Halloween Created Many Icons in Horror Culture.
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Halloween also affected general pop culture and created the rules of horror, the scream queen and Michael Myers. John Carpenter arose as a cinematic genius.
Review by: BHM Editor Don Sumner
October 26, 2006
Buy on Amazon
Release: 1978
Written and Directed by: John Carpenter
Also written by: Debra Hill
Starring:
Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode
Nancy Loomis as Annie Brackett
Late one Halloween night, while, his parents were away for the evening, young Michael Myers witnessed his oldest sister Judy being "naughty" with her boyfriend on the living room couch, and later in her bedroom. Even though Michael was a mere 6 years old, he already had a heart that was later described as "pure evil". He crept into the kitchen and selected a large carving knife from a drawer, and then made his way upstairs to his sister's room after the boyfriend had left. Along the way he saw a clown mask on the floor and donned the mask as he continued into Judy's bedroom, where she was sitting nude at a vanity brushing her hair.
Without hesitating for a moment young Michael approached his sister and violently stabbed her repeatedly until she was dead.
Michael's parents returned home to find their costumed son standing on the front lawn, a bloody knife in his hand and a blank look on his face. Thus begins the saga of the horror monster Michael Myers.
Fifteen years later, after existing in a state of near comatose silence in an insane asylum, Michael escaped. His purpose is unknown but the potentially catastrophic result of Michael's freedom is recognized by his long-time Psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis.
Loomis will stop at nothing to track Michael down and put him away forever, but he is too late. Michael embarks on a spree of carnage that would amount to 10 dead and one scarred forever - that scarred teenager is Laurie Strode .
Inexplicably the 17 year old Laurie Strode became a target for Michael's murderous rampage, and she will not escape with her life unless Dr. Loomis can find Michael in time.
Halloween is responsible for defining the modern slasher horror genre. It is in this film that many of the "rules of horror" are laid down: If you walk outside in your panties (and are a young lovely) you will die, if you have sex you will die, if you do drugs you will die - and if you turn your back on the horror monster that you think that you have killed, he will miraculously come back to life and attack you anew.
Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th further developed the "rules of horror", but at his core he is a knock-off of the original modern slasher Michael Myers. Often referred to as "The Shape" (and wearing a mask that was actually a Halloween mask of William Shatner with the eye-holes cut a bit bigger), Michael Myers is the definitive horror movie monster and Halloween a classic that will endure for as long as Horror Freaks exist.
And Laurie Strode? She remains the ultimate horror movie hero. Jamie Lee Curtis screamed her way through many classic horror movies to earn the title of "the scream queen" (The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train and others), but it all began with a little film made for about 375K called Halloween. Thank you, John Carpenter. Questions or comments about Halloween? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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