John Carpenter's Halloween

The First Ever Officially Licensed Halloween Pinball Game Has Sold Out

July 8, 2021 by Sean Decker

You can’t kill the Boogeyman! As we first teased on our socials, the first ever officially licensed Halloween Pinball Machine has arrived from Compass International Pictures and Spooky Pinball, and it sold out instantly!

Featuring artwork Jason Edminston, audio clips from the original 1978 film (and some brand new ones from star PJ Soles) and incredible detail (including triple upper playfields, a Judith Myers tombstone ball lock, the iconic Halloween pumpkin sculpt and so much more), the officially licensed Halloween pinball machine was limited to just 1,250 masterful units, spread out over three editions – Collector’s, Blood Sucker and Standard, and they sold out in approximately two hours, a record by any stretch in this industry.

Take a look at the video and photos below for a look.

Officially Licensed 3.75” Halloween Action Figures Coming from Fright Rags!

April 28, 2021 by Sean Decker

We’re excited to say that our friends over at Fright Rags have announced a pre-sale for brand new, officially licensed, 3.75” pocket-sized action figures of Laurie, Lynda & Michael Myers from John Carpenter’s immortal classic Halloween, and pre-sale starts today, 4/28 at 10am, EDT!

Will there be more characters to come?

From Fright Rags:

The figures will be available to pre-order from WED-TUES 7-DAYS ONLY starting this WEDNESDAY April 28 at 10am EDT thru TUESDAY May 4 at 11:59pm EDT. At that point they will be removed from our site and we will produce the figures ordered. They are an OPEN EDITION which means that we may do another run in the future, but not any time soon (especially if we release a potential second series of more characters)… so order ’em while you can!
–
Important: The figures will ship FALL/WINTER 2021. Notifications will be sent out as we get closer to the ship date.
–
This is an officially licensed HALLOWEEN product created in collaboration with Compass International Pictures, Inc. and made exclusively for Fright-Rags, Inc. by #PlasticMeatball. Backer card artwork by #JustinOsbourn.

Note: The figures shown above are painted prototypes. Final figures may differ. Check out the figure card proofs below!

My Favorite Horror Movie: Michael Gingold on John Carpenter’s Halloween

October 15, 2018 by HalloweenMovies

With 1978’s Halloween currently in theaters (the film returned to cinemas 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 (from our own Editor-in-Chief Sean Decker to Contracted star Matt Mercer and beyond), they serve to explore just why 40 years later, The Shape still terrifies.

In our final essay from the book, horror luminary Michael Gingold digs deep into Haddonfield.

HALLOWEEN
by
MICHAEL GINGOLD

All through my preteen years, I couldn’t handle horror films. I was that kid who was freaked out by scary stuff. Forget watching through my fingers; I would actually stand while viewing genre flicks on TV, just in case they got to be too much and I had to run from the room. I was a big fan of Godzilla and similar monster movies, but the harder-core stuff—even the ones that were rated PG—was too intimidating. I did want to see Jaws when it first hit theaters just because I was so into sharks at the time, though the “May be too intense for younger children” note on the ads forestalled that possibility.

Things began to change around the time I turned twelve. I went to see Invasion of the Body Snatchers with my family and made it through unscathed (though today, I’m stunned it got away with a PG rating). Through the following spring and summer, I began getting curious about horror, and seeing a few of the R-rated examples—like Phantasm and Alien—along with Jaws, finally. They all had the desired effect, and I hid my eyes during Phantasm’s silver sphere scene and Alien’s chest-burster. Still, I began not only getting comfortable with being frightened by film, but enjoying the sensation—the natural high it created. My intrigue was fueled by a cover story in Newsweek called “Hollywood’s Scary Summer,” and the emergence of a new magazine called Fangoria (which featured my old friend Godzilla on the front of its first issue). And later in 1979, I saw the movie that made me love being scared.

I was vaguely familiar with John Carpenter’s Halloween, having seen a television ad or two when it first opened in October 1978. At that time, a newspaper-workers’ strike had shut down The New York Times, the paper in our household, so I didn’t read much about the movie then; in fact, I read more about it during a family vacation to England in the summer of ’79, when it had opened in the UK to lots of positive attention. Back then, however, before the video market took over, popular movies were rereleased all the time within a year or so of their initial openings, and so it was with Halloween, which returned to theaters in October ’79. That’s when I first saw it, and I didn’t know what hit me.

Never mind the now-classic opening single-take shot from young Michael Myers’ point of view; the damn music frightened me before the film proper even started. Carpenter’s simple but chilling 5/4-time theme had my hackles raised within the first minute, and the movie had me in its grip from then on. I don’t recall if I screamed out loud, but my grandmother, who took me to the movie (my parents just weren’t into the horror stuff), was genuinely concerned afterward at how frightened I had been.

