A forty year-old gem

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2018)

I watched this movie in preparation too see the new one and while I knew who Micheal Myers was, I didn't know all that much about him. Looking back on it now I really regret not seeing this along time ago as the film, even with the cliches of modern horror, holds up really well even today. The opening scene was shocking back in '78 and is shocking now as it starts us of from a POV shot from Micheal and while you'd figure "of course they do a shot from the killer's point of view" but that is not what is shocking it is the fact that Micheal just killed his sister and he was six. After that Micheal spends 15 years in a mental institute and just stares a a wall and doesn't say anything, but as Dr. Loomis says "he wasn't looking at the wall. He was looking at tonight, planning it. waiting for it." The film plays a nice duality with the idea of Micheal being a 'normal' person or a more supernatural being. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the the soundtrack, in the opening credits we are shown a shot of a pumpkin and eerie music starts to play in the background as the names of actors pop up we slowly get closer and closer to the pumpkin, the beauty of this opening sequence is that it sets the tone for the rest of the film with the theme song playing and the pumpkin getting ever closer. Overall I would definitely recommend this film to any fan of the horror genre, of course it isn't perfect with a dated setting, some campy dialogue, etc. but I would look past that and just enjoy the movie.