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)


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