The founder of the 'Slasher' genre

Rating: 7/10 (12 July 2000)

As a Gen-Xer (whatever the hell that means) I spent most of my summers from age 10 to age 19 watching slasher films, as this was the only genre of movie that directly targeted people of my demographic. As I the genre moved on (I do not say 'evolved') I wearied of it, and as an adult I can see some real problems with the core conventions of it. However, being stubborn, I cannot bring myself to simply dismiss the films out of hand (well, definitely some of them). I refuse to believe that I wasted all those hours doing something that is inherently stupid, or wrong-headed. Thus, as an academic, I decided to 'study' them... now I can legitimate my vices by using big words like 'semiotics' and 'cultural signifiers.' This makes me happy, and allows me to conveniently sidestep hypocrisy. ;)
With that introduction, I would like to point out that John Carpenter's Halloween is actually a pretty decent movie. It brought together several disparate genres and conventions and melded them into one interesting (and highly marketable) genre. The original Halloween is much like the original Jaws and should be viewed independently of its many, sub-par sequels (although, of all the sequential horror films, this one was probably the best... not particularly high praise).
The wonderful thing about Carpenter, is that he can do things that would make another director look foolish, and pull them off. His soundtrack is LAME... but for some odd reason it works really, really well and has become the cornerstone for horror movie soundtracks.
Carpenter's rampant homages to other directors and other films throughout Halloween are both fun and give us a certain insight into the character of his film-making.
However, the most interesting thing that he does, the most innovative and groundbreaking thing, is his use of the 'killer's eye camera', Carpenter claimed that this was simply a device to mask the identity of the killer, but that is patently stupid. This camera perspective identifies the audience with the killer and creates a wierd sort of relationship between audience and action. I find this to be at once disconcerting and again brilliant. Carpenter really creates a mood and an attitude for this film that would be copied again and again.
Although the film is relatively shallow in the characterization/story department, it does manage to establish (or re-establish) the conventions of the horror genre, but also lays out the essential archetype of the slasher film. I love this stuff. Carpenter was either lucky or a visionary, or perhaps a bit of both.
Even 20 years after this film was originally made, and after countless viewings, there are still scenes that are surprisingly frightening: the scene in the laundry room, Myers rising from the floor behind Laurie, the confrontation in the closet with the weird lighting through slats.
The one thing that Carpenter really accomplishes is the feeling of isolation. He manages to make you feel completely isolated while living in a suburban neighborhood. You realize that even though these characters cannot be more than a few hundred feet from another person, and have phones and radios and TVs, they are still completely vulnerable to the killer. Halloween did for suburbia what Jaws did for the ocean, made you realize that you were vulnerable in a place that you wouldn't have believed. Truly an astounding feat.
This film is quite simply brilliant. now I am not praising it too highly. Let's face facts, it was a low-budget monster movie, with lousy special effects, a relatively lame story, a terrible soundtrack (synthesized keyboards, come on ;) and some truly bad acting (although Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis did quite well for themselves). However, with all this going against it, you really can't take your eyes of the movie. It has become a cultural icon (and rightly so) and has generated countless rip-offs. I can only say that Carpenter possesses a kind of magic that is impressive (well, usually). This film is a must-see for any aspiring, low-budget film-maker, anyone who likes to be scared, and anyone that has a real passion for interesting cinema.