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Halloween #1
Halloween
Based on the screenplay by John Carpenter and Debra Hill.
Tricked by his cunning ... Treated to his savagery ... Annie, Linda and Laurie ... fresh, pretty, ready to be taken ... stalked by a sadistic power who has returned to claim new victims, on this ... the most frightening night of the year.
Tricked by his cunning ... Treated to his savagery ... Annie, Linda and Laurie ... fresh, pretty, ready to be taken ... stalked by a sadistic power who has returned to claim new victims, on this ... the most frightening night of the year.
168 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 223 reviews
October 12, 2016
I have had this book a million and one years and I love it so much! I love the old Halloween movies like you wouldn't believe. Watched them over and over as a kid and still to this day. I enjoyed the book a great deal, there are a few little tidbits added to the book that are not in the movie. I loved how you get the thoughts of Laurie and some other characters in the book that's not JUST in the movie!
The gory little figure turned and stepped over the fallen furniture and scattered clothing and walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Suddenly he realized he was hungry. He reached into a bowl on the kitchen counter and stuffed a cookie into his mouth, then opened the refrigerator door and removed a bottle of milk. He emptied half of it into his mouth directly from the bottle and wiped his mouth with his bloody sleeve, leaving a streak of red and white across his cheek.
He opened the side door and went outside, still carrying the butcher knife. He stepped out onto the lawn and stood there for a minute indecisively.
At that moment a dark sedan pulled up to the curb. The assassin made not attempt to flee, but stood on the lawn waiting for the occupants of the car to get out. After a moment both front doors opened and a man and woman emerged. They took two or three paces toward the house, then saw him and stopped, staring at the figure in the bloodstained clown costume with a blood-clotted butcher knife in his hand.
The man reached out and removed the mask from the boy's face.
"Michael . . .?"
The story goes on to tell about Michael being in the Smith Grove Sanitarium and his time with Dr. Loomis until his escape years later.
and now Micheal is back in Haddonfield and he's outside of Laurie's class room.
As her mind wandered dreamily over these solemn questions, she noticed a station wagon parked on the street. Behind the wheel, gazing into her classroom, gazing it seemed directly at her, was a man. At least she thought it was a man. He was dressed as far as she could make out in dark khaki mechanics overalls. His hair was black, but his face seemed preternaturally white, almost powdered. In fact, the more she looked at the face, with its red lips and sunken purple eyes, she wondered if he weren't wearing a mask. He'd better be, because if that's his own face, that guy is in trouble. Wow, if he's looking at me, then I'm in trouble!
Moving along and it's after school and Laurie is walking home with her friends when they run into Micheal in the car again. It's a little tense but nothing really happens until later when they all get to meet Micheal on Halloween night!
Laurie is baby sitting for Tommy Doyle and her friend is across the street babysitting as well until she pawns the little girl off on Laurie so she can be with her boyfriend. Doesn't really turn out good!
Behind the curtain Tommy happened to look out the window at that moment. He saw a huge dark figure with a white grotesque face carrying a limp body of a girl out of the Wallaces' garage. Tommy felt a surge of fear like none he'd ever known. "The bogeyman!" he cried, trying to charge out of the curtain but tangling himself in it.
Then a bunch of stuff happens, Dr. Loomis shows up, Michael gets shot after being stabbed and he still gets away! I love Micheal =)
Laurie's nails dug into his shoulder as she stared like a soldier in shell shock at the empty place on the lawn. "It was the bogeyman, wasn't it?" she murmured.
"As a matter of fact, " Loomis repied, "it was."
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
January 6, 2016
As good as the movie!!!
This is the novelization by Curtis Richards based on the original screenplay done for the film by John Carpenter & Debra Hill.
IF YOU KNEW BY HEART THE FILM...IS IT WORTHY TO READ THE NOVEL?
Quick answer... YES!!!
...but those are movies. You can always turn the television off if you get too scared. You can't turn off real life.
I had already watched the film several times in the past, but since I was able to get a copy of it like four years ago, I set a "tradition" to watch the film Halloween each October 31st at night. So, I was uncertain of how much I would enjoy to read the novel since I knew quite well how the story went, however, the novel adds several additional information not presented on the film that it made, just for that, quite worthy to read the book, and also, while I knew how was the story, the narrative style was so engaging that I enjoyed a lot the reading experience. So, I am truly glad of having decided to read the novelization.
I think that besides the obvious title of the film that makes it a perfect choice to watch on Halloween's night, a key element of the story is that while it's highly unlikely that you will meet a vampire, zombie or another kind of paranormal monster on Halloween, it's dangerously disturbing the chance of meeting a serial killer. Even, when the story "injects" to Michael Myers with certain degree of paranormal endurance, at the very end, he is a serial killer and sadly that's something that anybody can find in real life.
WITHOUT SPOILERS...WHAT CAN YOU FIND NEW ON THE NOVEL?
The novel starts with a prologue showing an ancient ritual related to the roots of the festivities tied to Samhain.
Moreover, you will find quite extended presentation of the childhood of Michael Myers, even commenting about incidents in his family way before of his birth, but also his life on the psychiatric hospital when he was still a child. Quite revealing, insightful and great to strength even more the image of the character.
Even a chat between Dr. Sam Loomis and Sheriff Brackett related to the past family of Michael Myers that you will find the same of valuable to read.
And it seems that Michael Myers, at least during the day, when he is around Haddonfield, he is wearing a mask different that the one that everybody remembers. It's described that he is like having the lips painted on red and around the eyes, painted with purple. My best guess, is that his attempt to reproduce his clown mask when he was a child. (Dang those creepy clowns, again!)
...it's Halloween. I guess everybody's entitled to a good scare.
MY ONLY COMPLAIN ABOUT THE MOVIE...IS IT FIXED ON THE NOVEL?
Quick answer... No.
Let me explain, my only complain about the movie is that while Laurie Strode is starting to freak out during the day due encountering several times with Michael Myers, and it's noticeable (and understandable) that she is quite nervous about it, suddenly she is not believing to young Tommy, at night, when he tells her that he is watching "The Bogeyman" out there. It happens in the movie, and just the same in the book. It's not logical!!! Dang! If she was suspecting that some mysterious shadowy man was kinda stalking her, why the heck she doesn't give a dang about the comments of young Tommy?
Oh, the own inner logic of slasher stuff! ;) You have to accept it as it comes.
But, nevertheless, the Halloween novelization is a horror book that I highly recommend, not matter if you have already watched the cult film or not.
But you can't kill the bogeyman.
This is the novelization by Curtis Richards based on the original screenplay done for the film by John Carpenter & Debra Hill.
IF YOU KNEW BY HEART THE FILM...IS IT WORTHY TO READ THE NOVEL?
Quick answer... YES!!!
...but those are movies. You can always turn the television off if you get too scared. You can't turn off real life.
I had already watched the film several times in the past, but since I was able to get a copy of it like four years ago, I set a "tradition" to watch the film Halloween each October 31st at night. So, I was uncertain of how much I would enjoy to read the novel since I knew quite well how the story went, however, the novel adds several additional information not presented on the film that it made, just for that, quite worthy to read the book, and also, while I knew how was the story, the narrative style was so engaging that I enjoyed a lot the reading experience. So, I am truly glad of having decided to read the novelization.
I think that besides the obvious title of the film that makes it a perfect choice to watch on Halloween's night, a key element of the story is that while it's highly unlikely that you will meet a vampire, zombie or another kind of paranormal monster on Halloween, it's dangerously disturbing the chance of meeting a serial killer. Even, when the story "injects" to Michael Myers with certain degree of paranormal endurance, at the very end, he is a serial killer and sadly that's something that anybody can find in real life.
WITHOUT SPOILERS...WHAT CAN YOU FIND NEW ON THE NOVEL?
The novel starts with a prologue showing an ancient ritual related to the roots of the festivities tied to Samhain.
Moreover, you will find quite extended presentation of the childhood of Michael Myers, even commenting about incidents in his family way before of his birth, but also his life on the psychiatric hospital when he was still a child. Quite revealing, insightful and great to strength even more the image of the character.
Even a chat between Dr. Sam Loomis and Sheriff Brackett related to the past family of Michael Myers that you will find the same of valuable to read.
And it seems that Michael Myers, at least during the day, when he is around Haddonfield, he is wearing a mask different that the one that everybody remembers. It's described that he is like having the lips painted on red and around the eyes, painted with purple. My best guess, is that his attempt to reproduce his clown mask when he was a child. (Dang those creepy clowns, again!)
...it's Halloween. I guess everybody's entitled to a good scare.
MY ONLY COMPLAIN ABOUT THE MOVIE...IS IT FIXED ON THE NOVEL?
Quick answer... No.
Let me explain, my only complain about the movie is that while Laurie Strode is starting to freak out during the day due encountering several times with Michael Myers, and it's noticeable (and understandable) that she is quite nervous about it, suddenly she is not believing to young Tommy, at night, when he tells her that he is watching "The Bogeyman" out there. It happens in the movie, and just the same in the book. It's not logical!!! Dang! If she was suspecting that some mysterious shadowy man was kinda stalking her, why the heck she doesn't give a dang about the comments of young Tommy?
