The Best Horror/Suspense Film I Have Seen

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2014)

The monster that was released on a worldwide audience still rings true to this day. John Carpenter's Halloween is that very rare motion picture that combines a very simple story, good acting and dialogue and suspense to make a film that has been copied, for better or much worse, since Fall 1978.
Everyone knows the story....Michael Myers murders his oldest sister, is sent to a hospital for the criminal insane, breaks out on Halloween Eve 1978 only to return home to Haddonfield to reboot his horrific rampage (which is continued in Halloween II). Once there, four innocent teenage babysitter meet evil on two legs.
Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles and Nancy Kyes do outstanding work as the trinity babysitters who have no clue that their entire lives are about to change forever. John Michael Graham plays Bob, the hapless boyfriend of Soles who really finds out what happens when one opens a door after hearing heavy breathing at night in the dark. But the entire film wraps around legendary actor/artist Donald Pleasance (who could not get another role playing a villain after this film). He is the Ying to Michael's Yang. His polar opposite, and the only person crazy enough to stand between Michael and the rest of his hometown. Of course he tries to get the sheriff to listen, and of course that doesn't happen until dead bodies start swinging from closets and Curtis is running across the street trying to save her own life from the knife-wielding maniac whose stalking after her.
There still to this day continues to be remakes and very poor rip-offs of this one film. And many have given it low marks for the same reason i love it to this day.....the lack of blood. It is the same reason why I haven't found other films in the genre to be scary because as far as those directors were concerned, the more blood and the more ways to mutilate the human body is supposed to equal horror. For me suspense is what makes movies like this enjoyable and memorable. That is what JC's Halloween is. The way this movie is filmed, even during the daytime, you have no idea where Michael is. Plus I did care for all the characters even though most of them didn't have allot of screen time. If you find yourself looking into dark doorways because you have no clue where Michael is, well, that's the point.
And of course you have your stupid stuff, like why did Curtis keep dropping the knife, or why did she walk across the street instead of calling the police,or how did Graham think Soles was in the kitchen (it would have required her to jump out the window and run around the side of the house and get into the kitchen through the locked door and hide in the closet all before he walked downstairs to the kitchen).
But the atmosphere and the wonderful music by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth will set the tone. This film won't let you go until the ending credits. John Carpenter's masterpiece that just may force you to sleep with the lights on.