Loomis, not Michael, is the real bogeyman: An alternate reading of John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978)

October 31, 1978 is the Halloween that Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald  Pleasence) has been anticipating for 15 years.

"Your compassion is overwhelming, doctor."

-Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), sarcastically addressing Dr. Loomis

"The concept is valid no matter where it originates!"

-A line from John Carpenter's debut film, Dark Star (1974)

The first film in the franchise.

For a moment, I want you to cast your mind back to 1978, when John Carpenter's immensely influential (and still enormously entertaining) slasher film, Halloween, made its debut on American movie screens. At that time, there was no such thing as "the Halloween franchise." The film's ten sequels (1981-2022) had not been made yet, to say nothing of the 2007 remake, which inspired its own 2009 sequel. For those of you keeping score, there are now thirteen Halloween movies all together. 

But back in '78, there was just one movie. Based on the comments made by the film's co-creators, director/writer John Carpenter and producer/co-writer Debra Hill, Halloween was not meant to be the first chapter in an ongoing saga. It was a contractual obligation, not a creative drive, that led to Halloween II (1982) and all that followed.

Naturally, the subsequent films explored and expanded the mythology of the original film's three central characters, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Michael Myers aka The Shape (Nick Castle, among others), and Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Thirty-five years ago, however, there was no mythology to explore. The only information we had about these characters—and the only information the creators ever intended us to have about them—came from this one movie. 

I say all of this because I want to present an alternate interpretation of Halloween that willfully ignores everything revealed about Laurie, Michael, and Loomis in the subsequent films and treats the 1978 original as an isolated, standalone story. Still with me? Good. Let us continue.

(today's zomby) AND SUGGESTIONS ON MAKING YOUR HALLOWEEN LESS FUN!

October 31 is coming up soon, and you know what THAT means! Yes, it's time to drain every last bit of fun out of Halloween! Here, let the folks at Centron help:



Depressed yet? Either way, here's part 2:



"Yes, the safest way to celebrate Halloween is.... not to celebrate it at all! So when All Hallows Eve rolls around this year, why not play it safe? Stay home and work on your penmanship or write that book report you've been putting off! Remember to sit up straight now! Here, let me throw your costume away for you!

"There we go! That's better! Dry those eyes now! Nobody likes a crybaby! Remember, when you celebrate Halloween the Centron way, you may feel dead on the inside, but you'll be alive on the outside!"

P.S. - John Carpenter's Halloween came out a year after the Centron film.

Notice any similarities at all?

P is for Pumpkin (Day 16)

I like to carve a pumpkin.

And just like that, we're on the back half of the countdown. Ain't that something? Truth be told, I was not all that into pumpkin carving as a kid. When you're that age, you can't really do the cutting by yourself, so your "job" mostly consists of scraping pumpkin guts out of your would-be jack-o-lantern. I've had better times than that. But, still, this is a nicely creepy, sorta John Carpenter-ish image, isn't it? Aw, what the heck do you know?