Be sure to check your candy for razor blades and cyanide.
Tag Archives: Halloween
Horror Icons: Michael Myers
Many horror fans (especially overly serious/pretentious ones) will be quick to point out that director Bob Clark’s “Black Christmas,” released alongside “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in 1974, was the first proper slasher movie. But John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” released four years later, was the film to put the slasher genre front and center, which brings us to Michael Myers.
If you haven’t seen “Halloween,” you’re doing yourself a disservice. The first movie is a classic and rightfully so. Much like “Chain Saw,” “Halloween” doesn’t dump gallons of blood on the screen. It’s all about unrelenting tension, which is important for a movie like this. And I dare say the movie wouldn’t be half as effective without Carpenter’s simple score.
“Halloween II” isn’t as good as its predecessor, but it’s still great fun. The films picks up the story exactly where the first film ends, which provides a nice sense of continuity between the two, making it all seem like one really terrible night in the life of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). The film ends with closure and seeming demise of Michael Myers.
“Halloween III: Season of the Witch” was Carpenter’s attempt to make a different Halloween-themed movie under the familiar “Halloween” banner. This plan backfired, since people showed up to see Michael Myers and didn’t care about some masks that would kill people. Also, Stonehenge was involved.
Mirror Image
When I first saw “Jacob’s Ladder” many years ago, I was most struck by the twitchy, shaking faces of the demons (or whatever they were). It’s been a while since I’ve seen the film and a lot of it’s fuzzy to me, but that image still resonates (watch a nice and creepy scene here). So the result is this photo. I guess it’s sort of reminiscent of both “Jacob’s Ladder” and the so-so Keifer Sutherland movie “Mirrors.” I work with a guy who says that one of the scariest things to him is when your reflection does something different than what you’re doing. So maybe this picture would freak him out… but no one else, I bet.
The Scarecrow
Because I love all things Halloween, I’m going to attempt to get back on a daily posting schedule for the entire month of October. Over the next 31 days, expect to see lots of posts about all things horror. It’ll be exciting to see if I still have what it takes to rise to the challenge of creating something new everyday. Let’s all meet back here on Halloween and see how I did, shall we? As for today, I decided to draw up an evil scarecrow, though he seems more “miffed” than “evil.” Maybe hanging on that wood post made him mad and he decided to take revenge on some rowdy teens. But really, who could blame him?
Day 169: Halloween Fire Sale
It’s the day after Halloween and that means everything must go! Prices are slashed across the board! Come in and enjoy our great sales!
Actually, ignore all that. I don’t actually own a store that sells things. I’m sorry for misleading you. What I do have, though, is a collection of behind-the-scenes photos from the Haunted Trail at work last night. You might remember I posted something about it a few weeks back. It was really dark, so I got exactly zero good shots walking through the actual trail, but there are quite a few decent shots of everyone getting ready and a preparing for everything. Enjoy below the jump.
Day 168: Cheer Up, Mr. Jack O. Lantern!
Whenever one is asked to name things that represent Halloween, a jack-o-lantern is almost guaranteed to be near the top of the list. Scowling, grimacing jack-o-lanterns are synonymous with Halloween, but what about a melancholy jack-o-lantern? What does that represent? And why is he so down in the dumps to begin with? Writer-director Stuart Winstonson decided to pose that very question and try to answer it with his 1981 family film “Cheer Up, Mr. Jack O. Lantern.”
In the town of Samuel’s Hollow, nine-year-old Timmy Woodrow (precocious first-time actor Will Phillips) and his twelve-year-old brother Roger (David Tet, a commercial actor whose biggest role was in the presidential time-traveling farce “Washington, B.C.” over a decade later) are awakened one October evening when they hear the sounds of someone moving in to the house across the street. They can only see their new neighbor in shadow, but they do notice his exceptionally large head. He’s a very private person and almost never comes out of his house, but Timmy sometimes sees him walking around the neighborhood at night, his head hung low, his shoulders drooping. The man doesn’t appear to be up to any mischief; he just seems sad.
