Theatre of the mind makes it one of a kind

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 2008)

Halloween is a psychogical horror film. There is nowhere near an excess of gore. Rather, it plays like a novel. Allowing the viewer to scare itself on many an ocassion. The beauty of Haloween is it's suspense. Hitchcock said that the difference between terror and suspense is that with terror, the plane suddenly comes from the sky, but with suspense, we know that the plane will fall, but we don't know when it will fall. Halloween is the Grandfather of all modern day horror films. It set the mold. Sure, Psyscho is the Great Grand Dad, but we're talking about Halloween. There are 3 major contributions that Carpenter gave to the genre with this flick: 1) POV, 2) Music, 3) Long Lens view of action. Let me elaborate. The opening scene with the child killer is, in my opinion, the best horror shot of all time. What it does is put you in the eyes of the killer and shocks you with the killer being a kid...all in about 5 minutes. Secondly, the music is a classic. It set the tone throughout the movie, where mundane scenes become scary. You do not have any clue, when something is going to happen, because the music keeps you off kilter. Lastly, the long lens views of Michael Myers make you feel like, "Did I just see that?".