Halloween-A classic, but overrated

Rating: 7/10 (14 September 2000)

Halloween is one of the last in the "classic seventies horror" era before we went into the sequel-thon camp of the 80s and the toned down turmoil of the 90s...Now this movie is fairly entertaining. The story has already been explained tenfold so I won't bore you with the details. But some of the stuff in this movie is simply plain brillant. Firstly, the opening scene is pretty scary stuff with the Killer's POV and all [not Carpenter's invention but it was still a good idea to use for this scene]. Then 15 years later Mr. Michael Myers is all grown up and he's stalking three teen-age girls for some unknown reason. In hot pursuit, is Sam Loomis played by the great Donald Pleasence. Pleasence is hands down the best actor in this film but we also get good performances by Jamie Lee Curtis as virginal babysitter Laurie Strode and Nick Castle as the psychopathic maniac. The rest of the cast is actually quite decent with little to no bad acting. This movie is loaded with sex and nudity but surprising kept it low with the gore. Nowadays, it's the opposite. In my opinion, Blood in some scenes could've added to the atmosphere, such as the kitchen scene.
Besides being a movie with good acting, a fair story, and great visuals/directing, it did have it's flaws. At times I found the dialogue between Laurie & CO. very BORING. Fans will say it was to develop the characters. Well there is a thin line between dialogue meant to develop the characters and dialogue meant to take up space. Halloween goes back and forth. And because of this, the film gets very slow between the 20 min-50 min mark. The first twenty minutes are a great set up and the last forty are pure brilliance, but the inbetween isn't anything special. Plus the movie's influence is heavily overrated. Halloween proved that slasher flicks were marketable, but did not invent them by any means. Not the best horror movie ever and it doesn't crack by top ten, but still a must-see for those with an serious interest in the genre.
What's the Bogeyman?-Laurie Strode As a matter of fact...that was.-Sam Loomis