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Thomas's Reviews > Halloween
Halloween (Halloween #1)
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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.
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