaw really killed by that shark? What was the path to more of these thrills?

These questions started to be answered that Christmas, when my grandmother (who had become aware it was Jaws 24/7 for me, and was also super-cool apparently) gifted me a copy of The Jaws Log, a firsthand account of the making of the movie Jaws by one of its screenwriters, Carl Gottlieb. Now, this book was a bit advanced for someone my age, and although I was a fairly advanced reader, I didn’t entirely get it. My filmmaking lexicon was limited at that age, obviously. But it made one thing clear for me: the movie wasn’t “real” and a group of people had indeed made it. They’d put it together, piece by piece, over a relatively large chunk of time, photographed it, and the process was all spearheaded by one person, a director, Steven Spielberg. Jaws wasn’t some crazy event that happened to get recorded by some folks near the beach. It was manufactured, piece-by-piece, and came out as this scary movie. Great.

So, that means there must be more of these movies. Right?

Not long after finishing The Jaws Log (probably early ’87 by now), I asked my mother one morning while getting ready for school, “Mom, what is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?”

She thought for a moment. “Hmmm. Probably Halloween.”

Halloween? There’s a horror movie called Halloween?! My kid-brain caught fire. My mind started to conjure what the movie might be, and the dream-reel didn’t stop…images of demons in the autumn dark, monsters snatching trick-or-treaters off the street and dragging them into the woods, creatures with glowing jack o’ lanterns for heads…what the hell could this film be? She wouldn’t tell me. And thus began a massive campaign on my part to see the movie. I wouldn’t let up.

I mean, I really begged, and begged, and begged my mother to rent it. I could handle the movie, but I couldn’t handle waiting until I was older to see it. Her answer was a flat “no,” until honestly, I don’t recall how her change of heart exactly happened, but after a few weeks, she finally relented and agreed to let me see it on one condition: she had to watch it first, and I had to turn away during anything involving nudity or sex.

Deal.

Next thing I knew we were headed to Rent-A-Tainment, our local video store in Newport News, VA. It had a bright yellow sign shaped like a strip of unspooled celluloid, the store’s name in big bold letters on top of that – a beautiful beacon at dusk. I remember that night vividly. Prior to the video store, we’d grabbed some dessert, something called frozen yogurt (a fresh concept in the mid-’80s, and a “healthy” alternative to ice cream!) from a new place called Yogurt’s Inn. (Newport News small business owners in the mid-1980s were super clever in the store-naming department.) Walking into Rent-A-Tainment, I went straight to the Horror section, blowing past all the sections (Disney, Family, etc) that had been safe, easy, and allowed in the past…

And there it was. The VHS display box of the Media Home Entertainment release of John Carpenter’s Halloween. The iconographic box art with the jack-o-lantern and a big hand with insane vascularity, swooping down with a gleaming butcher knife in its grip where the last ridge of the pumpkin should be… it stared me in the face. Glorious. It held so much promise.

We raced home and popped it in…I don’t recall if my mother ended up doing a pre-screening or not (I think she just winged it from her memory), but I do remember the experience of watching it that night. From the opening credits, as the camera slowly pushed into the glowing, flickering pumpkin, I was completely entranced. I couldn’t move. And it just kept getting more and more intense, every element of the film perfectly calibrated to scare the living hell out of me…out of the audience. It was one of those rare times the movie lives up to the quality you’ve been cultivating in your head…even though it was nothing like the movie that had been playing in my head prior to seeing it.

But watching Halloween was more than just a defying of expectations.

That night was the peak viewing experience of my (short) life up to that point. Part of that experience was I’m sure due to the fact that I was a young, impressionable kid watching a truly scary movie for the first time, but I don’t know that another film has worked on me like that since. At least not in that way. It was everything all at once. Every element of the film wrapped around me like a dark blanket of dread and terror that, as the film played on, tightened around my mind and body until I was suffocating. But I couldn’t look away. I just wanted more. Where Jaws had imbued me with a sense of wonder and thrills, Halloween was scarier and more pure…it was perfect, shadowy atmosphere and visceral terror honed from the simplest (but well-crafted) elements. Jaws was my gateway into horror and showed the possibilities of film, but Halloween was the real deal and blew my world apart. I think I watched that two-day rental copy ten times that first weekend I saw it. To this day, I watch Halloween at least three times a year. I’m still obsessed. It still takes me on an incredible journey and inspires me to no end.

So much has been written about Halloween…the making of it, its success as a low-budget independent film, how it ushered in and created an entirely new “slasher” subgenre and era of horror films, and the techniques that made it so effective. I won’t regurgitate that here in great detail. If you’ve seen the movie, and read about it, you know these things already. The techniques Carpenter uses are transcendent and game changing. The music. The mask. Dean Cundey’s cinematography. The way he fills the ‘Scope frame. It’s a flawless intersection of technique, storytelling, atmosphere, and scares. There’s an unrepeatable and unmistakable alchemy that makes the film what it is. In other words, it’s all about how this story is told, not necessarily what it’s about. The style these elements create, added to the simplicity of the film, is the formula that makes it so effective.

In a small Midwestern town, Michael, a six-year-old boy murders his sister on Halloween. Fifteen years later, on Halloween, he escapes the sanitarium where he’s being held, and goes back to his hometown to kill again. That’s pretty much it.

Simple.

