Our Homage to John Carpenter’s Halloween
HALLOWEEN
Donald Pleasence? I didn’t know he was in this movie?
Hey Gordon! Hurry up! The movie’s starting!
(Pretending I’m in 1978)
Jamie Lee Curtis? Now why do I know that name?
Oh! Isn’t she the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis?
Yes, that is how I know her. Looks like she is following in her parents footsteps. But why would she spell her middle name Lee instead of her mother’s maiden name Leigh? Huh.
You are missing the movie! If you don’t get in here Gordon I am going to eat all the popcorn!
(Reading the credits aloud.)
Nancy Loomis as Annie. P.J. Soles as Lynda. Lynda with a “Y”, huh?
Kyle Richard and Brian Andrews…..
Who’s Debra Hill?
Hurry up, the movie’s starting!
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Halloween 1963? I was just 2 years old then.
Oh look, here we go….
Ominous Music Playing
(FYI: John Carpenter couldn’t afford to hire some composer to compose music for this movie so he composed it himself. A true creative genius. And it has gone down in history as some of the scariest music ever.)
What a scary looking house. Love the pumpkin!
Of course, teenagers about to have sex. Don’t they know to never have sex on Halloween night?
Oh, and never eat popcorn on Halloween night either. It will be your last.
OMG! Someone is in the house and they just took a knife out of the kitchen drawer!
Are you about finished Gordon? You are missing this! Hurry up and get in here.
Oooo. I love that shadowy chandelier reflection on the wall.
Is she naked? She is! Ya know Gordon, you are missing the gratuitous booby shot here.
OH! Well, that was fast! NOW you decide to watch the movie with me, huh? And of course you didn’t miss the gratuitous booby shot. Naturally…..
Yes, she is laying there on the floor naked. She was just stabbed by someone wearing a mask.
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Shh. they are fixing to unmask the killer……
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
Michael!
So, it’s the little brother? That little boy just killed his sister?
I guess those are the parents? Republicans, right?
Here, have some popcorn before I eat it all.
October 30, 1978. I am a senior in high school.
Ooo, Here we go! Oh, can you grab me a beer? And stop talking I’m trying to listen to the movie, ya know?
Gordon: “ME?”
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The Original Halloween Movie Trailer, 1978
(If you were to watch this movie with the sound off you wouldn’t be afraid. But if you watch this movie with the sound on….it’s terrifying!)
Also, watch the movie in Widescreen, not Full Screen.
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[videopress VLr961bb]
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Our Homage to John Carpenter’s Halloween
O.K., Here We Go!
Julie Lancaster-Whann
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Donald Pleasence’s character, Dr. Loomis, is Michael Myer’s doctor who says that Michael is going to Haddonfield on this Halloween. He’s worried about the people of Haddonfield, yet he doesn’t have a problem using the handicapped parking spot even though he isn’t handicapped. Uh, huh. Notice the sign…..
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Haddonfield, Illinois
The original Halloween movie premiered in 1978.
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode
I took these still photos of Jamie Lee Curtis with my camera while I was watching the movie and although you really can’t see her clearly in the photo at right, I think I captured her beauty in that photo. She really is lovely. Just not the typical beauty lovely. But then again, I don’t really care for what is typical.
Laurie Strode, who’s family owns Strode Realty, is dropping off the key to this house and placing it underneath the front door mat for some potential buyer’s that are interested in viewing the house.
I was living in Rockingham, North Carolina at the time this movie premiered. My family moved there before my senior year in high school. Can you think of anything more depressing? Being the new kid your senior year?
The Scary Myer’s House
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
(Michael Myer’s is there and he see’s his sister through the front door. He has grown up and has come back HOME!)
Michael proceeds to stalk Laurie, his sister.
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Laurie Strode in class. She notices a strange car parked on the road outside her classroom window.
I find this interesting that Laurie Strode, the smartest person in the class is sitting at the back of the room. In reality she would be sitting in the second row, center. The worse students were the ones who sat in the back.
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Laurie, Annie and Lynda, the three friends…..
walking home from school together.
