You Can't Kill the Boogeyman: The Ongoing Halloween Saga -13 Movies and Counting by Wayne Byrne
Huge thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for
providing me with an advanced copy of Wayne Byrne’s excellent and entertaining
new book You Can’t Kill The Boogeyman: The Ongoing Halloween Saga – 13 Movies and Counting. I was so excited to find this book on one of my favorite horror
franchises- Halloween, and Bynre’s detailed examination and analysis
into the making of these films, especially those from the late 80s and 90s
provides new insight and understanding about the changing storylines and
directions that this franchise has experienced over nearly 50 years of terror. I
can understand how some people might not appreciate this book since Byrne
states from the beginning that “This is not a definitive history of the Halloween
franchise. This is a critical and cultural celebration of the artists involved…”
As he notes, many of the major figures in the franchise like Carpenter and
Jamie Lee Curtis have contributed to other studies of the films, so if anything
Byrne presents a fresh view of the films. However, his focus on some of the
films that are more divisive in the franchise (Halloween III, 4, 5, and 6)
help to provide new insight and understanding about the change in direction
that these films ushered in, and how studios and the shift in horror that Scream
ushered in during the late 90’s resulted in a return to Lori Strode storyline
with H20 and Halloween: Resurrection. I found this book to be
fascinating and helped me appreciate the distinctions between each of the films
in the series, even if I’m not a huge fan of some of the later versions.
Nevertheless, as a horror movie fan and someone whose first R rated film in the
theater was Halloween 4, this book appealed to not only my fandom about
the series, but also my interest in how films are made. This is a wonderful
book, and I loved how Byrne’s approach to examining the films in chunks allows
readers and fans to, hopefully, develop a further appreciation for these films
and understand the various factors that influenced the storylines and changes
to the series that have happened. Chapter 1 focuses on Halloween I and II,
and the focus is on much of the production of the film, especially around the
cinematography, the design of the town and homes, and the challenges with
transforming Southern California into midwestern Haddonfield. It was really
cool to learn more about this aspect of the film, especially how they designed
the iconic opening scene, viewing the murder through Michael Myers’s eyes. In fact,
many of the chapters feature interviews with the cinematographers and directors
of photography on the film to better understand how the camera angles, lighting,
staging, and editing all contributed to different tones and moods for these
films. I also liked learning more about Halloween II since this film primarily
takes place in the hospital and creates a sense of dread of foreboding while containing
the action in this central (and scary) location. This part of the book also
brings in Alan Howarth, a musician who ended up composing the music for many of
the Halloween sequels but still working with Carpenter’s iconic score. I
loved reading about Howarth’s background and interest in synthesizers as well
as his ability to maintain the core components of the score, yet also to elaborate
on the score and add his own flourishes and tones to make the scores fit with
the tone of each film. While some may question the focus on the cinematography
and the music in this book, I found it helped me better understand the unique
directions and emotions that each film portrays, and how those involved in the
different films tried to not only maintain the key elements of the franchise
yet also contribute their own unique take on the films. It’s something that I
hadn’t quite considered as an early adolescent horror fan, but now looking back,
I can appreciate even more as this horror franchise sought to challenge the
studio system and maintain its 1970s independent film roots.
Chapter 2 focuses on Halloween III, which is one of
the more divisive films in the series, mostly because it does not feature
Michael Myers. The video boxes for the Halloween films always stood out—not
only because there were 3 really cool covers featuring evil looking pumpkins,
but I also thought that III’s stretched out silhouettes of trick-or-treaters
with the demon face in the sky was so cool looking. It not only had a cool
design and color scheme, but it also was relevant to me- coming out when I was probably
6 years old. It always made the Halloween holiday look much more terrifying and
scary. I also remember watching it on TV when I was younger and really enjoying
so much about this film—especially the Silver Shamrock song. I encountered this
film before I really knew what sequels and series were, so to me, this was
always an interesting and scary movie since the villains target children and
their interest in Halloween masks. I later learned that the focus of the film
was aligned with Carpenter and Debra Hill’s intention to make Halloween
an anthology series, which I also thought was really cool. I loved Tales
from the Darkside and Tales from the Crypt, and so I could imagine
that an anthology film series focused on frightening stories related to Halloween
would have been awesome. It’s a shame that audiences didn’t appreciate the film
in this regard, but I can understand how jarring this film would have been with
a title in the series. Regardless, Byrne’s chapter interviews Tommy Lee
Wallace, who worked on the first film and directed this one. He provides a lot
of insight into the production of the film, including the excellent choice of Tom
Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis, the leading character who plays against types. While
I’m not sure I completely agree with Byrne that the film is one of the best
horror films of the 80s, but I do agree that it is dramatically underrated. Furthermore,
Byrne’s analysis of the film presenting
it as a “façade of middle-class conformity mask[ing] a malevolent conspiracy”
helps to frame the film within the context of the Halloween franchise
and other 1970s and 80s horror films that chronicle social changes and anxiety.
