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Film: The ’78 Slasher: A Halloween Fan Film
Year: 2024
Director: Mark Murtha
Writers: Mark Murtha and Owen Simcox
Starring: Mark Murtha, Louis B. Hauff and Alexis Nichole Neuenschwander
Review:
This was a short that I got the chance to see thanks to Timothy J. Cox. He’s an actor that I’ve seen in a couple things so I trusted that I would at least enjoy this. Seeing that this was a fan film around Halloween intrigued me. It’s not my favorite of the slasher franchises, but there are great films within it. I was wondering what we’d get here as this is going back to the original. Other than that, I went blind.
Synopsis: after being shot 6 times at gunpoint by his psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Joe Sutton), Michael Myers (Mark Murtha) gets up and continues his night of terror. He stumbles across a babysitter doing her job which eventually leads to a Halloween house party. Are these party goers ready for the Boogeyman?
We start this right before the murders happen in 1978. It gives us Michael attacking the guard at the mental hospital and then escaping. We see that he uses a button to do so, releasing other prisoners like in the original movie.
It is from there that we jump into Haddonfield. I didn’t realize that this was taking place right after the events of the first movie. It clicked reading the synopsis and the opening credits are paying homage to the theme, the pumpkin and in the background are clips from the movie. That makes sense now as to why they’re shown.
Then like the synopsis says, Nancy (Alexis Nichole Neuenschwander) is the babysitter. She is supposed to be going to a party at Mike’s (Timmion Lichtenberg). Ben Tramer (Louis B. Hauff) stops by to see if she is. This causes a funny scene where the girl she is babysitting pops out when she hears that there is drinking. Ben is dressed up as a variation of Michael, which makes sense as well. He heads off to the party. Not far behind is Michael, looking for others to kill.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I love this idea. There are parts of this short that feel like a companion piece to the original. We are seeing from the point of view of Michael when he is in the mental hospital. We see what he does to escape and why there are other patients when Dr. Loomis and the nurse show up. I’m a sucker for that. I’m even there for this taking place immediately after the events of the first one when Michael is shot and leaves. It is a cool premise that he kills others.
It is from there that it becomes its own movie. I do like that Ben Tramer is a character. He interacts with a young lady at the party, Lisa (Zolie Horvath), who likes him. She is trying to ask him to the upcoming dance. It is great that a movie reference pops up that he’s going with Laurie Strode. This upsets her and causes her to venture off by herself. This is an easy reference to do, but having Ben as a character, I like it. A negative is that I don’t love that this ignores Halloween II. What I’m forgiving about though is that this whole franchise is a mess so I won’t hold it against it either. I’m just a fan of that sequel is all.
Where I think I’ll go next is to discuss acting. Our cast works for a movie like this. Being that it is a slasher, they just need to be distinct for me. Hauff plays the character in a different way than I was expecting. It is funny to be honest and I enjoyed it. Neuenschwander works almost like our new Laurie. We leave her for long stretches is the only issue. Lichtenberg, Horvath, Jaylen Falls, Paige Hoover, Abigail Murray and the other party goers were fine. What is interesting is that there aren’t a lot. How they frame it and the cinematography helps hide it so credit to them. Sutton is fine, taking on Dr. Loomis. Murtha works as the shape here. I love it when he’s just in the background and you see him. That’s creepy. He also has the moves down to mimic the character.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I’ve already said that I thought the cinematography and framing were good, especially with having Michael in shots where you don’t expect. This is also well done to help hide the seams of attack scenes. There is a filter to make this look like it is shot on film. I’m not always the biggest fan of that, but I acknowledge that is a preference and a nitpick. Another gripe is that this is supposed to be back in 78. I did see that a house used had a Ring doorbell. That doesn’t ruin this by any stretch though either. The effects went practically where they could. There is CGI that isn’t great, but there isn’t a lot of it so that helps. Other than that, I did love that they’re using the original soundtrack in places. I’m a fan there.
In conclusion, this is a solid fan short film for the Halloween franchise. This marks the first one that I’ve seen for this series. There are elements I love, like showing us Michael escaping and taking place right after the original. I thought that Murtha was a good stand in as the shape. The rest of the cast works for their characters. I thought that this was made well enough. Cinematography and framing are the bright spots. I don’t love the CGI and if they could have worked this into being a bridge to part 2, then I’m all in. I can’t fault the short for what I want though and judge it for what we get. If you are a fan of the series, I thought this was a solid take on it.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10