Review of Halloween (1978) by Ahmedaiman9999 — 22 Oct 2018

Halloween is a remarkable horror film but this in largely down to Carpenter's wonderful ability in building up and creating suspense. Using the POV approach, and a chill-inducing score whenever Michael Myers appears, Carpenter certainly does an effective job of immediately drawing the viewer into the proceedings. But it's the unconventional way of anticipation is the most terrifying thing about the movie.

I loved how Carpenter keeps us hooked for most of the movie (the first hour) just by making us waiting for Myers to strike, and yet nothing happens till the third act. That really made the movie an unsettling and unnerving experience, but also so captivating; my eyes was glued to the screen, TOTALLY!

Leaving us hanging for nearly an hour before Myers begins killing was a difficult challenge, and Carpenter just knocked it out of the park in terms of keeping me enthralled and riveted. That said, the slow-burning narrative and sinister atmosphere weren't enough to make this movie scary for me. Usually, I don't blame the movie for not scaring me when I find there are many things that the movie got right, such as the use of jump scares, simply because I don't get scared from horror movies at all! But I get nervous quite a lot when I watch decent horror flicks, and that didn't happen to me until the last, say, 15-20 minutes of the movie.

Another issue I have with this movie is everything about Donald Pleasance's character. Besides Pleasance's stilted performance, his character's presence along with the Sheriff don't seem to be necessary, and I felt that there would have been no much difference if both Sheriff and Doctor were cut from the film. I found Loomis is just an expository tool that also hasn't been utilized well.

The characters, in general, aren't smarter than those in other slasher horror movies. Case in point, Thomas Doyle who I would only believe his actions if he was 3 or 4 years old! Not to mention, Brian Andrews's performance that was really bad. The character and the performance are the exact opposite of Danny in Kubrick's The Shining!

Needless to say, Jamie Lee Curtis's performance as Laurie is simply stellar. The same goes for the rest of the cast regardless of those who I've mentioned above.

I also didn't like that Myers was depicted as superhuman. I don't know whether the sequels justified that or not, but this definitely didn't work for me. However, I liked so much how Myers looks, and how we didn't see his face as much as we hear him breathing under his mask from a first person POV.

For all its flaws, Halloween will remain a landmark of slasher horror cinema, simply because it has set the standards for horror films in general. Standards that slasher movies have never surpassed to date.