Chapter 3 was probably my favorite chapters, and it was one of the longer
chapters in the book. It details the productions of Halloween 4 and 5, and
how these films were meant to resuscitate the series. Halloween 4 was
the first R-rated film I saw in a theater, and it was also probably the first
horror movie I saw in the theater. I remember begging my dad to take me, and
the experience still stands out. I always thought 4 was a good entry, and
recognized that it was more of a thriller-action film than a horror film. I
also remember the film being really dark since it takes place primarily at
night. Reading the interviews with the director and cinematographer brought a
new level of appreciation for the film, and also some understanding of the direction
that the film was taking. I also loved that Tony Timpone from Fangoria
was featured in a lot of these chapters, since I was also an avid reader of
that magazine at the time, and his input provided more ideas about the
direction of the films and the focus on the story. Although I loved reading
about 4, the focus on Halloween 5 was even more entertaining,
specifically the interviews with director Dominique Othenin-Girard and cinematographer
Rob Draper that were fascinating insights into how this film franchise swerved
in direction. Othenin-Girard is a fascinating and at times humorous interview
subject, and he provides some great entertainment, but also some interesting
perspective about how his ideas for the film went in a much different direction
than many of the other films. Reading these chapters has made me want to
revisit these two films in the series as well.
Chapter 4 was also fascinating in examining The Curse of
Michael Myers, which has a pretty low rating, but has an interesting story
about the direction the series was heading. It was also interesting to learn
that the screenplay was written by a 19-year old fan of the franchise, Daniel Farrands,
and was also the first of the series that Miramax produced, although this
studio’s emerging power seemed to interfere with many aspects of the film’s
production, including the score, the editing, and the story. This chapters is
also interesting to learn more about what the goals were for the film series
that were eventually abandoned with the subsequent films. Chapter 5 examines H20
and Halloween: Resurrection, which shifted the focus back to Laurie
Strode and also seemingly sought to appeal to more recent trends in horror films
that were likely the result of Scream. I also saw H20 in the
theaters, and remember being excited for the return of Michael Myers and Laurie
Strode. Although I haven’t seen Resurrection, I appreciated Byrne’s idea
that this film was one of the early entries into the found footage films that started
with The Blair Witch Project and The Last Broadcast. It’s
interesting to think about how these films were both influenced by other horror
tropes of the time, and potentially also influenced other films later. The last
two chapters focused on the Rob Zombie Halloween films and the David
Gordon Green Halloween films. I’ve seen both sets of these films in the
theater, so again, it was interesting to learn more about how these films came
about, what influenced them outside of Halloween, and what the directors
and cinematographers were looking to capture mood and tone-wise for these
films. I didn’t really enjoy the Rob Zombie versions, and in general, I’m not
big into his films. However, I enjoyed reading more about the challenges he
faced and how he intended to re-envision the Michael Myers story and character
as someone who was influenced by his environment than his nature. I also enjoyed
reading the cinematographer’s experience and career, which didn’t necessarily
seem to come from the horror genre. The David Gordon Green chapter was also
interesting to learn more about how the legacy influenced these versions, and
also how Blumhouse Productions has been reinterpreting other horror film
intellectual property for some time. Both of these chapters were shorter than
some of the others and didn’t have the same level of detail and interviews that
were in some of the other chapters focusing on the earlier films in the franchise.
Nevertheless, these chapters offered some interesting perspectives about the
films, especially how these films fit into more recent horror trends and reflect
changes in society. Again, it’s interesting to learn about how the writers and
producers have been able to reimagine the storyline and create different
narratives reflecting elements of Laurie and Michael’s relationship.
I highly recommend this book for many different reasons, but
especially if you are a fan of horror films and the Halloween films. Even
if you feel strongly that some of the films are problematic, reading this book
might provide you with new insights and information about the intention of the
directors, cinematographers, composers, and others involved in the creation of
these films. Byrne’s research, interviews, and analysis helped to recontextualize
many of these films and made me want to revisit many of the films in the
franchise. In addition, the book is just fun to read. There are many great
pictures and images from posters and production stills; plus, the interviews
with those involved in the production are really enlightening and entertaining.
This is a wonderful book serving more as a treat than a trick. Highly
recommended!
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