Oh, the own inner logic of slasher stuff! ;) You have to accept it as it comes.
But, nevertheless, the Halloween novelization is a horror book that I highly recommend, not matter if you have already watched the cult film or not.
But you can't kill the bogeyman.
November 1, 2021
Loomis looked at him with a directness that made Brackett extremely uncomfortable.
"I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room, staring through the walls, if you can understand that, staring through the walls and seeing this night. He's waited for it, planned for it, focused his life on it. He's inhumanly patient. Hour after hour, day after day, waiting for some silent, invisible alarm to trigger him -- a voice to tell him the time has come, a gauge to tell him his blood has begun to boil. Death has arrived in your little town, Sheriff. You can ignore it, or you can help me stop it."
John Carpenter's classic 1978 film Halloween, is, simply put, the greatest horror movie ever made. It set the standard for all modern horror films, and holds up incredibly well even today as a wonderfully terrifying and atmospheric experience. I recently watched an episode of the Netflix series The Movies That Made Us on the background and making of this iconic film (Season 3, Episode 1, if you're interested), where I learned several interesting details about the movie that I didn't know, like how Donald Pleasence (what an incredible actor; may he rest in peace) hated that he had to be in the movie, and sometimes drank entire bottles of wine and showed up to shoot scenes for Carpenter in an inebriated state.
The film was made on an incredibly small budget of $300,000 USD, at a time when other higher profile films had budgets of $15 million and up, and none of the big film studios were interested in making it, resulting in it being independently produced and distributed. It went on to become an unexpected box office sensation, grossing $70 million and going on to spawn an entire franchise that will stand at thirteen films in 2022 when Halloween Ends is released.
The book, Halloween, is author Curtis Richards' 1979 novelization of the movie. It's become rare, and at the time of this writing online sellers are asking anywhere from $500 to over $1200 for a copy, which to me is absolutely crazy. If you can find a cheap copy of it, however, definitely pick it up, because it's an amazing book. Richards manages to brilliantly reconstruct the constant atmosphere of dread present in the movie. The insight into what is going on inside Michael Myers' head and the placement of the story into Michael Myers' perspective when he stalks his prey combine to add a chilling additional layer to the experience that you don't get from the film.
I also thought the main and secondary characters were all very well-developed, and particularly admired the excellent and thorough job Richards did of giving Laurie, Linda, and Annie their own unique quirks and personalities. I rarely see such great characterization in books of this brevity (it's only 168 pages long), and have not seen it before in any of the other movie novelizations I've read to date (though, admittedly, that's not very many).
You can definitely see how this film set the standard for horror movies that came after it, because all the old slasher movie tropes are here, and in abundance: the attractive, often helpless and dull-witted teenage slasher victims who try to have sex every chance they can, individuals leaving the group for one reason or another and getting killed, the seemingly invincible killer lurking in the shadows, seldom seen but slowly picking off the victims one by one. It's all here!
Though it may have set a standard for future films, I did find the sex-crazed-teenager thing to be wildly overdone in this book. I mean, did babysitting girls in 1970s Illinois really try to sneak their boyfriends into the houses of kids they were babysitting after the kids went to bed, every chance they got, so they could have sex while the children slept? That seems a little unlikely. All the teenagers in this book ever talk about, think about, and joke about is sex. Given that Haddonfield was otherwise painted by the author as a wholesome Midwestern American town, this level of debauchery felt a little incongruous.
The biggest highlight of this book, in my opinion, is the backstory provided to explain why Michael Myers is a murdering psychopath in the first place, which is not provided in the film. It permeates the novel, is wonderfully done, and provides a richer experience of the story.
If you see a cheap copy of this book in a shop somewhere, don't hesitate to pick it up; you'll likely never see another one. It's a phenomenal complement to and expansion of the film, a great horror novel in its own right, and well worth reading. It's one of the best books I've read this year.
Highly recommended!
"I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room, staring through the walls, if you can understand that, staring through the walls and seeing this night. He's waited for it, planned for it, focused his life on it. He's inhumanly patient. Hour after hour, day after day, waiting for some silent, invisible alarm to trigger him -- a voice to tell him the time has come, a gauge to tell him his blood has begun to boil. Death has arrived in your little town, Sheriff. You can ignore it, or you can help me stop it."
John Carpenter's classic 1978 film Halloween, is, simply put, the greatest horror movie ever made. It set the standard for all modern horror films, and holds up incredibly well even today as a wonderfully terrifying and atmospheric experience. I recently watched an episode of the Netflix series The Movies That Made Us on the background and making of this iconic film (Season 3, Episode 1, if you're interested), where I learned several interesting details about the movie that I didn't know, like how Donald Pleasence (what an incredible actor; may he rest in peace) hated that he had to be in the movie, and sometimes drank entire bottles of wine and showed up to shoot scenes for Carpenter in an inebriated state.
The film was made on an incredibly small budget of $300,000 USD, at a time when other higher profile films had budgets of $15 million and up, and none of the big film studios were interested in making it, resulting in it being independently produced and distributed. It went on to become an unexpected box office sensation, grossing $70 million and going on to spawn an entire franchise that will stand at thirteen films in 2022 when Halloween Ends is released.
The book, Halloween, is author Curtis Richards' 1979 novelization of the movie. It's become rare, and at the time of this writing online sellers are asking anywhere from $500 to over $1200 for a copy, which to me is absolutely crazy. If you can find a cheap copy of it, however, definitely pick it up, because it's an amazing book. Richards manages to brilliantly reconstruct the constant atmosphere of dread present in the movie. The insight into what is going on inside Michael Myers' head and the placement of the story into Michael Myers' perspective when he stalks his prey combine to add a chilling additional layer to the experience that you don't get from the film.
I also thought the main and secondary characters were all very well-developed, and particularly admired the excellent and thorough job Richards did of giving Laurie, Linda, and Annie their own unique quirks and personalities. I rarely see such great characterization in books of this brevity (it's only 168 pages long), and have not seen it before in any of the other movie novelizations I've read to date (though, admittedly, that's not very many).
You can definitely see how this film set the standard for horror movies that came after it, because all the old slasher movie tropes are here, and in abundance: the attractive, often helpless and dull-witted teenage slasher victims who try to have sex every chance they can, individuals leaving the group for one reason or another and getting killed, the seemingly invincible killer lurking in the shadows, seldom seen but slowly picking off the victims one by one. It's all here!
Though it may have set a standard for future films, I did find the sex-crazed-teenager thing to be wildly overdone in this book. I mean, did babysitting girls in 1970s Illinois really try to sneak their boyfriends into the houses of kids they were babysitting after the kids went to bed, every chance they got, so they could have sex while the children slept? That seems a little unlikely. All the teenagers in this book ever talk about, think about, and joke about is sex. Given that Haddonfield was otherwise painted by the author as a wholesome Midwestern American town, this level of debauchery felt a little incongruous.
The biggest highlight of this book, in my opinion, is the backstory provided to explain why Michael Myers is a murdering psychopath in the first place, which is not provided in the film. It permeates the novel, is wonderfully done, and provides a richer experience of the story.
If you see a cheap copy of this book in a shop somewhere, don't hesitate to pick it up; you'll likely never see another one. It's a phenomenal complement to and expansion of the film, a great horror novel in its own right, and well worth reading. It's one of the best books I've read this year.
Highly recommended!
October 28, 2018
Finally you come to learn about the background story why Michael Myers started to kill! Fantastic read, okay, not the highest literary style and skills, but extremely compelling and eerie. If you know the movie (I watched the whole series for several times) you can still experience more details you missed between the scenes. Absolutely recommended! If you want to get in the mood for Halloween or Samhain this is the book you should focus your attention to. Now!
October 26, 2018
"TRICK...OR TREAT...OR DIE"
It's 1963.......Take a trip to Haddonfield, Illinois for a spook-filled time of goblins and witches, scary Jack-o-lanterns and the real bogeyman if. you. dare. as 6 year old Michael Myers answers the demanding wicked voices in his head with a violent attack on HALLOWEEN night.
Dressed as a clown, and later referred to as "IT" (sound familiar Stephen King fans?) even after 15 years in exile at the Warren County Sanitarium, Michael returns and the evil is still not gone, only darker and more viciously savage.
My wonderful vintage copy (see bookcover) of HALLOWEEN begins with an old horror tale that backdrops Michaels mysterious voices from a time long ago "in a foggy vale in Northern Ireland at the dawn of the Celtic race" on the eve of Samhain <(the Druid festival of the dead).......a curse so powerful, people would bolt their doors in fear, but to no avail........
If you remember the frightening movie, the novel will bring it all back in spades with the silly teenie-bopper conversations and an atmosphere reminiscent of the time. Great Classic Horror!
