Halloween

Rating:
Summary: The Start of the Rest is the Best of the Best!
Review: Review Edited due to IMDb's word limit.

You can thank William Shatner for "Halloween." It is his face, after all, that the infamous Michael Myers (Nick Castle) wears in the shadows of "Halloween," spray painted white and its hair frizzled up in all directions. Michael is always in the shadows, an ever-present force with hints of supernatural evil.

And that is where the granddaddy of horror film exceeds where all the others fail -- in its suspense, and not in its exploitation of horror. Michael Myers exists in the shadows as a primal fear in "Halloween," preying on innocent passersby. And although it has been falsely mistaken to be a bloody slasher film over the years since its release, primarily thanks to its many sequels and uncountable rip-offs, the film features virtually no blood whatsoever. No, the film goes for real scares rather than blood and guts. It's the "Psycho" of its generation, and it pays its respects to Hitchcock in more than just the literal sense.

Its imitators and sequels (the ninth film coming out next year) all lost sight of this. Over the years, "Halloween" has been slowly but surely regarded with less and less respect, simply because its imitators used its original ideas so much they turned into clichés. By today's standards, "Halloween" may look tame and quite routine, but you must understand that back in 1978 it was anything but average and typical.

And despite the clichés, I still don't consider it average because John Carpenter knows how to use the camera to his advantage. It's the subtle stuff that counts -- such as the fact that we take the first person view of Michael Myers as a child, while he murders his older sister in cold blood. But after his parents unveil him, we never assume his perspective ever again. Sometimes we think we are, but then we see Michael's outline appear by the camera or far away from the camera. (Though this was ruined when the film was chopped for TV and Michael Myers wasn't always viewable off screen due to standard format.)

The camera also takes on the eerie presence of a third person -- when Michael attacks Laurie in that coat closet, you're in there with her. When she runs along the street looking for help, Carpenter uses a dolly shot and makes the effect exist as though we are with her. As Michael drives the stolen car through Haddonfield, we're in the back seat with him. We're always with the characters, which is a very subtle but effective technique that Carpenter uses, separating it from the other slasher films. It is as though we become an unmentioned character ourselves. It almost turns the film into a sort of adventure ride.

The film opens on Halloween night in Haddonfield, Illinois, 1963. A young girl named Judith Myers is murdered by her 6-year-old brother, Michael.

1978. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) has been following Michael's case since its birth in 1963. He worked for eight years trying to reach the boy, to connect with him. ("He hasn't spoken a word for fifteen years.") Loomis worked another seven years trying to keep Michael locked up forever, after realizing what existed behind the boy's cold eyes was purely and simply evil. But now, the night of his transportation to a court hearing, Michael has escaped from confinement, and Loomis knows where he's headed: back to Haddonfield.

Michael does come back to Haddonfield, and there he preys on innocent virginal schoolgirl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), left to baby sit two children on Halloween night. Meanwhile, Dr. Sam Loomis walks around town searching for Michael and saying such fun, clichéd lines as, "It's your funeral!", "He came home," and "Evil has come to your small town, Sheriff."

One of the many keys to the film is Michael's hinted supernatural power. Now it's common fodder to feature supernatural bad guys in horror flicks, but back then nothing had made a villain into a supernatural mad man incarnate before -- not even "Psycho." Michael is the villain who always knows where to hide, where the hero(ine) is hiding, how to position himself in the shadows without being seen, and how to always be a step ahead of everyone else. He can appear to a single person in front of a bush and then disappear behind it, gone from sight forever. The supernatural eeriness of the character was copied in the 1986 thriller "The Hitcher," where Rutger Hauer played a homicidal hitchhiker trying to prey on a young boy for no reason whatsoever. Hauer was played as a supernatural character but the film failed to make any sense of anything, wandering back and forth between a mortal foe and an immortal one. It also hinted that there was a purpose behind Hauer's killing spree, which was never delved into.

"Halloween" is smarter. Myers has not motive for killing. And instead of constantly featuring him on screen, Michael is revealed slowly and slowly, piece by piece. First the shoulders. Then the back of the head. Then the face from a distance. A bit closer. But he never walks around in the daylight, right in front of the camera, because that would completely diminish the film's creepiness. Even when Myers is seen in the dark towards the end of the film, and finally unmasked for a brief moment, we never really feel that we've seen him. He is still a dark figure.

