He Knows You're Alone

In multiple interviews, both Sean Cunningham and Victor Miller have said that the inspiration for Friday The 13th came from Halloween. “Go see Halloween and copy it”, is what Miller has said Cunningham told him. While I have no doubt that was said, I’ve never for one second seen a connection between the two. Friday is far more focused on visceral terror than atmospheric horror. Michael Myers’ blank randomness shares no resemblance to the more defined motivations of Mrs. Voorhees and her son. Apart from people being stalked and killed, they couldn’t be more dissimilar in form and in execution. The same cannot be said for Halloween and He Knows Your Alone. There is no doubt whatsoever Alone draws inspiration from Halloween. It’s not just worn on the movie’s sleeve, it is all the movie is wearing, and it is adorned rather sloppily. From this movie’s Loomis (a police detective) barely being in it and always being three steps behind, to the killer almost never following through on his motivation (killing prospective brides before their wedding), to side characters and B-plots that go nowhere, to a failure to build atmosphere, to the moronic ending going for a gotcha gag, it’s all a lazy copy of a much better movie. There’s no effort put into anything here. It’s not even a case of the movie being filled with shopworn tropes. It’s just the most effortless cut and paste of a good formula with no attempt at understanding why the formula works, or harnessing the possibilities of this movie’s unique set-up. There’s no reason to see this turkey. Just watch Halloween.