February 26, 2021
It’s safe to say that 1978’s Halloween, directed by master filmmaker John Carpenter, is my all-time favorite slasher film. In fact, it is in my top-five favorite films ever made. Being the first real, honest-to-Samhain horror movie I ever saw, it made me into the horror-loving freak I am today.
Horror has always enticed me, which is why I was such a big fan of children’s horror series like Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? But movies like Halloween? I wasn’t allowed to watch them. I was basically told these movies would make me too scared to function, so the thought of actually watching one… I was afraid it would make me afraid. But I couldn’t resist.
I remember it like it was only a few days ago: 14-year-old Cameron sitting on his bed with a bucket of Halloween candy, snacking nervously as AMC’s Fear Fest launched into their 8 PM showing of Halloween. My heart was racing—palms sweaty, mom’s spaghetti—as the opening credits started, afraid of nothing but fear itself… and then something happened. I realized I wasn’t actually afraid. The simple image of the jack-o-lantern slowly panning toward me, paired with John Carpenter’s infamous score, made me feel right at home. It was as if I was fulfilling some kind of prophecy; Cameron Chaney was watching his first real horror film.
And fifteen years later, here we are.
If Goosebumps introduced me to horror, then 1978’s Halloween showed me I could have some kind of place in the genre myself. It paved the way to me writing my own Halloween-themed horror book Autumncrow and led me to start Library Macabre in the first place. This little independent film was a major steppingstone in my life, and I’m glad I decided to watch it. I’ve seen Halloween and its sequels numerous times since, but there has always been a blind spot for me: the novelizations.
The first four movies of the franchise have their own novelizations, penned by various authors, as does the latest installment, Halloween (2018). Somehow, I hadn’t read any of them. And I still have some catching up to do, but I did recently read the novelization of Carpenter’s original movie, and I want to talk about it.
Published in October 1979, Halloween by Curtis Richards takes Carpenter’s original script and extends it, giving us a story rich in All Hallows' folklore and combining it with elements from the script of 1981’s Halloween II. As we discover in Halloween II—and spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the movie 40 years later—Michael Myers, boogeyman-stalker-slasher extraordinaire, turns out to be Laurie Strode’s brother, explaining why he is targeting her on Halloween. This isn’t a thing in the 1978 movie at all. Michael kills at random and there is no disclosed lineage between he and our final girl. But they had to come up with some kind of twist for the sequel, and making the two of them brother and sister just made sense. Even though Halloween II lacks originality, the sibling angle is one I have always liked, and it was cool reading a version of Halloween that works this twist into the narrative.
In the novelization, Laurie already knows she is adopted, but of course she doesn’t realize her brother Michael has escaped Smith Grove Mental Hospital until it is too late. While this may not be true to John Carpenter’s original vision, this gives Halloween fans something a little different.
We also get a lot more backstory on Michael himself. The opening of the book is much longer than the film, taking us back hundreds of years to Northern Ireland during the Druid Festival of the dead. Here, we learn about an ancient curse that damns an evil soul to walk the earth forevermore. Of course, this is the evil that latches onto young Michael Myers and orders him to kill Judith Myers, his teenage sister. This unspeakable act robs Michael of his innocence altogether, allowing the evil to invade Michael’s mind completely. It is really very tragic, the idea of an evil presence latching itself onto the most vulnerable thing it can find—a child—in order to walk the earth again. If you think about it, Michael actually died the night his sister did, leaving his body an empty vessel.
After the murder of Judith Myers, Michael is sent to Smith Grove where we get plenty of scenes of him growing up in the asylum. It is here that we meet Samuel Loomis and his obsession with the boy with the devil’s eyes. Loomis, of course, fights to keep Michael locked up resulting in his eventual escape on Halloween 1978. And… yeah. If you’ve seen the film, the rest is pretty much the same from there, except of course for the knowledge that Michael is Laurie’s brother. We also find out Sam Loomis is married, which doesn’t make much sense for his character, so it was a good idea for Donald Pleasance, who plays Loomis in the film, to be unmarried. This gives his obsession with Michael no distractions.
Overall, I really enjoyed the novelization. Curtis Richards writing was crisp and crunchy with Autumnal atmosphere. I could hear the leaves rustling in the wind, feel that midwestern chill on my skin. The author introduced some cool concepts to the story, making it his own while never losing the essence of Carpenter’s story.
The only thing I want to point out is that the sex is far more graphic than it is in the movie, and while the film portrays its women respectfully, the book focuses a lot on their bodies. Many of the female characters “walk jiggly” and such, so heed my warning before going in. I liked Laurie Strode in the book though. I found she fought against Michael even harder than she did in the movie, so that was fun.
I recommend the book as a whole, especially for fans of the movie. If that’s you, then this a must. Now, the book is very difficult to find a copy of, so your best bet is to listen to the audiobook on The 80's Slasher Librarian YouTube page. This guy buys copies of these out of print books just to narrate them on his channel. And all ad revenue goes to the appropriate places, so it is completely legal. Don’t worry. I highly recommend visiting his page and listening to all the out of print books you haven’t been able to read. It is a real treat.
Horror has always enticed me, which is why I was such a big fan of children’s horror series like Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? But movies like Halloween? I wasn’t allowed to watch them. I was basically told these movies would make me too scared to function, so the thought of actually watching one… I was afraid it would make me afraid. But I couldn’t resist.
I remember it like it was only a few days ago: 14-year-old Cameron sitting on his bed with a bucket of Halloween candy, snacking nervously as AMC’s Fear Fest launched into their 8 PM showing of Halloween. My heart was racing—palms sweaty, mom’s spaghetti—as the opening credits started, afraid of nothing but fear itself… and then something happened. I realized I wasn’t actually afraid. The simple image of the jack-o-lantern slowly panning toward me, paired with John Carpenter’s infamous score, made me feel right at home. It was as if I was fulfilling some kind of prophecy; Cameron Chaney was watching his first real horror film.
And fifteen years later, here we are.
If Goosebumps introduced me to horror, then 1978’s Halloween showed me I could have some kind of place in the genre myself. It paved the way to me writing my own Halloween-themed horror book Autumncrow and led me to start Library Macabre in the first place. This little independent film was a major steppingstone in my life, and I’m glad I decided to watch it. I’ve seen Halloween and its sequels numerous times since, but there has always been a blind spot for me: the novelizations.
The first four movies of the franchise have their own novelizations, penned by various authors, as does the latest installment, Halloween (2018). Somehow, I hadn’t read any of them. And I still have some catching up to do, but I did recently read the novelization of Carpenter’s original movie, and I want to talk about it.
Published in October 1979, Halloween by Curtis Richards takes Carpenter’s original script and extends it, giving us a story rich in All Hallows' folklore and combining it with elements from the script of 1981’s Halloween II. As we discover in Halloween II—and spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the movie 40 years later—Michael Myers, boogeyman-stalker-slasher extraordinaire, turns out to be Laurie Strode’s brother, explaining why he is targeting her on Halloween. This isn’t a thing in the 1978 movie at all. Michael kills at random and there is no disclosed lineage between he and our final girl. But they had to come up with some kind of twist for the sequel, and making the two of them brother and sister just made sense. Even though Halloween II lacks originality, the sibling angle is one I have always liked, and it was cool reading a version of Halloween that works this twist into the narrative.
In the novelization, Laurie already knows she is adopted, but of course she doesn’t realize her brother Michael has escaped Smith Grove Mental Hospital until it is too late. While this may not be true to John Carpenter’s original vision, this gives Halloween fans something a little different.
We also get a lot more backstory on Michael himself. The opening of the book is much longer than the film, taking us back hundreds of years to Northern Ireland during the Druid Festival of the dead. Here, we learn about an ancient curse that damns an evil soul to walk the earth forevermore. Of course, this is the evil that latches onto young Michael Myers and orders him to kill Judith Myers, his teenage sister. This unspeakable act robs Michael of his innocence altogether, allowing the evil to invade Michael’s mind completely. It is really very tragic, the idea of an evil presence latching itself onto the most vulnerable thing it can find—a child—in order to walk the earth again. If you think about it, Michael actually died the night his sister did, leaving his body an empty vessel.
After the murder of Judith Myers, Michael is sent to Smith Grove where we get plenty of scenes of him growing up in the asylum. It is here that we meet Samuel Loomis and his obsession with the boy with the devil’s eyes. Loomis, of course, fights to keep Michael locked up resulting in his eventual escape on Halloween 1978. And… yeah. If you’ve seen the film, the rest is pretty much the same from there, except of course for the knowledge that Michael is Laurie’s brother. We also find out Sam Loomis is married, which doesn’t make much sense for his character, so it was a good idea for Donald Pleasance, who plays Loomis in the film, to be unmarried. This gives his obsession with Michael no distractions.
Overall, I really enjoyed the novelization. Curtis Richards writing was crisp and crunchy with Autumnal atmosphere. I could hear the leaves rustling in the wind, feel that midwestern chill on my skin. The author introduced some cool concepts to the story, making it his own while never losing the essence of Carpenter’s story.
