Halloween (1978) - Based On A True Story
It’s the tagline that haunts the horror film industry: Based on a True Story.
Typically, it roughly translates to “a door moved several feet so shit this is a haunted hizzle ma dudes”. Or, it represents some of the most iconic moments in paranormal phenomena.
It was Halloween (1978) that surprisingly slotted itself into the second category of films.
Halloween is famous for several reasons, indeed, it’s one of the most celebrated horror films to have graced your not-so-legal streaming site.
It’s a cult movie for slasher fans, and it’s name has centred it as a must-watch during this season. And it’s all because it echoes out those eerie vibes of urban legends, but snaps us back to the chilling reality of pyscho-killers when we need it most.
It even started the slasher film craze that would tumble one corpse-domino into the following decades.
And it’s based on a true story.
Which, ya know, that’s fine, this is so fine, this is great.
So, it got me thinking: what was this true story? And are there any other similar stories that we need to know about come Halloween night?
Unfortunately, there are.
There are so many.
Today’s post is going to take us back to the story that inspired the Halloween series, the similar stories that bulked up the shocking reality of the 11-film saga, and the urban legends that still echo out these themes.
So, whether you’re carving a pumpkin, or piecing together your costume with a hot glue gun, settle in.
Let’s get spooky!
First, let’s recap the Halloween saga.
And lord, she’s a saga.
Across 11 movies we witness one plotline: this bloke, Michael Myres, stalks Laurie Strode.
No, he is not the lovable voice behind shrek.
And no, ‘shaggable’ is not used as a comical easter egg mid-murder in these movies.
But despite this basic plotline, normally a dash of back story is chucked into the occasional prequel-sequel-who’s-a-what’s-now to shake things up and drag it across 11 films.
Take the backstory of Laurie Strode - she’s his estranged sister, a connection which is dragged down to her daughter, Jamie. This is the central line that the series dances around.
It’s a bit like American Horror Story - you know when every season has a different setting?
There’s been a college massacre; there’s been a hospital of horrors. There’s been more reboots then Britney Spear’s career!
But pushing aside the mess of writers chipping in a line for each screenplay, and wiping off the fake blood coating the legacy of films, one thing is for sure:
We centre on a psycho-killer who defies all psychological analysis.
Michael Myers is pure evil.
That’s the point.
It’s the true fear that I think we all have - it’s this unrelenting force that’s out to get you and will not stop, will not sympathise, will not suffer nor scar.
And so we arrive at the true story behind this phenomenon of a franchise.
Unless you’ve been stuck under a rock for, what, 40 years - no seriously, I did maths and everything - then you will be oblivious to the Halloween saga.
But for everyone else, there is only one image that pops into the head when it comes to these films - and it’s Michael Myers in his white mask, and cloaked in a blue jumpsuit.
#OOTD
And he is based on a true story.
The OG director and co-writer of the OG film - John Carpenter - was approached with the premise of a film many moons ago.
And let’s be honest: it’s more basic than I am.
The whole idea was that this psycho-killer slits bitches up on All Hallows’ Eve. Simple, right?
Well it was Carpenter that added the twist on Myers that sent this flick head-first into film history.
Carpenter was reminded of an encounter he had at University whilst visiting a mental institution. He came across a boy, maybe 12 or 13 years old.
And he had this look.
He had this look that he could only describe as emotionless, as pure evil - and this probably inspired this quote from the film from Myers’ psychoanalyst:
"This blank, pale emotionless face. Blackest eyes. The devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized what was living behind that boys’ eyes was purely and simply evil."
Oh, you thought it stopped there?
Oh, my little ghoul.
No, it continues.
Myers is believed to be complete and utter evil. And this is based on the historical root of Halloween.
Samhain is the celtic celebration behind the best day of the whole entire year. And in basic terms, it is the conflict between summer and winter, or, between good and evil.
Sound familiar?
