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[Review] ‘The Legend of Halloween’ Slices into a Fun, Clever Spin on John Carpenter’s Slasher Classic

Published

3 years ago

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Given the iconic status of the long-running Halloween film series and the amount of entries to be found therein, it’s a bit surprising to this fan that we have so little in the way of literary extensions for this beloved franchise. Sure, there are a handful of novelizations, and a few insanely hard-to-find young adult books from the 90s. Hell, we even have some damned fine comic books that chronicle the continuing adventures of Michael Myers, even if those are a tad tough to come by these days as well. Beyond that, though?

With its curious January release date, Further Front Publishing’s The Legend of Halloween looks to add one more noteworthy tome to the fairly modest pile of available Shape-centric publications. Officially sanctioned by Halloween copyright holders Compass International Pictures and boasting the participation of Halloween (2018) co-writer/director David Gordon Green, Legend is neither a novelization, nor a young adult novel, nor a comic book.

Rather, it’s…a children’s book?!

Written and illustrated by both Green and children’s book author Onur Tukel, The Legend of Halloween retells the events of John Carpenter’s original 1978 film through the bright, cheery lens of colorful illustrations and rhyming text, reframing the slasher story as a sanitized spooky tale meant to strike an acceptable amount of fear into reasonably aged youngsters. In telling the story in this manner, it’ll perhaps be all too easy for some fans to see this as little more than a curiosity, at best. Indeed, it surely comes off as a bit of a one-note spoof at first glance. However, in staying true to the beats of the first film while keeping us an arm’s length from its suspense and horror, this telling does come across as creepy and oddly unnerving. It feels…wrong, but not in a negative sense. It’s just that it may be as likely to provide adult Halloween fans a measure of the same chills that younger readers with little to no knowledge of the films will likely get, for entirely different reasons.

While I imagine some fans might very well take me to task for that reaction and insist on viewing Legend as a harmless trifle of a kids’ book, I’d ask everyone to look just a little closer. Its intentions, I believe, are right there in the title. It isn’t Halloween. It’s The Legend of Halloween. Like all legends, this telling provides readers with a distance from the horror and immediacy of the original story. It’s a rollercoaster, presenting us with the illusion of danger, even while we know full well that no harm could possibly come to us. It renders Michael Myers impotent, his actions bloodless. This is how the characters in Green’s 2018 film view Myers and the horrors he wrought on that Halloween, forty years removed from their initial impact on that community. But, much as that film’s cocky teens and forgetful adults in that film learned, the boogeyman is no less a threat simply because he’s aged or been forgotten. Laugh or shrug at him all you care, but you may very well face his wrath at some point for your lack of respect. Given Green’s involvement here, I’d be very curious to see if a version of this book makes an in-universe appearance in one of his upcoming sequels.

All that aside, this book does function as a fun, clever spin on a well-worn tale. The writing is often amusing (“Our hero’s name is Laurie. / She’s cute and really clever. / Michael stalks this trio / as they all walk home together.”), while the artwork is clean and simple, yet full of character. In addition, one of the more interesting aspects of Legend is that a good deal of it is told from an unfamiliar perspective – Michael’s. Events from Carpenter’s film that we all know by heart are now told from the Shape’s perspective, which gives this telling more vitality than I was expecting.

Ultimately, if you’re a longtime Shape fan, you know you’re going to want this book on your shelf. If you’re a casual horror fan, your mileage may vary, but I doubt you’ll be disappointed if you give this unexpected take on a genre classic an honest shot. So go ahead – pick up this book and appreciate it for its sly chills and offbeat humor.

But laugh in Michael’s face at your own peril.

“The time had come for trick or treats,

makeup, masks and capes.

But no one saw the crazy man

with the scary shape.”

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Books

‘Halloween: Illustrated’ Review: Original Novelization of John Carpenter’s Classic Gets an Upgrade

Published

4 days ago

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April 16, 2024

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Film novelizations have existed for over 100 years, dating back to the silent era, but they peaked in popularity in the ’70s and ’80s, following the advent of the modern blockbuster but prior to the rise of home video. Despite many beloved properties receiving novelizations upon release, a perceived lack of interest have left a majority of them out of print for decades, with desirable titles attracting three figures on the secondary market.

Once such highly sought-after novelization is that of Halloween by Richard Curtis (under the pen name Curtis Richards), based on the screenplay by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. Originally published in 1979 by Bantam Books, the mass market paperback was reissued in the early ’80s but has been out of print for over 40 years.

But even in book form, you can’t kill the boogeyman. While a simple reprint would have satisfied the fanbase, boutique publisher Printed in Blood has gone above and beyond by turning the Halloween novelization into a coffee table book. Curtis’ unabridged original text is accompanied by nearly 100 new pieces of artwork by Orlando Arocena to create Halloween: Illustrated.

One of the reasons that The Shape is so scary is because he is, as Dr. Loomis eloquently puts it, “purely and simply evil.” Like the film sequels that would follow, the novelization attempts to give reason to the malevolence. More ambiguous than his sister or a cult, Curtis’ prologue ties Michael’s preternatural abilities to an ancient Celtic curse.

Jumping to 1963, the first few chapters delve into Michael’s childhood. Curtis hints at a familial history of evil by introducing a dogmatic grandmother, a concerned mother, and a 6-year-old boy plagued by violent nightmares and voices. The author also provides glimpses at Michael’s trial and his time at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, which not only strengthens Loomis’ motivation for keeping him institutionalized but also provides a more concrete theory on how Michael learned to drive.

Aside from a handful of minor discrepancies, including Laurie stabbing Michael in his manhood, the rest of the book essentially follows the film’s depiction of that fateful Halloween night in 1978 beat for beat. Some of the writing is dated — like a smutty fixation on every female character’s breasts and a casual use of the R-word — but it otherwise possesses a timelessness similar to its film counterpart. The written version benefits from expanded detail and enriched characters.

The addition of Arocena’s stunning illustrations, some of which are integrated into the text, creates a unique reading experience. The artwork has a painterly quality to it but is made digitally using vectors. He faithfully reproduces many of Halloween‘s most memorable moments, down to actor likeness, but his more expressionistic pieces are particularly striking.

The 224-page hardcover tome also includes an introduction by Curtis — who details the challenges of translating a script into a novel and explains the reasoning behind his decisions to occasionally subvert the source material — and a brief afterword from Arocena.

Novelizations allow readers to revisit worlds they love from a different perspective. It’s impossible to divorce Halloween from the film’s iconography — Carpenter’s atmospheric direction and score, Dean Cundey’s anamorphic cinematography, Michael’s expressionless mask, Jamie Lee Curtis’ star-making performance — but Halloween: Illustrated paints a vivid picture in the mind’s eye through Curtis’ writing and Arocena’s artwork.

Halloween: Illustrated is available now.

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