The only thing I want to point out is that the sex is far more graphic than it is in the movie, and while the film portrays its women respectfully, the book focuses a lot on their bodies. Many of the female characters “walk jiggly” and such, so heed my warning before going in. I liked Laurie Strode in the book though. I found she fought against Michael even harder than she did in the movie, so that was fun.
I recommend the book as a whole, especially for fans of the movie. If that’s you, then this a must. Now, the book is very difficult to find a copy of, so your best bet is to listen to the audiobook on The 80's Slasher Librarian YouTube page. This guy buys copies of these out of print books just to narrate them on his channel. And all ad revenue goes to the appropriate places, so it is completely legal. Don’t worry. I highly recommend visiting his page and listening to all the out of print books you haven’t been able to read. It is a real treat.
October 31, 2015
Movie novelizations/tie-ins usually suck, but this was very good. Almost as good as John Carpenter's cult movie. Almost.
Want to read
March 30, 2016
(Cover of the first Bantam mass-market printing from 1979. I don't normally read novelizations, but this one supposedly adds a lot of depth and backstory to Michael Myers. Too bad it's nearly impossible to find in decent condition for less than $100, which is crazy.)
November 18, 2020
Halloween, in my mind, is one of the best horror movies ever made. I remember when it came out, and being disappointed that I never did get to see it in the theater. I was lucky that this year, a local movie theater was playing it in the week leading up to Halloween and I ended up going (and yes, far less than 10 of us were there!). I was not disappointed with the big screen experience and I got to share it with my son, which was great. Despite having seen this movie at least once a year since the 80's, I thought the book was actually a pretty good read. The two follow each other very closely, but as I was hoping would be the case, we do get a little bit of additional look into the minds of our characters. We also get extension to some scenes, and a little more background to the story, all which help to make more sense of what is going on. Overall, this will increase my enjoyment when I again tune in next Halloween for the annual watch. I would rate this a solid 4/5 stars for my enjoyment and recommend it for horror fans, and especially fans of the movie.
October 21, 2023
We all know the story; a serial killer who stalks his victims with a large butcher knife, turning every Halloween into a bloodbath - but now we know why.
The prologue opens with the ancient festival of Samhain and a teenage outcast named Enda, who is put to death by hanging after he kills and curses his crush and her new husband in a jealous rage. Over the years, Enda lives on, through his curse - instructing the cursed to kill via a voice in their head. Michael's grandfather heard the voice. Now at just the young age of 6, so does he.
Michael has been changing. Getting into fights at school, wetting the bed again, having violent dreams, and of course, hearing that voice in his head telling him to kill. He begins to think that maybe if he does, it will finally go away. That Halloween night, he returns home from trick-or-treating early to find his sister, Judith, and her boyfriend the only ones home. He decides to test his theory about ridding himself from the voice by violently stabbing his sister to death, all the while feeling true joy.
Michael is sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where he is assigned psychologist, Sam Loomis. Loomis reports to the judge every six months, knowing in his heart there is something deeply wrong with the boy, but unable to prove anything he feels. Luckily the judge agrees, where the young boy remains for the next 15 years.
Eventually in 1978, Michael finally makes his escape from the sanitarium, stealing a vehicle and speeding away. Sam Loomis knows exactly where his patient is heading - 150 miles away, to Haddonfield, IL - just in time for Halloween.
Meanwhile in Haddonfield, highschool student Laurie Strode and her two best friends are being stalked. Who is that strange man she keeps seeing? First he's outside her school, watching through the window, then he's hiding in the bushes, next he drives by them on their walk home. He's in her yard. He's calling her house. Tailing her and her friend as they drive around town.
"Maybe that's why God put devils like the Myers kid on earth - to keep us aware of the dark side of human nature."
Then someone breaks into the hardware store to steal rope and a large knife. The infamous Myers house is broken into, with a mutilated dog found inside. Judith Myers headstone is stolen. Tonight, neither Laurie, nor her two best friends will be safe from the terror that's just set foot back in Haddonfield. The girls have no clue that this Halloween, they'll end up fighting for their lives.
------------------
I really liked this novelization and I'm grateful to finally be able to add it to my collection; it was definitely the perfect book to read for the Halloween season. It was a quick and easy read, with the extra backstory about Michael Myers, which I liked.
The prologue opens with the ancient festival of Samhain and a teenage outcast named Enda, who is put to death by hanging after he kills and curses his crush and her new husband in a jealous rage. Over the years, Enda lives on, through his curse - instructing the cursed to kill via a voice in their head. Michael's grandfather heard the voice. Now at just the young age of 6, so does he.
Michael has been changing. Getting into fights at school, wetting the bed again, having violent dreams, and of course, hearing that voice in his head telling him to kill. He begins to think that maybe if he does, it will finally go away. That Halloween night, he returns home from trick-or-treating early to find his sister, Judith, and her boyfriend the only ones home. He decides to test his theory about ridding himself from the voice by violently stabbing his sister to death, all the while feeling true joy.
Michael is sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where he is assigned psychologist, Sam Loomis. Loomis reports to the judge every six months, knowing in his heart there is something deeply wrong with the boy, but unable to prove anything he feels. Luckily the judge agrees, where the young boy remains for the next 15 years.
Eventually in 1978, Michael finally makes his escape from the sanitarium, stealing a vehicle and speeding away. Sam Loomis knows exactly where his patient is heading - 150 miles away, to Haddonfield, IL - just in time for Halloween.
Meanwhile in Haddonfield, highschool student Laurie Strode and her two best friends are being stalked. Who is that strange man she keeps seeing? First he's outside her school, watching through the window, then he's hiding in the bushes, next he drives by them on their walk home. He's in her yard. He's calling her house. Tailing her and her friend as they drive around town.
"Maybe that's why God put devils like the Myers kid on earth - to keep us aware of the dark side of human nature."
Then someone breaks into the hardware store to steal rope and a large knife. The infamous Myers house is broken into, with a mutilated dog found inside. Judith Myers headstone is stolen. Tonight, neither Laurie, nor her two best friends will be safe from the terror that's just set foot back in Haddonfield. The girls have no clue that this Halloween, they'll end up fighting for their lives.
------------------
I really liked this novelization and I'm grateful to finally be able to add it to my collection; it was definitely the perfect book to read for the Halloween season. It was a quick and easy read, with the extra backstory about Michael Myers, which I liked.
February 26, 2016
- My Description -
Halloween - The time of year for the giving of candy and fear of ghosts.
Halloween 1963 - Young Michael Myers brutally stabs his older sister with a large kitchen knife.
He is sent to an insane asylum where he sits for 15 years till one night, Halloween 1978.
Michael returns to Haddonfield.
He's come home for unfinished business.
He's come home to kill.
- My Review -
For anyone who has watched and loved the movie, Halloween, you'll love this book.
It gives deeper insight to the background of Samhain, The origin of Halloween.
Samhain was an old Celtic festival.
Through Samhain, the birth of hatred was born.
Also, delves deeper into Micheal's background and family life.
This book was a tad bit different than the movie.
It added to the movie. It gave a different perspective, like I discovered it for the first time.
I recommend reading this in October. I read this in October and it was perfect. =)
February 28, 2022
Where do I begin with this one? I have such mixed feelings at this point, I'm not sure if there's an adequate way to get my thoughts across.
I enjoy the 1978 film Halloween, but I can't dismiss the fact it's flawed. And I feel as though this novelization attempted to fix a couple of those flaws, in particular the way Michael's character is handled as well as the continuity between the first film and Halloween II, but ultimately I wonder if this didn't cause just as many problems as it set out to solve. I'm also not entirely of the opinion that Curtis Richards was necessarily a great choice to write this novelization; while I've not read any of his other works to measure against this one and I do know that movie novelizations do have a rather strict framework to meet, his writing style leaves much to be desired.
On the subject of continuity between the story, I don't believe it was entirely necessary to use this novel to try to more seamlessly link Halloween and Halloween II. Carpenter hadn't originally wanted to continue the story of the first film, and has since come to retcon the plot point of Laurie being a third Myers sibling who was adopted by the Strodes. I've always been on the fence about whether or not I am okay with them being related, or if I outright dislike it. And I do agree that it's easy to just sort of detach the differing films' timelines and plot points and look at them all as separate entities the further along you get from the original movie. Heck, reading DC comics for as long as I have has practically made that particular skill second nature. But I really don't think it was entirely necessary to have made the novelization of Halloween bridge that gap where it hiccups in the second movie. It would have stood just fine without the siblings angle, and made Michael's kills less personal and a lot more frightening. This is a strike I'd normally just count against the second movie, but I have to count it against this novelization as well, particularly because Richards didn't take that plot point anywhere.