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Michael Stalking His Sister Laurie
Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, Haddonfield
This classic movie was written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill together.
Directed by John Carpenter.
Nancy (Loomis) Kyes, and P.J. Soles
They are not exactly very good friends to Laurie and you end up not particularly liking either one of them. At least I didn’t. Kind of reminded me of the girls I knew in high school in Rockingham.
Laurie, home from school.
Tonight she babysits Tommy Doyle for Halloween.
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Laurie Awaiting Annie to Pick Her Up,
and take her to the Doyle’s. Annie babysitting little Lindsey across the street.
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[videopress E4J7GhyQ]
And then there is ME…..
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Ready to Watch Halloween the Old Fashioned Way?
Our Old T.V. with VHS Tape Player
Gordon Repairing Our Halloween VHS Movie
(Remember when our VHS players would eat our tapes?)
Of course, he fixed it! Now we can get started.
Watching Halloween
Recreating Annie and the White Men’s Shirt Making Popcorn
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(Annie Babysitting)
Annie Making Popcorn for Herself and Lindsey
Julie Making Popcorn while Watching Halloween
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RING!!!!!! Telephone!
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Homemade Popcorn Truly is THE Best!
(Recipe Down Below)
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Annie Hears a Noise Outside
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And here I am terrified of the family dog just like Annie. 🙂 Yeah, right! 🙂
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Annie Taking Her Laundry Out to Wash it, because she spilt butter on her clothes.
(I love that their laundry room in located in a small building in their backyard. I would LOVE that!)
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Me, Taking My Clothes Out to be Washed in the Laundry
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The Laundry Building
See Michael Myers looking through the window of the outside laundry room in photo at left? And then Annie, the babysitter, finding herself locked in the outside laundry room and unable to get out, which is why she calls out to little Lindsey to come and help her?
You can actually see Annie LOCK that door so that it wouldn’t open when she tried to open it. Then you see it unlocked when Lindsey comes outside to open the door to help Annie. I mean, come on, let’s at least make these errors not as noticeable to those of us that are observant?
Annie Talking to Her Boyfriend Paul on the Phone
Annie decides to ditch her babysitting charge and pawn her off on her friend Laurie that is babysitting Tommy Doyle just across the street.
Annie is probably one of the worst babysitters there ever was.
Little Lindsey is glued to the T.V. watching a marathon of scary movies on Halloween night.
(P.S. Lindsey is played by Kyle Richards of the housewives of so and so. I am very proud to say that I have never watched an episode. But she was a truly cute kid!)
Annie Walking Lindsey Over to the Doyle’s House
The GOOD Babysitter, Laurie Strode with Tommy Doyle.
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The Tombstone of Judith Myers
(Judith Myers was of course, the girl that is murdered my her little brother Michael in the beginning of the movie.)
This movie was probably the start of my love of scary movies. I believe after this movie came out that the Friday the 13th. movie franchise followed suit. I believe there are 11 Halloween movies. I do like 1 and 2, I also like Halloween H2O 20 Years Later, and I even like the Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween 5 The Revenge of Michael Myers. The rest of them I don’t really care for but I do love a good Halloween movie marathon of all the movies every October, one after the other. Woooooo….. 🙂 And so does my daughter, Veronica. I suppose it was my love for the movies that sparked her interest.
THE Halloween Movie Pumpkin
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Halloween 2018
In 2017, I was thrilled to hear about the filming of this movie and how Jamie Leigh Curtis was reprising her role as Laurie Strode. Once again putting on the blue jeans and light blue button down shirt and standing on the front porch.
Ahh, the memories…..
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Laurie Strode With the Butcher Knife
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The Official Trailer for the Halloween Remake 2018
I could truly care less about this redneck remake.
But, it is part of the franchise and has made all the Halloween movies more popular again.
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The Original Halloween Movie Pumpkin
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On Halloween Night in 1985 I made this:
Pork Chop and Potato Bake
I remember coming across it in one of my women’s magazines and being so impressed with it that I copied it down on to a recipe card. I distinctly remember making it in 1985 on Halloween night. I had to keep leaving it as I was making it in order to answer the door for all the Trick-or-Treaters. I remember it as it really was the first home style meal I had ever made. Most of my meals consisted of Tacos, salads, spaghetti, hot dogs and baked beans, etc. This was my first time to really do some home cooking.