All the sequels and rip-offs burned the storyline to the ground. In retrospect, "Halloween" is very predictable. But it still has a distinctly subtle style of psychological horror that all the other gratuitously violent slasher cash-ins lost. This is the granddaddy of teen slasher movies, and always will be. And after you get past the fact that it started an entire franchise of unwanted motion pictures, you'll realize that there's a lot more to "Halloween" than meets the eye. It's a cut above the rest, so to speak.

Rating:
Summary: THE BOOGYMAN IN ALL HIS GLORY
Review: Halloween singlehadedly set the bar for all other slasher flicks and still to this day continues to be viewed as one of the scariest movies of all time. With his creepy music and terrifying mask, he reeks havoc on all who oppose him. It scared me the first time I saw it and still scares me today. Don't watch it alone.

Rating:
Summary: Bad News!
Review: I always liked the Halloween movies. The problem with the 25th anniversary DVD is it does'nt even have any of the original edited seens. There is about 10 to 15 minutes that has been cut from the movie. All of my other DVD's have the outtakes from the original movies. I don't understand why they did'nt include these in the 25th anniversary edition. Without them, there is no understanding the movie at all. It's just another slasher movie with no plot. I was very disappointed. It's not worth the money that they are selling it for.

Rating:
Summary: Not a good movie
Review: The most overrated horror movie ever,Michael Myers kills his sister and on Halloween 1978,he returns to kill his other sister Laurie a babysitter,she must protect her kid she is babysitting before Michael kills them both.The plot is original and the movie dosen't need gore to be scary,but this boring low budget mess is not worth it,The Divimax 25th Anniversary Edition DVD is alright but lacking deleted scenes.Don't waste your money on a rental or buying.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Horror movie Ever
Review: This Movie When You First See It Will Scare The crap Out Of You The Best of The Halloweens No Horror Movie Can Live Up To Halloween Watch You Might Wanna Keep The Lights On

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Movie that deserves only the best
Review: Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the only movie that had tapped into the idea of slasher movies and then comes along a movie that starts them all. HALLOWEEN is the best slasher film besides TCM and there's no reason why it should not be. It is wonderfully written directed acted scored and it is a great horror flick.

On Halloween night Mickael Myers grisily killed his older sister and vows to kill his younger sister Laurie and spends his childhood in a mental hospital and escapes and hunts down his sister. Halloween rolls around and the bodies pile up and Laurie finds herself in the middle of brutal murders and an insane unkillable man that will haunt her for countless sequals!

HALLOWEEN re-shaped horror and after it come out, horror and especially slasher horror became a movie of choice by all, the viewers and the moive makers. But this movie stands alone and should be crowned one of the scariest moives of all time.

Rating:
Summary: The best scare...even 25 years later
Review: This is my favorite movie of ALL TIME! And it continues to give me chills whenever I watch it. No other movie from nearly 30 years ago has ever been able to do so. This is the most terrifying movie ever and it continues to have the same impact it did when it first came out. A young Jamie Lee Curtis really made her mark and began her career with the role that got her deemed the scream queen (a real honor being the daughter of the original scream queen Janet Lee). She followed up this movie with the sequel, although not at great, a really good movie in and of itself. But the original Halloween just cannot be dupicated and no sequel or rip off has ever even come close.

Rating:
Summary: wow!
Review: I am not a horror movie person at all, but this is one of my favourite movies. It's so visceral. The music is just oh so freaky. The music actually freaks me out far more than the actual images in the movie. I like this movie because it has very little gore and more psychological scares. It's all tension. John Carpenter is so undrrated. Donald Pleasance is awesome in this film. He is so credible as Dr. Loomis. I love the line he says when he is trying to get the pranksters away from the old Myer's house. The look on his face after that kid (Lonnie) runs aways is priceless. I think the sequels to this movie are pretty terrible, but this movie is definitely the most respected, deservedly so, of the "slasher" films. You have to love a movie where the villian is wearing a William Shatner mask. The behind the scenes features on this DVD are great, too. I had already seen them on AMC, but I am glad to have them on DVD. See this movie if you've been living under a rock somewhere and have not seen it!!!

Rating:
Summary: It's the Original...
Review: What does that tell you? Compared to almost all of its sequels, "Halloween" towers above them all with healthly doses of physcological fear and hardly any bloodshed. From the opening credits that feature an ominous glowing jack-o-lantern and director John Carpenters' moody and freaky score, to the films frightful climax, "Halloween" proves to be an unnerving and suspenseful experience with a nothing less than killer ending that leaves the viewer to piece the rest of the puzzle together in the recesses of their own imaginations.

