A Classic of the Horror Genre That May Finally be Dating

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2018)

John Carpenter has enjoyed a remarkable return to cult prominence in the last few years, with TV series like STRANGER THINGS and great recent horrors like IT FOLLOWS and DON'T BREATHE, very clearly paying their dues. HALLOWEEN was the breakthrough film that redefined US horror film and set Carpenter on his genre-heavy career as a cult horror helmer.
I have watched the film countless times since my early teens and it has long since ceased to terrify me. However, repeat viewings have only served to enhance the notion that Carpenter is a master of economy and framing. Look at shots like those where Donald Pleasance's Dr. Loomis looks one way, then the other as Michael Myers wheels by in the car he stole from the Dr, or the unsettling shot of Myers resurrected for the second time, as he sits bolt upright in the background of a shot that foregrounds Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie and her distraught anguish.
I finally saw the film on the big screen in its 4k reissue tonight, and, as ever, I loved going through the paces with Carpenter and his team, yet on the big screen, with a largely silent audience, I could understand why the likes of Kael originally panned the film. It is a ropy affair in terms of narrative, with Loomis seeming to quite literally just stand around waiting for the the bulk of the film's running time. There is also the infuriating trope of people turning lights off rather than on when walking in to palpably dangerous situations. Finally, there is a real sense of form forcing narrative at the film's end, with Laurie adopting tighter and tighter spaces of the house, as Myers corners her like a frightened rabbit. This latter point I have always thought of as a strength of the film, hinting at how the monstrous masculinity of Myers seeks to dominate and tyrannise the domestic spaces that he is exiled from (those car mechanic overalls are a neat little bit of production design). Yet watching upon the big screen I wonder if the ending isn't actually Carpenter choosing to showcase those incongruously claustrophobic Panavision shots over any reasonable narrative logic. A constant criticism of the film has been the lack of character development that Hill and Carpenter work in to their slender plotting. At least four of the five people who die on screen in the film, have literally no sense of character. Haddonfield also seems remarkably devoid of much activity on Halloween night, with the police presence being restricted to Charles Cyphers occasional doubting returns to doomy Dr Loomis. All in all there are major issues with this 'classic', yet it still gives you at least one good scare, and it is an undeniably succinct piece of low-budget genre filmmaking. I would suggest that STARMAN, THE THING and ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 are all better films in Carpenter's filmography.