I originally wasn't too interested in the Halloween franchise of slasher movies because I originally thought that they looked like a rip-off of Friday the Thirteenth. It should also be noted that when I thought that I was maybe eight or nine and didn't really understand cinematic history as much as I do nowadays and I didn't know that Halloween came before Friday the 13th.
About a year and a half ago I took an awesome class on the evolution of Horror Films by the decade and, of course, John Carpenter's movie was on the viewing list. After watching it on iTunes along with the Blumhouse Legacy sequel by David Gordon Green, I'm hooked on this series and have just recently finished up collecting all the films on Blu-Ray. Now, it's time to watch and review each film, one by one.
For those who don't know the story of the first movie, it is a slasher film about an escaped mental patient who is an absolute murderous psychopath and who returns for some mysterious reason to his hometown of Haddonfield to begin a killing spree. The patient, named Michael Myers, is relentlessly pursued by the team-up of the Haddonfield sheriff, Sheriff Brackett, and Myers' psychologist, Dr. Sam Loomis, while Michael stalks a trio of female high school students on Halloween night.
From the first sequence involving Michael's infamous first kill, this movie is incredibly innovative with the camerawork. I believe this is the first horror film to introduce the POV camera method, actually. Then when Michael is stalking poor lovelorn Laurie Strode throughout the daytime, it just gets creepier. Finally, when the night falls and the blood starts to flow, it gets nightmarish.
Acting-wise, the movie is well-cast. I've really only seen Donald Pleasance as Blofeld in 'You Only Live Twice' and the lawyer guy in Disney's original 'Witch Mountain' movie, but I love him as Sam Loomis. Jamie Lee Curtis is pretty cute and innocent in the role of Laurie, but has a little bit of sass and coolness just under the surface. Charles Cypher does a good job as a small-town sheriff stretched thin on a tough night for law enforcement in general. And Nick Castle (who has recently returned for the Blumhouse trilogy) owns it as Michael Myers/The Shape.
Besides the incredible camerawork and enjoyable acting, what really sells this film is John Carpenter's brilliant synthesizer-techno score. Aside from the iconic main theme, there are other great tracks that enhance the terror of various scenes and add to the spookiness as well. Most notably with the opening and closing scenes, I have noticed.
As much as I want to find something wrong with this film, I think there really aren't any major problems with it. It would have been interesting if John Carpenter had been able to go through with his original plan for the sequels with each film being a contained and different story that has no relation to the previous Halloween film(s), much like Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt. Other than that, I think John Carpenter's Halloween is deserving of the praise that it gets. It really is a masterpiece of terror and horror.
Pros:
- Incredible Camerawork in combination with Pacing and Editing
- Cool acting by a bunch of interesting actors who deliver some great scenes
- John Carpenter's synthesizer score is one of the best scary movie scores ever.
- The finale is probably one of the best ending scenes I have ever seen. And not just for a Horror film.
Cons:
- The sequels, even the Blumhouse ones, do kind of dismember (for lack of better terminology) the mystique of this film's story by giving Michael a twisted motive or two for why he kills.
Final Word:
- Way better contender than William Friedkin's The Exorcist for the scariest film ever. Though Stanley Kubrick's The Shining comes pretty darn close, even with it being so inaccurate to the original text.
Stay Scared!