A classic

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2007)

"Halloween" is, of course, a very famous horror film, and is well-liked today even though 1) modern audiences are being fed more extreme fare and 2) it contains some of those absurd types of reasoning that have become well-recognized and endlessly parodied. Part of the reason why is the sense that it's a classic... it's been around a while, has had many sequels to keep its name around, and was indeed shocking at the time. Another reason is that it was one of the films to usher in those now-recognized clichés, having come after Texas Chainsaw Massacre but before Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Hellraiser series. It also still has a subsisting sense of creepiness merely for the fact that the Michael Myers never talks, and he never reveals himself... lending the movie a surreal sense that is constantly pounded upon by Donald Pleasance's Dr. Loomis: "Behind those eyes is nothing but pure evil."
"Halloween" also came after "Jaws", which helped because it was one of the beginning of an era where studios were hoping to make blockbusters out of the teen demographic. John Carpenter's approach to voyeurism in this film, though Hitchcock-inspired, was serendipitous for keeping it to the demographic, and "Halloween" stands as a classic narrative about the deaths of the sexualized and the survival of the virginal. Michael's initial slaughter of his sister is completely unexplained (except by those comfortable with the "Eh, he was insane, what can you say?" explanation) except by the extremely sexual nature of the opening take. While such a theme and approach had been used before, we can thank Carpenter for ultimately suturing it onto popular conscious.
Finally, the "Halloween" theme song is something of a famous work in and of itself. Carpenter wrote the score himself, as he did many of the synthetic sound effects, but while the latter seem dated, the former still has a resounding feeling of suspense. So effective is it that it marked every Halloween sequel as part of the franchise right from the commercials onward, and it's being upheld by Rob Zombie in his remake despite the fact that Zombie is a musician himself.
Also, an interesting fun fact: in this movie, Carpenter homages "The Thing", which he later remade. From this movie Rob Zombie used clips of the children nagging Tommy about the Boogeyman for the White Zombie song "Boogeyman", and later Rob Zombie remade "Halloween".
--PolarisDiB