'We're all afraid of the darkness inside ourselves.'
So says Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween 2, the sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 classic, Halloween. The original was made for little over $300,000 and has become one of the most successful independent films of all time. It's also a piercing, cold as ice horror film that both created and perfected the slasher movie as we know it.
Sheriff Leigh Brackett: "Nothing's going on. Just kids playing pranks, trick or treating, partying, getting high. I have the feeling you're way off on this."
Loomis: "You have the wrong feeling."
Many have seen the film as an indictment of pot-smoking, sexually promiscuous teenagers and the immorality of youth, as Michael Myers remorselessly stalks his prey. But anyone remotely familiar with Carpenter's films knows he despises condemnatory authority firgures, just watch Assault on Precinct 13 or Escape from New York. They've missed the point: the reason why Myers kills these sorts of teenagers is because they're the only people out and about having a good time. Carpenter doesn't discriminate, and neither does Myers.
Halloween is so unsettling because it's about pure evil personified. A faceless, emotionally dead predator. Carpenter's genius is that he doesn't confine his killer to the shadows, he brings him into the daylight. Nowhere is safe.
Loomis: "I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room staring at a wall, not seeing the wall, seeing past it, seeing this night. He's waited for it, inhumanly patient. Hour after hour, day after day, waiting for some silent, invisible alarm to trigger him. Death has arrived in your little town, Sheriff. You can ignore it or you can help me stop it."
Buy the JOHN CARPENTER box set and get seven of his films at a great price if you're staying in. And listen to AIM's EXCELLENT 'DEMONIQUE', which blends samples from the first two Halloween films to create some stellar hip-hop to get the party started.
