The dialogue has been truncated, which makes it more suspenseful. How? Because the kids get the fear in Laurie's voice. If they were to sit there and argue with her, the scene loses a little bit of its impact. You know that feeling when you've seen an adult lose composure... that's here. We know they're afraid, but I think it's important to demonstrate it. The close-up of Michael didn't have as much of an impact - meaning, it wasn't full blown, hey, this is what I look like - and I think that was good. Keep it more in the shadows and mysterious. We also never see Michael fall upon the initial shots. This helps give him that "boogeyman" feel. The boogeyman doesn't fall down, dammit! Laurie's final dialogue is somewhat indecipherable. I can't tell if she's ASKING "Was that the boogeyman?" or not, but I've always felt like that's what is implied by Dr. Loomis's tone in his reply, as if confirming. If this is the correct interpretation of it, I like it because Laurie has gone through the movie telling Tommy that the boogeyman is a made up entity, used to scare little kids into behaving on Halloween. When Dr. Loomis replies affirmative and looks out the window, it's as if Laurie can read his face and infer... yep, we know better than to believe he would be lying down below, dead.

Good stuff, TBBB. It's one of the most consistent dynamics we see when comparing script to screen: More dialogue on the printed page, cut out in the movie version. We've discussed this here before a few times, how I don't think that's a case where we can blame a writer for overwriting, rather it's more about the filmmakers not being able to recognize the cumulative effect of everything put together in those final shots until they are in that fully assembled state, and then oftentimes not even until the filmmaker sees the footage with an actual audience to feel how it plays. Our job as writers is to write the story the best way we can. Obviously we have to be cognizant about overwriting, especially using too much dialogue. However we also have to give the actors and director enough material for them to cover what needs to be covered both in terms of plot and emotion. Much better to have more content which the editor can simply cut, rather than having to do re-shoots. But since I know very few writers, myself included, who tend to underwrite their early drafts, being reminded of thinking visually, and less is more especially re dialogue is always a good thing. Thanks for that assessment!

From what I can tell, most of what is in the script is intact in the final scene. Everything leading up to her final struggle with Michael matches up almost perfectly with the script. As The Bark Bites Back mentioned above, the dialogue has been truncated and for the better. The script seems to imply a POV shot of her watching the kids leave but it makes sense to leave it out in retrospect because there is no way Michael can threaten them without going through her first. The final standoff between Dr. Loomis and Michael plays out a little differently because in the script, the whole shootout happens contiguously in the hallway, but in the final scene the first shot forces Michael into the room and then Loomis delivers the final three shots. The moment where Laurie takes off Michael mask has also changed a bit from the script in that Michael takes back the mask and puts it back on afterwards. For the most part I think these changes improve the scene. As Michael stumbles back into the bedroom, their is an expressive close up of him with the shadows hitting his mask. This helps punctuate the moment and increases the power of the scene. Having Michael take back his mask is helpful in two ways. One is that it helps obscure Michael's face which isn't as scary in the production as suggested in the page. I agree with TBBB that the shadowy nature of the reveal allows the viewer's imagination to do most of the work. Two is that the characterization of Micheal is so wrapped up in the mask that keeping it off in the final moments would decrease the impact of the scene. As it is in the final scene, Laurie taking the mask off gives Michael a moment of vulnerability for a second but just a second, then he returns to the monster he's always been. The one element in the movie that I think is arguably stronger in the script is the sound they use in the final shots. In the film, they lay Michael's ominous breath over the final shots of the neighborhood implying that Michael might still be around, maybe even in the house. But I think that the sound of the wind mentioned in the script would have been understated in such a beautiful way. It still though. The pacing seems a little faster in the film than in the script. The script seems to spend more time gathering suspense before the reveal that Michael is still alive but maybe the filmmakers intended to create an instant shock in the audience. The magic for me comes in the precise timing the editing gives the scene. Reading the script is vastly different from seeing the finished product with every moment held for a very specific amount of time. Speaking of Script to Screen, Scoot, have you seen this?http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2012/01/tinker_tailor_moneyball_betwee.html Looks like someone has stumbled onto your idea.

I recall hearing Carpenter say when he was asked to write a sequel, he sat down and said to himself "there isn't one". I think everything you just said about "less is more" is indicative of why the sequels - and the remakes - all fell way short of the mark: they overwrote and tried to explain everything, giving "evil" a motivation. Not having all that is what made the original work. We didn't have some grand argument about why, but rather does? And the story carried that argument out via Laurie's experience. By the end of the movie, we, as does Laurie, come to accept the fact that the boogeyman does exist. Trying to rationalize it six ways to Sunday and deconstruct it drains it of its power (and I'd like to think part of that is what we as individuals empower it with via our own beliefs). As Stephen King says, sometimes it's just better not to show people what's on the other side of the door.

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