Halloween Month/Marathon

Halloween, 1967

Boy: “We’re alone, aren’t we?”
Girl (Judith Myers): “Michael’s around here somewhere…”

You bet Michael’s around here somewhere – everywhere, in fact. That’s because this month (what with it being October and Halloween and all) is totally Halloween Month at Behind the Couch.

I thought it would be a totally good idea to watch all ten Halloween films (including Rob Zombie’s remake and its sequel) in the lead up to All Hallow’s Eve this month. Okay, I may have totally been drinking and watching Halloween H20 for the first time in ages when I had this brainwave, but hey, these things just have to be done sometimes.

John Carpenter’s seminal slasher classic Halloween set a benchmark for horror throughout the Eighties. An excruciatingly taut exercise in suspense and fear, Carpenter’s film relied on ‘less is more’ suggestiveness to create an atmospheric chill-fest that still proves highly effective today. Arguably the benchmark it set would go on to consist of ever more exploitative violence and diminishing quality in the slasher movies it inspired throughout the Eighties (including the film’s own sequels, sadly). That’s hardly Carpenter’s fault though. His low budget chiller was, at the time, the most successful independently produced film of the era. Its influence is still evident in horror today and the slasher craze it ignited in the Eighties would be rekindled in the Nineties by Kevin Williamson’s Scream – a post-modern love letter to Halloween and the myriad stalk and slash films it inspired.

So, have your Jack-o'-lantern and your William Shatner mask at the ready, refill your glass, and totally join me, if you will, on a bloody trek back to Haddonfield, Illinois; to where all the fun began…

And don’t forget to totally forget your chemistry book and your math book, and your English book, and your, let's see, your French book, and... Well, who needs books anyway, we don't need books; we’ve got Halloween movies to watch! I mean, it doesn't really matter if you have your books or not... Hey isn't that Devon Graham?

Halloween
Halloween II
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers 
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers 
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later 
Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween (2007)
Halloween II (2009)


Popular posts from this blog

Otherworldly Encounters on Halloween

Image
Oíche Shamhna shona duit. To celebrate All Hallow’s Eve, my dear friend Marie – a writer and folklorist based in Missouri - has put together a podcast exploring first-hand paranormal experiences that took place on Halloween. The stories and accounts are shared from r/Paranormal , The Fairy Census , and the Dúchas Schools Collection (part of the National Folklore Collection UCD Digitization Project).  Between the stories, one of which is read by yours truly, Marie explores some of the history and folklore surrounding the traditions of Halloween, or Samhein, as it was known in Ireland where it originates from. An important festival in the ancient Celtic calendar to mark the end of summer, Samhein (Irish for November), is the night when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead becomes thinnest, allowing souls of the deceased to pass through into our world and roam freely. The night we call Halloween in English, is Oíche Shamhna: literally Samhain (November) Eve. To listen t
Read more

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning

Image
1985 Dir. Danny Steinmann Five years after his run in with hulking serial killer Jason Voorhees, the now 17 year old Tommy Jarvis remains traumatised by memories and nightmares of that fateful night. Released from an institution and sent to live in a halfway house for troubled teens undergoing rehabilitation, Tommy’s nightmare is far from over. A slew of brutal murders in the area would suggest Jason has returned from the grave – or that Tommy has descended into madness. But who’s that minor cast member over there with the wild ‘n’ crazy look in his eye? Is it someone who is pretending to be Jason to avenge the death of his son – also a resident at the halfway house? No.  Surely not. A New Beginning is often maligned by fans as it is the only film (aside from Part 1 ) not to feature Jason Voorhees as the killer. While the killer dresses as Jason and has a motive that also involves avenging the death of a family member, it isn’t the real Jason. You might be forgiven for thinki
Read more

Strip Nude For Your Killer

Image
1975 Dir. Andrea Bianchi When a fashion model dies during surgery to perform an abortion, a slew of violent murders ensue, starting with that of the doctor who tried to cover up her death. The killer’s victims are all connected to a fashion modelling agency where the dead woman worked. As the body count rises, a couple of scantily clad amateur sleuths try to discover the killer’s identity before they too are struck off. “ I feel too hot to be a corpse, baby .” To describe Strip Nude For Your Killer as trashy and exploitative would really be a fantastically obvious understatement. Hey, with a title like that, one should really know what to expect. Of course, there are those films with truly exploitative, titillating titles that can never hope to live up to the lurid promise their monikers suggest – Strip Nude is not one of those films. It does exactly what it says on the tin. The surprising thing is that the film is actually very enjoyable, in a trashy, campy, exploitative
Read more