Review of Halloween (1978) by Viniciusbrito — 06 Sep 2018

Damn! What an experience this movie was, it was like really few before. A kid that lives in a small town named Haddonfield, and lives with his parents and his sister, in one night he kills the sister and end up in some sort of asylum, 15 years later he escaped and went back to his hometown. Directed by John Carpenter.

The story of this movie isn't the most complex thing in the world and also isn't the most important here neither, so it isn't a problem because it is very functional, it doesn't falls short in any way, it does have a pretty good job in presenting the characters and making we care with at least one of them very much, some characters are just placed there, that comes out of nowhere, but it all converge into the same character, so it wasn't a problem, because even if we didn't knew or cared about some of these characters, the main one did and it affected her anyway, you could also argue that doesn't seem to have any clear reason for Michael to do what he did, but it is simply that he is a completely psycho, you don't know if he do that for fun, or if he believes that there is something else that he needs to achieve, this is part of the mystery of the character and it is very good and well done.

The creation of the character Michael Myers is a point that needs to have some light, they first gave him a back story that totally worked, and jumped 15 years through the movie, and during the story they had his doctor that used to talk about him, how he was, how he sees him, or it, and that gave him substance. About his visual, at the same way that they keeped it simple, they made it dope, the mask is scary and creepy, it is perfect, they way that he moves, it feels confident and imponent, he is a very well constructed character. Another nice aspect is that the way that he aproach the others, he is always stealth and stalker, that makes him even more scarier.

The best thing about this movie, is for sure, the atmosphere that it created, that was special. The stalker aspect of Michael Myers is definely a thing that you can even take to your life, for real, after watching this I literally walk in the street looking 360 around me, because a stalker is such of a believable aspect that it is normal to be scared of that. The showing up and disappearing of him is a desesperate thing, you just never know where he is, or what he gonna do, it is scary as hell. There are some sequences of horror and thriller that are breathtaking, simply terrifying and unpredictable, you know that Michael is gonna get determined character, but he have so many opportunities and you can't be sure in wich one he will pop-up, you be like "he gonna show up now, oh, now", and you got so tense while watching because you can't be sure of nothing, they create an atmosphere that it is both scare, creepy and believable, that is definely a impressive thing. I liked how they didn't forced into jumpscares, they really created thriller situations.

The acting is very good, even that some characters didn't had much to do, they were good. Jamie Lee Curtis was great here, she could first pass that calm and relax school girl, and inch by inch start thinking that she was crazy and seeing things, and finally to the desesperation with us, her character literally got so scared as me. Donald Pleasence did a good job, he could pass some concern tones in his voice that delievered, I totally bought that he trully believed in what he said. Nancy Kyes was also very good, she did had some moments and got me with that not concerning with anything person, that is mad sometimes but generally feel free.

I can't say that I didn't found anything that felt wrong, like the girl being stalked and she don't really do anything about it really felt like a flaw. But the good things here destroy the flaws.

The cinematography of this movie is great, even considering that this had a really low budge, they did a hell of a good job here, they just did it in the best possible way. There are moments that the cinematography say something, script beyond lines, there are moments that they put the character in first person wich also works really well, it had some really great camera position here, and some really nice uses of it as well.

The soundtrack is also great, the sound here is great, they did a very nice sound desing and used really nice musics to implement to the atmosphere that worked perfectly. The main theme of Michael Myers is so good, like so good, it isn't just nice to hear, but everytime that it started I got chills, because I knew that something was about to go on, but not everytime it happened, wich is so great, because even when the theme started I couldn't be sure if something was going to happen or not.

The movie is great, it will get you tense and scared, it isn't predictable, the characters are good, and Myers is outsdanding in his story, in his way to do things, it is for sure one of the best slasher villains in any movie.