A Deserving Horror Classic

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 2013)

Horror is an iffy genre in the film world. It's a genre that isn't as highly credited like others like drama, and often times shrugged off from the film world as being "B films." But, every once in a while, there comes a horror film that shakes the very foundation of film and change the way we think of the art much like a great drama does. Horror is hard to pull off, but "Halloween" is one of those films that not only delivers genuine scares, but also does it artfully, and, in the meantime, has created quite possibly one of the most terrifying and notorious movie villains of all time, Micheal Myers.
"Halloween" is about a mental patient named Michael Myers who brutally murders his sister on Halloween night. Since the incident, Micheal turned into a catatonic. Fifteen years later, Michael escapes, and is out to finish the job he started, and kill his younger sister Laurie (though you don't figure this out till the second film).
One of the things that makes "Halloween" such an excellent film is the simplicity. The plot is simple and straightforward, and is a very good, exciting story. Though the concept of a "slasher" was already done with films like "Psycho," "Black Christmas," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," the plot still offered new ideas to the genre and expanded it to new levels, inspiring waves of horror films like "Friday the 13th," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Maniac," or others like "My Bloody Valentine."
One thing I find interesting about "Halloween," though not exactly rooted in fact or how the film was actually made, was that "Halloween" seems very much like a modern version of the "Frankenstein" story. A mental patient (Frankenstein's monster) escapes from a hospital (laboratory), and his doctor, Loomis (Dr. Frankenstein) sets out to find him to stop him. This is most likely no connection to how the filmmakers intended the film to be perceived, but it's an interesting way to look at it nonetheless.
This film is also the beginning of the career of Jamie Lee Curtis, who would become popularly known as the "Scream Queen," "Halloween" giving her more jobs in more horror films.
John Carpenter did a great job in crafting an ideal horror film. He has set a standard that now all horror films wish to achieve. On the same level as horror films like "The Exorcist," "Rosemary's Baby," "The Omen," and other greats, this film changed the way people thought how a horror film should be made.
This horror film is a must see for any film advocate. It is a piece of cinematic history and should be on everybody's "to watch" list not necessarily just for the entertainment, but for the educational experience attached to it, and learn about one of the great milestones in horror film history, and film history in general.