Behind the Couch

So the new Halloween trailer was officially released today, and you can check it out here . From what we know of this new instalment of the Halloween series, it’s set 40 years after the original, ignores events depicted in all the subsequent sequels (which essentially creates a cool sort of ‘ choose your own adventure ’ of the series as a whole, with at least three distinct narratives/timelines), features the much-loved character of Laurie Strode, now a mother and grandmother, and is being scored (and executive-produced) by John Carpenter himself. Sadly however, he will not be joined by Debra Hill, who produced and co-wrote the original Halloween back in 1978, and whose vital contributions to the film are so often overlooked, as she passed away in 2005. Carpenter and Hill had no involvement with the series past the third film , so his involvement here is hopefully an indication of the film’s quality. He noted: ‘Thirty-eight years after the original Halloween , I'm going to he...

1980 Dir. Roger Spottiswoode A group of college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong several years prior, are menaced by a masked killer as they throw a New Year’s Eve costume party on-board a train. The early Eighties is now regarded as the Golden Age of the slasher film. From 1978 to about 1985, cinemas were saturated with gory flicks featuring masked psychos stalking teenagers in lonely locations, gruesomely killing them off one by one. The popularity of these movies was ignited by John Carpenter’s Halloween , and their rigid template was confirmed by Friday the 13th . Each successive title layered on the violence, gore and nudity, neglecting to realise that what made Carpenter’s film so effective was its use of suspense, mood, and the anticipation of violence. Terror Train was one of the first (and in my humble opinion, best) slashers to be produced in   the wake of Halloween’s success. It epitomises the sub-genre, sticking to its conventions as tightly as Jam...

1998 Dir. Steve Miner With a new name and life in California, Laurie Strode still can’t escape the ghosts of her past and is haunted by the memories of her bloody ordeal 20 years ago, when her deranged brother Michael Myers tried to kill her. Working as the headmistress of an exclusive boarding school, she spends her days ostracising her son John, and her nights swilling booze and tranquilizers in an effort to forget her traumatic past. Since she faked her own death and went into hiding to escape her maniacal brother, she lives in constant fear of him ever finding her. It’s now Halloween 1998, and the waiting is finally over… With the twentieth anniversary of John Carpenter’s classic slasher movie approaching, and Michael Myers AWOL amidst a dirge of increasingly cumbersome sequels involving druids, curses and constellations (oh my!), it was left to actress Jamie Lee Curtis to pitch the idea of an anniversary film to both Dimension Films and the director who she credits for ...

1981 Dir. Rick Rosenthal Laurie Strode is rushed to the hospital after surviving her bloody ordeal at the hands of demented killer Michael Myers. Meanwhile, Dr Loomis discovers that Myers isn’t really dead and sets out to track him down with Sheriff Brackett. Discovering Laurie’s whereabouts at the hospital, Myers makes his less than suspenseful way there, leaving a bloody trail of bodies in his wake… After the runaway success of John Carpenter’s Halloween , and the slew of stalk and slash films it inspired, it came as a surprise to few that a sequel charting the increasingly gory antics of Michael Myers would be released. Halloween producers Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad approached John Carpenter and Debra Hill to pen the script for Halloween II and they initially planned to set the sequel a few years after the events depicted in the first film, with Myers tracking Laurie to her new life and home in a high-rise apartment building. The decision was then made to set the fi...

1978 Dir. John Carpenter Fifteen years after brutally murdering his sister on Halloween night, mentally deranged Michael Myers escapes from the psychiatric hospital where he was incarcerated. With his psychiatrist hot on his heels, Myers makes his way back to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, with the express intention of committing more murders. On Halloween night he sets his sights on several teenagers who are babysitting near his old neighbourhood, stalking and slaying them one by one… After being impressed by Assault on Precinct 13 , producer Irwin Yablans approached director John Carpenter with an idea for a low-budget horror film about a maniac who stalks babysitters. Tentatively titled The Babysitter Murders , the project appealed to Carpenter, who along with producer Debra Hill scripted the story. After it was suggested they set the story during the course of one night, Carpenter and Hill decided upon Halloween, with its rich history and spooky connotations. With...

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...

During the years 1978 – 1981 it was virtually impossible to visit the cinema or your local video shop without encountering at least one slasher film boasting a masked homicidal maniac, stalking and slashing copious teens in various creepy locations. It was also pretty much guaranteed that at least one of these films would star Jamie Lee Curtis, an actress whose early career was built on playing plucky, resourceful characters who face off against maniacal killers. A new book by David Grove sets out to explore and celebrate this particular part of Curtis’s career, which involved a number of seminal slashers now revered as classics (and some of my favourite horror titles). Beginning with Halloween in which Curtis portrayed Laurie Strode – who became the prototype for the heroic figure of the 'final girl' - subsequent roles followed in The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train, Roadgames and Halloween II . Jamie Lee Curtis: Scream Queen details Curtis' career and life during th...

Throughout his seminal masterpiece  Halloween,  John Carpenter manages to create moments of nail-biting tension, suggestive chills and an unnervingly creepy atmosphere punctuated with shrill jump-moments. The director has laced his groundbreaking slasher with creepy images and moments of spine-tingling dread. Most of the creepiness comes of course from the frequent glimpses of The Shape… The presence of The Shape, indeed even the mere threat of his presence is enough to render any previously cosy domestic space or autumnal leafy suburb, a now creepy, dangerous place, saturated with menace. Carpenter’s expert use of widescreen and his placing of The Shape just on the periphery of many shots - lurking in the shadows and corners - is more than enough to generate chills and the threat of violence and set hearts pounding… Indeed even when he appears to Laurie in broad daylight, his presence obviously doesn't belong in cosy suburbia - his eerie menace juxtaposed with familiar s...