Over the years since the first time I saw the film and the countless times since, I’ve often thought about what the key factor is (beyond the aforementioned style) that makes it my favorite horror movie. I think the answer lies somewhere in its restraint. In a way, it’s not what Carpenter did do, it’s what he didn’t do that makes Halloween special. The film is nearly bloodless. He uses the frame to create a visual language that puts us on edge, as opposed to throwing gore at us (not that there’s anything wrong with that…I love a good bloodbath, but I’m glad it’s not here). Carpenter also suggests, but doesn’t overexplain, the subtle supernatural aspects of Myers. Mystery begets better terror. The first of these touches is the fact that it takes place on Halloween. In its development, the film was originally called The Babysitter Murders (which sounds scary already), until one of the producers of the film, Irwin Yablans, suggested it take place on (and be called) Halloween. This idea was a stroke of genius, because although Carpenter (wisely) doesn’t use the dark holiday to explain Michael’s killing spree, the fact that Michael “activates” on All Hallows’ Eve adds a layer of bizarre uneasiness to his motivations. It comes from somewhere dark and inexplicable. Carpenter knew better than to have a ritual or séance or possession aspect to explain the killer’s actions…it’s just simply the date when Michael goes home to kill. And that’s enough.

Another subtle touch: the methods used to make Michael the personification of Evil. As Doctor Loomis says in the movie, Myers “isn’t a man.” Well, he looks like a person, and he’s shaped like a human, but measured doses of strange behavior suggest there’s something more going on there…something more at the wheel inside Michael than just himself. He doesn’t talk, he only breathes. He wears a mask to kill. Later, he wears coveralls taken from a tow truck driver that he’s murdered, his “costume”. He inspects his kills in a curious way; after murdering one kid, he tilts his head back and forth. Later on, he sets up a haunted house of corpses as a gauntlet of terror for the main character, Laurie. He also doesn’t seem daunted by injury. When Laurie stabs him, he doesn’t stop. It’s these touches of character that make The Shape scarier. Where is this weirdness coming from? These traits culminate in the climax, where Michael is shot six times and falls from a balcony…and then disappears.

Thus, by the end of the film, these supernatural hints (and the Myers character) have fully developed and transformed into theme, the idea being that evil never dies. It can’t be killed. It will always be there, looming in the dark, ready to strike without warning.

Halloween started me on a constant diet of horror movies, and there are many in my “favorites pantheon”. Alien transported me aboard a ship in deep space and showed me creatures I couldn’t have seen in my wildest dreams. Psycho catapulted me into the mind of an isolated killer living a double life. Jaws had already whisked me away on an adventure on the ocean and given a glimpse of what lurked beneath the surface of an unknown world.

But Halloween was in my backyard. Every night. Staring up at me from between the clotheslines. It turned the most basic location, the most identifiable place, suburban America, into a terrifying landscape. A place of darkness and danger. Haddonfield didn’t feel like South Pasadena, CA, where they shot the film. No, Halloween felt like it was happening in a small Illinois town. It felt like my hometown in Virginia. The streets in it felt like my street. The houses felt kinda’ like my house.

Halloween didn’t just take me to another world; it turned my own world into something new. As I started my own career, I took that with me.

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Check out the new trailer for the re-release of 1978’s Halloween below, and for theatre and ticketing info, please visit www.CineLifeEntertainment.com

TAKEN FROM THE BOOK
MY FAVORITE HORROR MOVIE
© 2018 CHRISTIAN ACKERMAN/BLACK VORTEX CINEMA
MYFAVORITEHORRORMOVIE.COM

Matt Mercer can be found on Twitter/Instagram @MercerShark

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Trancas International Films or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

LA Press Junket: Director David Gordon Green Talks Halloween

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This past Saturday, September 15th, HalloweenMovies.com sat down with director David Gordon Green on the Universal backlot to discuss his forthcoming film Halloween, which is set for release by Universal Pictures this coming October 19th, 2018.

Co-written by Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride, this eleventh entry in the franchise is intended as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 film. Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and returning star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

Seated outdoors on the backlot’s Wisteria Lane, decked out for the occasion in Halloween décor, Green said of his initial attraction to directing the film, which serves as recalibration of the franchise, “I didn’t want to see someone else’s (version, because) I’ve been a huge fan of the (Halloween) movies. All of them, actually. But particularly the original film, which got under my skin in a way that no other horror film – well, maybe The Silence of the Lambs – has. Those two movies really affected me. I saw them in my youth and at a time in my life where they were very exciting and terrifying.”

Talk turned to Green’s script for Halloween, which co-written by he, McBride and Fradley, ignores all existing sequels, and picks up forty years after Carpenter’s original, with antagonist boogeyman Myers behind bars and final girl Laurie waiting with bated breath for his eventual return.

“As the franchise progressed it got more and more complicated, (and) my concept and Danny’s (was to) simplify it again,” said Green of their bold approach, “and go back to the least complicated version. And so, I wanted to do that rather than having to incorporate all of the mythology the series (had) absorbed over the years.”

And he laughed, “(To) use it as a device to be able to meet John Carpenter.”

As for the return of Curtis to her iconic role of Laurie Strode, there was however no guarantee during the initial scripting process.

“We had written it already, hoping she would (return),” recalled Green, “but were prepared for her to say, ‘No.’ (But) I just wanted to hang out with her. And she’s Laurie Strode. When you think about someone else stepping into that character? There’s no one like her. It’s iconic, so I put on my sweet talkin’ salesman voice and gave it the hard sell, and she said, ‘Yes.’”

“This was (us) assuming she wouldn’t want to be very involved,” revealed the filmmaker, “(but) as I started talking to her I realized (that) she was actually very excited about it. But originally we thought, ‘Let’s just try to get her for a couple of days and see if she’ll just do a cameo in the movie.’ Our initial thought was the trauma (of the first film) having been inherited by her daughter Karen (actress Judy Greer) who has inherited this sense of trauma and identity crisis from her mother who has raised her in this kind of captive, strange, over-protective landscape, and make that the centerpiece.”

