In the 1990s, I was fairly obsessed with the Halloween franchise. I owned the tapes, watched them a bunch. I made my mom reserve this lifesize cardboard cutout Michael Myers VHS display from Blockbuster, which she will probably still complain about what a pain it was fitting it in our car if reminded about it. I had a pretty pricey Don Post Michael Myers mask and went trick or treating as Michael Myers quite a few times. (I did my best George Wilbur zombie waltz. Why Wilbur? No particular reason. Wilbur was the latest Myers, it's not like he was my favorite.)
I was never as into the Halloween series as I was the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, but I was still snobbish at that point about the Friday the 13ths and those types of movies, and thought Halloween stood well above those. The franchise had been in a dry spell when I got into them. It was a pretty lengthy amount of time between Part 5 and Part 6, and I remember being SO excited to see Part 6 in the theater and just sitting there in horror at how goddamn terrible it was. But, for as bad as that movie is, my love for the franchise remained. Believe it or not, even worse entries would come along and finish the job that not even the truly terrible Part 6 could manage -- kill my love for the franchise. Kill it dead. Kill it to the point where I not only feel nothing for the franchise, but I became a bigger Jason Voorhees fan over time. (Yes, at this point, I'd probably pop in a turd like Jason Takes Manhattan over even the best of the Halloween franchise.)
So, the Halloween franchise hasn't been on my mind for a while. But I recently picked up the producer's cut of Halloween 6 on Blu-ray because I've heard so much about it over the years (and didn't care enough to sit through the bootlegs that had been the only option to see it until now). And then I watched H20, which I used to think highly of, but the vicious killer known as Shit Sequel has even diminished my love for that one. (And Shit Sequel has had quite a way with the Halloween franchise. Quite a way.) I used to love these movies, think so highly of them, have such fun with them. With the pain and embarrassment of the remake a fading memory, could I again find enjoyment in the original movies? So, I decided to revisit the franchise. Would I feel a flicker of my past feelings? Would I manage to not enjoy the movies even more? Let's find out in part 1 of a 10-part entry.
The classic, the one with the most genuine scares. Being a classic, being synonymous with the actual holiday, it's one of the most-killed horror movies, so over-familiarity puts some shackles on it. It's not the deepest movie, but it's good at what it does, it features some iconic performances and some fun, relatable teen characters. (I feel like the only fan who appreciates Nancy Loomis' droll performance as the jaded Annie.) Carpenter is good at squeezing out suspense, but squeeze it he does -- there's a couple of segments that go on just a little too long, in my opinion, but not enough to damage the movie. (No, no. That's a job left to the sequels.)
Nick Castle's Michael Myers is also the best Myers. He's slow, as the role requires for whatever reason, but he moves quickly when he needs to. His Michael feels the most "normal," seeming angry and frustrated, just lashing out in attack, rather than some of the other Michael's calculated robotic movements. Castle's movements and body language makes for a Michael you can be scared of, not one you laugh at because his victim is two states over by the time he crosses the street.
I also think Donald Pleasence comes across best in this movie. Loomis here is all determination and urgency, but also a bundle of jittery nerves. Everything we know about Michael Myers comes from Carpenter's creepy yet dressed up speeches made by Loomis, and Pleasence always knows how to deliver those and more. The "Loomis Speeches" here are effective at how they convey Michael's viciousness, but also Loomis' terror at failing to ever get through to or hold onto his patient. A lot of the sequels don't quite get the Loomis Speech right again, they just become watered down riffs of his dialogue here, and they're never quite as effective and they really push Loomis and his whole Loomis Speeching into self-parody, which unfortunately backwashes even onto this one.
One last thing I'd like to say is that when I just rewatched this movie, I chose to watch it on VHS. The coloring is murky -- sometimes TOO damn dark to really see anything -- but, man, it really helps sell the atmosphere of the movie. When Laurie's walking around Haddonfield, it looks like a grey, gloomy fall day. When I've seen this movie on DVD or on TV, it's a crisp, restored version that makes Haddonfield seem constantly sunny. The crisp picture is nice and all, especially being able to see more moments of Michael looming (I never knew until the DVD that he's staring at Laurie and her friends as he drives by them), but not at the expense of atmosphere.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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