A Shortage Of Pumpkins This Halloween-Pull Out Your John Carpenter!

Well, there may be shortage of pumpkins for this Halloween. A cooler spring and wet weather reduced the orange gourd production for this year`s festivity. Hopefully, every family that desires one of those delectible, yet plump orange gourds, will be able to satisify their need. I better pick one up myself this coming weekend. I pulled out my DVD of John Carpenter`s Halloween this morning, for two reasons. 1. I wanted to see that glowing Jack-O-Lantern in the opening credits. 2. Moreover, I wanted to hear that incredible music, composed and performed by John Carpenter himself, that hugs the creepy footage wall to wall until the closing credits.

That main chilly theme is a piano melody in a 10/8 meter that is clipped in precisely when Mike Myers is spying or stalking the heroine (Jamie Lee Curtis). This nervous ditty has a way of sticking with you well past the date of October 31st. Simple but catchy. Another song, (Don`t Fear) the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult springs up somewhere, but I don`t know exactly where it comes up in the film?

I first saw the film on its release in late October of 1978. I was managing a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store in North Dallas, and had to work (banana) split-shifts. I was quite shocked by it when I saw it at the Preston-Royal theater (gone now). Some have seen it as a social critique of a morally corrupt America of 1970s. Especially young people! Remember Jimmy Carter`s MALAISE? Anyway, the corrupt kids get knocked off by MM, and the good ones survive (Laurie Strode). Do you buy this interpretation? A morality play for the 1970s. I can dig it…(Thanks Wiki & my feeble memory!)

Related posts:

1. Dude Tries To Rob A Store With A Banana
2. A Dash of Barbara Steele Goth And A Pinch Of Morricone Is Peachy-Keen For Halloween!
3. John and Alan Lomax Were Pioneers of American Music!
4. The Scariest Screeching Strings Of Terror Ever: Bernard Hermann`s “Psycho”
5. The Cult Of The Velvet Underground Evermore?