relentless... over-achieving... horrorART at its' absolute finest.

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2008)

First off... this is FLAT OUT the scariest movie in the last 40 years. The budget constraints really might have helped this movie. Haddonfield looks like your average American town... the girls...look like your average 70's HS girls(bellbottomsincluded). The score stands next to Jaws as one of Hollywood's best. Michael Myers' character is developed early on with a chilling opening sequence reminiscent of Hitchcock's' 'Psycho'. Thats when John Carpenter starts with the brilliant stuff. The nuances of fright-fare that have not been equaled since. Copied? Yes. But, equaled, No. Our killer lurking in the background....behind closed doors..outside the window..appearing between the blowing sheets hanging on clotheslines... ...Carpenter really shows his grasp of the genre with scenes like the one in the garage. SHe goes out...cars locked...she heads back inside to get the key... coming back out to the garage she reaches down and the door opens... she doesn't even notice that she didn't use the key... when she..and the audience realize it...it's already too late. Halloween builds like a Beethoven crescendo... for the first half of the movie we sit in fear of the inevitable....THEN.. WE GET IT! I've been around for 35 years...horror films perhaps my favorite genre... this is THE masterpiece.. For someone alone...at night...watching it for the first time... this one WILL give you nightmares. You know it's successful when I say 'letting a youngster get a hold of this at too early an age can have SERIOUS repercussions'. 10/10...and lost as to how anyone could score it any lower. Statistically, I believe this movie is 2nd in the investment/payoff ratio....always a sign of greatness. 95/100