What has "Halloween" starting off on the right foot right away is it is directed by horror maestro John Carpenter (They Live, Prince of Darkness) and is the only "Halloween" directed by John Carpenter. The film sets its' story on the move as a young Michael Myers kills his sister in cold blood on a Halloween night, a sequence that is mostly one shot. For fifteen years he is kept in an asylum, but escapes the day before Halloween to continue his massacre. The film gives no reason why, leaving the viewer to figure that out by themselves. He goes to his hometown of Haddonfield, and soon teens start to die as the night wears on. The films most powerful scene involves Michaels' sisters' gravestone over another one of his victims.

The films' one flaw may be the acting, which rarely rises above b-movie average. The exceptions are Jamie Lee-Curtis as a babysitter who is stalked by Myers and Donald Pleasence as Myers' fanatical doctor, who is stopping it nothing to ensure that Myers cannot kill again. What also overcomes this flaw is John Carpenters' direction, which moves the film at a deliberate, albeit ominous pace which adds another layer of creepiness to those that exist already. Watch it with the lights down and with a good supply of popcorn, because that will be your only comfort to the fear and suspense and of "Halloween."

Rating:
Summary: Even After 25 Years, Its Still One of the Best!
Review: In 1978, the world was introduced to a movie that has become a cornerstone in the horror genre. Independent filmmakers John Carpenter and Debra Hill, largely unknown at the time, shot a movie that would become one of the top money-making horror films of all time on a budget of just over $300,000.00. They hired a cast of unknowns, drawing on talent that would become some of the top names in Hollywood. They set out to make a simple film, about a group of teenagers being stalked by a serial killer, and what was born was a movie that has challenged all other films of its genre-Halloween.

Set in the small town of Haddenfield, Illinois, it is the story of Michael Myers, a boy who murders his sister on Halloween night in 1963. Incarcerated within the confines of the mental institution Smiths Grove, he is treated by Dr. Loomis (played by Donald Pleasance) until he can stand trial as an adult for the criminal activities of that fateful night.

Fifteen years pass, and Myers is now grown. Loomis is assigned the duty of transporting Myers back to Haddenfield for his criminal hearing. On the eve of halloween, and badgered by a horrendous thunderstorm, Loomis travels the final distance to the gates of the institution with the aid of a nurse who has been assigned to him. Upon their arrival, they discover that the inmates have been set free to wonder about the confines of the sanitarium. Loomis, who has long since grown to believe that Michael Myers in the embodiment of pure evil, rushes to the gaurd post at the front gate. In his absence, Myers overtakes the nurse and steals the car.

Loomis cries out "He's gone..the evil has gone..."

And so begins Halloween.

The balance of the story takes place in Haddonfield, where a group of unsuspecting teens will have a fatal encounter with Michael Myers. Leading the cast is Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of veteran actress Janet Leigh (of "Psycho" fame), who plays Laurie Strode, a high-school student who begins seeing "The Shape", a non-descript man dressed in a blue coverall, wearing a white mask. She sees him again and again, through the classroom window at school, in her backyard, behind bushes.

For the majority of horror fans who have seen this film, I need go no further. For those of you who haven't, I should go no further, for the film is definitely more than the narrative I began above. It is a story that touches on the psychological truths that our society seems to function on. Whats more, it is a film that touches at our primal fears.

Unlike so many films in this genre, Halloween is genuinely frightening, not because of its use of graphic gore, or visually stunning effects (there really aren't any in this film) but because it plays on the things that scare us most-the potential monster hiding in the shadows, the boogeyman. Whats more, Carpenter uses carefully placed light and shadow to really enhance the experience of his film. His soundtrack also underscores the film as a whole, bringing it to a level and intensity that keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

Carpenter went on to film two additional films in the franchise, the much more commercial Halloween II and Halloween III:Season of the Witch (the third installment having nothing to do with the Myer storyline). The Halloween franchise itself has given birth to a total of seven sequels, including the largely popular Halloween H20, in which Jamie Lee Curtis reprised the role of Laurie Strode. Still, it is this original film, a small budget, independent movie that was shot in the early spring (yes, leaves were brought in and scattered about to simulate the fall season) that has become a staple that is synonymous with the holiday which the movie was named after.

If you have reservations about this film, set them aside and watch it...especially in this 25th annviersary release, which includes a bunch of extras...but watch it with the lights on, because Michael Myers might be there, in the shadows, waiting. Halloween-the Night He Came Home-is worth the time and money. It is the film that really re-defined the horror/slasher genre, and it is the one film that really rises above the rest, setting a standard that no film that followed has ever matched.