My son asked me how can I remember what I cooked on Halloween night in 1985? And I just replied, “Because I can.” 🙂
Pork Chop and Potato Bake
At the time I cooked it in this cast iron skillet and I cooked it in there once again. 🙂
(Recipe Down Below)
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My Homage to my favorite scary movie of all time.
One of the things that I loved best about this movie was that it was a low budget film. $300,00.00 to film and yet grossed $47 Million at the Box Office. Which proves that you don’t need a big budget and lots of special effects to make a brilliant movie. You just need a creative theme, good writing, decent actors, and a great story line.
I also liked that they hired Jamie Lee Curtis as the heroin. Kind of a ‘right of passage’ from her mother, Janet Leigh in Hitchcock’s Psycho.
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The Halloween Pumpkin
Gordon Carved the Pumpkin
I told him that I especially wanted that “slit” from the nose to the mouth. No one does that when they carve a pumpkin, yet they did it to the movie pumpkin. It wouldn’t be THE Halloween movie pumpkin without it.
Me, waiting for Halloween Night…..
Will Michael Myers make an appearance? We shall see, won’t we? 🙂
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Veronica the Pumpkin Carver
Veronica carved this Michael Myers pumpkin herself. She is a very talented artist and carver.
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Our Halloween Foyer
Enter if you DARE… ha, hahaha HA, HaHaHa, HAH!!!!
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We Do LOVE THE Classics
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Carving THE Halloween Pumpkin
From the internet, this is the pattern for the movie Halloween pumpkin featured in the opening credits.
I started with a large pumpkin which had a wide and tall front to it.
I cut the pattern as shown, so it would sit better on the pumpkin. I also felt the eyes were too close to the nose and mouth and needed to be further apart to better match the one from the movie. I used painters tape to attach the paper to the pumpkin.
This pumpkin also appealed to me because it had a great stem. Never pick up your pumpkin by the stem as they have a tendency to break off.
Here are the tools I used which can usually be purchased around the Halloween season from your typical Pumpkin Carving Kits.
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I start by cutting the pumpkin’s lid/stem off. I found it best to use the blade with large teeth. Of note, none of the tools they sell are sharp for the sake of children, but are made to cut through the pumpkin without much difficulty.
Pushing the knife through the pumpkin may be a little hard, but then cutting around the stem is much easier. Be sure to make this cut at about a 45′ angle. If you cut it straight down, the lid will simply fall down inside the pumpkin.
I try to make an even cutting circle around the stem as shown.
I also make a notch in the pumpkin as shown on the right side of the pictures. This way, I can easily tell where the lid of the pumpkin will correctly sit. Remove the lid as shown revealing all the seeds inside.
Have a bowl and colander ready to hold the seeds. We love cooking them later on as they make a great snack when seasoned and roasted.
Using a sharp knife, slice off some of the pumpkin’s flesh from the stem as it is very thick.
Here you can also see the thick flesh, but I can still get my hand inside.
Place your hand inside the pumpkin and remove the seeds. I will place these directly into the colander as they won’t need much cleaning.
A good rinsing with fresh water will make it easy to remove the pumpkin from the seeds.
I then use this scraping tool to remove the pumpkin’s insides. I place the initial scrapings into the bowl as some seeds will be mixed in with the flesh and not as easily removed.
I will also widen the opening with the scraping tool as shown. Scraping down the inside of the pumpkin makes it easier to carve your pattern later on.
The Insides of the Pumpkin to be Thrown Away
I also widened the eyes of the pattern to better match the original pumpkin seen in the movie.
Using the puncture tool, push the tool on the line of the drawing as shown leaving a little space between punctures.
Do this around the entire outline of the pumpkin. Carefully remove the tape to reveal the pattern.
Pictured are some of the other carving blades that come in the package. I like to use the thinner blade to make the more intricate cuts.
