Halloween

Rating:
Summary: The Best Horror Movie Ever!!!!
Review: This is by far the greatest horror film of all time. Without a doubt. The way John Carpenter scares the bejesus out of you is uncanny. It hasn't been duplicated. The score is one of the most terrifying things I have ever heard. And Donald Pleasance, and Jamie Lee Curtis are brilliant. The other actors weren't that good, but that doesn't take my enjoyment of the movie away. It is certaintly a classic, and is great on this 25th anniversary edition dvd. Anybody complaining that they left the TV version scenes out of this dvd is weird. Who needs them any way. They were taped like 3 years later and are pointless. Anyway brilliant movie, and the best horror movie ever made.

Rating:
Summary: The Night He Came Home.
Review: It's easy to pick apart this DVD for what it DOESN'T have: the director's uncut version, the "original" shades of certain colors in the picture, etc. But the truth remains that John Carpenter's "Halloween" is still the slasher film to beat. Unlike the not-so-subtle "Friday the 13th" movies, "Halloween" relies less on gore and more on suspense to terrify an audience. Jamie Lee Curtis, then barely out of her teens, rightfully earned her title as the "scream queen" as Laurie Strode, the babysitter who comes face-to-face with Mike Myers, a psychotic masked killer who just escaped a psychiatric ward. The DVD has been re-released for its 25th anniversary, with a decent 5.1 soundtrack (Carpenter also composed the music). Many pick apart the picture because the colors are "off." This didn't bother me, and it didn't lessen the viewing experience. I was just happy that the picture is clear with hardly any print flaws. The second disc includes a detailed documentary that runs for almost 90 minutes and has interviews with the filmmakers and the cast. This documentary is almost worth the price of the DVD, in my opinion. We also have the spooky original trailer as well as a few TV and radio shots. It would have been nice if this disc also had the TV version of the movie so I could compare the two, but that's just a small gripe. "Halloween" spawned several sequels (none were directed by Carpenter, thankfully), and none of them come even close to topping the original. No questions asked, "Halloween" is a must-have for any movie buff.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Horror movie of all time
Review: This is pure, undiluted horror, with a superb musical score and fabulous scenes of terror and suspense. This movie is about a teenage babysitter, Laurie Strode (portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of Janet Leigh from Psycho) who is stalked by a maniacal killer, "the boogeyman", on Halloween Night. Micheal Myers was a young boy when he killed his sister and was then sent to an asylum. One night, he escapes from the asylum, and relives the terror of Halloween night again ... and again ... and again. This wonderful movie uses suspense and a great musical score to replace the blood and gore every movie uses. And that is what sets it apart from the other horror movies.

Rating:
Summary: The Original Halloween Movie
Review: The original Halloween easily surpasses all of its sequels. Without resorting to gimmickry or trickery to startle a viewer into thinking he has been scared, and without resorting to blood splattering a scene with special effects to exhort a cheap scare, John Carpenter tweaks the primordial recesses the human brain where survival and fear instincts are stored. He induces apprehension and fear of the kind that are not mitigated by someone cracking a weak joke at an inopportune moment, hoping to disguise self fright.

Great acting by the two main characters goes a long way toward making Halloween a classic. Jamie Lee Curtis is the sympathetic high school girl whose mother stared in Psycho, one of the few predecessors of Halloween that achieved its fright level; and the late Donald Pleasence is the intense and determined doctor of Michael Myers, whose blood curdling assessment of his patient convinces the viewer of a great evil, beyond human. With a chillingly scary story line, and the perfect setting on Halloween night, this film induces a primordial, subliminal, fear of the unseen but ever present evil that lurks in the soul of all humanity, wicked, supernatural and indestructible.

Halloween ranks as the best of the horror genre. It is the quintessential horror film by which others are measured. It set the standard for all horror films that followed.

Michael Myers is the inhuman, personification of pure evil: he lurks in the darkness; he does not speak; he moves slowly with a methodical, malevolent gate, fearless and indifferent to his surroundings; he takes time to observe and enjoy his masterpieces which are his dead victims, complete with props including a tombstone, presented as if for an admiring audience. But worst of all, Michael Myers represents an evil that cannot be killed. The evil is indestructible and will live on, to haunt the characters and the viewers forever in their dreams.

Toward the end the drama increases along with the blood pressure of the viewer to the last scary and eerie scene which is one of the most haunting and bone chilling in film history!

Rating:
Summary: this is not scary
Review: this is not scary at all nightmare on elm street is scary then this

Rating:
Summary: A couple of decent extras but this film hasn't aged well.
Review: I remember seeing Halloween in a packed theatre when it was re-released in '79 and being on the edge of my seat. Until the first Alien and Night of the Living Dead, a film has never scared me as much. Well I can still say that Alien & Night are first-rate horror films. I can no longer say the same about Halloween. I'm not sure why this film now feels so hollow & rudimentary in places. And the acting in this film is often terrible. Except for Donald Pleasance, I think it's safe to say these girls needed a few lessons. It's not completely their fault(the script is pretty bad and the screenplay draws the characters as if they were utter morons). Carpenter has never seemed to direct actors well, especially his female actors, and it definitely shows in this film. Halloween is virtually without gore but that was not a consideration for me when reviewing this film. I prefer suggestions of horror over gore, anyday. In conclusion, if you're a first-time viewer and your expectations aren't too high, you may enjoy this. It still retains a decent atmosphere of dread along with a few scares, I suppose. But the film is no longer the fright classic so many of its defenders make it out to be. I would recommend the two films I mentioned earlier over this: Alien & Night of the Living Dead. Anyway, I gave the dvd 3 stars: 2 for the film and an extra star for the features & commentary.

