Halloween (1978)
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Halloween Movie Review
Halloween is a 1978 slasher film directed by John Carpenter and starring Jamie Lee Curtis. It’s one of the best slasher films out there.
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“Death has come to your little town, Sheriff“
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Michael Myers murdered his older sister as a child. Fifteen years later, he escapes sanitarium and goes on a killing spree in his home town. The film is a textbook example of how to properly do a slasher movie. I am personally not a fan of this subgenre, but when it’s done this well, it really makes a difference. The film favors real scares instead of jump scares, it employs slow suspense and long build up and all of it works splendidly toward making you feel unnerved.
Yes, I just loved the horror scenes here. The movie is actually highly memorable in a variety of scenes. All of his murder scenes are excellent and superbly filmed with the ghost mask scene being so creepy, but Laurie’s chase with him in the third act produces many instantly recognizable moments. The ending is particularly powerful where it’s basically revealed that Michael Myers has supernatural powers as he survived being shot a couple of times and his body is nowhere to be found. His breathing interspersed with the imagery of the town’s houses led to a really chilling finale.
The characters are mostly disposable. I loved Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie. She’s the only very good positive character in the film, an excellent horror heroine and continually very likable and in the end proving to be quite competent/lucky. Curtis gave a very strong performance at such a young age and instantly cemented her important status in horror movies.
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Michael Myers is obviously a fantastic creation. The film is great for being so realistic with its villain as these murders can truly happen in real life and thus it becomes even more creepy to watch. His white mask is iconic to this day and I loved the establishing of him as a hollow-eyed child murderer in what is a terrific origin story.
But all of the other characters I have to say that I really disliked. Dr. Sam Loomis is solid, but Lynda and Annie are terrible, very annoying sex-crazed teenagers. And even though the director denied it, to me personally this film influenced many good things, but also a bad slasher aspect which is killing off those “immoral” teenagers who take drugs and have sex while the “innocent” protagonist is the only one who survives. That’s some bullshit which is obviously in the movie and I really do not like it. I like my killings spread equally toward all people.
Halloween is technically superlative. John Carpenter’s direction is fantastic and this is truly one of his best films, excluding ‘The Thing’ of course. I definitely really disliked the dialogue in the film which I found superficial, very annoying and kind of fake, but the realism is evident from the first moment and that I admired strongly.
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The same goes for the cinematography which is truly phenomenal with some fabulous camera angles that really make some scenes very creepy. The menacing atmosphere is established from the beginning and it never lets go. And of course its truly amazing, fun but also rather creepy theme is a classic by now and one of the most iconic in film history.
Halloween is a slasher classic that does have superficial dialogue and some rather annoying characters, but it’s very realistic in its villain and the murders leading to an even creepier film. The ominous atmosphere is established from the first scene, the cinematography is very strong, the score is truly amazing and iconic, Jamie Lee Curtis is great in the main role and Michael Myers remains a phenomenal creation. It’s a very influential genre film with a lot of instantly memorable scenes with the ending being particularly powerful.
