ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Halloween’s youth characters by dividing them into three groups: teenager, preadolescent, and young adult. Using Timothy Shary’s taxonomy of character types in ‘school films,’ the chapter examines Halloween’s three teenagers: Laurie Strode, Annie Brackett, and Lynda. Laurie is usually considered as a ‘Final Girl,’ a term coined by Carol J. Clover in her influential article ‘Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.’ However, using Shary’s taxonomy to consider Laurie as a ‘nerd’ allows for a fuller examination of her character’s interaction with others. Extending Shary’s taxonomy, the chapter examines Annie as a ‘rebel’ and Lynda as the ‘popular’ character type. The chapter then discusses the film’s preadolescent characters, Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace, finding that the film gives Tommy a more compelling character journey as he struggles with fear and superstition, while Lindsey’s girlhood is relegated to the domestic sphere, in keeping with traditional ‘coming of age’ stories. Finally, the chapter considers Michael as a young adult, a mode of analysis that brings out the tragedy of Michael as a warped product of a broken juvenile justice system. In this way, Michael is a monstrous incarnation of the iconic juvenile delinquent of youth cinema.
