Another movie I enjoy watching during the Halloween season is “Halloween.” I used to avoid this movie because I thought it would scare me. I am a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to some horror movies. I imagine “Halloween” was very terrifying when it first came out in 1978. With all the other horrifying things out now, “Halloween” seems very tame. 

The other day I saw someone say a horror movie where everyone does everything right and still dies would be very scary. When we watch scary movies we like to pick out the dumb decisions and talk about how we would do things differently, but what if we did everything right and still didn’t make it? I think that would be a terrifying movie. 

Laurie Strode, the main character in “Halloween,” kind of does do everything right and still gets stalked by a knife-wielding maniac. I know in later years they said Michael Myers is actually Laurie’s brother, but then they took it back with the new movies so I don’t know whether to buy that as the reason he goes after her. 

I think Michael first sees Laurie when she stops by the Myers’ house for her dad who is a Realtor. After that, Michael just decided, “yep. I am going to kill her and her friends.” I think a lot of real-life tragedies happen that way too. There are multiple people who have died after encountering a psychopath. I mean, a woman was murdered because she rejected a boy who asked her out. There are multiple daily things we do that could catch the attention of psychos. I like to not think about that as I tend to poke the bear more than the average person when I write my more-pointed columns. 

Laurie is also kind of a goody-two-shoes. On Halloween, while her friends are out doing other things, she is doing what she is supposed to and babysitting. She even watches the girl her friend is supposed to be watching so her friend can go see her boyfriend. She did everything she was supposed to do and still got attacked. I feel like I can relate to Laurie, which makes it a little scarier, because I also did what I was supposed to in high school. You would think a killer would rather go after the kids who party and are easy targets as opposed to the girl who stays home. 

I really only consider the first “Halloween” movie as canon. For those who don’t know, canon means canonical as in I don’t count the dozens of movies in between where they retcon a lot of things. I like to think the first and second movies exist in their own little universe and the first one and the newer three movies exist separately. Speaking of the second movie, I find it very funny there are no patients in the hospital. Aside from Laurie, the hospital is nearly abandoned. 

The newer “Halloween” movies are a bit scarier. I will admit when I watched the newer one that came out in 2018, I was a bit scared when I got home. I had an irrational fear that Michael Myers would be in my closet, so I slept with the closet open that night. 

Standard reporter Bethany Porter can be reached at (931) 473-2191.