“Before we presented her with the script,” he continued, “we did a quick sleight of hand, and moved all the meat to her, and said, ‘Let’s put it all on the table and see if we can make it happen.’ But we were prepared to have to pull it back, and play with other characters and other dimensions, and take the foreground with other characters.  I’m just glad we didn’t have to do it. It seems silly to even think about it now.”

Another one of the things which changed from concept to execution was Green’s desire to re-shoot the ending of Carpenter’s original from a different perspective, a plan which existed well into production.

“It was a very complicated overhead view of Loomis shooting the gun,” illuminated Green, “and then Michael going over (the balcony). And then when we were shooting (the film), we kept pushing it off.”

“So this is interesting,” Green expounded. “We rebuilt the bedroom from the climax of the original film, so we had the bones of this room, but the budget was getting tighter, and the schedules were getting tighter and we were trying to jam this (into the) movie and finish it up, and then we were like, ‘Screw it, let’s not do that.’ And if we need it later, we can always rebuild it, so we used the set for the scene (in our film) with all the mannequins. But it is (still) a rebuild of the bedroom (from the first Halloween) down to a square inch.”

In addition to set construction, in preparation for the aborted re-imagining of the finale of Carpenter’s original, the production had also hired actors to reprise needed characters from the first film.

“We cast a Loomis double, who was actually our art director, because he looked exactly like him,” said Green of the role originated by deceased actor Donald Pleasence, “and we would have re-created Laurie with a blend of Jamie and a body double similar to a nineteen-year old Jamie. And there was conversation of utilizing footage from the original film and digitally altering it, so we could get some other interesting elements, but all of it starts costing money, and you look at what you’re trying to do (and ask), ‘Do you need the gimmick? Do you need the exposition? Do you need the set up?’”

“Carpenter actually calmed me down on set and said to me, ‘Just trust (the audience) and let them figure it out.’”

As for Carpenter’s presence on the South Carolina set, “(It was) super surreal,” Green recalled of the famous director’s arrival. “My parents were also visiting and he and my dad were just talking about comic books while I was shooting the babysitter scene upstairs. It was the scene with Vicky (Virginia Gardner), with a ghost sheet over her, so it was kind of a fun scene for John to show up on set for. But yeah, really surreal seeing Jamie Lee and Nick Castle and John kind of bonding again. Someone was showing me photographs of that day recently, and it was pretty overwhelming and emotional and nostalgic and sentimental in a lot of ways.”

Conversation progressed to the film’s score, as composed and performed by Carpenter as he did for the original, and Green offered, “He kept me out of (the scoring process and) said, ‘I wanna’ have a whole score for you. It’s not gonna’ be piece by piece. I was like, ‘Is he doing an orchestra? Is it gonna’ be the opera?’ But then I heard it and it feels very Carpenter. I can sense a little Escape from New York in a couple little pieces. I was so fucking excited to hear (it).”

Reflecting on his career, “One of the things I’m most proud of (is that) I genre hop,” said the filmmaker, whose previous features include the decidedly non-horror films George Washington (2000) and Pineapple Express (2006), along with the comedic television series Eastbound & Down.

“I can’t sit still. I gotta’ do a comedy here, a fantasy movie there, (and) a drama there. What I’m most excited about that Halloween does, (is that) it lets me exercise all of it: humor, drama, emotional honesty and action. I felt more so than any other movie (that I’ve directed) that I could jam more genres that I love into one film. And call it a horror movie. So, that’s really rewarding, particularly if an audience likes it, because I don’t have a huge relationship with an audience responding well to my films,” Green laughed self-deprecatingly.

(Writer’s note: given the positive critical reviews stemming from Halloween’s world premiere at TIFF earlier this month, perhaps for Green this relationship will change).

Concluded the forty-three year old director, as behind him Carpenter and Curtis chatted against the backdrop of ghostly Halloween decorations which shifted in the failing light, “You know, critics have been kind and I’ve managed an awesome, exciting career and have traveled the world but out of thirteen movies (only) one of them is commercially successful. I don’t have a great track record. So it would be awesome to be able to think that I can infuse so much of what I’ve learned through the various movies, TV shows and commercials that I’ve done into one thing, and have an audience respond to it, because the sky’s the limit with what we want to continue (to do) with this franchise. So a lot of this movie, for me, is about trust: getting an audience to trust me, and getting me to trust a franchise, and then let’s see what needs to happen next, if it works.”

Check out the trailer below.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

 

Laurie’s Packing a Pistol in New Halloween Stills

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With only thirty-three days left until the theatrical debut of director and co-writer David Gordon Green’s hotly-anticipated Halloween, a handful of new photos have emerged. Have a look!

Green’s Halloween is set for release by Universal Pictures this coming October 19, 2018. Co-written by Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride, the entry is intended as a direct sequel to Carpenter’s seminal 1978 film. Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and returning star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

Joining Curtis in her final showdown with The Shape is actress Andi Matichak (pictured above) in the role of Allyson Strode, Laurie’s tenacious granddaughter.

Check out the trailer below.

Beyond Fest to Host the West Coast Premiere of Halloween

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Can’t wait for the October 19th, 2018 theatrical release of David Gordon Green’s Halloween? If you’re in Los Angeles during Beyond Fest, running September 26th to October 9th, you may not have to.

