Bring Me a Dream

Perhaps it's not as unlikely as, oh, filmmakers trying to scare us with guys in fisherman's hoodies or mining helmets, but it's still amuzing to me how the song "Mr. Sandman" has become inextricably linked with Michael Myers and the Halloween movies. Its original entry into the slasher hall-of-fame was more or less out of the blue (which I guess is appropriate for a song about dreams), when Halloween II faded out to a chorus of jaunty "bum bum bum bum bum bums." Many of us viewers were going, "Huh. Curious." But it's certainly not the most inexplicable thing that's going to show up in a Halloween sequel, so by that criterion, it's almost reasonable.

The tune shows up merrily again at the start of H20 (no, nothing to do with a watery grave, but Halloween: 20 Years Later. Yes, it's an absurd abbreviation, but we've all gotten used to it). In this case, the reuse of the song links the beginning of H20 with the end of II, an early gentle hint that we're all in a conspiracy of silence at this point to pretend the intervening movies never happened. Like, okay, we'll give you Halloween II, but after that, forget it! (Although personally, I have a wild fondness for the complete and utter absurdity that is Halloween III: Season of the Witch, in which androids and Irish businessmen steal Stonehenge to turn it into computer chips...Not kidding!)

It is of course the Chordettes who perform the truly seminal version, the one that has the guy's creepy voice answering "Yeeeeeeeeees?" when they say his name. There's also a fine new version by the Puppini Sisters on their strange new CD Betcha Bottom Dollar, a mix of old standards and tunes by people like Blondie and the Smiths, Andrews Sister-ized. And the sneak peak soundtrack listing for the Rob Zombie Halloween remake shows a version performed by Nan Vernon.

Speaking of, I can't say I have wild hopes for this movie, but if the bad sequels couldn't ruin the original, neither can casting someone a little bit too, shall we say, WB-friendly as Laurie Strode for my taste. But then, Malcolm McDowell seems like one of the few actors who could fill Donald Pleasence's shoes as Dr. Loomis, so maybe Zombie has some idea what he's doing. (By the way, if you look up Pleasence on the IMDB, one of the top Message Board topics right now is "i Miss him," which, while not English-teacher approved, is very sweet).

Oddly, though, I was glad to see the song on the soundtrack. By now it just belongs there (much like I'm glad that the old BOC "Don't Fear the Reaper" is getting another moment in the warm Halloween sun). Once an association gets made, there's no turning back. It no longer even matters how on earth the song got there in the first place. Like those poor babysitters, it was just going along, minding its own business, and suddenly it got drawn into a horror movie mythos from which it can never escape. Despite the fact that there've been 8 movies so far, and John Hartnett is the closest thing to a guy with lips like roses and clover. Whatever that would be like.

Posted by: Maven on 8/03/2007 at 12:05 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink