Welcome to the Attic, where we celebrate the night that he came home.

His name is Michael Myers. It is only fitting that I write about THE Halloween movie this week. Most people call Psycho the Grandfather of horror films, because simply put, it is. However, Halloween is what put slashers on a more modern-day map, and started a booming genre that continues today. Without this film we wouldn’t have seen the slew of horror flicks that followed, such as Friday the 13th and My Bloody Valentine.

Halloween had a very limited budget of $320,000. yet became one of the most profitable low-budget releases ever. It really shows that sometimes simplicity is the best recipe to get people good and scared. A lack of blood and guts usually leads to the scariest of films. The antagonist doesn’t have to be someone that is over-the-top like Freddy Krueger, or be as gruesome as Jason Voorhees.

Film distributor Irwin Yablans was the man behind the original idea. He was planning on making a slasher film set around the lives of babysitters, knowing how relatable that would be. In trying to pick the right setting, Halloween popped into his head. Upon searching the history of movies, he was pleasantly surprised to see that not one had ever so much as used the word “Halloween” in a title. It’s odd looking back and learning that no one had yet created a horror movie set on the most scary day of the year, but that missed opportunity by others led to his idea becoming reality.

When it came to the right director, Irwin went to a young John Carpenter. Having worked together before it seemed an obvious choice of Yablans’, as he already knew how talented this young filmmaker was. Carpenter agreed, but only under two conditions. He wanted to get his name above the title, and to have full creative control over the film. He bartered this even more by touting he could make it for $300,000, would do the music himself, and could film it all in four weeks.

After getting the nod, and the investment of Moustapha Akkad, Carpenter teamed up with Debra Hill to write the script. With a title and premise given to them already, they were able to get it written in three weeks, and decided to set it in fictional Haddonfield, Illinois.

As for the casting, Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of Psycho’s Janet Leigh, was approached to play Laurie Strode. While she was more into playing one of the other, more popular girls, she saw a great opportunity in being the lead, and accepted the offer.

Dr. Sam Loomis was actually named after Janet Leigh’s boyfriend in Hitchcock’s Psycho, a classic which Carpenter claims was the biggest inspiration for Halloween. Casting Loomis wasn’t as easy. Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were approached to play the doctor, and both turned it down. Debra Hill has said that many years later Christopher went to her and said that turning that role down was the biggest mistake of his career. They then went after Donald Pleasence, of whom Carpenter had been a fan for many years. They had to increase the budget a bit, but he accepted.

They still needed a mask for “the shape” and went to a local store. What stood out most was a terrible, expressionless mask of William Shatner. They saw a great opportunity in the lifeless face, and decided to alter it. They messed up the hair a bit, cut the eyes to be a big larger and rounder, removed the eyebrows, and spray-painted it a stark white. What they ended up with was the iconic face of Michael Myers that is recognizable even by those that have never seen the films.

Carpenter’s former USC classmate and upcoming filmmaker Nick Castle asked if he could stop by the set and watch the process, as he wanted the experience. John told him if he wanted to just hang around why not play the part of Michael Myers, so he agreed. Being paid $25 a day wasn’t much, but he did it brilliantly. When he asked the director what his main motivation was, Carpenter told him his objective was to walk from one place to another. It was this simplistic approach that led to the most sinister of slasher kings. My favorite scene of Myers, and the epitome of his character, is the shot where he pins Linda’s boyfriend to the wall with a knife. He cocks his head to the side and curiously looks at the man he’s just killed like he’s eyeing a painting for the first time. This was the only direction he was given to actually do something, and that restraint through the filming shows the genius behind Carpenter’s vision for Myers.

Cast and crew all pitched in together in the making of the film. It was a very unique environment, with relatives and friends even coming by to help pitch in. It has been mentioned that even Jamie Lee Curtis was seen carrying things around set and helping out. With the limited budget they had to cut corners where they could. Filming in the spring in southern California, they didn’t have access to countless fall leaves that would be expected in Illinois at this time of year. Their remedy for this was to bag up fall leaves that they had collected, scatter them throughout the scene for shots outside, and use fans to blow them around. After they were done with those scenes they would scamper around and pick them back up to re-use in the next outdoor scene. The only bit of California they let slip in were a few palm trees that had snuck their way into the shots by mistake, and can be spotted by the keen eye in a couple of scenes.

Once the movie was released it had a slow building fan base, but between rave reviews and word of mouth it began to build steam until it became an unstoppable force that is still going today. It has now grossed over $70,000,000 worldwide. There are so many aspects to this film that came together to create a masterpiece. The theme song Carpenter wrote for the film is nothing short of perfection, and simply came from learning 5/4 time in his childhood. This is the kind of movie that happens once in a lifetime if you are lucky, and one I have to watch every single year on Halloween. There have been many sequels, two remakes, merchandise such as toys and masks, and a legacy that will live on as long as there is still a horror audience. So this Halloween night, put this movie in, turn off the lights and relive the fear that was introduced to the world by a group of wide-eyed youngsters that made one of the most legendary movies of all time.

Stay scared,
Dark Princess