The biggest thing here that I remain exasperated by is the use of a retelling of Dierdre of the Sorrows as a means of explaining why Michael is evil. While it can be argued as being better than what the movies went on to do, I struggle with it. It seems like something of a cop-out that takes away from the individuality of Michael himself. I do appreciate that the aim of this seems to be to make him at least marginally more sympathetic or at least tragic, but it does feel as though it removes him as a central figure of the story itself. I've heard the argument made that it's also a very ableist thing to do, connecting his character in any way to Irish legends to give a reason to why he kills, but I would argue that no matter how you slice the cake, Halloween has a lot of ableism that leaves it flawed. Whether it's this or just viewing the movie itself, it's in there and you can't erase or ignore that aspect of it. Regardless of whether you apply more modern views and knowledge or not, there's inherent ableism in it and we just have to accept it, so thanks for that John Carpenter. I'll have to do some more thinking on whether or not applying a backdrop of Irish legend to Michael's psyche is necessarily ableist (though it doesn't necessarily feel like a great thing either,) but I've got very mixed feelings on it. I've seen people in the fandom apply the lore in this novelization to his character and allow that to make Michael more sympathetic, and they do it much better than this book. And I've seen people take the idea and apply it as, this was young Michael's favorite story and it made an impact on his young, still-developing mind and psyche and how he views his killing, and they do it well. Everything this book does with the idea just...really feels like it's stilted against making Michael his own character and I can't say I appreciate that at all.
I will say however, I did appreciate the efforts this book made to give more look into Loomis's time as Michael's psychiatrist, as well as Laurie's inner thoughts, and her interactions with her friends and with Tommy and Lindsey. Those things really helped to flesh out the other characters more, and I did appreciate it.
I initially found a PDF copy of this on archive.org, and managed to read most of it, but I think the file was either incomplete or corrupted. Additionally, the majority of the book is littered with grammar/spelling and formatting errors, which took me by surprise. I finished the book via listening to the fan-made audiobook on the YouTube channel The 80s Slasher Librarian. A huge thanks to that channel for allowing me to finish this book! Ultimately, I'm not sure I'd recommend this to anyone other than fans of the franchise who are interested in trying this out. It's not the best way to get the story.
I enjoy the 1978 film Halloween, but I can't dismiss the fact it's flawed. And I feel as though this novelization attempted to fix a couple of those flaws, in particular the way Michael's character is handled as well as the continuity between the first film and Halloween II, but ultimately I wonder if this didn't cause just as many problems as it set out to solve. I'm also not entirely of the opinion that Curtis Richards was necessarily a great choice to write this novelization; while I've not read any of his other works to measure against this one and I do know that movie novelizations do have a rather strict framework to meet, his writing style leaves much to be desired.
On the subject of continuity between the story, I don't believe it was entirely necessary to use this novel to try to more seamlessly link Halloween and Halloween II. Carpenter hadn't originally wanted to continue the story of the first film, and has since come to retcon the plot point of Laurie being a third Myers sibling who was adopted by the Strodes. I've always been on the fence about whether or not I am okay with them being related, or if I outright dislike it. And I do agree that it's easy to just sort of detach the differing films' timelines and plot points and look at them all as separate entities the further along you get from the original movie. Heck, reading DC comics for as long as I have has practically made that particular skill second nature. But I really don't think it was entirely necessary to have made the novelization of Halloween bridge that gap where it hiccups in the second movie. It would have stood just fine without the siblings angle, and made Michael's kills less personal and a lot more frightening. This is a strike I'd normally just count against the second movie, but I have to count it against this novelization as well, particularly because Richards didn't take that plot point anywhere.
The biggest thing here that I remain exasperated by is the use of a retelling of Dierdre of the Sorrows as a means of explaining why Michael is evil. While it can be argued as being better than what the movies went on to do, I struggle with it. It seems like something of a cop-out that takes away from the individuality of Michael himself. I do appreciate that the aim of this seems to be to make him at least marginally more sympathetic or at least tragic, but it does feel as though it removes him as a central figure of the story itself. I've heard the argument made that it's also a very ableist thing to do, connecting his character in any way to Irish legends to give a reason to why he kills, but I would argue that no matter how you slice the cake, Halloween has a lot of ableism that leaves it flawed. Whether it's this or just viewing the movie itself, it's in there and you can't erase or ignore that aspect of it. Regardless of whether you apply more modern views and knowledge or not, there's inherent ableism in it and we just have to accept it, so thanks for that John Carpenter. I'll have to do some more thinking on whether or not applying a backdrop of Irish legend to Michael's psyche is necessarily ableist (though it doesn't necessarily feel like a great thing either,) but I've got very mixed feelings on it. I've seen people in the fandom apply the lore in this novelization to his character and allow that to make Michael more sympathetic, and they do it much better than this book. And I've seen people take the idea and apply it as, this was young Michael's favorite story and it made an impact on his young, still-developing mind and psyche and how he views his killing, and they do it well. Everything this book does with the idea just...really feels like it's stilted against making Michael his own character and I can't say I appreciate that at all.
I will say however, I did appreciate the efforts this book made to give more look into Loomis's time as Michael's psychiatrist, as well as Laurie's inner thoughts, and her interactions with her friends and with Tommy and Lindsey. Those things really helped to flesh out the other characters more, and I did appreciate it.
I initially found a PDF copy of this on archive.org, and managed to read most of it, but I think the file was either incomplete or corrupted. Additionally, the majority of the book is littered with grammar/spelling and formatting errors, which took me by surprise. I finished the book via listening to the fan-made audiobook on the YouTube channel The 80s Slasher Librarian. A huge thanks to that channel for allowing me to finish this book! Ultimately, I'm not sure I'd recommend this to anyone other than fans of the franchise who are interested in trying this out. It's not the best way to get the story.
May 6, 2023
In a time when the fear of monsters, demons and superstitions dominated the earth, a disfigured boy named Enda goes on a quest of vengeance against the family of a king's daughter who scorned him in spite of the love he held for her. After being killed during his rampage on Samhain's Eve, his spirit is cursed to roam the world for hundreds of years, seeking vengeance on women who bear likeness to the one who damned his soul many years ago. Eventually, he comes to possess the body of a little boy named Michael Myers. On the night of Hallow's Eve, the vengeful spirit of Enda comes alive once more.
A very solid adaptation of a classic slasher movie. This novelization succeeds where many others fail, expanding the story and lore while keeping true to the spirit of the original. I actually think it's better than the movie in a lot of ways. It goes into much deeper detail regarding Michael's insanity and his superhuman strength. Instead of wearing a mask, it's actually implied in this version that his face is merely so monstrous and deformed that it only appears to be a mask.
While the novelization is solid, I confess that I'm just generally not a fan of slasher movies. They're not bad, they're just my least favorite subgenre of horror. That being said, I was in the mood to read a classic Halloween story in the spirit of October being close at hand and I can't say I had a bad time. While it doesn't appeal too much to me personally, I understand why it's a staple of the slasher genre. It's a fun popcorn horror flick.
My rating: 2.8/5
A very solid adaptation of a classic slasher movie. This novelization succeeds where many others fail, expanding the story and lore while keeping true to the spirit of the original. I actually think it's better than the movie in a lot of ways. It goes into much deeper detail regarding Michael's insanity and his superhuman strength. Instead of wearing a mask, it's actually implied in this version that his face is merely so monstrous and deformed that it only appears to be a mask.
While the novelization is solid, I confess that I'm just generally not a fan of slasher movies. They're not bad, they're just my least favorite subgenre of horror. That being said, I was in the mood to read a classic Halloween story in the spirit of October being close at hand and I can't say I had a bad time. While it doesn't appeal too much to me personally, I understand why it's a staple of the slasher genre. It's a fun popcorn horror flick.
My rating: 2.8/5
July 24, 2021
4 stars
I have been SEARCHING for a copy of this book for longer than I can remember. When I saw it was available through kindle unlimited I immediately picked it up and read it right away! The Halloween movie franchise is at the top of my favorite horror movies list and this one was pretty much the exact same thing as the first Halloween- and I mean it, word for word! There were of course a few more details (you'll be able to see why Michael keeps coming back) but other than that it was like watching the movie all over again. I definitely recommend it!
I have been SEARCHING for a copy of this book for longer than I can remember. When I saw it was available through kindle unlimited I immediately picked it up and read it right away! The Halloween movie franchise is at the top of my favorite horror movies list and this one was pretty much the exact same thing as the first Halloween- and I mean it, word for word! There were of course a few more details (you'll be able to see why Michael keeps coming back) but other than that it was like watching the movie all over again. I definitely recommend it!
October 20, 2023
Firstly, if you have a copy of this, hold on to that shit, and save it for some rough times! The cheapest one of these I could find was $250, which is well out of my price range. I mean, shit, that's like a car payment! Or at least it used to be. Fortunately some unscrupulous soul has done and put this up on the internet so that this unscrupulous soul could read it. You know, I took an ethics class in college. It must not have made much of an impression. Oh well.