Taking place on Saturday, October 6th at the Egyptian Theater (6712 Hollywood Boulevard), David Gordon Green’s Halloween, with special guest and series producer Malek Akkad in attendance, is set to headline ‘Halloween Day:’ a triple-bill celebration of The Shape that will also feature John Carpenter’s 1978 classic of the same name and Bob Clark’s 1974 slasher film Black Christmas, both personally selected by Green and co-writer Danny McBride as key inspiration for their film. In addition to the triple bill, ‘Halloween Day’ festivities are set to include a Halloween flash tattoo parlor, a Mondo/Death Waltz pop-up featuring exclusive products, and a live, in-theater recording of the Shock Waves podcast featuring the original Shape, Nick Castle.

Tickets are on sale via Brown Paper Tickets on Friday, September 14th at 12PM PST. (Editor’s addendum: they are now SOLD OUT).

For more information on Beyond Fest and for their full line-up, visit them a www.beyondfest.com

Excl: Interview with Halloween Producer Irwin Yablans

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As Trancas International Films have teamed up with HorrorHound Ltd. in order to deliver the upcoming Halloween-based convention H40: 40 Years of Terror in Pasadena, CA on October 12-14, HalloweenMovies.com recently caught up Irwin Yablans, who along with Moustapha Akkad served as an executive producer on John Carpenter’s 1978 classic originator, in order to discuss the film, the event, his thoughts on David Gordon Green’s upcoming direct sequel, and more. Read on.

Yablans, who will be joined by his son Mickey at the convention (the latter who appeared in a bit part in the ’78 film as “Richie”) and who will be signing never-before-seen photos taken on set, as well as his 2012 autobiography The Man Who Created Halloween, told us of his appearance at H40, “The last time I got involved in any of this (Halloween) stuff was in Pasadena. I went there with my book, and I was besieged by people. I couldn’t believe how many people wanted autographs.”

Seated in his southern California office and surrounded by framed photographs documenting his life, from his beginnings in Brooklyn, New York to his stint in the US military and later his rise through the ranks of Hollywood (first as a film shipping clerk and later as a producer and executive producer of a string of successful independent films), eighty-four year old Yablans reflected on Halloween (which this September 27th receives a worldwide re-release), “(That production) was like a finally meshed piece of machinery. Everything that could go right, went right. There wasn’t a hitch in the whole thing. There wasn’t a desperate phone call. There wasn’t a request for more money. There wasn’t a request for more time. There was never a moment of drama or panic. Every time I went down to the set, I came away feeling that there was no need for me to (go there) the next night.”

“And I think that the whole story of how Halloween was born is a great story, you know, and people never tire of hearing about it,” offered Yablans, whose suggestion of moving the action in John Carpenter and Deborah Hill’s working script titled The Babysitter Murders to All Hallow’s Eve proved impactful. Filmed in southern California (standing in for Illinois) in early 1978 over the course of twenty days for a mere $300 thousand, Halloween would famously go on to make $70 million in its initial theatrical run, rendering it the highest grossing independent film of all time (until the release of The Blair Witch Project in 1992).

“They were shooting on Orange Grove (in Hollywood), (and) my office was on Sunset Blvd.,” Yablans remembered of the film’s production, “and I’d finish my business and go on out there, and I would stand around feeling like a useless twit. I would stay until about 1AM, and then go home, and they would stay until dawn! And some would stay on the set: sleep there, eat there, and then start again. They were a happy band of vagabond kids, and they were all young, and it paid off, and it made a lot of careers for them. Of all the things that happened, everything worked out perfectly! Even the distribution process: I’m proud of that. People forget about how that picture was rolled out. Remember, with all the exposure that film’s gotten, and its fame, everybody forgets that it started out in one little theatre in Kansas City, Missouri.”

Of the film’s marketing, Yablans stated, “While this is going to sound very self-serving, and tooting my horn, Halloween wasn’t just a movie. There was a whole campaign that I devised. My thought was, and remember, we’re dealing with a movie that no one wanted to distribute, was to develop a campaign. The poster, I designed. I actually sat with the artist and showed him my fist.”

Yablans traced the curve of his clenched hand.

“You notice how the curve of that goes?” he asked. “(And) you notice how a knife curves and how a Halloween pumpkin curves? There’s a symmetry to all of that. And I wanted something that incorporated those three thoughts. Hence you got this iconic (image).”

(Writer’s note: painted by Robert Gleason, the original art not only contains Yablan’s trio of ideas, but also delivers something often not noticed: a demonic, sinister face hidden within the veins and knuckles of the knife-grasping hand).

“He got it on the first try,” recalled Yablans of Gleason’s painting. “Everything was in alignment on this thing. And then of course, when I opened the movie, I knew that with my limited resources I had to nurture this in a certain way, so we opened it in Kansas City by design. If the picture didn’t do well, I could keep it quiet until I worked out what to do next. But if it did well, then I knew what I had. The first night that we opened the movie, I got the results and I’ll never forget, the numbers were like two-hundred dollars a theatre – it was not bad. The next night it was double. Then it was exponential. By the weekend it was quadruple, and by the first week we knew that we had something unusually, incredibly important.”

“The fact of the matter is, all the movies I’ve done have all been ideas I got from newspapers or magazines or a thought or an idea,” continued Yablans, who post-Halloween would go on to executive produce a string of horror films, including 1979’s Tourist Trap, 1980’s Fade to Black, 1981’s Halloween II and 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch, among others.

“Halloween is about the visceral, ancient fears that people have of the unknown. That’s what it’s really about. And they go back to that with this movie,” he stated of the original, and of David Gordon Green’s upcoming Halloween.

“The idea of Laurie Strode (and Michael Myers) being eventually combatants so to speak, that’s a great idea, because that’s really what it’s about,” he concluded. “Those two, that’s the driver.”

For H40: 40 Years of Terror ticket information and more, visit the official site here, and like H40 on Facebook here for updates.

John Carpenter’s Halloween Returns to Theaters Worldwide this September

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Celebrating its 40th anniversary, John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic is being re-released in advance of David Gordon Green’s sequel, and will return to theaters beginning September 27th, 2018.

Read on for details, theaters and ticketing information.

From the press release:

LOS ANGELES, CA – Cinelife Entertainment, the event cinema division of Spotlight Cinema Networks, has teamed up with Compass International Pictures and Trancas International Films Compass International Pictures and to bring John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 classic back to select theaters worldwide beginning September 27, 2018.

In the film, the villain, Michael Myers, has spent the last 15 years locked away inside a sanitarium under the care of child psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis. On October 30, 1978, Myers escapes and makes his way back home to Haddonfield, turning a night of tricks and treats into something much more sinister for three young women, including Laurie Strode, the star-making role for Jamie Lee Curtis.

The original Halloween will be released on over 1,000 screens in over twenty countries across the globe. “I’m thrilled to have the original make its way back into theatres, as we prepare for the release of the sequel. Having both back in theatres this fall is remarkable,” says director John Carpenter.

Fans will be treated to view big screen presentations of the restored and remastered digital print, created under the supervision of the world-renowned cinematographer, Dean Cundey.

“We are thrilled to be a part of the 40th anniversary celebration, working with Compass International Pictures and Trancas International Films to bring the most fear-provoking and enduring horror movies of all time to cinema screens around the globe,” said Mark Rupp, Managing Director, CineLife Entertainment.

The release of John Carpenter’s Original Halloween comes just ahead of the release of Halloween (2018) – the direct sequel to John Carpenter’s classic. Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprise their roles as Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, respectively. It is set for release on October 19th, a week before the 40th anniversary of the original Halloween release date.

For theaters and showtimes, please visit CineLifeEntertainment.com.

Halloween: 40th Anniversary Trailer (60 Seconds) from CineLife Video Showcase on Vimeo.

Halloween: 40th Anniversary Trailer from CineLife Video Showcase on Vimeo.

Excl: Take a Behind-the-Scenes Tour of HHN’s Halloween 4 Maze

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With Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers mazes opening this Friday, Sept 14th at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando as part of the two theme parks’ yearly attractions Halloween Horror Nights, we got an exclusive peek behind-the-scenes this past Friday.

Thirty years since its release, the Danielle Harris-starring Halloween 4 is still beloved by fans, and celebrating the milestone, HHN creative director John Murdy, along with Halloween 4 director Dwight H. Little and Trancas International’s own Malek Akkad took us on a tour of the then still-under-construction west coast maze. And as per usual, Murdy and crew have spared no expense and ignored no detail in realizing Little’s film as a fleshed-out, haunted walk-through.

Said director Little of the maze, “It’s incredible. It gave me the chills. It’s been thirty years and it seems like it’s happening right in front of your eyes. I can’t wait to come see it as a guest of the park, and I can’t wait for anyone who had seen or who has not seen Halloween 4 to come experience this maze. It’s unbelievable.”

Will poor Ted Hollister make an appearance? That’s yet to be seen, but fans of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers should prep themselves for a fully immersive journey into some of the film’s main set pieces, from Penney’s garage and diner to the jack-o-lantern filled streets of Haddonfield. Check out the video below.

The Shape awaits.

For more information about Halloween Horror Nights at either Universal Studios Hollywood or Universal Orlando Resort, visit them here, and engage with them on social media using @UniStudios @HorrorNights #UniversalHHN

Halloween Has Premiered at TIFF and the Critics are Raving

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Ahead of its October 2018 release via Universal Pictures, director and co-writer David Gordon Green’s Halloween held its world premiere to a packed house this past Saturday, September 9th at Toronto International Film Festival, and the critical response has been overwhelming.

Says Variety’s Peter Debruge, “Why choose when you can have tricks and treats? David Gordon Green does horror fans a favor, bringing Michael Myers’ slasher-movie saga back to its roots,” while Katie Walsh of Nerdist proclaims: “David Gordon Green delivers the best Halloween sequel ever.”

That’s not all.  Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly  states, “Long live Michael Myers, so maybe someone can finally kill him — in a big, funny, scary, squishy, super-meta sequel that brings it all back to John Carpenter’s iconic 1978 original,” Dreadcentral’s Jonathan Barkan muses, “After years of waiting for a Halloween sequel that felt like it did justice to John Carpenter’s original masterpiece of slasher horror, David Gordon Green has brought us a vision of terror that gives fans what they’ve been craving,” and originating filmmaker Carpenter himself has declared that following his 1978 original, Green’s is the best in the franchise.

Perhaps some of the TIFF audience agreed, as following the screening, Jamie Lee Curtis and assembled cast and crew took the stage to an enthusiastic standing ovation, to which Curtis playfully said, “Happy Halloween, mother*ckers.”

The eleventh film in the franchise and co-written by director Green, Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley, Halloween is intended as a direct sequel to Carpenter’s ‘78 film, and thusly disregards all of the series subsequent entries. Trancas International Films’ Malek Akkad, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Bill Block produce, with McBride, Green and star Jamie Lee Curtis serving as executive producers, along with Ryan Freimann and series originator Carpenter, who also serves as the film’s composer.

