I Don’t Know Why I’m Doing This to Myself…

October 31, 2014. It’s Halloween night. And I’m about to shut off all the lights (because I don’t answer the door to trick-or-treaters: it’s too crazy for the dogs) and curl up on the couch with my goofy fur-babies and watch the movie that scared the shit out of me back in 1978. None other than John Carpenter’s “Halloween”.

Here’s the original movie trailer:

I’ll never forget the night I saw that movie for the first time. It had just come out in the theaters and me and bunch of friends went to see it. It was so scary! I was young. Heck, I was only 16 years old. Well, it was well after dark when I got home after the movie and that night I had to go across the street to feed and let the neighbor’s dog out because she was out of town. Wouldn’t you know, her house just happened to be on a little deadend street that curved around into a desolate dirt road. That little street was always scary for me anyway but geez-louise, it was downright terrifying after seeing the movie “Halloween!” I could not get out of that house and back across the street into the safety of my own home fast enough. The next night I had someone go with me to fulfill that dog duty!

So here I am, about to watch this movie that I haven’t seen in years. For some stupid reason I always choose to watch scary stuff at night. Why I don’t watch these things during the day when they wouldn’t be near as frightening, I don’t know. .

I found this documentary on YouTube on the making of the movie that I thought you all might find intriguing. If you have any interest in flimmaking whatsoever, this is the backstory of the film with John Carpenter as a fresh-out-of-film school guy and a cast of virtual unknowns who, against terrific odds, worked together to create essentially a low-budget yet artful masterpiece that would change the face of the horror genre forever. It was after all one of the most successful movie franchises ever. As described at the YouTube site: ““Halloween: The Inside Story” takes a look at one of the most successful film franchises of all time as it goes behind the scenes of John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” the “frightfest” that redefined the horror genre in the late 1970s. Viewers will learn how writer and director John Carpenter made movie magic on a shoestring budget and how the costume department created one of the most iconic horror villains in movie history by spray-painting a mask of Captain Kirk. It’s an inside look at Michael Myers and the Halloween terror he unleashes on the poor teenagers of Haddonfield, Ill.”  It’s an enthralling 90 minutes. Check it out.

And now, go grab some popcorn, turn off your lights and lock your doors because here’s the movie in its entirety:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!