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It’s ghost season and, for the occasion, “Télérama” invites you to (re)watch three films made in the USA with some really great Halloween scenes in them. Not even scared.
In our latitudes, for old farts like me (42 years old), Halloween remains a tradition imported from the land of milkshakes and the Ford T. But for my children (6 and 8 years old), it is as obvious as the galette des rois and Easter eggs. On October 31, they put on their skeleton and vampire costumes and off they go, they rush down the stairs to bang on the neighbors’ doors to ask them for candy (do we still say candy?). So let’s take advantage of their innocent Americanophilia to offer them three films made in the USA with Halloween scenes. We will balance this cocktail of carbohydrates with a good homemade pumpkin soup, it’s in season.
“AND the Extra-Terrestrial”, by Steven Spielberg (1982)
The story in a nutshell: A chocolate or turd-colored alien, depending on how far your kids have progressed in the oral-anal stage dear to Sigmund, and who looks exactly like Sim (1926-2009), the unforgettable Agecanonix, arrives on Earth, and more precisely in the suburbs of Los Angeles. He is taken in (ET, not Sim) by a 10-year-old kid named Elliott, who will help him “phone home” and get out of there quickly before the FBI sends him to Guantanamo.
The argument to make them want to. Will they be able not to cry in the final scene? Because your dad, he shed all the tears in his little body when he saw him, at 6 years old, sunk in his seat, in the front row of Cyrano, at Versailles, in December 1982.
Which they will learn. To love crying in front of a movie, if they haven’t already. And also the existence of Magic Dictation, this proto-tablet that taught spelling to a lot of kids in the 80s. For children of divorced parents, ET allows them to feel less alone and to see that it has existed for ages, across the Atlantic too.
The moment they will really like. The scene of the Halloween party, when Elliott and his big brother disguise ET as a ghost and pass him off as their little sister (played by Drew Barrymore, then aged 6) in order to extract him from the house incognito. And the cult scene that follows, when Elliott and his friends, on bikes, are chased by the police and fly away thanks to the powers of the alien hidden in the basket.
“A Perfect World” by Clint Eastwood (1993)
The story in a nutshell. Texas, 1963. A year of all dangers. JFK has not yet fallen under Lee Oswald’s bullets and Butch (Kevin Costner) has escaped from Huntsville Penitentiary. On the run, he kidnaps Phillip, an 8-year-old boy to whom he will serve, for a few days, as a surrogate father.
The argument to make them want to see it. Clint Eastwood of course, who they must have already seen in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or Josey Wales the Outlaw , two not-so-stupid westerns that are essential to their culture. Clint here plays the Texas Ranger tasked with finding the two fugitives.
What they will learn. That filial love is complicated that a dad is not necessarily biological. That you can love and hurt at the same time. That love and the law are two impermeable worlds. And Arthur Rimbaud is magnificent (the ending, which should make the whole family cry, unintentionally quotes The Sleeper in the Valley , which you can read to your children at the same time).
The moment they will really love. Raised by a Jehovah’s Witness mother, Phillip has never celebrated Christmas or Halloween. To repair this affront to the Catholic-secular culture, Butch gives him a Casper the Ghost costume, which he will never take off, and which allows him to parade on Halloween night. Very beautiful scene, where cross-dressing brings into normality.
“Casper”, by Brad Silberling (1995)
The story in a nutshell. In a large abandoned mansion, Casper is bored stiff, while his uncles – Filthy, Puffy and Snarling –, three hysterical ghosts, have fun scaring the slightest visitor. Little Casper gets his color back (so to speak) when a ghost hunter and his daughter (Christina Ricci, a beginner and already charming) arrive, ideal targets for his dirty tricks.
The argument to make them want to see it. It is, in a way, the synthesis of the two previous films. Spielberg in production, high-end special effects (for the time), and the little ghost Casper, all white, all round, all cute, star of the comics and animated TV series that shaped the imagination of American children and who appealed so much to Phillip, the kid from A Perfect World, because he is nice, unlike the other ghosts.
Which they will learn. That the habit does not make the monk.
The moment they’re going to love. The final scene, is a Halloween party held in the mansion. Under the disco ball, Kat (Christina Ricci) dances a slow dance with Casper, who has had the privilege, for a few hours, of transforming into a human. So cheesy but very cute.
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