Looking forward to October 19th? We are.

Halloween: The Shape of Change

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Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton Takes a Look at the Past and Future of Halloween

For genre fans, the name Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton has become synonymous with modern horror journalism. From his humble beginnings working with The Horror Channel in the early 2000s and his co-creation of the revered Dread Central in 2006 (where he served as Editor-in-Chief for well over a decade) to his recent establishment of the popular Brainwaves Horror and Paranormal podcast in 2016, Barton’s erudite knowledge and unflinching editorial candor have made him a highly respected luminary within the horror sphere.

With that, I’m thrilled to welcome Barton to HalloweenMovies.com as a guest writer, as here he takes an engaging look back at the iconic Halloween franchise, from its genre-defining beginnings to what lays ahead for those unfortunate residents of Haddonfield.

Sean Decker, Editor-in-Chief, HalloweenMovies.com

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Halloween: The Shape of Change

By Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton

For forty years the Halloween franchise has been scaring the hell out of audiences around the globe. Now a familiar chill is back in the air. Leaves are being blown softly down our streets… the scent of pumpkin spice is tickling our senses; decorations are being hung, both ghastly and cute; and the world is prepping for yet another night of tricks, treats, and thankfully… unstoppable… “evil.”

Back in 1978 Dr. Samuel Loomis warned us about a six-year-old child with a blank, pale, emotionless face and… the blackest eyes. The devil’s eyes. This October death is once again ready to come home in the fashion of Blumhouse’s Halloween; and as we all steady ourselves for what’s to come, the fanbase has begun swirling with anticipation and questions. This new iteration of Michael Myers isn’t very new at all. In fact, he’s the same one who gave us nightmares back in ’78 as he pursued Laurie Strode through her Haddonfield neighborhood, and that’s where our story begins. Everything from 1981’s Halloween II to Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (2009) has been entered into the history books, which is where all of those events will continue to thrive and haunt for years to come.

This latest Halloween instead picks up the plotline from John Carpenter’s original conclusion. No longer is Laurie Michael’s sister apparently. Jamie Lloyd was never born. This Shape was never led by an infamous man in black. He’s retained his head and has never haunted the halls of his home while a film crew scrambled to cash in on the horrors of days gone by. Conal Cochran, however, may still have unleashed a living hell on earth thanks to some intricate Halloween masks filled with all manner of ghastly flesh-hungry creatures, thereby making Season of the Witch a truer continuation of events than it has ever been before. I mean, surely something happened during the decades between Michael’s escape and eventual reincarceration.

Change has always been a big part of the Halloween franchise as it’s the only horror yarn that spins constantly in different directions, fostering a host of blood-soaked threads that we as fans have been following for decades. In anticipation of the new installment, let’s untangle said routes and see where each film lies within the franchise.

Halloween (1978) connects directly to Halloween (2018).

Forty years have passed since Michael Myers stalked Laurie Strode that fateful night in Haddonfield. Both Strode and Myers have been lying in wait for each other, and their final showdown will surely be epic to say the least. Who knows where the franchise will go from here, but one thing’s for sure… we will all be watching, even if some of you will be looking through your fingers.

Halloween (1978) also connects to Halloween II (1981).

At the end of John Carpenter’s original classic, we see that Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis, has bested The Shape. You see, Loomis shot him six times. Once in the heart. But it turns out that didn’t stop Michael. Nothing can. As the events continue, Strode, who is identified as Michael’s sister, is transported to the local hospital; and Myers is hot on her tail. Strode escapes again, but it appears as if Loomis and Myers have met their end together. Myers is shot in both eyes and is then burned (what we thought to be) to death in an explosion.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) connects to no other films in the franchise.

With Michael Myers either dead or incarcerated (choose your own adventure), Halloween takes on a disturbing new vision with warlocks plotting the mass killing of children via Silver Shamrock Halloween masks. It should be noted that the 1978 film can be seen playing on television during Halloween III as a nod to what came before this. The reasoning behind Season of the Witch was that a new Halloween-themed tale would be spun each year. With no Myers to be found, the fans balked for decades. Now, however, the film has become much loved and stands as a testament to 80’s horror at its finest.

Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) connect directly to 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

The audience was heard loud and clear… we wanted our boogeyman back, and Halloween 4 does a fine job of bringing back the principals for another round of mayhem in Haddonfield. It’s ten years after the night of the massacre that left several teenagers dead, and we find out that both Loomis and Myers survived the inferno at Haddonfield Hospital. It’s revealed that Laurie Strode has passed on, but her seven-year-old daughter, Jamie, is alive and well and has been adopted by the Carruthers family. Upon learning of the existence of his niece during a transfer between the Richmond Mental Institute to Smith’s Grove, Myers rises from his coma to take care of family business. Thankfully for the Carruthers family, Loomis, the ever-vigilant Ahab of this twist on Moby Dick, is not far behind. Upon the film’s conclusion Myers is shot an innumerable amount of times, blasting him backward down a well. Both Jamie and her stepsister, Rachel, have survived the night, but not without incident. Jamie – in a mental break – takes up Michael’s mantle, proving that there’s just something in the blood.

Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers connect directly to Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

After the events of the previous year, Jamie finds herself, much like her uncle, locked up in a hospital surrounded by other troubled children. After falling into the well, which was dynamited to seal it shut, Myers is revealed to have been washed ashore in a bunker of sorts, where he was cared for by a vagrant and his pet parrot, Snookie. Once the calendar strikes Halloween, he’s up and at ‘em, once again on the hunt for his niece, after dispatching Rachel of course because Myers is nothing if not thorough. After some truly bloody events, Jamie makes her escape and Michael is jailed… but only temporarily. He’s soon busted out by a mysterious Man in Black who shares the same Thorn tattoo as Myers does. Could there be some other connection between the two? Of course there is!

Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers connect directly to Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers and Halloween 6: The Producer’s Cut.

Change has never been more prevalent within the franchise than it is with Halloween 6. Famously, there are indeed two versions of the sixth installment, and both bring the Jamie Lloyd (played here by J.C. Brandy instead of the much beloved Danielle Harris) story arc to a close early on. The Man in Black is revealed to be Smith’s Grove head honcho, Dr. Wynn (whom we first met briefly in Halloween 1978). Wynn is also the head of the Pagan cult that is now controlling Myers, with varying degrees of success depending on which version of the movie you’re watching. Both versions of Halloween 6 also mark the final appearance of the character of Dr. Sam Loomis, who was played masterfully by Donald Pleasence. The differences between the two cuts of the film are pretty striking. Those looking for a more mystical take on the character of The Shape would be best served by the Producer’s Cut, and those with a preference for slaughter will get more than enough of the red with the theatrical version. See? Change and choice can be a good thing!

Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) connect directly to 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

With the irreplaceable Pleasence no longer with us to play Loomis, it was time for The Shape to have a new Ahab. Who better to bring back than Laurie Strode herself? Twenty years after the night He came home, Strode is living under an assumed name along with her son and is the dean of a private school located in Northern California. It may have taken 20 years, but Myers finally catches up with her, leading to a goosebump-inducing battle between the two that will always remain an incredible crowd-pleaser.

Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later connect directly to Halloween: Resurrection.

Much like both versions of Halloween 6 did with their main character of Shapes gone by, the Laurie Strode story arc is ended very early on, and Myers is free to go back home and dispatch a whole new generation of victims… but there’s a twist! Thanks to an enterprising entrepreneur, the Myers house has been outfitted with cameras and taken online so that the world can join in on an investigation of it. This would be the last time this very familiar Michael Myers would be seen on screen as the series was about to have itself both a reboot and a rebirth.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween hits the reset button.

It was the dawn of a new time in the Halloween franchise as big changes were once again on the horizon for The Shape as Rob Zombie adds his distinct flavor to the character of Michael Myers. In this film we get to explore what makes Myers tick and eventually snap. After a time jump midway through the film, we find Myers as a new, hulking freight train of carnage that’s just waiting to be unleashed; and once he breaks his chains, all hell breaks out with him. The second half of Zombie’s film reveres what Carpenter had originally created, and all the pieces were firmly in place for this new Shape’s saga to continue.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween connects directly to Rob Zombie’s Halloween II.

Unlike the original Halloween II, which picks up the action immediately after the first film, a year has passed since Myers would once again begin his deadly pursuit of his sister, Laurie. Zombie expands on the world he’s built with his first film in every conceivable way and in the process delivers an extreme and unique spin on the horrors of Haddonfield. This Myers is not only haunted, but he’s also enormous, chaotic, and as brutal as can be. Zombie’s Halloween II will probably remain the most violent entry into this storied and multi-faceted franchise.

And with that, this history lesson is officially over. One franchise that is home to five distinctive storylines and worlds. Blumhouse is set to deliver its own spin on Halloween by ignoring everything that transpired after the original 1978 film. Forty years have passed, and now Laurie is back, as is Myers. But this Shape is of no relation to her. This Shape is nothing but pure, driven evil. The kind that had Sam Loomis frightened and desperate beyond words. The horrors that began on Lampkin Lane in 1963 are about to begin again. Despite the quintet of plots, one thing has always remained the same: Death is once again coming to a little town, and it can’t… no, it WON’T… be ignored.

My Favorite Horror Movie: Our Editor-in-Chief on John Carpenter’s Halloween

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With director David Gordon Green’s 2018 feature Halloween fast approaching, we thought it time to further celebrate John Carpenter’s 1978 classic of the same name via a series of essays on the subject.

Culled from the 2018 Amazon best-selling book My Favorite Horror Movie, which features 48 essays by horror creators on the films which shaped them (from Fangoria’s revered Michael Gingold to Contracted star Matt Mercer, and beyond), these essays will be published bi-weekly here at HalloweenMovies.com leading up to the October 19th release of the series’ latest chapter, in an effort to explore just why 40 years later, The Shape still terrifies.

First up, the essay which I contributed to the book, and an insight into why this once Star Wars-obsessed kid jumped out of light speed and put down stakes in Haddonfield.

HALLOWEEN
by
SEAN JAMES DECKER

In October of 1978, like most eight-year-old American boys of the time, and well before it would become a hip moniker to attach to one’s self, I was I suppose what people would consider a “film nerd.” I inherited this gene from my father, who had spent his own adolescence religiously attending matinees at the Bayview Theatre in San Francisco, ingesting a steady stream of serials, cartoons and 1950s sci-fi, horror and westerns, which he then imparted to me via network (at the time, we hadn’t yet purchased that very expensive new thing called a videocassette recorder) and local television, the latter portal consisting primarily of horror host Bob Wilkins’ KTVU show Creature Features. (A year later, I’d go on to innocently hold hands with my first girlfriend, the daughter of John Stanley, the latter who had taken over hosting duties of the show: she soon broke up with me for my obsession with her father and his extensive horror collection, but that is another story).

