Pretty good, but a classic??????

Rating: 6/10 (31 October 2007)

Still a pretty entertaining film in spots, with some nice buildup of tension, great music, some good cinematography, but it's overrated due to its unquestionable cinematic milestone status. There's so much silliness: Laurie's dumb, slutty friend, played by P. J. Soles, who was about thirty at this time, and looked it (it's easy to accept P. J. as a tramp--but as a high schooler?!!)--am I the only person thinking how tacky she was during the supposedly thrilling kill scene to have been over at these people's house (where her friend was supposed to be babysitting) having sex with her boyfriend, smoking in their bed and drinking their beer? The whole thing was just an excuse to show off her breasts, this being at heart a cheap 70s horror flick, but it lacks the thrills it should have. The scene where all the bodies pop out at Laurie is so over the top as the be hilarious, not horrifying, and how can Laurie keep killing this guy and then he comes to life again? It's dumb. Of course, this film set the pattern for all the horror film clichÃ©s over the next thirty years (sluts get killed after showing their breasts, good girl survives, killer inexplicably survives stabbing, shooting, explosions, etc.), so I guess people just accept this stuff without question as "tradition." Donald Pleasance is very good as the Van Helsing figure, but he remains too disconnected from the action of the film until the end. He did more to convince me of the evil of Michael than Michael did--he needed some more screen time. Jamie Lee is great--unlike her the actresses playing her two friends, she very much comes off like a high school senior. The monster chase of the fair damsel Jamie Lee at the end is good, but not exceptional.
In short, good buildup, poor finish. I know it's sacrilege, but in its own way, Halloween is as silly as those 40s monster films. A film like The Descent actually is better made and scarier, imo, as is Psycho, among older films. Still, Halloween is better than most of what it spawned over the next thirty years. It just doesn't compare with the nostalgia.