Music has always been a key part of the Halloween franchise's place in pop culture history, with few scores being as iconic as the piano-dominant theme John Carpenter crafted for Michael Myers. That part of the legacy continues in the new 2018 sequel, with Carpenter back composing the score, but what you may not notice your first time seeing the film is that there is an special Easter egg hidden in the soundtrack. Director David Gordon Green recently revealed,
Very subtle, but in the original film there's this scene where Laurie is walking down the sidewalk, and she is singing a song to herself. Says, 'I wish I had you all alone, just the two of us.' And it was just that they couldn't afford the rights to a song. So Jamie [Lee Curtis] and John [Carpenter] kind of free-styled that song on the set, and that became that. And then I had a band write the version of the song, and then when the boy and his father are driving the truck to the bus crash, that song was playing on the radio. So those deep cuts - there's a good handful of those.
Last month I had the opportunity to partake in roundtable interviews with David Gordon Green during the Los Angeles press day for Halloween, and during the conversation I brought up the subject of Easter eggs. Having recognized a few nods to previous chapters of the series while watching the movie, I asked if he had any favorite detail-driven homages in the film. And while he also mentioned a bit that can't be revealed until after the movie is released, he also revealed the spoiler-free bit above.
The song in the original Halloween that David Gordon Green is referencing can be found at the very start of the film shortly after Laurie Strode is first introduced to audiences. As she is walking to school, she is asked by her father to drop a key off at the Myers' place -- and it's here that Michael Myers first sets eyes on her. After she leaves the key and continues on her way, Michael continues to watch her, and listens as she sings a song to herself.
Halloween was famously an extremely low-budgeted production, but that's historically been a part of its charm. It's an extremely straight-forward, no frills slasher film, and its simplicity makes it all the more terrifying. The production had more important things to spend money on than potentially expensive song rights, and so they came up with something of their own -- and now that same track exists as something special in the 2018 sequel.
This is a great little Easter egg, but, as mentioned, it's one of many scattered throughout the new Halloween. And while not all of them can be revealed right now, be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming days for more of our coverage and discussion.
Halloween, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, and Will Patton, arrives in theaters this Friday, October 19th.