This was fantastic, at least for a novelization. The story in the book and the movie are pretty much the same, scene for scene except in the beginning. It gave some background information about Michael that let us know what the hell was the matter with the boy. I liked those scenes. However, it also gave us scenes from his point of view which let us know what he was thinking, and I wasn't all that keen on that. In the movie, Michael kills his sister and then shuts up for the rest of his life. When he gets stabbed or injured in any kind of way, he does it Timex style by taking the licking and keeping on ticking. (Well, after a brief fainting spell to reset himself, but nobody's perfect.) He also attacks everyone Charlie Chaplin style: silently. (Except for his breathing. Like I said; imperfect.) He's always there, and his victims have no intimation of his coming. I find the silence and mystery much more menacing than any noise and explanations. I always thought of him as a kind of Jaws who just stalks and kills. (Kind of like a landshark!) There isn't really much rhyme or reason behind it; it's just what he does. The book gives us his POV and thoughts from time to time, and that kind of lessens the terror you get in the movie. It humanizes him a bit, and one of his most terrifying traits was his complete disconnect from humanity. He also talks for the first few years in the institution, and he's usually grunting when physical exertion requires it. This is certainly terrifying since he is killing your ass, after all, but doing all that silently seems scarier to me.
Also, we learn that Michael Myers often has a raging boner when he stalks his prey, and nowhere in this book does it mention that he takes care of it. I'm sure you know what this means. If the boy had just learned how to jack off, he could've gotten everything out of his system, and about 90 people would be alive today. (See comments section below). We won't count his sister Judith since he was only six then, and masturbation is a skill typically picked up during adolescence, but surely he should've learned how to wax the bishop sometime in the following 15 years. I was 12 myself when I stumbled upon this vital, life-saving skill, but I had some friends who started as young as 10 and two who claim they were 18 before they gave in to temptation. (One of them I actually believe.) But Michael was fucking 21 years old and must've had blue balls from hell. No wonder he was so pissed off!
This is recommended just for die-hard fans of the movie who would like a little bit of extra background info. The book is quite good, but the movie is better.
Appendix from the Damn Fool Archives:
Back in the MySpace days...
Hi!
Oh, look! It's my first social network friend, Tom, come to say how-do!
Anyway, as I was saying, back in the MySpace days, I did three blog entries tallying up Michael Myers' kills, and I eventually copied them over to Facebook a few years later, and I saved all those notes when I got off Facebook about 10 years ago. Back in 2006, the internet didn't have this information, though it's since been added at some fan sites, and those counts differ from mine by a couple of deaths. They're probably right, and I'm not going to argue with them since I really don't care.
I'm going to post my blogs in the comments section complete with spelling and grammatical errors (and possibly some bad math). They cover the original run of movies from Halloween (1978) through Resurrection. Making sense of the franchise since then has gotten confusing. There are 13 movies now, but not all of them relate to each other. You can watch the first series which has seven movies, (movies one and two and four through eight; part three is always ignored since Michael Myers isn't in it, but it still technically counts as a Halloween movie due to the title.) Or you can watch the second series which is movies nine and ten and counts as a reboot. (I don't recommend this.) Or you can watch the third series which covers movies one and 11 through 13. (Movies two through ten were kicked out of the band to make this work.) One can only hope that they are now done with this madness.
Enjoy.
This was fantastic, at least for a novelization. The story in the book and the movie are pretty much the same, scene for scene except in the beginning. It gave some background information about Michael that let us know what the hell was the matter with the boy. I liked those scenes. However, it also gave us scenes from his point of view which let us know what he was thinking, and I wasn't all that keen on that. In the movie, Michael kills his sister and then shuts up for the rest of his life. When he gets stabbed or injured in any kind of way, he does it Timex style by taking the licking and keeping on ticking. (Well, after a brief fainting spell to reset himself, but nobody's perfect.) He also attacks everyone Charlie Chaplin style: silently. (Except for his breathing. Like I said; imperfect.) He's always there, and his victims have no intimation of his coming. I find the silence and mystery much more menacing than any noise and explanations. I always thought of him as a kind of Jaws who just stalks and kills. (Kind of like a landshark!) There isn't really much rhyme or reason behind it; it's just what he does. The book gives us his POV and thoughts from time to time, and that kind of lessens the terror you get in the movie. It humanizes him a bit, and one of his most terrifying traits was his complete disconnect from humanity. He also talks for the first few years in the institution, and he's usually grunting when physical exertion requires it. This is certainly terrifying since he is killing your ass, after all, but doing all that silently seems scarier to me.
Also, we learn that Michael Myers often has a raging boner when he stalks his prey, and nowhere in this book does it mention that he takes care of it. I'm sure you know what this means. If the boy had just learned how to jack off, he could've gotten everything out of his system, and about 90 people would be alive today. (See comments section below). We won't count his sister Judith since he was only six then, and masturbation is a skill typically picked up during adolescence, but surely he should've learned how to wax the bishop sometime in the following 15 years. I was 12 myself when I stumbled upon this vital, life-saving skill, but I had some friends who started as young as 10 and two who claim they were 18 before they gave in to temptation. (One of them I actually believe.) But Michael was fucking 21 years old and must've had blue balls from hell. No wonder he was so pissed off!
This is recommended just for die-hard fans of the movie who would like a little bit of extra background info. The book is quite good, but the movie is better.
Appendix from the Damn Fool Archives:
Back in the MySpace days...
Hi!
Oh, look! It's my first social network friend, Tom, come to say how-do!
Anyway, as I was saying, back in the MySpace days, I did three blog entries tallying up Michael Myers' kills, and I eventually copied them over to Facebook a few years later, and I saved all those notes when I got off Facebook about 10 years ago. Back in 2006, the internet didn't have this information, though it's since been added at some fan sites, and those counts differ from mine by a couple of deaths. They're probably right, and I'm not going to argue with them since I really don't care.
I'm going to post my blogs in the comments section complete with spelling and grammatical errors (and possibly some bad math). They cover the original run of movies from Halloween (1978) through Resurrection. Making sense of the franchise since then has gotten confusing. There are 13 movies now, but not all of them relate to each other. You can watch the first series which has seven movies, (movies one and two and four through eight; part three is always ignored since Michael Myers isn't in it, but it still technically counts as a Halloween movie due to the title.) Or you can watch the second series which is movies nine and ten and counts as a reboot. (I don't recommend this.) Or you can watch the third series which covers movies one and 11 through 13. (Movies two through ten were kicked out of the band to make this work.) One can only hope that they are now done with this madness.
Enjoy.
October 20, 2011
No form of the written word is more maligned than the "movie tie-in" paperback novel: those hastily written adaptations of film scripts released to coincide with a movie opening to stir up more attention and hopefully rake in extra cash. Some of these actually became quite collectible, depending on the cult nature of the film, and scarcity of the first pressing.
Halloween, based on the now iconic horror movie, was one of a number of film related horror titles Bantam books was doing at the time, most with embossed, garish covers. The exception was that author Curtis Richards ended up delivering a tight suspense novel, embellishing on the rather thin plot and creating a back-story so effective it was later used in the Halloween sequel, along with dialogue lifted right from the book.
Halloween, based on the now iconic horror movie, was one of a number of film related horror titles Bantam books was doing at the time, most with embossed, garish covers. The exception was that author Curtis Richards ended up delivering a tight suspense novel, embellishing on the rather thin plot and creating a back-story so effective it was later used in the Halloween sequel, along with dialogue lifted right from the book.
September 10, 2016
John Carpenter's Halloween...the no-brainer "Set on Halloween" book. A classic, one of the original slashers. Often imitated. Interestingly enough, until today, I'd never seen the movie.
I fell into this perfectly. It wasn't until I started the book and read the blurb that I realized that this book is a novelization of the film. That discouraged me a little because just the idea of a book based on screenplay sounds like a rip off. Can you create an iceburg from the top down?
Turns out, you can. Or at least Curtis Richards can. In the name of research I took myself down to the ye olde video store and rented a handy dandy DVD of Halloween. The book is only about 160 pages, so I finished that sucker, and pushed "play".
The coolest thing about doing it this way is that I got to realize a book on screen instead of the screen playing at the book. The dialogue, pacing and chills were spot on. What was most interesting to me in the comparison of the two is that while the book obviously lacks the tension ratcheting addition of Carpenter's score, the added back story of Michael Myers psychosis and time at the sanitarium certainly makes up for it. A scary monster who kills for no reason is one level of fright, but one with a history is a whole other story.
You would think that reading and watching back to back would be boring, but it was actually delightful.
I do understand how the word delightful is not necessarily congruent in a review of "Halloween", but I've long accepted that I'm a little weird. Plus, in the world of slasher horror flicks, the word of the day is fun. You have to be a little loose and leave a bit of your critical self at the door. For example, there will be avenues unexplored, there will be holes unfilled, and there will be decisions that are laughably questionable, but the point is, did it make you feel? Where you scared, did you forget to ask those questions in the moment?
Here's another thing that was interesting about the book which shows itself more overtly than the film did. Laurie Strode, our smart and innocent babysitter stalked by Michael Myers, has more in common with Ripley from Alien than you'd have thought.
