Written by: Kevin Berge
The real question never answered in this film: why the mask? Did he just think it looked scary? (Image Courtesy of: 3brothersfilm.com)
Quick Take: Halloween does hold up that well as a scary movie before its climax but is a brilliantly directed and deceptively simple movie that helped popularize a genre for a decade. With effective lead performances and a brilliant creative monster, it is a thrilling experience to this day.
***This is an in-depth review of the 1978 slasher horror film Halloween, focused on every aspect of the movie including its plot. It will contain spoilers, so those who have not see the film and plan to do so should not read ahead until they have.***
When you hear horror today, it is hard not to think of the slasher flick. It was such an integral part of the 1970s and 80s that it basically enveloped the entire genre. While you can credit earlier work with creating the genre especially Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Halloween may be the movie that took it into mainstream focus.
John Carpenter's (The Thing) most enduring work, Halloween is all about the psychopath Michael Myers, a man who escapes a sanitarium where it had been locked up for 15 years after stabbing his sister to death, and his return to his childhood town of Haddonfield, Illinois to continue killing high school students.
Myers himself is a frightening creation, simple and effective in his imposing frame and ability to quickly disappear from view. He is clearly too much for any of his victims even though many of them add to their own doom with stupidity. Luckily, there's the main protagonist Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) around to be the "smart one".
However, no character is more important to this movie than its director and writer John Carpenter. He is the dominant force behind making this movie work with a particular mastery of creating atmosphere. What is particularly impressive is what he manages to do with a fairly small set of techniques.
Halloween has a contained and particular collection of camera shots it uses from its first-person perspective through the eyes of the killer to its zoom out mid-shots of rooms. The repetition of certain shots works well because they have a greater and more tense purpose later in the film.
Where the camera was once just showing off a room, now it is zooming out to show the killer in the very same room as his victims. After the use of first person early on, too much movement from the camera begins to eerily reveal Michael Myers is in charge of the camera once more.
Similarly, the soundtrack also by Carpenter begins by creating a sense of unease through a simplistic but memorably off-kilter piano score. At first, it simply heralds impending threats to come, but slowly it reveals that the threat has arrived. It is the backbone of the movie's most powerful trait: its atmosphere.
When you hear horror today, it is hard not to think of the slasher flick. It was such an integral part of the 1970s and 80s that it basically enveloped the entire genre. While you can credit earlier work with creating the genre especially Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Halloween may be the movie that took it into mainstream focus.
John Carpenter's (The Thing) most enduring work, Halloween is all about the psychopath Michael Myers, a man who escapes a sanitarium where it had been locked up for 15 years after stabbing his sister to death, and his return to his childhood town of Haddonfield, Illinois to continue killing high school students.
Myers himself is a frightening creation, simple and effective in his imposing frame and ability to quickly disappear from view. He is clearly too much for any of his victims even though many of them add to their own doom with stupidity. Luckily, there's the main protagonist Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) around to be the "smart one".
However, no character is more important to this movie than its director and writer John Carpenter. He is the dominant force behind making this movie work with a particular mastery of creating atmosphere. What is particularly impressive is what he manages to do with a fairly small set of techniques.
Halloween has a contained and particular collection of camera shots it uses from its first-person perspective through the eyes of the killer to its zoom out mid-shots of rooms. The repetition of certain shots works well because they have a greater and more tense purpose later in the film.
Where the camera was once just showing off a room, now it is zooming out to show the killer in the very same room as his victims. After the use of first person early on, too much movement from the camera begins to eerily reveal Michael Myers is in charge of the camera once more.
Similarly, the soundtrack also by Carpenter begins by creating a sense of unease through a simplistic but memorably off-kilter piano score. At first, it simply heralds impending threats to come, but slowly it reveals that the threat has arrived. It is the backbone of the movie's most powerful trait: its atmosphere.
She would have been just fine if she just stopped dropping that knife. (Image Courtesy of: letterboxd.com)
Perhaps watching so many later horror flicks as of late has made me less susceptible to scares, but Halloween does not come off as all that scary. It is far more effective when considered purely a thriller as it is well constructed and atmospheric, but it never grows beyond that feeling.
The weakest aspect of the film is its story, a simple silent killer stalking a few high school kids, and it never creates too much open terror. It takes almost 50 minutes to get from the first kill to the second with that second death largely underwhelming after ten minutes of teasing what could happen.
Laurie played with likable flair by Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies) is a fine but innocuous character who is not developed much beyond being the studious, pure one of her friend group. She survives everyone by having more sense, but she is fairly lacking in basic observational skills and gives little depth behind her character's kindness.
If anyone gets depth, it is Myers whose character is heavily shrouded in mystery but also developed by key story points. There is a whole subplot about Myers' child psychologist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) trying to find him that further emphasizes Myers as a threat while the way Myers reacts to his victims is fascinating.
This whole movie is defined best by its ability to create a legend out of Michael Myers. The slasher genre has always been defined more by its villains than its heroes, and Myers is among the most frightening and memorable of all slasher monsters without being anything more than large, strong, and quietly psychotic.
Even if the build up is not always frightening, the climax with Laurie finally entering the house where her friends have died, not knowing what is going on, is tense and effective from the moment she decides to cross the street. I likely would not sit down and watch Halloween from start to finish any time soon, but I would absolutely watch its climax.
In that final scene, it is frightening. Even if the action is not perfect, it is affecting and hard not to get invested in. While I wish it could have that same energy throughout or for a longer time, the movie is still a thrilling showcase of how to manipulate the simple to make something intense and ultimately genre-defining.
The weakest aspect of the film is its story, a simple silent killer stalking a few high school kids, and it never creates too much open terror. It takes almost 50 minutes to get from the first kill to the second with that second death largely underwhelming after ten minutes of teasing what could happen.
Laurie played with likable flair by Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies) is a fine but innocuous character who is not developed much beyond being the studious, pure one of her friend group. She survives everyone by having more sense, but she is fairly lacking in basic observational skills and gives little depth behind her character's kindness.
If anyone gets depth, it is Myers whose character is heavily shrouded in mystery but also developed by key story points. There is a whole subplot about Myers' child psychologist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) trying to find him that further emphasizes Myers as a threat while the way Myers reacts to his victims is fascinating.
This whole movie is defined best by its ability to create a legend out of Michael Myers. The slasher genre has always been defined more by its villains than its heroes, and Myers is among the most frightening and memorable of all slasher monsters without being anything more than large, strong, and quietly psychotic.
Even if the build up is not always frightening, the climax with Laurie finally entering the house where her friends have died, not knowing what is going on, is tense and effective from the moment she decides to cross the street. I likely would not sit down and watch Halloween from start to finish any time soon, but I would absolutely watch its climax.
In that final scene, it is frightening. Even if the action is not perfect, it is affecting and hard not to get invested in. While I wish it could have that same energy throughout or for a longer time, the movie is still a thrilling showcase of how to manipulate the simple to make something intense and ultimately genre-defining.