35 minutes ago
When making a film like 2018's Halloween, it's tempting, and pretty much required, to reference the previous history of such a storied franchise. Director and co-writer David Gordon Green obviously leaned into that practice rather well with the latest film, as references and events are scattered throughout that call back to other films in the franchise. But, what makes him the proudest is the following, obscure reference:
The other really subtle one that I'm really excited about is when the boy and his father are driving, the song on the radio is the song that Jamie sang in the original. They couldn't afford the rights to a song for the movie, so John and Jamie freestyled a song: 'I wish I had you all alone. Just the two of us.' And then we had a band write a song as if it was recorded in 1978, kind of a country song, that's playing in the car. John [Carpenter] was just laughing out loud [when he heard it]. He was like, 'Wait, that's familiar. Oh wait, I wrote that song!'
While we'd heard as much from Green ourselves, thanks to our own Eric Eisenberg's time at the Halloween press day, in this telling there's an interesting added detail. That comes courtesy of EW sharing David Gordon Green's revelation that not only did John Carpenter notice the reference to that very song, his reaction to the ad-lib was quite pleasant.
In the scene from 1978's Halloween, we see Laurie walking down the sidewalk, after dropping off the key to the Myers' place, as she promised her dad. As she strolls down the street, she sings that improvised song to herself, and eventually we see Michael Myers watching after her as she walks away.
This song, which has been the topic of many questions on the internet, sits next to the masks from Halloween III: Season of the Witch as one of the most memorable, yet subtle, references to past Halloween canon in the new movie. And now, after years of just being a curiosity buried in a classic moment, it's an actual song. Though don't go crazy looking for this track just yet, as it doesn't look like the soundtrack to the new film contains it. Unless, like The Shape himself, it's hidden in plain sight.
With a potentially record breaking first weekend underway, Halloween feels like it could have some legs on it for the rest of the month. Not only will the positive word of mouth help keep this film on everyone's minds, but now the potential easter egg hunt will more than likely have devotees and newbies searching for potential links to the past.
Halloween is in theaters now, but if you're looking for more new spooky films in this season of the witch, you can head over to our list of other horror movies which stepped up to the plate this month and plan out the rest of your viewing time.