The Original "Slasher" Flick That Isn't A "Slasher" Flick

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2006)

There are a few movies credited with starting the slasher flick genre. Some claim that it was Psycho. Others feel that The Texas Chainsaw Masacre was responsible for starting one of the most hated film genres of all time. Most would agree that it was the movie Halloween that started it all. Halloween became the template for all of the slasher crap of the 80's. Not until Scream came along in the mid 90's would you see a fresh take on this genre.
All that being said, Halloween really ISN'T a slasher flick. Slasher flicks tend to satisfy (or dissatisfy, depending on who you are) the same type of person that prefers a gross out comedy over a more intelligent comedy. Slasher flicks rely on making movie goers squirm in their seats by showing them blood, guts and gore. Something Halloween lacks completely. Director John Carpenter approached the film the same way Hitchcock would have. Less is more. The less you show an audience in a horror film the more scared they are bound to become. Peoples imaginations tend to run wild when they aren't spoon fed all the details. People will walk away from a movie like Halloween thinking they saw things that they really didn't see.
The plot of the movie is as simple as it gets. An escaped mental patient (Michael Myers) returns to his home town to continue the killing spree that started with his sister when he was a young boy. Laurie Strode is his main target/obsession (watch Halloween II to find out why).
Carpenter succeeds in scaring the living hell out of viewers by dwelling on our most basic fears. Those things that lurk in the shadows. Things that go bump in the night. That house in every neighborhood across America that children warn each other to stay away from (usually because of some false urban legend). For the most part the movie is a ghost story told just as a master story teller would tell it to a group of people sitting around a camp fire.
This movie was made to be viewed in the dark and I encourage you to try doing so alone. All of the sudden your own home becomes a bit too spooky. That long dark hallway seems longer and darker. You will undoubtedly hear noises in your home you've never heard before.
In addition to top notch directing, John Carpenter also contributed an unforgettably chilling score. As the story goes the movie was originally tested without the score and tested poorly. It wasn't until the addition of Carpenter's basic, yet spooky piano work that audiences felt the full impact of this horror masterpiece.
Up until The Blair Witch Project Halloween was the most successful independent movie of all time. Studios didn't believe in it, but movie goers loved it. It's ironic how that works. Studios don't believe in something as powerful as Halloween, but after witnessing its enormous success begin churning out senseless copy cat versions that aren't anywhere near as good.
If you haven't seen Halloween, I highly recommend it. That is if you're ready to know what it really feels like to be scared.