Halloween

*"families. children. all lined up in rows. up and down these streets. you're telling me they're lined up for a slaughterhouse?" *over the course of my life there has been almost no piece of media that has impacted me quite like the Halloween franchise. sure, i've had my favorite games and bands and films and they've all done their part in shaping me into who i am today, but there never has and never will be anything like Michael Myers in my life. so here's a love letter to not only Halloween, but the slasher genre as a whole. the medium of horror is something i had always held in high regards. there were no shortage of horror films that transported me to an unreal world and showed me something about the human psyche i hadn't realized before, particularly David Cronenberg and George Romero. however, in my life, the slasher genre had always been one that felt underrepresented. they were simply dumb movies to waste an hour and a half with and that you would riff on for being so bad with your friends and while this is a staple of why film as entertainment works so well, it had taught me to look down on the genre as nothing but CinemaSins content without any substance. it didn't help that the classic slasher villians such as Freddy Kreuger, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees had fallen into the clutches of the blockbuster pop culture landscape. yknow the kind of 80's movies that people in their mid-30's lose their minds over due to pure nostalgia so all Walmart shelves are stocked with merchandise for grown men to gawk over like 8-year-olds. this general blockbuster franchise feel turned me off even further as i didn't want to stoop to the low that i was surrounded by in my home life. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre opened my eyes to the glory of true horror filmmaking. i had never experienced horror, disgust, or discomfort like this in my entire life. and it was a slasher...with no blood! the camerawork, the sound design, the characters, the set design. everything was so perfect i had not only found my new favorite horror film, but a newfound respect for a genre i had put on the backburner for so long. i had fallen in love with leatherface as a character and i was itching for more. so i decided it was time to check out the first Halloween film. John Carpenter's "Halloween" no doubt deserves all of the praise it gets. it is simply some of the best horror filmmaking ever. Dean Cudney's cinematography is unmatched and he would continue to use his talents up until Halloween 3 to make every shot beautifully composed and perfectly tense. the lighting in Halloween is just beautiful. when it's daytime and there's a false sense of ease, the neighborhood is lit up beautifully by the comforting sun. when Laurie and Annie are driving theres a lens flare that looks so amazing in 4k i could hardly contain myself. just like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the film is not big on blood as it doesn't have to be to illicit the terror and suspense it needs from the audience. the film is a masterclass of suspense and it demands your attention. it's a harrowing commentary on suburbia and the false sense of security that comes with conformity and middle-class life. children are entertained by stories of the boogeyman, and every town has their dark tale, but the houses lined up in rows and white picket fences aren't enough to stop them when they come to your little town. the true staple of Halloween that captivated me and consumed my days, however, was Michael Myers himself. Michael Myers is unlike most classic slasher villians. he isn't some supernatural monster that lurks in dreams or the camp lake. he's a human, but even that might be too much. Myers is the living, breathing physical manifestation of pure evil. he is a vessel of pure hatred, violence, and sadism that stalks Laurie's little town with one goal in mind. murder. there is no humanity behind the cold, black eyes that his mask hides. behind those eye holes is pure darkness. a lack of all human convention but the insatiable urge to draw blood. this seemingly truly inhumane portrayal of a person captured my attention and intrigued me. this killer had piqued my interest, and an obsession was born. i quickly watched all of the Halloween films and while after a while, Michael Myers, like his contemporaries, had become pop culture icons and their films had turned into blockbusters. movies to fill butts in seats, and so the quality and care drastically declined over time. i didn't care though. i just wanted more of it. by Halloween 6, Michael Myers had become a cult leader and was connected go ancient rituals involving Halloween sky runes. it was a complete bastardization of everything the original had stood for, and i hated every minute of it, but i still wanted more. the slasher genre i has disregarded so heavily had become my muse and it consumed my every waking moment. Rob Zombie is worth mentioning as his remakes of the franchise are considered awful and even worse than...whatever the hell Halloween 6 is supposed to be...and i couldn't disagree more. Rob Zombie turned the world of Halloween on its head and focused in on the origins of evil and trauma. while this sounds like something i'd be opposed to considering i love Michael Myers for his depravity of all human qualities, i believe Zombie's take on the character is wonderful. Zombie takes Carpenter's tame approach to violence and creates the most viscerally disgusting horror imaginable. with every instance of harm Michael inflicts, you feel it. every stab, every slam, every punch. it feels raw and it feels angry. it's nauseating. Zombie's humanization of Myers makes the deconstruction of any humanity when he begins killing just that much more brutal. there truly feels like the only thing left in the little boy from Haddonfield is hate and bloodlust. he is visibly emotional with his killings and with every stab is a release. a grunt of pure evil. not to mention Rob Zombie's "Halloween 2" has one of the greatest depictions of trauma in any film i've ever seen. Zombie acknowledges the lack of characterization in slasher films, especially their sequels. he examines what happens after the classic. when the cameras turn off, the characters don't go away, the pain never goes away. Laurie Strode isn't back to courageously braving Myers' stampeding like she is in the original Halloween 2, in the 2009 remake, she's left broken and traumatized. Myers' hatred and rage is boosted 10 fold and some of the most graphic violence imaginable is displayed head-on to prove it. his hatred is real, as is Laurie's trauma. Rob Zombie did a beautiful job with his interpretation of the franchise and its characters and helped contribute to my love of the franchise immensely. Michael Myers is much more than a fun slasher killer to me. he and his film franchise have shown me the true beauty of the slasher genre and the characterization of villians. i've learned so much about the human condition, filmmaking, and characterization from this one masked boy who murdered his sister in cold blood on Halloween night, 1963. my obsession with this franchise is something that has shaped me as a writer and a lover of film. i've learned to appreciate and love all aspects of the filmmaking medium, as every filmmaker is able to put an extension of themselves into their work and create a world like no other. it's truly a remarkable thing and i have John Carpenter's "Halloween" and it's many sequels, remakes, and insufferable reboots to thank for it.* *