Halloween 1978: How A Subtle Easter Egg Hints At Laurie Strode’s Dark Side

In John Carpenter’s original Halloween, there’s a subtle easter egg in Laurie’s bedroom that points to the final girl having a secret dark side.

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John Carpenter is a legendary director for a reason; one of his most iconic movies, Halloween, is loaded with minute details, such as a subtle Easter egg in Laurie Strode’s bedroom that might point to her having a secret dark side. While this might seem ridiculous at first glance, given the fact that Laurie is the final girl and standout heroine of the Halloween franchise, several different facets of the canon—which has five different timelines to date—have suggested this before.

Jamie Lee Curtis launched a spectacular career with her breakout role as Laurie Strode, the wide-eyed, innocent babysitter who ended up being targeted by the psychopathic “boogeyman” Michael Myers in her quaint, Midwestern hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night. Originally titled The Babysitter Murders, later movies in the franchise have explored the residual trauma endured by Laurie after her encounter with Michael Myers, who gruesomely murdered many of Laurie’s close friends. A combination of survivor’s guilt and PTSD have seemed to follow Laurie in sequels, particularly in David Gordon Green’s 2018 reboot of Halloween, which was intended as a direct follow-up to Carpenter’s original movie in 1978, 40 years later.

An original draft of Halloween suggested that Laurie might have inadvertently “invited” Michael to stalk her; she was painted as a lonely teenager. While certainly dark, considering how Michael acted toward her, other details in the original movie have pointed to there being more to Laurie Strode than meets the eye.

Laurie Strode’s Bedroom Painting Could Hint To Something Dark

Like other famous horror directors, such as Stanley Kubrick, Carpenter is a purposeful filmmaker. While some details can surely be chalked up to a set designer making a snap judgment based solely on appearance, this isn’t always the case. The painting in Laurie Strode’s bedroom could be coincidental, but given the background of artist James Ensor, it seems unlikely. For example, the Raggedy Ann doll on Laurie’s dresser makes another appearance in Halloween: Resurrection, when Laurie is in the mental asylum. Ensor was a Belgian surrealist and expressionist painter who originally started out painting docile seascapes, but eventually turned to a darker subject matter—skulls, masks, and other macabre imagery. One of Ensor’s most popular works is called The Scandalized Masks and another well-known piece from his early career is titled Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man. The one hanging in Laurie’s room is more innocent—Self-Portrait with Flowered Hat.

If Laurie was interested in Ensor’s work, this could point to an interest in the macabre and grotesque. While there’s nothing wrong with being interested in artwork—even with grim subject matters—Laurie’s character was quick to respond to Michael’s assault with violent, stabbing him in the eye with a coat hanger. Though fighting for her life, the fact that her instinct is to fight back speaks volumes to her character. In fact, nearly every iteration of Laurie’s character throughout the franchise and timelines has had this instinct to fight back violently. It’s most present in 2018’s Halloween, where Laurie has caused a rift in her own family due to her obsession with not only having a final face-off with Michael Myers, but putting him down for good. She’s trained herself on various types of weaponry and combat, and while hyper-vigilance is a symptom of PTSD, it’s potentially exacerbated by her innate killer instinct.

In Rob Zombie’s Halloween timeline, one ending of Halloween 2 saw Laurie repeatedly stabbing Michael—her brother—to death after their final confrontation, then walked out to greet police wearing his mask. She was committed to a mental asylum, and the movie alluded to her being the same kind of psychopath as Michael; it was an inherited, familial trait. In the direct sequel to Halloween, it was also revealed that Laurie was Michael’s sister. Given this, maybe her interest in the macabre was similarly inherited. After all, Michael killed his sister Judith for inexplicable reasons when he was only six years old. Though a fantastic heroine for the Halloween franchise, it’s interesting to think that maybe Laurie Strode wasn’t quite so “good”.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/halloween-1978-easter-egg-laurie-strode-bedroom-meaning/