I've long heard, and touted myself, how Sigourney Weaver's role in Alien was one of breakthrough for women in film. A role in which a strong, smart female drives the solution and action. She's her own savior.
On a smaller scale, this also true for Laurie. In the face of her deepest fears, she does what a number of her friends could not - she fights back and survives, protecting her two wards in the process. The book is better at portraying this than the movie and is chiefly the reason why I enjoyed the book a bit more. Laurie in the book makes some very calculated moves that deviate from the film and the feisty part of me rooted for the knife in the groin and hanger in the eye that much harder.
Given the time period in which both Alien and Halloween were released, I found this correlation interesting.
Unarguably Halloween has it's place in film history and therefore I could not review this book without relating it to the movie. That said, anyone who has enjoyed the movie would likely find the book equally enjoyable, maybe more as it glimpses a possible back history to the terror that is Michael Myers and an insight into the insidious affect he has on Laurie Strode.
ETA Footnote: Just found out that John Carpenter's big first directed work was a movie called Dark Star who he co-wrote with Dan O'Bannon. O'Bannon went on to write Alien. Wiki just blew my mind.
October 31, 2023
Re-read #4 Halloween 2023
Happy Halloween!
*Original Review*
5 stars. Perfect companion to the film. It fills in so many missing details. While it follows closely to the film, there are some slight changes to it, particularly the ending. It’s still the same just a bit rewritten. I have the entire series that I got for dirt cheap at a garage sale (thank goodness because these books are stupid expensive!) so I plan on reading them all this month and then watching the corresponding film afterwards. Honestly, the entire time I was reading this I really wanted to watch the movie. It’s very close to it and makes the movie feel even better and whole. If you can get your hand on this—for cheap of course—I’d highly recommend it. The fact that we follow little six year old Michael Myers point of view and get his thoughts leading up to the murder was pretty awesome. Great read.
Happy Halloween!
*Original Review*
5 stars. Perfect companion to the film. It fills in so many missing details. While it follows closely to the film, there are some slight changes to it, particularly the ending. It’s still the same just a bit rewritten. I have the entire series that I got for dirt cheap at a garage sale (thank goodness because these books are stupid expensive!) so I plan on reading them all this month and then watching the corresponding film afterwards. Honestly, the entire time I was reading this I really wanted to watch the movie. It’s very close to it and makes the movie feel even better and whole. If you can get your hand on this—for cheap of course—I’d highly recommend it. The fact that we follow little six year old Michael Myers point of view and get his thoughts leading up to the murder was pretty awesome. Great read.
October 13, 2015
I'm a big fan of the John Carpenter film so I was expecting a fairly straightforward movie tie-in, given that this book was written after the film.
I was pleasantly surprised - this gives the characters so much more depth, and we find out so much more about Michael Myers and what makes him tick. We see how a curse in ancient Northern Ireland led to an evil soul doomed to walk the earth, repeating evil deeds over and over - and how it eventually ended up affecting Michael's Grandfather and then himself. We also see what happened during Michael's stay at the Sanitorium.
His psychiatrist, Sam Loomis, gets a great chunk of the story here too. As does Laurie Strode - we delve deeper into their characters and really get to know them. The plot stays faithful to the film, whole scenes are exactly the same but there's always a little extra something to ramp up the tension.
The sex and violence is pretty graphic here - there are no holds barred - but overall if you're a fan of the film, this is not just another tie-in, it's a real treat. Well worth trying to track a copy down.
I was pleasantly surprised - this gives the characters so much more depth, and we find out so much more about Michael Myers and what makes him tick. We see how a curse in ancient Northern Ireland led to an evil soul doomed to walk the earth, repeating evil deeds over and over - and how it eventually ended up affecting Michael's Grandfather and then himself. We also see what happened during Michael's stay at the Sanitorium.
His psychiatrist, Sam Loomis, gets a great chunk of the story here too. As does Laurie Strode - we delve deeper into their characters and really get to know them. The plot stays faithful to the film, whole scenes are exactly the same but there's always a little extra something to ramp up the tension.
The sex and violence is pretty graphic here - there are no holds barred - but overall if you're a fan of the film, this is not just another tie-in, it's a real treat. Well worth trying to track a copy down.
October 26, 2023
Wow, that was incredible. It's no wonder that this not only rivals every other novelization in existence, but the original 1978 John Carpenter film itself as number one. There's so much to love here.
There's really a whole lot added here to make it a whole other experience: the prologue, Michael's time in Smith's Grove Sanitarium with Dr. Loomis, and...well, I could go on, but I urge you to read it yourself...if you can somehow get your hands on this rare, out-of-print gem.
This is a worthy novelization and just might be my favorite so far. It even adds a great supernatural element to the story that really adds to the Halloween aspect of the story. It works too.
If you like audiobooks, I know there's some dude named the 80's Slasher Librarian on YouTube who does audiobooks for the rare, OOP horror novelization and tie-ins. I think he rightly deserves a call-out after all the hard work he puts in uploading all those books. I've listened to a couple of his audios and he often adds music or sound effects to them.
Would ABSOLUTELY recommend!
There's really a whole lot added here to make it a whole other experience: the prologue, Michael's time in Smith's Grove Sanitarium with Dr. Loomis, and...well, I could go on, but I urge you to read it yourself...if you can somehow get your hands on this rare, out-of-print gem.
This is a worthy novelization and just might be my favorite so far. It even adds a great supernatural element to the story that really adds to the Halloween aspect of the story. It works too.
If you like audiobooks, I know there's some dude named the 80's Slasher Librarian on YouTube who does audiobooks for the rare, OOP horror novelization and tie-ins. I think he rightly deserves a call-out after all the hard work he puts in uploading all those books. I've listened to a couple of his audios and he often adds music or sound effects to them.
Would ABSOLUTELY recommend!
Read
August 30, 2021one thing they dont tell u when u read the novelization of teh 1978 film halloween directed by john carpenter is that the book version is egregiously horny. here is a word count of some words i thought were interesting.
breasts: 19
buttocks: 8
moan: 7
nipples: 5
panties: 10
thighs: 6 (quivering thighs: 1)
zucchini (euphemism for penis): 3
overall this was p fun to read i just didnt need a erotic halloween probably? but maybe i did!
breasts: 19
buttocks: 8
moan: 7
nipples: 5
panties: 10
thighs: 6 (quivering thighs: 1)
zucchini (euphemism for penis): 3
overall this was p fun to read i just didnt need a erotic halloween probably? but maybe i did!
October 5, 2020
Who has not seen this movie....BUT have the read the HORRIFYING novelization based on the Screenplay? So much more details about little Michael Myers background!!!
Well, I just got done listening, YES listening to the audiobook of this HARD AS FUCK to find (however I have 2 copies of the first one, and 1 of each of pts. 2 and 3) novelization of the horror classic 'Halloween'. This is available here on Youtube by 'the 80's Slasher Librarian' and he does an INCREDIBLE job with this!!! He adds the original music from the film, and the intensity of his voice.....phenomenal! Here is a link to the reading:
https://youtu.be/eZ4_d8Lo8iM
Damn, you think you know the story of why Michael Myers was so demented, you only know a 3rd of the sick and twisted story of the Myers men all the way back to why and where the EVIL came from.
You MUST listen to this reading!
Well, I just got done listening, YES listening to the audiobook of this HARD AS FUCK to find (however I have 2 copies of the first one, and 1 of each of pts. 2 and 3) novelization of the horror classic 'Halloween'. This is available here on Youtube by 'the 80's Slasher Librarian' and he does an INCREDIBLE job with this!!! He adds the original music from the film, and the intensity of his voice.....phenomenal! Here is a link to the reading:
https://youtu.be/eZ4_d8Lo8iM
Damn, you think you know the story of why Michael Myers was so demented, you only know a 3rd of the sick and twisted story of the Myers men all the way back to why and where the EVIL came from.
You MUST listen to this reading!
May 29, 2021
This was my first time reading a novelization, and the experience was a little disappointing. I liked the background information given about the “why” behind Michael Myers’ evil. Yet, characterization was, to me, very poor. Laurie is described as having “brownish” hair and then she’s blonde. She’s also described as pathologically awkward, flat-chested, and walking with a waddle, yet she’s also said to be reminiscent of Judith Myers (who is her physical opposite of feminine opulence and sensuality). There’s also failures in the description of Bob, who is given horn-rimmed glasses as a second thought, so the narrative fits with the movie image of the sheet-ghost with the glasses. The prose is pleasant to read, nonetheless, and, if anything, makes you want to watch the movie again, to refresh the memories evoked.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2018
People read novelizations of movies either to relive favorite moments, perhaps to get an extra insight, or because they just wanted a new way to experience a film. Me? All of the above. What a shame Curtis Richards wasn't up to the task. His writing is simplistic to the point of being juvenile. This is someone doing a job, and poorly, not writing from a deep love for the genre or the subject. The real monster in his book is weary cliche.
