A game changer for horror movies

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2017)

When it comes to the horror genre, Halloween was always a movie that seemed to pass me by, but I decided to give it a watch for the month of October and I absolutely loved it! From it's haunting score and brilliant lighting to it's genuinely frightening killer, Halloween is a true masterpiece of horror and without it, the slasher genre wound never have existed.
The movie opens in 1963 where a 6 year old boy named Michael Meyers murders his sister in cold blood. We then cut to 21 years later where Michael's doctor, Sam Loomis appears at the sanatarium where Meyers is been held to take him to court, but before he can do that, Michael nicks the car and speeds off towards Haddonfield while Loomis chases after him. Soon after arriving home, Meyers starts following high school student Laurie Strode and she starts to notch him following her, but her friends laugh at her worries while Loomis meets with the town sheriff and warns him about the danger the town is in. Now, Loomis must stop Meyers from killing again while at the same time Laurie is completely unaware of the danger that is approaching her.
Much like what Sam Raimi did with the first Evil Dead movie, John Carpenter was able to take a tiny budget of 320,000 dollars and frightened the living hell out of an entire generation of film-watchers and was able to demonstrate that a great horror film doesn't need a high budget or a lot of blood and gore in order to arouse a sense of dread in it's audience and sometimes the finest aspect of horror isn't what happens but what is going to happen like what is that shadow that passed by the window or what is that commotion coming from upstairs? Carpenter understands how to use these elements to scare the viewer and he uses every factor of classic horror that a director can use and he may have included some of his own ideas into the final product, something I wish more horror directors would use these days rather than just using the same clichéd horror tropes to provoke a frightening reaction from the audience and it just isn't scary. The viewer isn't going to be scared by jump-scares and a huge CGI monster that bounces out of a wall time after time, rather it's the occasions where the murderer is hiding somewhere, but the viewer just never knows where he'll pop up next that scares people and Halloween certainly accomplishes that in a way that few horror movies can even attempt to do while also being set in a suburban neighborhood rather in out in the woods makes for a much more accessible setting for a slasher movie implying that something like this could happen anywhere. What Carpenter also does with Halloween is he takes an incredibly eerie film score, misleading lighting tactics and yet was still able to create a truly masterful piece of horror film history.
One scene is a perfect representation of this and it's where one of the girls is on her way to get her boyfriend and she tries to unlock the car door only to recognize that she forgot her car keys in the house, she fetches them and returns to the car and unwittingly opens it on her own and while the viewer is able to understand what's happening but the character doesn't have a clue about what is happening so when she does sit down, she sees that the car windows are muddled up. She's confused by this and attempts to brush it off, then Meyers attacks like a pit viper from the back seat. This scene is absolutely fantastic simply because of how it pays close attention to detail as the audience knows what's going to take place but the victim is completely clueless which makes it all the more scary when Michael attacks, but it's also the insightful conclusions John Carpenter made with this movie that have scared film-goers since 1978.
To heighten the sense of dread and terror, Halloween makes use of fuzzy imagery of the murderer loitering in the background, the shadows darkly drift over a wall, rooms illuminated only in darkness, a disturbing story of a boy who killed his own sister and a dangerous and ruthless murderer. Any future horror filmmaker should make a point to watch and analyze Halloween as this movie is the archetype for horror films are all about, hell even Carpenter sought to emulate Alfred Hitchcock with this movie so there's no reason why future horror film directors won't look to Halloween for inspiration. John's camera work is nothing short of perfect but also remains incredibly creepy while continuing to remain erratic throughout the course of the movie and of course, the musical score to Halloween is perfect in every possible way with the central theme being identifiable right when the movie starts and is a memorably cinematic film score that crushes any other opposing horror movie score with it's foot.
Of course, a movie like Halloween would be nothing without great characters and the actors who bring them to life and it's got both. Nancy Keys and PJ Soles do a fine job as the everyday teenyboppers who quickly meet their doom at the hands of Meyers, Kyle Richards and Brian Andrews are believable as the two kids, but It's Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis who are the stars. Jamie comes across as a hardy yet likable lead and as the movie progresses, you are behind her and don't want to see her get killed. Curtis was born to play this role and she pulls it off with zero difficulty while Donald Pleasance is outstanding as Dr. Loomis, bringing a cool and reserved but occasionally eerie feeling to this character.
Honestly, what else is there to say about Halloween that hasn't been said already. Go see it for yourself.