Inevitably hasn't quite stood the test of time but still a horror classic

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2007)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
In 1963, as a young boy, Michael Myers is sent to a high security mental hospital for brutally butchering his older sister with a knife. Fifteen years later he's escaped and returned to the sleepy town of Haddonfield to re-live his evil crime. Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance) the psychiatrist who assessed Myers as a boy, races to the rescue while pretty teenager Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) tries not to end up like her friends- dead...
In the late 70s, horror-meister John Carpenter took a shoestring budget and made a seemingly simple slasher film. But rather than end up long forgotten, Halloween went on to become and has remained a firm cult favourite in the field of the horror genre.
Put simply, Michael Myers is the scariest horror movie character ever. And all the more scarier because he's only human. No evil, supernatural powers, just a human monster without the slightest tinge of pity or mercy, who kills for seemingly no reason other than it's just something he wants to do. He doesn't even spare his victims a witty Freddy Krueger style one-liner or Pinhead style explanation, just stares at them coldly with that creepy mask of his and kills them ,no matter how much they struggle and beg.
The creepy score ("...duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh deh- duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh deh...") remains a high-point. Inevitably, though, the constraints at the time the film was made haven't lasted through. It was a low budget horror film made in the late 70s and as such, some things like the lighting, sound and production values sadly do look rather corny now.
On the performances front, Pleasance is a commanding lead, giving the role his all as a man who can't mess around. Curtis had a stroke of luck that she was remembered and went on to have quite a memorable career. The acting from all the supporting cast (i.e the horny teenagers) isn't up to much but then it didn't have to be, just act pretty obnoxious and wait to be slaughtered...
A film that's left an unswavering mark on the horror genre, sadly tarnished by all the awful sequels that became increasingly more sub-standard the more they went on, Halloween is a small film that's left a big legacy. *****