Ceris' 31 Days of Horror: Day 31 - Halloween

It’s Halloween 1963 and we see two teenagers kissing in the hallway of a house. We then see a small band reaching into the kitchen drawer an pulling out a knife. The teenager boy leaves and the hand goes upstairs, puts on a discarded mask and stabs a semi naked woman. He then goes outside and is revealed as a boy known as Michael by his parents - who seem more pissed than concerned that their young boy is stood holding a bloody knife.

Art by Jason Edmiston

A nurse and doctor are travelling to see Michael in a hospital on a dark stormy night and they are talking about taking Michael to court. The doctor tells the nurse he never wants Michael to escape. As they arrive at the hospital they see figures in white clothing wandering around, they pull up to the main gates and the doctors gets out to open them. A figure climbs on the back of the car and attacks the nurse who manages to escape and the car drives off.

The following day in Haddonfield Laurie Strode is walking to school and sees Tommy Doyle the little boy she babysits. She tells him she is dropping the keys off at the Myers house and when she does Michael appears in the doorway unbeknownst to her - can I point out Adam jumps EVERY TIME at this point in the film. Dr Loomis is having an argument with the hospital director and telling him he needs to tell the local police that Michael has escaped. While in an English class, Laurie looks out the window and spots Michael staring at her from across the road only being interrupted by her teacher - it makes me wonder how no one spotted him in the middle of the day. At the end of the day a young boy literally runs into Michael Myers but luckily for him Michael forgot his knife!

Loomis has stopped at a pay phone outside of time and tries to warn the sheriff of Haddonfield that Michael is coming. After hanging up the phone he spots a crashed tow truck and Michaels white hospital gown - he fails to spot the dead mechanic lying in the grass stripped of his overalls. Laurie and her friends are waking home from school when they spot Michael driving past them. Further down the road Laurie spots Michael behind the bush and Annie gives it the big I am and goes after him - she is defo going to regret this!

Back at her house, Laurie looks out of her bedroom to see Michael looking up at her from the garden. He phone then rings but no one speaks which freaks her out, it then rings again and it turns out it was Annie telling her she will pick her up tonight to go babysitting.

Annie picks her up a d hands her a cigarette. Loomis has arrived at the local cemetery and the caretaker takes him to Judith Myers grave, however they arrive to find her gravestone has been stolen and Loomis says ‘he’s come home’

On the way to their babysitting jobs the duo are followed by Michael Myers but they don’t stop him, however Annie sees her dad (Sheriff Brackett) and they hurry to put out the joint. They stop and he tells them someone broke Into the shop and stole a Halloween mask, knife and rope and bled children - I think we all know it wasn’t children. Laurie tells Annie she would like to go to the dance with Ben Tramer the following night.

Laurie arrives at the Doyle’s house to babysit and Michael is watching her from behind a tree. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett go to the Myers house to try and find Michael and while they are there the guttering breaks and smashes through the window. Loomis tells Brackett he is going to stay at the house and wait for Myers to return.

At the Doyle’s house Laurie is reading to Tommy and he asks her what the bogeyman is but luckily she is interrupted by the phone. Annie calls her and while she is on the phone Lester the Wallace’s dog comes into the kitchen and starts barking before going outside. Tommy goes to the window and sees Michael standing on the porch of of Wallace’s house but he is gone by the time Laurie looks. Michael is watching Annie through the window - perv and goes to the laundry room which is in the garden to clean her clothes. Lester find Michael but he is killed. Tommy asks Laurie about the bogeyman again and says Ronnie told him the bogeyman was coming after him but Laurie tell him she is there to protect him. Lindsey manages to get locked in the laundry room and Lindsey can’t hear her shouting to let her out. Lindsey answers the phone and it’s Paul asking for Annie, so Lindsey goes and lets her out of the laundry room. Paul calls and tell Annie to come and get him as his parents have gone. Annie arranges for Lindsey to go to Tommy Doyle’s so she can go and get Paul, and then gets into her car - where she is murdered by Michael.

Tommy shouts that the bogeyman is outside and Laurie tells him to stop making things up, but Lindsey says she believes him. 3 kids arrive at the Myers house and dare each other to go to the house, Loomis scares them away by telling them to step away from the house from behind a bush - he is pretty smug until Brackett touches his shoulder and he shits his pants! Loomis tells the sheriff ‘death has come to his little town’ and he needs to believe him.

Lynda and Bob arrive at the Wallace’s purely for sex but we all know Annie is dead and the house is empty so they go upstairs and proceed to have sex, not realising Michael is watching them - he is 100% a perv!

Lindsey, Tommy and Laurie finish carving their Jack-o'-lanterns and carry on watching the film. Lynda calls looking for Annie and Laurie says she should be home now - things are definitely about to go down! Bob goes down to get a beer - a beer that’s not his in a house that he is using purely for sex may I add - and he is stabbed and pinned to the fridge like a magnet by Michael. Michael then impersonates Bob under a bed sheet, after not being able to get Bob to answer her, Lynda phones Laurie but is strangled to death with the phone cord.

Laurie goes over to the Wallace’s and finds Annie, Lynda and Bob’s bodies along with Judith Myers headstone in the bedroom. Michael appears and attacks her but she manages to escape and runs back to the Doyle house and screams to wake Tommy up and let her in. Michael follows her in but she manages to keep him at bay by stabbing him with a knitting needle, coat hanger and his knife.She tells Tommy and Lindsey to go to the neighbours house and get help. Loomis sees Tommy and Lindsey running from the house and goes over to find Laurie and Michael fighting. Laurie manages to rip off Michaels mask giving Loomis enough time to shoot him 6 times causing him to fall off the balcony. They go and look down to find Michael has gone - this is where this film looses its scariness for me as he is no longer just a guy in a suit killing people, he is now the guy who can’t be killed so he is made up. The films credits run with Michaels breathing being heard in the background.

Overall I do enjoy this film and I think despite it being 42 years old it still has the impact as it did when it was first released. And of course you've gotta watch it on Halloween!

#Halloween #31DaysofHorror #TheShape #MichaelMyers #FilmReview #Review #JohnCarpenter