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Judith Myers, a character in which we see for a few minutes in the original Halloween, gets her five minutes of fame in this short film by director Josh Hasty and writer Kenny Caperton. The purpose of the film is to depict Judith’s character moments before her death so that we may gain a little insight and an alternative perspective of her character.
In terms of the overall film, I would have to say that I enjoyed the tone and eerie feel of the movie. The music by Steven Padin was great and fit perfectly into the movie with many musical cues that will be recognizable to many. There is great atmosphere in the opening of the film as we get small snippets of the town of Haddonfield that looked more of a genuine small town in rural Illinois as opposed to Pasadena in sunny California in the original Halloween where Fall-time was convincingly mimicked. Not so much the case with Judith. Although I do not know the particulars as to when it was filmed, the film makers did a good job at portraying the town as it would around Halloween time. Adding to the great atmosphere was the wonderful recreation of the original Myers house envisioned by writer Kenny Caperton, which can be seen here.
Despite my enjoying the film, and possibly one of the best fan-made movies that I’ve seen to date in terms of production value and acting, there were a few things where I felt it came just slightly short. As I thought this was simply a recreation of the events that were supposed to have happened just prior to Judith Myers’ death, it came off as more of a re-imaging of what might have happened. Of course, one cannot tell for sure what happened exactly as it was never written in the original, nor was it portrayed on film.
In Judith, Michael seemed to be a young teenager with issues as he isolates himself in his room while blaring some heavy metal music in stark contrast to the young 6 year old boy like in the original film. The film does, however, shatter the tiny perception of Judith Myers that was suggested in the John Carpenter’s Halloween, primarily because she breaks Randy’s rules of knocking on death’s door by succumbing to pre-marital sex (see Scream). My recollection of Judith was, well, that she certainly was no prude. In Judith, the title character is more of a normal teen. I felt that the character, D’arcy, played the role the way I expected Judith to be perceived being that she was more chipper and flamboyant.
Although I did enjoy the movie and was impressed with the camera work and level of production, there was not much 
going on in terms of story and plot development. Of course, this could all be because the story itself is based on a mere possibility of events that may or may not have occurred. However, being that this was solely based on a possibility the amount of different scenarios were virtually endless. Instead, the main story revolves around two friends (Judith Myers played by Sarah Stephenson and D’arcy Mims played by Ana Gilmore) just hanging out at the Myers house for a camp-out with friends where one thing leads to the other and, well, we all know what happens. In the end, there was really nothing new brought to the table with the exception that Michael has added another victim to his list.
Just like Judith in the original film, I was left not caring about this Judith as well. Sure she didn’t commit the cardinal sin of pre-marital sex this time around, there was not enough substance in her character for anyone to care about her at the time of her demise. Speaking of her demise, the scene was greatly executed by director Josh Hasty that was reminiscent of the original scene.
I would say to give this one a look as it was pretty impressive and the effort comes across. Even the DVD presentation was great as it included custom cover art as well as a few goodies that was thrown into the case. I only wished that the fantastic reproduction of the Myers house was utilized more to fit in with the Myers mythos. There was a fantastic mask in the film that made a short cameo and, in my opinion, would be great if used in this location for another short. For more information on the film, visit the Myers House NC.