Okay fine, every horror film - no, scratch that - every goddamn film is about the fight between good and evil.
But it’s Halloween that brings this up. Halloween drags it up from the depths of hell and puts a white face mask on it.
However, legend has it that there is another real life story that directly influenced it: and that’s the murders committed by Stanley Steirs.
Take yourself back to 1920.
On Halloween night, Stiers went on a killing spree, going so far as to murder his own family.
Carpenter - nor, anyone affiliated with this cult series - makes mention of Stiers. But it’s safe to say that the sheer volume of murders that happen to fall (or purposefully striking) on Halloween is nothing short of inspiration.
The film might stick to the big screen, but the reality is never too far from the cinema doors.
It’s here that we turn to these real life events.
I’ve found five major events of murders, assaults and kidnapping that have collided with Halloween, mirroring the images on the big screen.
(Yeah, it wasn’t a positive google search experience.)
And none of them fall short of the actual movie inspiring this post.
We start in 1975, a mere 3 years before the original film hit the cinemas.
It was the morning of Halloween when Martha Moxeley was found beneath a tree in her backyard. She was dead, murdered via a beating with a golf club.
It was 25 years later that Michael Skakel - then, a 15 year old body - was arrested and convicted for her murder. This story gained attention not for the gruesome circumstances of Martha’s death, but because of the sheltered, and famous life he had lived.
He was the nephew of Robert F Kennedy’s widow, and had spent him life swanning around the elite circles.
His alibi? Well, it’s just as disturbing as her death.
He claims that the reason his DNA was on her body was because he was masturbating underneath the tree she was found under on the same day.
These themes aren’t so unheard of in Halloween - indeed, the opening scene features the uncomfortable sex scene of Michael’s sister and her boyfriend before he stabs her to death, completing his first kill.
We then jump forward a few decades, and dive headfirst into arguably the decade of the most Halloween related murders. Indeed, given the stretch of slasher films before this decades that were spiked by the movie inspiring this post, the film itself could have figured as an ambition for these murders.
And it starts in 2002.
Chris Jenkins - a student at the University of Minnesota - was last seen alive at a bar on Halloween night. Four months later, his body - still clad in appropriate Halloween get-up - was found in the Mississippi River.
This is not the first halloween-related catastrophe to be witnessed in this river.
Obviously someone falling into a river on a infamous night of parties and revelry can be seen as either an accident, or a suicide. But it was 4 years later that the death was reclassified as a homicide.
Even though someone did confess to the police that they witnessed a murder, it is still shrouded in a mystery fit for an urban legend.
Particularly as it is rumoured to be a victim of the Smiley Face Murders.
Basically, 40 male college students in the US died of drowning around the same time, and graffiti of smiley faces was found around the sites of the murder.
The murderer was never found.
Next, we turn to a similarly urban-legend like story: the murder of Leslie Mazzara and Adriane Insogna.
It was 31st October 2004, and three roommates - including those that were murdered - were enjoying Halloween night. Having handed out Halloween candy all evening, Lauren Meanza awoke to the sounds of a scuffle at 1am.
She fled the house in fear, and turned around to see someone climb out of one of their windows.
She ran back inside, only to be greeted by the corpses of her roommates.
Nearly 1500 people became persons of interest, but it was when Eric Copple - who was apart of this pool - refused to cooperate by handing over DNA, suspicions were roused.
A year later, he confessed to the murders.
No motive was given, but he was engaged to a friend of one of the victims, creating a peculiar link that must’ve inspired the events of that fateful night.
6 years later, an Ohio teen encountered a similar situation.
He returned from a church service to the bodies of his murdered family, including his new stepfather, William Liske.
The killer behind the murders was found to be Liske’s son from a previous marriage who had a history of violence and schizophrenia.
2009 too witnessed a grotesque event.
3 teenage girls were held at gunpoint and abducted following an evening of trick-o-treating, and were sexually assaulted in a wood. Luckily, one of the girls was able to use her phone to call for help, causing the kidnapper to flee.