October 14, 2013
the extra scenes were really good to read. some of the thoughts of laurie i didnt really care for. overall this was a good novelization but...i love the movie alot more
October 16, 2022
Although the movie is better without it, I really did enjoy reading the completely original Samhain legend and Myers backstory that Richards (Curtis) begins this novelization with. Fun read!
October 11, 2019
I didn't actually see Halloween until about twelve years ago. I've never been a big horror movie buff, but around that time I tried to get around to seeing some of the classics. I remember watching it and thinking, "That's it?", but it was also over 25 years since it had been released, so maybe it hurt that I didn't see it during its original release to understand its context as one of the first slasher movies.
(Side note: Thank whomever I didn't see it during its release. I was six!)
So, I'm not a big fan of the movie, but I wanted to read the book since I understood it was a decent novelization and delved more deeply into Michael Myers' history. What didn't occur to me until after I started reading it was that Michael Myers doesn't need a history. He doesn't need a motivation, nor do we need to see things from his perspective; he's a force, nothing more. Even John Carpenter realized this, when he credited the part as "The Shape" and not "Michael Myers".
The novelization tries to pass the killings off to a supernatural force, which lessens the horror for me. Maybe I'm too used to modern horror, which is more existential, more wrapped up in the individual than in explaining everything away, but the idea that someone as an unstoppable force is much more interesting than "He's only doing it because of a curse that puts voices in his head."
(That's not a spoiler, by the way. It's all covered in the first chapter.)
That aside, the writing here is terrible. There's very little showing taking place, and even during the more tense scenes, there's a distance there that feels like we're hearing it told second-hand. Maybe this is due to it being a novelization, or even due to the fact that I've seen the movie and have those images in my head. Either way, the prose isn't effective, and the dialogue is cringe-worthy (though, admittedly, that could be Carpenter's fault).
I know this book commands some high prices on the used market, but I'm not sure why. I wouldn't recommend anyone read this save for curiosity.
(Side note: Thank whomever I didn't see it during its release. I was six!)
So, I'm not a big fan of the movie, but I wanted to read the book since I understood it was a decent novelization and delved more deeply into Michael Myers' history. What didn't occur to me until after I started reading it was that Michael Myers doesn't need a history. He doesn't need a motivation, nor do we need to see things from his perspective; he's a force, nothing more. Even John Carpenter realized this, when he credited the part as "The Shape" and not "Michael Myers".
The novelization tries to pass the killings off to a supernatural force, which lessens the horror for me. Maybe I'm too used to modern horror, which is more existential, more wrapped up in the individual than in explaining everything away, but the idea that someone as an unstoppable force is much more interesting than "He's only doing it because of a curse that puts voices in his head."
(That's not a spoiler, by the way. It's all covered in the first chapter.)
That aside, the writing here is terrible. There's very little showing taking place, and even during the more tense scenes, there's a distance there that feels like we're hearing it told second-hand. Maybe this is due to it being a novelization, or even due to the fact that I've seen the movie and have those images in my head. Either way, the prose isn't effective, and the dialogue is cringe-worthy (though, admittedly, that could be Carpenter's fault).
I know this book commands some high prices on the used market, but I'm not sure why. I wouldn't recommend anyone read this save for curiosity.
September 24, 2021
Those who know me don't need to guess that 'John Carpenter's Halloween' is my all-time favorite scary movie. I have lots of fond memories watching this classic over the years, including the first time I saw it when I was in high school at friend's house for a debate team scary movie night. The terrifying suspense and gritty realness of that film has stayed with me all these years and motivated me to seek out more thrills from this classic. I was aware that novelizations existed for the first four movies and I made it my goal this year to find high-quality copies to set aside for my October reading. These books are hard to come by and the prices on eBay reflect the rarity.
This isn't a strict screen to page kind of adaptation. Some artistic license was allowed to lengthen segments and add additional scenes to bring the page-count closer to a proper, sellable (short) novel. Purists might disagree but I think that new parts brought extra intrigue to a very familiar story. For the most part, main characters were portrayed as they were on the screen. I think the most controversial deviation would be the more literal supernatural characterization of Micheal Myers. His evil roots are laid out in the detailed prologue where his direct ties to Samhain are introduced - before even the first film references in Halloween II!
Other key differences that stood out was the heightened gore factor - although still tame by today's standards. Laurie goes a bit more Rambo on Michael and is portrayed as stronger in a crisis. I was also caught off guard by the more sexualized segments of Micheal's reaction to the stalking of Laurie and her friends. I'm not sure I needed to know about Michael Myers's erections! But, it's all good fun regardless. A must-read for fans...if you can find a copy!
This isn't a strict screen to page kind of adaptation. Some artistic license was allowed to lengthen segments and add additional scenes to bring the page-count closer to a proper, sellable (short) novel. Purists might disagree but I think that new parts brought extra intrigue to a very familiar story. For the most part, main characters were portrayed as they were on the screen. I think the most controversial deviation would be the more literal supernatural characterization of Micheal Myers. His evil roots are laid out in the detailed prologue where his direct ties to Samhain are introduced - before even the first film references in Halloween II!
Other key differences that stood out was the heightened gore factor - although still tame by today's standards. Laurie goes a bit more Rambo on Michael and is portrayed as stronger in a crisis. I was also caught off guard by the more sexualized segments of Micheal's reaction to the stalking of Laurie and her friends. I'm not sure I needed to know about Michael Myers's erections! But, it's all good fun regardless. A must-read for fans...if you can find a copy!
October 9, 2020
Spooktober 2020 Book 10
I’m man enough to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the film Halloween. Personally I find the film slow, and kind of silly, with far too many plot holes and confusing moments. However, I can’t deny how seminal the film is both in terms of horror and the film industry in general. There is obviously something interesting and different about the film and story and, couple that with a novelization I hoped would fill in the gaps, as well as it being October, it only made sense to give Curtis Richards’s book a try.
This particular novelization is almost as popular as the film its trying to tell about. Unlike a lot of novelizations that are just blatant fictionalizations of screenplays this version of Halloween goes in a completely different direction, adding some new and rather strange elements to the story. There’s a whole historical component that attempts to explain Michael Myers’s character, as well as some inner monologues that we didn’t get in the film version. It’s also pretty obvious that this book was based off an early draft as Myers looks completely different than his film counterpart, and the final climax takes a different direction.
Overall, Halloween is a decent read. It’s fast paced and cuts right to quick of thing, skipping exposition for action. Seeing what could have been is interesting, though I feel there are still far more questions and a startling lack of information to explain certain moments.
I’m man enough to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the film Halloween. Personally I find the film slow, and kind of silly, with far too many plot holes and confusing moments. However, I can’t deny how seminal the film is both in terms of horror and the film industry in general. There is obviously something interesting and different about the film and story and, couple that with a novelization I hoped would fill in the gaps, as well as it being October, it only made sense to give Curtis Richards’s book a try.
This particular novelization is almost as popular as the film its trying to tell about. Unlike a lot of novelizations that are just blatant fictionalizations of screenplays this version of Halloween goes in a completely different direction, adding some new and rather strange elements to the story. There’s a whole historical component that attempts to explain Michael Myers’s character, as well as some inner monologues that we didn’t get in the film version. It’s also pretty obvious that this book was based off an early draft as Myers looks completely different than his film counterpart, and the final climax takes a different direction.
Overall, Halloween is a decent read. It’s fast paced and cuts right to quick of thing, skipping exposition for action. Seeing what could have been is interesting, though I feel there are still far more questions and a startling lack of information to explain certain moments.
August 15, 2020
Six year old Michael Myers, like his relatives before him, hears voices in his head telling him to kill his sister Judith. Halloween presents him with the opportunity to murder her and he is locked up for it. Dr Loomis can see how dangerous the boy is from watching him in the asylum and is determined to keep him locked up. Things go wrong and Michael heads home, becoming fixated on three girls he sees in the streets. As Halloween rolls around again, he has chosen his next victims.
This book follows the same basic plotline that the film does but it does delve more into the events surrounding the events that killed Judith Myers. It is obvious that young Michael is suffering from mental health issues and delusions and his family, despite being aware of mental health issues within the family, seem slow in doing anything about it. I liked getting the thoughts of Dr Loomis as he tests how dangerous Michael could be and resolves to keep him locked up. There is also a bit more back story to Laurie going about her business and Michael stalking her. It does stick with the main plot which makes it a decent read for anyone interested in the film and I read it quite quickly. Enjoyable horror read.
This book follows the same basic plotline that the film does but it does delve more into the events surrounding the events that killed Judith Myers. It is obvious that young Michael is suffering from mental health issues and delusions and his family, despite being aware of mental health issues within the family, seem slow in doing anything about it. I liked getting the thoughts of Dr Loomis as he tests how dangerous Michael could be and resolves to keep him locked up. There is also a bit more back story to Laurie going about her business and Michael stalking her. It does stick with the main plot which makes it a decent read for anyone interested in the film and I read it quite quickly. Enjoyable horror read.
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