SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM (9)
By:
October 31, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of favorite horror movies. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.
HALLOWEEN | d. JOHN CARPENTER | 1978
No horror film has hit home for me like Halloween. Its set-up was eminently relatable; babysitting was something I’d done, like most of my friends, multiple evenings every month for years. Add quiet, tree-lined streets in a neighborhood as quiet and tree-lined and safe (on the surface) and middle-class as mine, and it was all too close to home. The film was, in a way, a slice-of-life documentary — until the actual slicing arrived.
Babysitting had exposed me and my cohorts to plenty of hazards (mostly variations on unruly kids), never any that were life-threatening. Being stalked by a homicidal maniac was a new concept, but it didn’t strain credulity. Instead the relentless, inventive torture of Laurie and her friends was a protracted argument against the recklessness of the babysitting enterprise, entrusting homes and children with young girls, alone, suited for the task solely by reason of gender and willingness to work for low wages. Some variation of Laurie’s ordeal could have happened to any of us, escaped mental patient in the mix or not.
Laurie’s story is what put this film on the map. (Be honest: How many of you remember her friends and the specifics of their fates?) And the film did the same for its young star, Jamie Lee Curtis, too, crowning the child of Hollywood royalty (Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis) with fame in her own right. (Be honest again: How many of you respond to the title Halloween by immediately envisioning her in full wail?) This role shot her past the legacy of her mother, who was seared in our collective consciousness as Marion Crane, the first victim in Psycho. The Scream Queen not only dodged the knife, again and again, she also took the blade by the handle and wielded it herself, and lived to scream another day. And in another film. And another.
For me, Laurie’s twists and turns evaporated with passing time, but one storyline has lingered. I can still see her friend Annie getting into her car, noticing condensation on the windshield, running a finger down at and realizing it was on the inside. I can still hear the audience’s collective gasp as Michael’s knife emerged from behind and met her throat.
The film changed my life. For years — decades, actually — I chose cars with backseats too small for an attacker to hide in.
SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Crockett Doob on THE SHINING | Dean Haspiel on TOURIST TRAP | Fran Pado on M3GAN | Erin M. Routson on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT | Adam McGovern on THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER | Michele Carlo on THE EXORCIST | Tony Pacitti on JAWS | Josh Glenn on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) | Kathy Biehl on HALLOWEEN | Annie Nocenti on ROSEMARY’S BABY | Carolyn Campbell on WAIT UNTIL DARK | Marc Weidenbaum on DAWN OF THE DEAD | Amy Keyishian on SHAUN OF THE DEAD | Gabriela Pedranti on [•REC] | Mariane Cara on PARANORMAL ACTIVITY | Trav SD on FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY | Colin Campbell on EVIL DEAD (2013) | Lynn Peril on NIGHT GALLERY | Heather Quinlan on THE CHANGELING | Kenny Simek on REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on IT (1990) | James Scott Maloy on CONTAGION | Nick Rumaczyk on THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF | Max Alvarez on THE INNOCENTS | Michael Campochiaro on BLACK CHRISTMAS.
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