Halloween Memories: My Halloween TV Experience

October 1st.
The beginning of the countdown to Halloween.

I figured I'd start this month off with a post about how I discovered and came to love John Carpenter's Halloween.
It's a film that's always had a warm place in my heart--- which is a bit weird to say as it's about an escaped mental patient who puts on a mask and kills babysitters.

First some background:
A cold, crisp October night in the early 80s.
My parents had left my sister and I in the care of my grandparents while they went off to a Halloween party.
What were they dressed as?
Well it was the early 80s and my parents weren't ones to buy costumes so my mom spray painted a pink shower cap silver and painted an eye on her forehead, dressed all in black and called herself an alien. Dad took a Budweiser towel, attached it to a makeshift wire frame and became a can of beer. I wish I was making this stuff up.

I was young and didn't know much about horror movies. I just knew that when you got older you could eventually get into a rated R movie. I didn't know much about Halloween (the film) either. I just knew what I had seen in the commercials advertising the television airing of the film.



All week long I had seen the scary commercials on WPIX and knew it was on that evening. I was aware enough to know that your first horror film was a rite of passage. If you could make it through it you were a man. Well... at least that's what I thought.

I went in the back room of my grandparents' place to the extra TV. Away from my sister... Away from everybody. I was going to face this challenge alone.
Daring myself to not be a chicken I turned on the set and turned the channel. That's right, TURNED THE CHANNEL--- no remotes: you had to sit near the TV and actually turn the dial--- to WPIX Channel 11.
-CHA-CHUNK- (That's the sound the Emerson set made when you turned the dial.)

I instantly heard the now infamous John Carpenter music and was in the middle of the Panaglide shot that opens the film. I sat wide eyed. I lasted pretty long too. Made it all the way 'til child Michael puts the clown mask on that he finds on the floor, then--
--CHA-CHUNK--
I had to turn. Couldn't take it.

Sure I had the luxury of turning away whenever it got too intense, but I also needed to be right up near the set by the speaker. You had to be pretty brave to be that close.

--CHA-CHUNK--

Back to the movie. The parents pull the mask off to reveal that it's a young boy. "Holy crap it's a kid!" I thought. "Man this movie is messed up."

My grandmother calls my sister and I to the kitchen for more treats. Candied apples for she and I to devour.
Whew. Good. I needed a break. Too intense.
With a chin died red and sticky from a hastily eaten candied apple, I went back again.

--CHA-CHUNK--

There stood a giant ghost with glasses on.
I almost wet myself.

--CHA-CHUNK--

Whew. Back to some Toys R Us commercial. Pretty colors. Cheerful music.

--CHA-CHUNK--

Back to 11. It was a commercial break.
Thank God.
I always knew when to steel myself because the bumpers they would play before they return would have a scary jack o' lantern on the left side of the screen with the title of the movie chyroned on the right side. A deep voiced announcer would say "We now return to... HALLOWEEN."
Deep breath. Here we go.

Needless to say, I watched most of the film this way.

Finally I caught Dr. Loomis lowering his gun and Laurie saying "Was it the Boogeyman?"
Loomis replied "As a matter of fact, it was."
I thought I was safe. It was coming to an end.
Then he peered over the side and the grass was empty and that music started again.
I didn't sleep well for weeks. BUT I had an invisible badge of courage because in my mind I had survived "the night HE came home."
I would eventually see the entire movie on its repeat airings over the year.

I wouldn't trade that experience for the world.
And Halloween, to this day, is my favorite horror film and favorite time of year.