Rating:
Summary: You can't kill Carpenter...
Review: This is the classic. Here's a film made for less than half a million bucks that went on to be the most successful independent film of all time until the (far inferior) Blair Witch Project beat it out with more dollars.

I think this is a very good version to get as it's still in print. The problem with Halloween is that it's been released about a hundred different times in different formats over the years, and it's enough to drive fans batty. There's the anniversary editions, the special editions, the 2 tape or 2 DVD versions, the television versions, the restored versions, blah blah blah. The latest DiviMax edition is apparently not up to snuff (in terms of sound and picture), though it does have a commentary track (finally) by Carpenter (who always gives good, revealing commentaries), producer Debra Hill, and Jamie Lee Curtis. That might be worth picking up for the commentary alone, but this version is still a good single disc to get.

The print looks great. Dean Cundey deserves a lot of credit for the look of Halloween (and its sequel). His photography turns what is actually LA into a convincing little Illinois town. The blacks and the shadows are very black, and the effects with Myers' featureless white mask (such as when it begins to slowly fade into the light before he attacks Laurie in the end) is gorgeous. (He would do this again to even better effect in Part II when the mask literally bleeds into view in the orange light of one of the hospital rooms). The appearance of Myers in the background of many shots would become a staple of the series (him standing in the background while an unsuspecting characters is speaking or walking).

I don't think this is the first slasher movie, per se, (it's a few years after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and various Italian giallo flicks), but that doesn't matter because it holds up as a great horror film, period.

Halloween is essentially the story of the bogeyman. In 1963, six year old Michael Myers kills his older sister on Halloween night. Fifteen years later he escapes from a mental hospital before he is to be transported on his 21st birthday and he returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to stalk a group of teens, including the bookish, Girl-Scout-ish Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curitis). On Myers' trail is his obsessed doctor, Sam Loomis. Donald Pleasence provides the glue for the series with this role; he could always be counted on to deliver his lines with such credibility, no matter how outlandish the sequels became.

The film is low on gore and very high on suspense. While later films would go on to explain the Myers rampage, in this film he is an unstoppable force out to get Laurie and anyone else who crosses him, this is bogeyman territory plain and simple. The teens, of course, pay for their typical teenage activity, but the stalking is creepy and stylish, and the featureless, white mask of the killer is a perfect representation of some kind of avenging force.

Carpenter's music score is part of what makes the film what it is, and the famous theme is still chilling in its original incarnation. Look for the 20th Anniversary disc complete with sound bites from the film.

If you love horror movies, this is a modern classic. It's arguable whether or not Carpenter has topped it, but everything is just clicking here. I have no doubt that they will release this baby yet again before you know it, but this disc looks and sounds better than Halloween ever has. The TV version, available separately, has 10 minutes of extra footage and the rest is a bare bones DVD that is not worth the price. I am intrigued by the commentary-laden Divimax version, though.

You can't kill the bogeyman.

Rating:
Summary: John Carpenter's Suspense Driven Horror Classic
Review: Halloween is John Carpenter's best film. It is a classic horror film that will be watched long after I'm gone. It is excellent because it is so simple. It does not rely on buckets of blood or fancy special effects. Halloween builds tension and keeps a viewer at the edge of their seat. A sense of dread of what it to come is prevalent at all times. You know the killer is going to strike but WHEN? The main character Laurie Strode is very adorable and the audience is immediately sympathetic to her. The killer who is after her is the devil come to life (figuratively of course). He wears a mask that is horrifying and carries a big ass knife. Micahael Myers attacks without a noise (aside from the freaky rasping noise he makes) and shows absoulutely no mercy. He is the most frightening villain in cimema history. Anyone who says this movie is boring has a severe case of cinematic A.D.D. This movie is scary beyond reckoning. Halloween is a movie that you really have to watch. It's not flashy and the action is not in your face, but it is the tension that leads up to a murder is the scary part. Guys, on a dark night (preferably Halloween), turn out the lights and sit on the couch with your girlfriend. Pop in Halloween and she will be all over you. I hate to sound like the bus driver in Billy Madison but, I know from experience.

Rating:
Summary: ?
Review: Considering the cult following and numerous sequels this movie has spawned, I expected it to be one of the most frightening films ever. Maybe my expectations were too high, but it seemed as dull as cold soup. I didn't even find this funny in a Plan 9 from Outer Space way.

It's true that this film is not very bloody, considering the subject matter, but that's not the source of its unrelenting dullness; Psycho, one of the most involving films ever, is even less gory.

I'll cut it some slack, and note that if you have no advance warning, there are a few startling moments. Also, as this was an early film in the "slasher" genre, it probably was much more shocking to its original audience.

Jamie Lee Curtis, I should note, does turn out an engaging and credible performance that is worth seeing.

I'm surprised Donald Pleasence chose to make this film. Jamie Lee Curtis was not a high-draw name at the time, and probably happy just to have work, but Pleasence was already famous, and has no excuse. His massive talent isn't really apparent here.

This is a low-budget garage movie, that doesn't come across as much more; I still recommend seeing it, just because it is admittedly a seminal work. It's also fun to play trivial pursuit, catching all the references to earlier horror flicks. But don't go in with high hopes of being scared out of your pants.

Rating:
Summary: totaly "has been"..and boring
Review: this movie was maybe ok 30 years ago but for now this is a total old fashioned movie.100 percent "has been"
it was pretty difficult not to fall asleep.
don't waste yr time and yr $$
there is absolutly no point to compare it with the "scream" and the "remember what you did last summer.."the final destination"...
`why people call it a "classic"????