She needn’t have worried. I had indeed been scared half to death by Halloween, more than by anything I’d ever watched before, and yet I had found it exhilarating. It was a huge change in the way I experienced movies. A year before, I had barely been able to take a made-for-TV schlocker like Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell; now, a movie that was originally advertised with the tagline “When were you last scared out of your wits by a movie?” had completely lived up to that promise—and I enjoyed the hell out of it. (The reissue ads, conversely, were stocked with laudatory quotes from critics. Contrary to popular belief, Halloween attracted a number of positive reviews from the start; one of my favorite excerpts—I can’t recall the source now—was “It’ll scare the seeds out of your pumpkin.”)

Part of the reason Halloween was so effective was that it literally got me where I lived. I grew up in exactly the kind of suburban town where Michael comes home to do his dirty work, and what makes the scenes between his prologue slaying of his sister and his All Hallows’ Eve rampage work so well is how ordinary, and thus relatable, they are. There’s nothing special about Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie and her friends, nor are they the hopped-up sex and party monsters of so many subsequent slasher films; they’re just typical teenage girls with typical teenage concerns. Producer and co-scripter Debra Hill reportedly wrote most of the heroines’ dialogue, and demonstrated a remarkable skill at capturing the tone and tenor with which young women conversed—not to mention that Lynda’s (P.J. Soles) favorite expression “totally” anticipated Frank and Moon Zappa’s hit song “Valley Girl” by four years.

Once we’ve gotten to know our central trio, along with young Tommy (Brian Andrews), whose dread of Halloween and “the boogeyman” helps amplify our own, Carpenter tightens the screws with merciless precision, demonstrating a remarkable handle on composition, framing and pacing. Even as I was caught up in Laurie and co.’s escalating fright, Halloween was the first time I was aware that a movie was directed, and I was able to admire Carpenter’s craft at the same time it was holding me in a death grip.

I became an instant Carpenter fan, eagerly anticipating each new film from the director (I didn’t have to wait long; The Fog debuted only five months later). I reviewed Halloween for my junior-high-school newspaper; one of the first pieces of criticism I ever wrote. I attempted to teach myself Carpenter’s Halloween theme on the family piano, and almost mastered it. I read Curtis Richards’ novelization and was puzzled by why the author felt it necessary to throw in the distracting backstory about Samhain (if only I knew…).

And when Halloween II opened in 1981, three friends and I went on Halloween night. This was back before sequels and franchise pictures had taken over the movie scene the way they have now. We weren’t dutifully catching the latest entry in an established series, we were getting more Halloween! The entire audience was primed for it, and we all responded with screams and laughs at the right places, shouted advice to Jamie Lee Curtis and “Shut up!” when that dumb cop says something stupid during the climactic action. Some consider Halloween II unworthy of its predecessor, but I’ll probably never be able to judge it objectively, because seeing it that first time was one of the best moviegoing experiences of my life. Part of the thrill was that we all went in costume, figuring the disguises would help our 14 and 15-year-old selves get into this R-rated movie without a parent or adult guardian, and we were right; seeing it unchaperoned was part of the excitement.

In the years since, I’ve seen hundreds (thousands?) of horror films, but none will ever hold the place in my heart that Halloween does. Halloween was the movie that crept into my psyche and unlocked that area where the fascination with the dark, scary and unknown resides. It transformed me from a casual fan of fright cinema to a passionate follower of the genre – just at the right time, when horror had its explosion of popularity in the very late ’70s and early ’80s. It was the film that I held all subsequent scare films up against. And it led me to a career in the horror field, fulfilling the dream that Halloween first inspired. One of my proudest achievements is the 8,000-word-plus history of the cinematic Michael Myers saga that I wrote for the booklet accompanying Shout! Factory and Anchor Bay’s Halloween: The Complete Collection deluxe Blu-ray boxed set. (On the other hand, when I took a gig scripting a very-low-budget movie called Halloween Night, my attempt to honor Carpenter’s legacy was completely stymied by the execution.)

I’ve seen Halloween countless times since that first viewing back in ’79, and while it doesn’t frighten me now like it did back then, I am still in thrall to what a relentlessly well-crafted film it is. To me, it’s one of those perfect movies, one that doesn’t have a wasted moment, in which all the elements click together perfectly. From the performances to the music to Dean Cundey’s mobile cinematography, which draws us right into the action (though it does not, as commonly thought, take Michael’s point of view at any point after his childhood prologue), every part of Halloween works in concert toward one goal: To terrify you, to leave you shaking when it’s over, yet to make you feel elated rather than worn down. Halloween did that to my 12-year-old self better than any other movie has since, and that’s why it remains my favorite horror movie.

_ _ _

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

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.

Win Tickets to Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood & Orlando From HalloweenMovies.com!

September 20, 2018 by Sean Decker

We’ve got four pairs of tickets to give away, courtesy of Halloween Horror Nights and HalloweenMovies.com, and they could be yours! Read on for details on how to win.

With Halloween Horror Nights in full swing at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando theme parks, as well as the Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers mazes in both, The Shape continues his much buzzed-about return to Haddonfield in 2018.

