When It Comes To THIS Holiday, Girls, There Is Nothing Better!!!!!!!

This will serve as my special Halloween tribute and wishes to you all, darlings, as I am going to be incognito for the next several days, God help me!!!!! But talking about Halloween--

It is the holiday where Horror finally gets its due. And the way the genre has expanded since I was a kid, means there are increasingly more choices for what to watch at this time of year, which makes such a decision increasingly difficult!!!!

Do you opt for me the time honored Universal classics???? That witchcraft masterpiece, "Rosemary's Baby?" One of the slashers of the '80's? Or one of the Japanese ventures, from "Ringu" to "Audition"?????

All are valid in and of themselves, but when it comes to this holiday; for me there can be only ONE choice--

John Carpenter's 1978 "Halloween!"

Darlings, I love it!!!! I will never forget the first time I saw it, on
November 1 (actually All Saints Day, loves) 1978, at the Middlesex Mall in New Jersey!!!! I drove out there in the dark, after dinner, and parked near the road, in a virtually empty parking lot. I paid for my ticket, and walked in the theater, which was hardly filled. The lights went down, the film began, and I was off and running. Not that the film was not memorable--more on that, later--but what happened afterwards was.

I came out of that screening, so unnerved I could not wait to get home. When I walked outside, to my recollection, there was not a car or person around. I got in the car, and, darlings, I swear, I gunned the pedal down as far as it would go, getting me home so fast I sailed up our hilly driveway, and right into the next door neighbors' bushes!!!! There was so much noise, my concerned parents came out to see what was wrong. They found me leaning against the door, panting heavily. "I just saw 'Halloween'," I replied. Par for the course for them. They went back into the house.

But, over the years, thanks to VHS and DVD, "Halloween" has become as synonymous for me with this holiday as "The Song Of Bernadette" is for Easter. I just would not choose anything else.

"Halloween" has the most delicious mix of horror and humor!!!! It starts with a killer POV shot of him wandering through the house, pursuing and stabbing a young girl, who turns out to be his sister. A few minutes later, we see a little boy, in a green and red clown costume, unmasked by his parents, a bloody butcher knife in his hand. "Michael?" the father asks.

I just love the way this is done, with the camera pulling back, and the ominous music. I LOVE this scene, because the very first Halloween costume I remember wearing was a clown one identical to the little boy's in the film. Heh! Heh!!! Heh!!! No butcher knives for me darling!!!!! If there had been, it might have been a different story, with me and the National Honor Society.

Then there is the wonderful sequence, where Annie, the sheriff's daughter, is babysitting for Lindsay. She goes out to the garage to get something--and is attacked by the killer!! I remember her in the front seat of the car, tooting the horn, screaming, at the top of her lungs, "Lindsay!!!! Lindsay!!!" But, as the camera cuts back, Lindsay is completely oblivious; as the TV light falls on her close-up face, we can see she is almost catatonically absorbed in what she is watching--a broadcast of the Howard Hawks 1951 classic...."The Thing From Another World!!!" This scene always makes me howl with laughter, because I relate here to Lindsay, who is too caught up in her movie to be aware of much else!!!! Just like I would have been, loves!!!!!!

Of course, this film is also memorable for introducing to film viewers not only Michael Meyers, but Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie!!!! And the film straddles horror and humor constantly--with Jamie banging on doors in terror, to the killer impersonating P.J.Soles' ghost costumed boyfriend, with being a homage to Halloween and all its accouterments--autumn leaves, costumes, trick or treat, popcorn, huddled at night around the TV watching horror movies!!!!!

No wonder I would not choose any other film for this occasion. Now, I am aware some of this may be too intense for some of my girls, so, in that case, I have the PERFECT alternative-MGM's 1944 "Meet Me In St. Louis." Its Halloween sequence, featuring Margaret O'Brien as Tootie, is not only one of the film's many highlights, it helped net Margaret a Juvenile Oscar for this outstanding performance!!!!!!!

Have Yourselves A Merry, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!