Review of Halloween (1978) by Movieznp — 07 Mar 2019

Whenever we talk about the classic slasher films, we must mention at least two names - A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Halloween (1978). That's what this movie is - a pure classic. You know what Friday the 13th films are? Something that started with a RIPOFF of Halloween. That's how important this film is! Who knows? Had it not been successful, we might have never got a Friday the 13th films at all! .

Good : This usually is in my negatives in a slasher film, but here, it is in the positives - the characters. The characters we get introduced to in this film are very interesting. It doesn't feel like as if they're there to get killed, except for a final lady character. Laurie, our main girl played by Jamie Lee Kurtis, stands out to be one of my favorite final girls in the so-called classic slashers. Her friends are not just blant and useless characters either. They are not as interesting as Laurie, but they do entertain us either by getting killed or by interacting with other characters. I won't say all the characters are memorable, that's (perhaps) never the case in these type of films, but at least they don't feel forced and boring. Michael Myers. The tiny introduction to the character, for me, was sufficient to get behind him. We actually get to see what happened to him, or what made him the killer that he was. In short, Michael Myers was a good antagonist for me. However, all these are the secondary factors, which make this film good. The main aspects that need to be acknowledged for making this film so good, even after 40 years, would be John Carpenter. His imagination gave us Michael Myers. His screenplay served as the basis of this film. His music in this film gave chills. His direction made it a classic. I don't think the screenplay was a unique piece of writing. It could've been used to make a **** Friday the 13th film too. It's the direction of Carpenter that made the movie so good. Throughout the film, we can feel the creepy presence of Michael Myers and we do not have a single moment to relax. That's something which makes a film like this work. Not just kills. Or loud sound effects. Definitely not pseudo pornography. This movie apparently understood it very well. The suspense and the thrills are built very effectively and all of the thrills are worth the respective conclusions. The third act is a rollercoaster ride, to be honest. What I am going to say now can be put in "mixed" aspects, but I am not going to do so. If you show this movie to someone who has watched the modern day slasher films, he or she will definitely say "what's the big deal, the movie is clichéd". I would definitely agree to that - had it been a movie made in this date. It was made back when such films weren't so popular and if you think that this movie is obvious, you must know that movies like these are the ones which apparently gave us the clichéd template of slashers. It is a trend setter, in that respect. A movie being a trend setter is one of its biggest accomplishments. One more positive about this film. Compared to Nightmare and Friday films, the ending works in this movie. I would definitely say that the ending is quite similar to that of the first Friday and first Nightmare movie. There's a lot of mystery behind Michael Myers and they barely acknowledge him as "inhuman" - not confirming as if he was a supernatural entity or just an emotionless killer - and, he looks like a human. Even though we know enough about Myers to get behind him, even though Myers gets over with us, we still don't know many things about him. So, the ending makes us more curious about the character and hypes up for the sequel, even though it wasn't meant to be given sequels. It absolutely wasn't shoehorned to make room for the sequels like in the other two franchises I mentioned. Yet another positive. The character of Dr. Loomis is an integral part of what makes the story engaging. If you compare the first Nightmare film with it, we like the first Nightmare film because we get to know a great deal about Freddy and the psychological horror aspect of the movie was engaging. So, it didn't really need a "stopping agent" like Loomis. But comparing with Friday films, it lacks a character like Loomis to hold the movie tightly, which becomes a weak compilation of slicing scenes (roughly speaking). Dr. Loomis may not seem like a character which was integral to the movie. But, had he not been there, the movie might not have worked so well. I often get confused about which movie - among this one and first Nightmare film - I like the most. But, I always tend to put this one above just because of the ending that doesn't bug me. .

Conclusion : It's one of those movies which deserve to be called "classic". Even though the tropes may seem familiar, it was perhaps the first one to use such tropes so effectively. Thus, viewing in the retrospect will make you enjoy this movie even more. .

Rating. .

.