Genuine Classic

Rating: 9/10 (26 July 2008)

Not a film that invented a genre as some claim - numerous Italian films and Black Christmas got there first. What Halloween did do though was perfect a template still used today. The legacy is pretty mixed as all too often gore has substituted for tension. On a purely formal level this may be the best made US film of the 70's - predominately long steadycam takes with quicker cuts being used to raise tension - this is a style of film-making that seems largely lost as directors and editors seem to try to break records for the number of cuts in a film. The music is outstanding and adds rather than distracts. Acting is variable as it is in all low budget films but Jamie Lee Curtis is very good. Between 1976 and 1982 Carpenter was amongst the finest filmmakers in America, Halloween is not even his finest film - that honour belongs to The Thing - it is the one he will be remembered for though.