Every year the closer we get to Halloween, the more excited I get. The reason being is that I get to watch all the horribly made scary Halloween themed movies out there. Growing up in my family, this was a tradition. When I was younger I mainly watch ABC's 13 nights of Halloween, as well as Disney's corny Halloween movies. I'd have to say one of my most watched movie series were the Halloweentown series on Disney Channel. They were the best, unfortunately the fourth installment had a new actress playing the main lead, Marnie Piper. Although they were good, corny Halloween movies, they were not my favorite.
My favorite Halloween film series would have to be Halloween produced by John Carpenter. Say hello to the big and scary Michael Myers in 1978.
The first film made it's debut in 1978 starring Jamie Lee Curtis, followed by seven installments, and two remakes. The first film opens up with 6 year old Michael stabbing his sister. Since the age of six he has been committed to an insane aslyum for life. Fifteen years later he breaks out and starts to stalk local high school student, Laurie Strode. Over the course of the film the main story focuses on Laurie and her fear of being stalked. The other story of the film focuses on Michael's psychiatrist and his pursuit to find Michael. On the final night in the movie, Laurie is babysitting one of the kids in her neighborhood, Tommy Doyle. Laurie's best friend is also babysitting across the street. We see Michael lurking in the neighborhood, and eventually he kills Laurie's best friend, Annie. He then kills Laurie's other friend, Lynda. Finally Michael makes it into the house Laurie is in. After her stabbing Michael in the chest multiple times, he somehow still lives and keeps attacking her, finally his psychiatrist comes in shooting him, making him fall off the two story balcony. When Laurie and the psychiatrist look over the balcony, Michael is missing.
Now don't get me wrong, these movies are some of my favorites, the best to watch around the Halloween season. However there are some things that I have notice, and tick me off a little. For starters, why can't Michael ever die? We see him get stabbed multiple times, he has gotten shot too many times to count, and at one point his full body catches on fire. I wish the story would establish, is he some kind of monster who can't die? Because he is simply human, which I'm assuming he is being that he was six years old and grew up like any other child, that is not humanely possible. No human can get stabbed in the chest, neck, back, shot, set on fire, and be completely okay without medical care.
Another thing that bothered me is that they never really established a solid reason for Michael originally killing his sister. And after they have have the psychiatrist describe his time with Michael, his diagnoses is: "He's purely evil." I'm sorry I do not buy it. The reason is not strong enough. There must be some kind of explanation. For example does he have some kind of mental illness? They state that he's simply insane, but how did he become insane? Another thing I questioned was, does he have some vendetta against people? Why did he start stalking Laurie? What significance did Laurie have to Michael? Did he just pick the first person he saw?
Maybe I'm just being picky, but these little things do count for something. They help people understand the story more. But then again, the average viewer is probably just going to see this movie to get scared and see the gory scenes. Where as a film student like myself, I'm questioning the small details, the details that someone else might find insignificant.
Anyway, I do love these film series, they are a great choice to watch for the Halloween season. Some other great picks are IT, with Pennywise the clown, Nightmare on Elm Street, and even Friday the 13th. All of these movies will definitely scare you, or atleast make you nervous when you go to sleep later that night. Happy Halloween
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