On 31st October 1963, a six-year-old boy named Michael Myers stabs his teenage sister Judith to death with a kitchen knife. Don't ask why. It's just the sort of things six-year-olds do from time to time. Or at least they do if they happen to be criminally insane. Michael is committed to an asylum, but fourteen years and 364 days later, on 30th October 1978, he escapes and returns to his home town of Haddonfield, Illinois, pursued by his psychiatrist. The film tells of the havoc he wreaks there the following day, which is of course Halloween. He might now be an adult, but he still has a fixation with teenage girls, primarily a babysitter named Laurie and her friends Annie and Lynda.
"Halloween" was clearly influenced by "Psycho", one of the first "slasher films" from eighteen years earlier. Director and co-writer John Carpenter paid tribute to Hitchcock's film by calling the psychiatrist "Samuel Loomis" and his female assistant "Marion", both names of characters in "Psycho". Another link between the two films is the fact that the heroine Laurie is played (in her film debut) by Jamie Leigh Curtis, the daughter of Janet Leigh who had played Marion in the earlier film.
Carpenter, however, succeeded in doing something which Hitchcock did not; starting a vogue for slasher films. Relatively few were made in the sixties or early seventies, with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", allegedly based on the same real-life killings which inspired "Psycho", being one of the few exceptions. The late seventies and eighties saw a glut, so many appearing that the period became known as the Golden Age of the Slasher Movie. These included innumerable sequels to "Halloween" itself, and even three belated sequels to "Psycho", made after the death of Hitchcock who would probably not have approved.
There is, however, one major difference between "Psycho" and "Halloween". Hitchcock was fascinated by psychology, particularly the psychology of the criminal mind, and was therefore at pains to explain the actions of his anti-hero Norman Bates in terms of his psychological history. Norman, who suffers from schizophrenia, is at one and the same time a polite, inoffensive young man capable of carrying on a perfectly normal conversation with the heroine, Marion, and the insane murderer who kills her. (Was the Christian name "Norman", I wonder, chosen because of its closeness to "normal?").
There is no attempt to explain Michael Myers' psychopathy in the same way. Unlike Bates, whose actions can be explained in human terms, he is presented as a malevolent, inhuman force of nature. According to his psychiatrist he cannot be cured, and trying to explain the psychology behind his crimes would be as pointless as trying to psycho-analyse a whirlwind or an earthquake. We never see the adult Michael's face; we normally see him from behind, and when we see him from the front he is wearing a mask. The fact that it is Halloween allows him to wander the streets in a mask without anyone thinking this is anything out of the ordinary. Nor do we hear him speak; the normal indication of his presence is his heavy breathing. (Loomis, in fact, tells us that Michael has not spoken since killing Judith). When the child Michael kills Judith he is dressed as a clown; killers who wear masks or who dress as clowns were to become standard features of slasher movies.
Although "Halloween" features a psychiatrist as a character, his function is not to provide explanations. Dr Loomis is more of a Cassandra figure whose function is to warn the people of Haddonfield of the danger they face but who is not believed. One of those who fails to take him seriously is the town's Sherriff, whose daughter ends up as one of Michael's victims.
Carpenter's direction is skilful and, combined with the spooky music of the sort which was also to become a standard feature of this sort of film, creates an atmosphere of unease and terror without relying on excessive amounts of gore. There are, of course, violent incidents- you couldn't make a slasher movie without them- but they are not dwelt on in the way that some directors might have done. As slasher films go, this is a pretty good one, but it lacks the psychological depth and power of something like "Psycho". Carpenter is telling us that there are monsters out there. Hitchcock is not only telling us that there are monsters out there, but that some of them are seemingly normal human beings, which makes them all the more frightening. 7/10
"Halloween" was clearly influenced by "Psycho", one of the first "slasher films" from eighteen years earlier. Director and co-writer John Carpenter paid tribute to Hitchcock's film by calling the psychiatrist "Samuel Loomis" and his female assistant "Marion", both names of characters in "Psycho". Another link between the two films is the fact that the heroine Laurie is played (in her film debut) by Jamie Leigh Curtis, the daughter of Janet Leigh who had played Marion in the earlier film.
Carpenter, however, succeeded in doing something which Hitchcock did not; starting a vogue for slasher films. Relatively few were made in the sixties or early seventies, with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", allegedly based on the same real-life killings which inspired "Psycho", being one of the few exceptions. The late seventies and eighties saw a glut, so many appearing that the period became known as the Golden Age of the Slasher Movie. These included innumerable sequels to "Halloween" itself, and even three belated sequels to "Psycho", made after the death of Hitchcock who would probably not have approved.
There is, however, one major difference between "Psycho" and "Halloween". Hitchcock was fascinated by psychology, particularly the psychology of the criminal mind, and was therefore at pains to explain the actions of his anti-hero Norman Bates in terms of his psychological history. Norman, who suffers from schizophrenia, is at one and the same time a polite, inoffensive young man capable of carrying on a perfectly normal conversation with the heroine, Marion, and the insane murderer who kills her. (Was the Christian name "Norman", I wonder, chosen because of its closeness to "normal?").
There is no attempt to explain Michael Myers' psychopathy in the same way. Unlike Bates, whose actions can be explained in human terms, he is presented as a malevolent, inhuman force of nature. According to his psychiatrist he cannot be cured, and trying to explain the psychology behind his crimes would be as pointless as trying to psycho-analyse a whirlwind or an earthquake. We never see the adult Michael's face; we normally see him from behind, and when we see him from the front he is wearing a mask. The fact that it is Halloween allows him to wander the streets in a mask without anyone thinking this is anything out of the ordinary. Nor do we hear him speak; the normal indication of his presence is his heavy breathing. (Loomis, in fact, tells us that Michael has not spoken since killing Judith). When the child Michael kills Judith he is dressed as a clown; killers who wear masks or who dress as clowns were to become standard features of slasher movies.
Although "Halloween" features a psychiatrist as a character, his function is not to provide explanations. Dr Loomis is more of a Cassandra figure whose function is to warn the people of Haddonfield of the danger they face but who is not believed. One of those who fails to take him seriously is the town's Sherriff, whose daughter ends up as one of Michael's victims.
Carpenter's direction is skilful and, combined with the spooky music of the sort which was also to become a standard feature of this sort of film, creates an atmosphere of unease and terror without relying on excessive amounts of gore. There are, of course, violent incidents- you couldn't make a slasher movie without them- but they are not dwelt on in the way that some directors might have done. As slasher films go, this is a pretty good one, but it lacks the psychological depth and power of something like "Psycho". Carpenter is telling us that there are monsters out there. Hitchcock is not only telling us that there are monsters out there, but that some of them are seemingly normal human beings, which makes them all the more frightening. 7/10