Halloween Resurrected: Can John Carpenter Crack the Conundrum of His Cult Creation?

‘He lied about me,’ claimed veteran filmmaker John Carpenter during a rather candid discussion at the New York Film Academy in April 2016. ‘He said that I was very cold to him when he told me he was going to make (Halloween). Nothing could be further from the truth. I said, make it your own movie, man. This is yours now. Don’t worry about me.’

Carpenter was referring to Rob Zombie, who in 2007 had the onerous task of directing the remake of his 1978 seminal masterpiece. Of course, he then went on to dismiss the filmmaker’s efforts. ‘I thought that he took away the mystique of the story by explaining too much about (Michael Myers). I don’t care about that. He’s supposed to be a force of nature. He’s supposed to be almost supernatural.’

Strong words from a man who had told Zombie to make the picture his own, but watching his successor’s attempts at a revival I have to agree with John. It is hard not to. In 2017, Carpenter is set to become Executive Producer on the latest revival of the franchise, a joint venture involving Blumhouse, Miramax and Trancas International. ‘38 years after the original Halloween. I’m going to help to try and make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all,’ he proclaimed.

Whether he is able is yet to be seen.

In light of the veteran’s comments, I look back at the history of the franchise, from its humble genesis and abrupt dissolution, to a speedy revival which saw the Myers character span an incredible five decades. Did zombie get it horribly wrong with his 21st century foray, or is Myers a relic whose journey should have ended long ago? I suppose there is only one place to begin.

 

Origins

It is almost 40 years since the original Halloween left test audiences in a screaming frenzy. At the time, John Carpenter was a relative unknown who just wanted to make a movie. Armed with a cast of rookies, a Steadicam, and a Captain Kirk mask sprayed white, Carpenter would rely on his technical mastery and musical intuition to produce arguably the greatest feature of the slasher sub-genre, one that would influence a whole generation of aspiring filmmakers.

Made on a shoestring budget of $325,000 dollars, the movie went on to gross a staggering $70,000,000 at the US box office alone – more than enough to appease a cash-strapped Donald Pleasance, who only starred in the movie due to alimony payments. Pleasance would later become a Carpenter mainstay as the director’s mainstream career went from strength to strength, but asides from decreasing contributions Carpenter would step out of Haddonfield’s considerable shadow to concentrate on classic features such as The Fog, Escape from New York and The Thing.

Even without the great man at the helm, the Halloween franchise would continue to thrive for decades. After writing and producing the sequel, Carpenter would compose the original score for Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a wonderfully bleak, dystopian effort which would encapsulate the theme of this underrated quasi-sequel. Feeling that they had exhausted the Myers character ad nauseam, producers would head in a different direction with their 1982 addition. The plan was to release a new film annually under the guise of the original franchise. Each movie would have a new story and a new cast of characters, allowing arguably the most iconic killer in horror history to retire with the kind of dignity he deserved.

But money talks and evil walks, so it was only inevitable that our killer’s corpse would be dredged from obscurity, dragging the cash-strapped Donald Pleasance along with him. Exactly a decade after the release of the original came Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. By the late 1980’s the slasher movie was on the decline, and following the video nasty censorship frenzy some years prior, Myers clones had binned the graphic brutality in favour of tongue-in-cheek meta humour, producing movies in which the killer became the star of the show. Characters like Jason Voorhees and Fred Krueger would become omnipotent to the point of parody, the latter developing into a pop culture icon who sold Krueger pyjamas to the children his character murdered. The industry’s money men had missed the boat on this one. Once the blueprint for its sleazy Friday the 13th imitators, Halloween would be reduced to playing catch-up, its 1988 effort failing miserably in its belated attempt to cash in.

The Myers character, it seemed, had finally run its course.

 

Revival

In 1998, the Halloween franchise would be resurrected once again. During the mid-90’s Wes Craven had taken meta-humour to another level with his genre flipping effort Scream, a movie whose popularity caused a tidal wave of sub-genre oversaturation akin to Halloween’s almost two decades prior. Features such as I Know What You Did Last Summer would see moviegoers flood the theatres, leaving a parody franchise known as Scary Movie floating in its wake, and with horror experiencing something of a renaissance it was inevitable that producers would cash in on the marketability of their Haddonfield OG.

Following the dismal Halloween 5: The Curse of Michael Myers, the name value of the series had plummeted by 1995, but with the lure of its upcoming 20th anniversary and return of original scream queen Jamie Leigh Curtis, the hype for Halloween H20 promised much more than your usual stalk and slash fodder. Inevitably, it failed to deliver on that promise. Sure, it did fantastic business at the box office, but asides from a familiar face or two it was no different from any other 90s teen slasher. It was horror for the MTV generation, a movie at the tail end of a brief and largely irrelevant period of revival for the genre.