As much as my own father was excited to share with me the films he’d grown up on, from Universal’s classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon to that wonderful giant ant film Them!, he was also as equally concerned at guarding my innocence. When George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead made its television premiere on Wilkins’ show, I wasn’t allowed to watch it, although my parents were more than happy to take me to multiple screenings of Star Wars, and to support my interest in all things pop culture related via subscriptions to Marvel Comics titles (I remember fondly the brown paper mailing sleeves they’d arrive in), a million Legos bricks, Mego Dolls (I wonder whatever happened to my glow-in-the-dark Human Wolfman), Hardy Boys books, and much, much more.

R-rated horror films though? They were strictly off the table, no matter how I pleaded.

That was until my father’s dad (who I referred to as “Papa,” as we all did), who I spent every other weekend with, often flying the skies above Half Moon Bay in his Cessna when not attending Saturday Mass or the San Francisco Zoo, offered to take me to see a revival screening of 1974’s Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla, playing in a single screen movie house in the city. Gleefully, I took the street car with him to the theatre for some kaiju G-rated fare, and arriving early, he bought us both popcorn and Cokes and suggested we sit down to watch the end of whatever was playing in anticipation of the Big G’s onscreen arrival.

And it was then that my life was forever changed.

In that darkened theatre and through my boyhood fingers, raised in an effort to shield my eyes from the utter terror which was unfolding before them, I watched as a plucky young girl named Laurie crossed a tree-lined street before entering a structure similarly darkened. Up the stairs she went, and fearfully I went with her, into a dimly-lit bedroom where a woman lay splayed out dead on a mattress, a flickering jack-o-lantern next to her and a tombstone above with the inscription “Judith Myers” cut into it. And soon other things would also be cut into, by a methodical, shambling shape with a massive butcher knife, who stalked our unfortunate heroine from room to room and house to house, and who while seemingly in the finale was brought down by gunfire by an elderly man in a trench coat with a curious penchant for scaring trick or treaters, would ultimately disappear into the very night, and into my very psyche.

Silent. Unstoppable. Ghostly. For me, without context, and now existing behind every fence in my suburban neighborhood. As for the following screening of director Jun Fukada’s Godzilla film? I don’t recall it. What I do recall are the nightmares scored by that 10/8 piano composition that plagued me in the ensuing weeks, of which I’d wake from, drenched in sweat and screaming, comforted by my concerned parents who were none too happy that my grandfather had taken me to, “That Halloween movie” (they themselves made a trip to the theatre shortly thereafter, more than likely in an attempt to understand what emotional trauma their previously unsullied son had endured).

Marvel Comics didn’t interest me much after that, although EC Comics did. And while I was certainly excited to see the follow-up to that Star Wars movie, I was more thrilled to watch the slasher flicks on Laserdisc which one of my schoolyard chum’s father had amassed (a format now primarily residing in landfills alongside that Bakelite phone which Michael used to strangle Lynda Van Der Klok), when we were left to our own devices. Sean Cunningham’s gory take on Halloween, Friday the 13th, was one of them, but in my mind, nothing could compare to the sheer ferocity of Carpenter’s film.

I was hooked, and it was merely the beginning. Unbeknownst to my parents, Curtis Richards’ novelization was hidden beneath my mattress (I still have that paperback, dog-eared and rag-tag from countless readings), and while I was allowed to see the television cut of Halloween when it premiered on NBC in 1981, I had to sneak into a theatre to see Carpenter’s follow-up, Halloween II, that same month. Thrilling, yes, but for me even then, it failed to replicate the visceral, German Expressionism-influenced elegance of the original (not that I knew what German Expressionism was at the time, or a Panaglide for that matter).

That first iconic film, written in just ten days and shot for a mere $320,000, featuring a killer in a modified William Shatner mask purchased for a buck ninety-eight at Bert Wheeler’s now defunct magic shop on Hollywood Boulevard, coupled with my parents’ encouragement of my early interest in writing, would lead to just that, from my beginnings as an editor two decades later at Universal Studios’ Horror Online, to eight years as a writer at the beloved Fangoria, to a decade of journalism at Dread Central, with a few produced films and screenplays peppered throughout.

As for Halloween and my continued fascination with it, over the course of my career I’ve had the distinct honor of meeting Carpenter himself, as well as that young, plucky babysitter, and the knife-wielding madman who assailed her. In fact, in my possession at the time of this writing is a vintage Lamson butcher knife, signed by all three. (Curtis’ written-in-Sharpie signature and message of “Happy Halloween” is still to me is as surreal as the moment in which she signed it, although no more so than when John did the same in his living room, while allowing me to prattle on to him about his film’s resonance, as if he were unaware). And in 2015, and in an interesting turn of events, I nearly portrayed the iconic killer in a proposed San Diego Comic Con teaser for filmmaker Marcus Dunstan’s aborted Dimension feature, Halloween Returns.

Why me, you ask? Because as Dunstan was gleefully aware, for the past half a decade, each year on Halloween, I’ve donned a custom-made, screen quality jumpsuit and mask, and to the delight and often sheer terror of those evening’s trick or treaters, stalked Orange Grove Avenue in West Hollywood: the very street which Laurie traversed on the flickering screen in that San Francisco cinema so many years ago before my terrified, eight-year-old eyes.

After all, everyone’s still entitled to one good scare.

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TAKEN FROM THE BOOK
MY FAVORITE HORROR MOVIE
© 2018 CHRISTIAN ACKERMAN/BLACK VORTEX CINEMA
MYFAVORITEHORRORMOVIE.COM

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Trancas International Films or any other agency, organization, employer or company.