When he was eventually arrested in 2012, it followed a string of previous sexual assaults that have occurred since the late 90s.
Our final murder takes us to Halloween night, 2011.
Taylor Van Diest was believed to have just left a Halloween party when she was beaten to death near railway tracks.
The story only gets ever-more terrifying considering she texted her boyfriend shortly before the attack to tell him that that someone was following her.
The police eventually found DNA of the killer underneath her fingernails, leading them to the culprit.
Traumatised? Me too.
But these tales don’t end with finished cases, and they certainly don’t end with the credits of the films they inspire.
They come back to haunt us in the urban legends set on Halloween.
Clearly, halloween-inspired murders make the most iconic urban legend concept. It’s the scariest time of year, and what’s scarier than, well, murder?
One of these legends sticks to this theme, closely mirroring the film in question.
It’s affectionately known as the 1962 Idaho Massacre. The story goes a man in a black mask attended a Halloween party in - you guessed it - Idaho.
He proceeded to lock all the doors, and then murder each and every attendee of the party. Well, he is believed to have killed 7 before escaping.
He was never found. But it is still claimed that his mask was found by the FBI in 1969.
The murder train continues with the most noughties urban legend ever.
In 2008, an email chain warned people that a gang was to hold an initiation on Halloween night.
And the task that needed to be completed?
The murder of 31 women, each death a day of the month.
And in true urban legend fashion, 140 women were to be killed in another version of the email, and so the list of variants continues.
Our next tale of terror sticks to a more classic halloween story - that of the haunted house:
Well, this house either exists in Pennsylvania, Detroit, or Chicago; regardless, this is a typical and twisted tale often encountered with urban legends.
The story goes that a haunted house with 13 floors exists. I mean, fuck that’s a tall house, how did they get that signed off?
But the legal repercussions are not the frightening feature of the story.
The challenge is to make it to the top floor alive. If they do, they win some cash. If they don’t… well they're dead, so there's that.
Legend has it that no one ever made it to the top floor.
It also doesn’t exist, but anyway.
What about the campus massacres of halloween night?
Every year, from 1960 to 1998, psychics would make the same prediction for Halloween night. No points for guessing what the prediction was…
Next is the rumoured threat to animals.
Satanists have always been supposedly murdering black cats on Halloween for decades. Or maybe it’s witches capturing them for ceremonies? Or maybe its National Kill a Pit Bull Day, the all-American hoax that cropped up in 2012?
Either way: no one is safe. Not even ya doggo.
Our final urban legends prey on children, and infer that they will either be drugged, poisoned, or stabbed on some sort of sharp implement.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
These are the most prevalent legends, especially since trick-o-treating and dressing up are children’s activities, even if we all like to partake - child or not.
Some real life cases have even informed the fears that candy has been spiked with poisons, such as the case of the poisoned Pixy Stix.
It was Ronald O’Bryan who spiked his son’s candy with cyanide with the ambition of receiving a hefty insurance cash payment.
There have even been rumours of temporary tattoos being laced with LSD!
The original icon for this was a blue star, but this eventually included other unsuspecting images such as Mickey Mouse.
Cause nothin’ says drugs like Disney.
Now we turn to pointy things.
Commonly needles and razors blades are rumoured to be concealed among halloween treats handed out to kids. This was even proven in 2000, when a man was charged with concealing needles in chocolate bars.
Not convinced by razor blades? What about drugs being smuggled across borders, or handed out to children?
Fact is, these urban legends could go on forever.
They twist, they turn, they come back around full circle, and they pack up shop to move to different parts of the world.
And when we finally think we are safe from the myths and legends that haunt halloween…
Tragedy strikes.
Fact is, Halloween isn’t just based on the demeanor of one psychotic teen.
It’s based on stories that happen year upon year, reminding us that urban legends are never too far from the truth.
