Purely and simply... excellent

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2008)

When John Carpenter first came up with the idea for Halloween, he probably didn't have a clue he was creating one of cinema's most indelible genre memories - he just thought it would be fun to make a movie about a serial killer striking on October 31. Then again, he had already made a name for himself with Assault on Precinct 13, and thanks to brilliant editing and camera work, great performances and that unforgettable score (which he wrote himself), even its tainted legacy of seven sequels can't tarnish Halloween's iconic status. In fact, it could easily be the best horror movie ever made.
The key to the film's genius is simplicity. This is obvious as early as in the opening shot, a nerve-cracking long take which references Psycho in depicting a gruesome murder without actually showing any blood - and it's all seen from the killer's point of view. The deranged individual in question, one Michael Myers, is subsequently locked up in an asylum, from which he escapes 15 years later (the film is set in its real year of release, 1978) to continue killing. The only one who can claim to even begin to understand him is a psychiatrist named Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), who follows Michael all the way back to his hometown, Haddonfield, where a bunch of teenage babysitters, including a certain Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, in her feature debut), might as well be celebrating the last Halloween of their lives.
A lot of things have been said about this movie: how the killer's mask was actually obtained from a Captain Kirk mask, how Michael's actions might be linked to sex (something Victor Miller admits to having expanded on when he wrote Friday 13th), how Carpenter used character names to reference some of his inspirations, like Rio Bravo (Sheriff Brackett is named after Howard Hawks' frequent writing partner Leigh Brackett) or Psycho (Loomis is the name of one of the victims in that film; in addition, Janet Leigh happens to be Jamie Lee Curtis' mother), yada yada yada. None of that really matters. The important thing is how Carpenter constructed a classic in the most basic way, filming everything on location is just three weeks, using friends and crew-members as extras (his collaborator Nick Castle plays the adult Myers) and instilling an everlasting sense of fear through a cunning use of long takes (that and the fact that Michael's face isn't seen for most of the movie).
Also, he obtained something most people wouldn't write home about when it comes to slasher films (a genre that was practically born with Halloween): really good acting. Curtis is impressive playing a role that is so far away from the "Scream Queen" cliché (which didn't exist at the time, but still...), and Pleasence is so outlandishly creepy (even though he's playing the good guy for a change) it's no surprise to learn Christopher Lee still regrets turning down the part. Of course, his remorse is most likely a reaction to the film as a whole, and that's just another piece of evidence regarding its untouchable status.
"One night, HE came home", the tag-line said. That phrase could easily refer to the director as well as the character: Carpenter may not have known it when he first thought of the concept, but his decision to do something cheap (in the good sense of the word) and different from any other horror movie led to the birth of a milestone in the genre's history, arguably the finest of those made by the '70s-'80s "New Wave" (Carpenter, Romero, Hooper, Craven), an achievement that still hasn't met its match.