H20 was billed as the final instalment of the tired series, and a Myers decapitation all but sealed the deal. But 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection had other ideas. Resuming the story three years after ‘The Shape’s’ supposed swansong, the movie explained how Michael had in fact swapped clothes with a paramedic during the 1998 finale, claiming that it was he who was beheaded by Laurie Strode, who was then committed to a mental institution as Jamie Leigh Curtis finally turned her back on the franchise. Once again on the loose, Myers would take his character into the 21st century by slaughtering the cast of a reality show filmed entirely in the house where he murdered his sister all those years ago. Although this was arguably the noblest act our masked killer had ever committed, surely a Naked Gun style parody was the only way forward.

 

No Rest for the Wicked

With the stench of Resurrection still pungent, a sequel was now out of the question, but someone, somewhere was waiting, guarding Michael’s decomposition while plotting his glorious financial return. By 2007, reboots had become all the rage. Why spend millions on marketing and promotion when you can simply resurrect a cash cow, stripping it of all life and shipping it off to the creative abattoir for slaughtering? With this kind of cynicism rife in modern Hollywood, you would expect any director worth their salt to steer clear of the rot for the sake of their own name. But this is reality, and when you get the opportunity to revamp a much loved classic you snatch it with both hands. I mean, what if you are able to do what so many others could not by rescuing the Halloween brand from its creative slumber? Not only would you would set a precedent, you would endear yourself to the increasingly sceptical fans of the genre, a fanatical bunch whose loyalty would see your stock soar.

Rob Zombie, who had received mixed reviews for subsequent features House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil’s Rejects (2005), was one of those fanatics. Passionate about the horror genre, he would surely understand what Myers meant to fans of the franchise, and the fundamentals that should never be toyed with. That being said, he had to attempt something different. Director’s had spent decades throwing down senseless retreads and had succeeded in merely running the series into the ground. Without altering the paradigm too drastically, the director would have to bring something fresh to the fold. But what exactly?

The answer you already know. Zombie would delve into Michael’s past in an in-depth fashion that would drain him of all mystery. This was Michael the deprived, the bullied, the influenced, something human which fate had contrived to make bad. We got a glimpse of a young Michael in the original Halloween. Using a quite ingenious POV shot undertaken behind the smothering shape of a mask, the youngster would slaughter his promiscuous sister before wandering out onto the street where his parents would arrive home to see him holding a bloodied kitchen knife. The face of the unmasked child said it all. Michael was wide-eyed with exhilaration, yet strangely shocked by his own actions, devastated and satisfied in equal parts. In one slight of expression we knew all we needed to know about the character. Michael was innately evil. Destined to kill.

The second half of Zombie’s remake is almost an exact imitation, with slight alterations that only detract from the movie’s overall effect. Visually, the 2007 version of Halloween is at its best when it descends upon the Haddonfield suburbs for leafy tracking shots, or when the first notes of Carpenter’s chilling score imbue proceedings with an eerie calm. But such instances are only effective as a precursor to the act. When the setup is an unrelenting bloodbath from the killer’s perspective, attempts at establishing tension become ineffective thereafter, and a mounting sense of dread is replaced by total indifference.

 

No going back?

To his credit, Zombie tried something new when his opportunity to fulfil a lifelong passion arose. It didn’t work. In fact, it failed miserably. But is he really to blame for the way the movie turned out? Directors have been trying to rekindle the original Halloween magic for decades without success. Granted, most of those were lazy, money-spinning copouts whose ulterior intentions were clear, but before horror pictures were thought of in those terms producers had already shelved the Myers legacy in favour of Season of the Witch. If they believed the character had run its course by 1981, what could they possibly do with him almost forty years later?

If anyone can revive the series, then who better than the man behind the original. Carpenter understands the Myers character more than anyone. People respect him as a veteran of the industry, and the affinity he has with his most successful creation means he will not be dictated to if the terms don’t comply with his better instincts. But Halloween is a near perfect film, a seminal, iconic production, which due to certain restraints happened organically, entering the public consciousness at just the right time. It doesn’t matter how gifted you are as a filmmaker, the truly great productions seem to take on a life of their own. They are of a certain time and place, where everything comes together at just the right moment and for just the right reasons. In the end it is fate that becomes your greatest ally, your most valuable collaborator. Even with all the right ingredients you can’t make that kind of magic happen, and you certainly can’t revisit it expecting the same results. It just wouldn’t be magic otherwise.