An Undeniable Classic

Rating: 9/10 (26 November 2006)

Fifteen years after killing his older sister, Michael Myers escapes from the asylum to wreak havoc on the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. At the same time, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) uses her time to babysit two youngsters and Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) begins to hunt the madman. When the three collide, the you-know-what hits the fan.
What do you say about a film that has been analyzed for over 25 years, praised by almost everyone and copied by some of the biggest people in the horror industry (although it is hard to be bigger than John Carpenter, really). Everything has been said, but I will try to say it again in my own words.
This movie does everything right for the budget it was given and the time period it was filmed in. Mixing innovative new ideas with several homages to Alfred Hitchcock (not least of which is casting Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of "Psycho"'s Janet Leigh). We have scenes that are much too dark to see what is going on, but set a very good mood. We have first-person perspective from the killer or from over the shoulder of the killer (an often imitated technique). But best of all, I liked how the film constantly built suspense without ever letting the viewer relax (you never knew when the killer would strike).
A criticism could be that there is absolutely no gore in this film at all... maybe only a spoonful of blood. But somehow Carpenter does what others have failed to do and made the deaths such an inconsequential part of the killer genre. Unlike Freddy or Jason, who hack their victims in half, Michael can kill off-screen and still be menacing.
I was a bit curious how scary a killer could be when he stalks his prey in a station wagon, because nothing says terror less than the soccer mom vehicle of choice. But it worked. Carpenter employed many distant angles, as if we were watching the prey from a distance, tracking them, closing in for a kill.
I could complain that the women of this film were not attractive at all (especially the hermaphrodite Jamie Lee Curtis), but somehow it did not seem to matter. PJ Soles, who played Lynda, totally kept my interest as a victim. And I mean totally. The other girl, Annie, I could have done without. Writer and producer Debra Hill was allegedly "unusually thin-skinned and defensive about the film's sexual side."
As much as I would like to give the best actor award to Nick Castle (who played Michael Myers and later became the director of the crappy "Major Payne" movie), no one would deny it to Donald Pleasance. Already a veteran actor, Pleasance is now pretty much known best as his role as Dr. Sam Loomis.
After seeing the film a handful of times, I still notice new things. I think that is a testament to some of the subtleties of the film. That, or the theater version has scenes that were not on the home video, because I watched it on the big screen and heard lines I never recall hearing before...
If you enjoy modern horror films, give this one a shot and see why it remains "the most profitable independent film ever made." Before Freddy and Jason, there was Michael Myers... and not the crappy Michael Myers from "Halloween: H20" or "Halloween: Resurrection", but a real ruthless killer from the 1970s. (Also, "Halloween 2" is alright, just do not bother wasting your time on the third part unless you want your brain scrambled.)