To celebrate it, as well as the exciting re-release of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween in theaters worldwide on September 27, 2018 (from CineLife Entertainment, Compass International Pictures and Trancas International Films), we’ve got FOUR PAIRS of general admission tickets to Halloween Horror Nights to give away to a quartet of our lucky readers.

How to win? It’s simple.

Just follow HalloweenMovies on Twitter at @HalloweenMovies here and retweet our announcement of the re-release of Carpenter’s Halloween here (and make sure to include the hashtags #HalloweenMovie AND either #HHNHollywood or #HHNOrlando in your retweet, specifying which park you’d like to attend).

We’ll be watching, and from those who’ve followed, retweeted and hashtagged correctly, four people will be randomly selected and notified via Twitter, with each receiving a pair of tickets for the date and park of their choice via USPS First Class mail!

It’s that easy, because after all, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.

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

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

Contest details:
– Winners will be notified October, 1, 2018 via Twitter. US Residents only.
– This event may be too intense for young children and is not recommended for children under the age of 13.
– Tickets may not be copied, transferred or resold, and are nonrefundable.
– Tickets valid on selected date only. Event occurs rain or shine. No refunds. Ticket cannot be combined with other offers, separately ticketed events, discounts, or per capita sightseeing tours.
– The person using this ticket assumes all risk of personal injury and loss of property.

Halloween: The Shape of Change

August 28, 2018 by Steve Barton

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

_____________

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

August 24, 2018 by HalloweenMovies

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.

_ _ _

Update: Halloween 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Artwork & Release Date

August 21, 2018 by Sean Decker

UPDATED 8/21/2018: In a follow-up to our announcement last month of Lionsgates’ upcoming September 25^th, 2018 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray) re-release of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween, here’s word on the discs’ specs, as well as a brand new trailer celebrating the re-release.

Audio Commentary with Writer/Director John Carpenter and Actor Jamie Lee Curtis
“The Night She Came Home” Featurette
“On Location: 25 Years Later” Featurette
TV Version Footage
Trailer
TV Spots
Radio Spots

Original Story:

In recent days the internet’s been abuzz with rumors of an upcoming new 4K Ultra HD transfer of John Carpenter’s classic film Halloween, and we here at HalloweenMovies can now confirm them to be true, with the below exclusive first look at the artwork of the Lionsgate re-release.

Due out September 25th, 2018 in Canada and the US, the Lionsgate re-release is currently available for pre-order via Amazon.com

On the heels of the disc’s debut, the next film in the iconic franchise, director and writer David Gordon Green’s similarly titled 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.

Living Dead Dolls Presents Michael Myers – Mezco Toyz

May 31, 2018 by HalloweenMovies

Straight out of the 1978 John Carpenter film ‘Halloween’, The Living Dead Dolls present Michael Myers. “The Shape”, as he’s referenced in the film, has become one of the most recognizable icons of modern horror.

Nothing but darkness pierces through the all-new face sculpt of Michael’s expressionless white mask. Featuring rooted hair and presented in his film-accurate blue coveralls, the terror of Haddonfield comes equipped with his signature kitchen knife accessory.

The Living Dead Dolls Presents Michael Myers stands 10” tall and features 5 points of articulation. He is packaged in a die-cut window box, perfect for display and containing the pure evil within.

Pre-Order Yours Today

The One: 12 Collective Michael Myers Halloween Figure

November 6, 2017 by HalloweenMovies

One of the most screen accurate Michael Myers figures from John Carpenter’s Halloween is now available now for pre-order from MezcoToyz.

In October 1978 a new film called Halloween introduced the world to seemingly unstoppable masked killer Michael Myers and launched a franchise that would span five decades.

With his soulless eyes peering from his expressionless mask, “The Shape” as he is referenced in the film, has become one of the most recognizable icons of modern horror

Features:

The One:12 Collective Michael Myers Halloween figure features a film accurate sculpt and coveralls as well as an alternate head with affixed ghost sheet and glasses to recreate the infamous “mistaken identity” scene in the film. The figure also comes equipped with both bloody and clean knives as well as a light-up Jack O’ Lantern.

A One:12 Collective body accurately depicting the character’s physical build.
Two (2) head portraits.
Over 30 points of articulation
Hand painted authentic detailing
Over 15cm tall
Eight (8) interchangeable hands including:
- One (1) pair of fists (L&R)
- One (1) pair of posing hands style #1 (L&R)
- One (1) pair of posing hands style #2 (L&R)
- One (1) upward knife holding hand (R)
- One (1) downward knife holding hand (R)

Costume:

Film accurate coveralls
Removable Ghost sheet with period glasses (permanently affixed to 2nd head portrait)
Sculpted boots

Accessories:

One (1) Jack O’ Lantern with light-up feature
One (1) clean knife
One (1) bloody knife
One (1) Judith Myers tombstone
One (1) One:12 Collective display base with logo
One (1) One:12 Collective adjustable display post

The One: 12 Collective Michael Myers Halloween Figure is scheduled to ship next summer

Pre-Order Yours Today