Halloween


1978 horror movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A lunatic escapes from an asylum, returns to the childhood home where he murdered his sister, and starts killing off teenagers who are having sex. Donald Pleasence chases him around.

Carpenter is so skilled at doing a lot with not much at all, and that gift's on display here. This is cheap and doesn't even really have a story that is all that intriguing. It does deliver the scares, mostly the things-jumping-out-at-you kind of scares, but it's more effective at delivering a creepiness, creepiness with a barely-discernible sense of humor below the surface. This definitely has a little style. The long shot at the beginning with the first-person perspective works really well. I'm sure that sort of thing had been done prior to 1978, but I'm not enough of a cinephile to know when. This also has so many wonderfully choreographed sequences, like one where Jamie Lee Curtis and her friend are talking with the latter's cop father and then pulling away while Pleasence walks up and introduces himself before Michael Myers drives past in the background. It's all one shot and so perfectly timed, and it's got this gritty effortlessness. Myers is very creepy when lurking around, but should psychotic killers really drive around in station wagons? And at what point did they decide to make him freakishly strong? I really liked a shot where the camera lingers on Myers while he's standing and admiring his work killing Bob, the guy with giant glasses. Following that, Myers pretends to be a sheeted ghost, and I still can't decide if that's the stupidest thing I've seen recently or one of the coolest. Jamie Lee Curtis? I'm not seeing any acting potential here ("The keeeeeeeeyyyyys. The keeeeeeeeyyyyyyss!"), and she looks like she's about thirty years old. Her character is worse at killing psychotic killers than Curtis is at acting the part. Why does she keep throwing the knife away? The character is good at locking herself into places. Either that, or she doesn't fully understand how doors work. That's one of the many horror moves in this that either were already clichés or that would become cliches. Also, I wouldn't hire Jamie Lee Curtis to babysit any of my children. Donald Pleasence is his usually awesome self here and lends a certain elegance to the whole thing, best exemplified in his delivery of the line "He came home." Pleasence is taking this movie so seriously, even when his character is parking in a handicap space, and if I see the sequels (I never have, by the way), it'll be because of him. The music, as famous as those "Tubular Bells"-sounding piano tinkerings in the theme are, is occasionally grating. I didn't remember a clicking sound in the theme and thought something was wrong with my device. When I found out it was supposed to sound like that, I was annoyed. What I did like were the cheesy sound effects accompanying some of Michael Myers' moves. Loved that kung-fu electronic springy sound when Myers leaps onto a car, and although I can understand the argument that the sound effects were goofy, I was glad there was a sound effect every single time the killer appeared in the movie. Something else I liked was the complete lack of enthusiasm in whoever was the voice of a teacher during one scene. I haven't been able to put a name to that off-screen role unfortunately. This movie works as a cautionary tale, like a lot of slasher pics do, a warning to teenagers that premarital sex can be deadly. This movie predates AIDS by a few years, but when my peers and I first stumbled upon these horror movies where teenagers were having the sex, the disease, in its abstractness, was almost more terrifying than any Michael Myers could possibly be, no matter how many times he seemed to be dead but got back up. For us, it was almost like Michael Myers put a face on the disease. I think that's why nobody I grew up with had sex before marriage.

4 comments:

cory said...

This is a very influential and effective horror film. My favorite thing is actually the creepy music. My biggest gripe is standard for many of these movies where the victim has the upper hand, but instead of taking something heavy and repeatedly bashing his head in, instead she runs away, allowing for the chase to begin again. Also a 15.

If you want to read something very funny, search "One killer Sportscentury", an ESPN article by Bill Simmons which has a lot to say about this movie.

Shane said...

Right, she stabs him twice and has opportunities to finish the job but instead just throws the knife and walks slowly away. Maybe "finish the job" isn't accurate because he apparently can't be killed.

"One Killer Sportscentury" was pretty funny...

Anonymous said...

after your review i was kind of excited to watch this as amy randomly decided she wanted to watch this "classic". it was about the most laughable piece of shit i have ever seen. the continuity were awful. it's suppose to be halloween and it is obvious it was shot in the summer. there are only fallen leaves where the characters are walking. all the side streets are devoid of leaves. people make phone calls on phones that have been left off the hook. i'm super confused how the one girl locked herself in that laundry room, etc.
the 6 year old micheal myers killer is just stupid, and the older one lacks motivation(more later)
seems like he should have been easy to catch. "ahhh, he's driving a station wagon that says whatever mental hospital on the side". the music written by john carpenter was unneccasary at times.
in a lot of classic horror movies sex equals death, and in this movie everyone who has sex dies, but that cant be myers motivation because he tries to kill jamie lee curtis, and to a lesser degree the kids. like you i felt the "teenagers" all looked 30. i did like some of the creepiness. clumsy 10

Shane said...

Myers' motivation = he's a nutcase? I didn't really think he was killing everybody because they were gettin' some. That was more subtext.

I was going to criticize your nitpickiness with the weather continuity because some parts of America don't have seasons. But then I looked it up and saw that it takes place in Illinois. Sure was a lot of green.

I kind of see this as a little tongue-in-cheek and thought the station wagon thing was humorous.

Is your 10/20 with or without the Donald Pleasence bonus?

You're probably right that this is a little dopey, but it's that sort of movie that, for better or worse, invents clichés. And I really do think it succeeds in being creepy and maybe, as I said at the end, having a little something to say.