Kicking off our new podcast Once Upon A Time At The Movies, a biweekly film retrospective series, we look back at the slasher film that broke box office records and reign supreme for decades, John Carpenter’s Halloween. In celebration of its 45th anniversary, host Juan Ayala is joined my stand-up comedian and Michael Myers superfan Gerardo Pelati for a recap, review and reflection on the iconic horror film.
When thinking of when he first saw Halloween, Gerardo revealed, “I had this teacher, Mr. Hernandez, who decided this one fall he would show us horror films. We saw The Ring, The Omen, Signs and Halloween and that was the first time I was ever introduced to horror. I remember being so terrified seeing Michael Myers’ perspective. It scared me like ‘oh my god, I’M the killer!’. Now I watch a couple of Halloween movies every year.”
Juan revealed some trivia and fun facts about the film and its production, including that the film’s $300,000 budget is equivalent today to about $1.4 million, which is a similar budget to other horror films SAW, X and Pearl. Juan also shared that other actors considered for the now iconic role of Dr. Loomis, including esteemed thespians Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, both of whom would appear in the Star Wars franchise as Count Dooku and Grand Moff Tarkin, respectively.
Juan and Gerardo also touched on some of the many sequels, reboots, remakes and retcons that followed the 1978 classic. One of Juan’s favorites is 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, which reintroduced Myers to fans who missed him after he was absent from the third film Season of the Witch, which took an anthology approach to the series. Gerardo shared his favorite is Halloween: 20 Years Later, which saw the return of original star Jamie Lee Curtis to the franchise. Curtis was ultimately disappointed with the film and would return once again in 2018’s reboot/retcon Halloween for a trilogy directed by David Gordon-Green. How she feels about the trilogy’s trajectory is still unknown.
What’s your favorite entry in the Halloween franchise? Let us know!