Cut around the eye pattern as shown just outside the holes and remove the cut piece as shown.
Do the same with the other eye.
Lastly, cut out the nose section and the mouth as shown, being sure to make the cut from the nose to the mouth as seen in the movie’s pumpkin. I hope you try to create this classic movie pumpkin!
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Pork Chop and Potato Bake
It was delicious! The kitchen smelled wonderful! And Gordon and I ate it two nights in a row. 🙂
The Recipe as I wrote it in 1985.
The Ingredients:
6 Pork Chops (We used 4 large ones)
Vegetable Oil
Durkee Seasoned Salt (We used Lawrey’s)
1 Can (10 3/4) Condensed Cream of Celery Soup
1/4 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1 pkg. (24 oz.) Frozen O’Brien Hash Brown Potatoes (Thawed)
1 Cup (4 oz.) Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Can (2.8 oz.) Durkee French Fried Onions
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So Excited To Get Started…
I remember the pork chops being much smaller in 1985.
Start out by adding a little bit of Vegetable Oil to whatever skillet or sauce pan you plan on using.
You want to brown your Pork Chops.
But, before I even placed the Pork Chops into the skillet I did season them on both sides with the seasoned salt.
I can’t even tell you how long it took to brown the Pork Chops but I just stood there and did it until they were ready….
without cooking them all the way through.
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Be sure to brown both sides and then set them aside.
You can see the blood here. They will finish cooking in the oven later on.
Here I am putting just a little bit more of the Seasoned Salt on the Pork Chops.
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Combine the Cream of Celery Soup, the Milk….
…Sour Cream, Ground Black Pepper, and 1/2 tsp. Seasoned Salt.
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Stir in the Hash Brown Potatoes, 1/2 Cup of Cheese and 1/2 Can of French Fried Onions.
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(I love these little French Fried Onions.) 🙂
Mix Together
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I decided to add a little bit more of the Seasoned Salt here.
Spoon mixture into 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
(I of course, used my cast iron skillet.)
Arrange Pork Chops over Potatoes
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Bake covered at 350F for 40 minutes.
(I believe that we cooked it for about 50 minutes.)
At this point the directions say to “Top with remaining cheese and onions; bake uncovered 5 minutes longer.
(We however, wanted more of a crispy pork chop so we placed it underneath the broiler for about 5 minutes while watching it constantly to make sure it didn’t burn.)
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Now, this is how we wanted them to look. 🙂
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It was at this point where the added some of the cheese and onions to the top of the pork chops….
and then placed them back underneath the broiler to just melt the cheese and crisp up the onions.
Now let’s just let it cool.
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Pork Chop and Potato Bake
It just wouldn’t be “Halloween” without it.
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The Trailer for Halloween II
It was Halloween night 1985 that I was in our bedroom in Port St. Lucie, Florida after cooking my Pork Chop and Potato Bake and after answering the door for countless Halloween Trick-or-Treater’s, that I was in our bedroom watching Halloween II on the T.V. when Gordon, who had gotten off work at 9:00 p.m., and making it home by 9:30 p.m. that he crept to the back of our house and scratched our bedroom screen window and shouted BOO!
He scared the hell out of me!
And he laughed, and laughed, and laughed….. 🙂
These things you don’t forget. Especially when they are your first year of marriage.
Oh, I got him good years later when we were living in Hawaii and he was taking a shower. I crept in with the butcher knife, RIPPED back the curtain and held the knife high in the air while Gordon SCREAMED LIKE A LITTLE GIRL!!! LOVED IT!
(Makes me smile just to think about it.) 🙂
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Gordon and I Watching the New Remake of Halloween
Making Home Made Popcorn
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Delicious!
He’s Such a GOOF!
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As for me, I’m getting a little too old to be running around the internet wearing a man’s white button down shirt.
Happy Halloween
Julie and Gordon
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Have a KILLER Halloween!
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I believe the moral of the story is to never make popcorn on Halloween night and to never have sex either. It is the kiss of death! Literally! Michael Myers will get you! And not the Austin Powers Micheal Myers but the Halloween, Michael Myers.
The Boogeyman is Coming!