Sharp, blood-curdling scarefest

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2001)

Sharp, blood-curdling scarefest with a magnificant debut from Jamie Lee Curtis, who's career launched into even more slasher and horror flicks before propelling to become a famous (and arrogant...j/k!) celebrity. This is the pivotial film for the (later celebrated) Miss Jamie Lee Curtis. Halloween is a grand thriller that evokes fear aplenty. The suspense is top notch, the characters are actually sympathetic (albeit poor decision makers) for once, and unlike most latter day stalk and slash films, Halloween does a great job building atmosphere and mood which climbs from an lowly, unexpected beginning to a hair-raising, adrenaline rushing climax. Halloween is the film that started to all: This horror flick that paved the wave for hundreds, perhaps thousands of weak@$$ slasher films that foolishly tried to capitalize on the success of this precedented (much imitated) thriller. However, instead, these lame slasher movies inveigh into a whirlpool of obscurity... ~p~ You probably already know the notorious story but here goes... On Halloween Night in 1963, Michael Myers, (not the Saturday Night Live's Michael Myers) than 6 years old brutally murders his older sister with a kitchen knife. The pain is agonizing as Myers stabs his sister multiple times with a knife, until you collapses, lying in her own pool of blood... Myers is then taken to a mental hospital where he has been confined there for 15 years...but not for long... ~p~ On Halloween Night, 1978, Myers manages to break free from his incarceration and once again...he begins his unfinished killing spree eactly where he left off...at Haddonfield, Ohio... His particularly targeting a young, naive babysitter... ~p~ Dr. Loomis (the late British actor Donald Pleasance), Myers' psychiatrist is currently stalking Myers himself while the serial killer hunts down more victims, young and old...for his collection... Meanwhile, young, nubile Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), is the main heroine for this horror pic. She senses intimations of trouble when a stranger wearing a white mask begins to follow her every move... By Halloween Night, Strode gradually forgets about this taciturn man, but she tragically learns that it's a neccessity to remain precarious... ~p~ P.J. Soles (Rock and Roll High School Forever) is Strode's best friend in this movie. She's trustworthy...but rather dim-witted and has a couple of brief nudity scenes. Nancy Loomis (Assault on Precinct 13) is also an acquaintance of Strode. The three girls have decided to go for a night out, but Strode instead wanted to babysit a couple of downright naughty and out-of-control kids. The other two girls go out and have fun, you know, they act horny, have sex with their boyfriends...and get attacked by a homicidal maniac...whoops...gave away the plot twist...oh well... ~p~ Halloween is one of the most well-crafted horror films ever made. It is highly influential in its genre, and surprisingly, director John Carpenter does a great job fabricating a wonderfully fiendish masterpiece without having to resort to a high body count or gratuitous violence and gore. Halloween supposedly became one of the biggest independent films ever made, grossing receipts of over $55 million dollars at the box-office. Halloween is a persuasive horror film because it actually has a logical plot, semi-coherence, important dialogue, fine acting, and decent character angles. Also, director John Carpenter also takes care of the fact that the audience in this film is constantly feeling tense. Like the main character(s) in this film, Halloween, the viewer watching this movie feels consistently in danger to. This person wants to warn the character in this film to watch out...and whether he/she does follow the advice is to be determined... ~p~ Halloween, like a first-rate thriller, allows the viewer to vicariously feel the nerve-wrecking tension of many of the characters involved in this project. Halloween may not have a lot of action, but the continuous feel of jeopardy in this motion picture prevents Halloween from becoming a bore. Halloween is (shockingly) innocuous, tasteful, enjoyable, moderately horrifying, and providing plenty of goosebumps that will accompany u for restless, sleepless nights. Halloween is a film that most people will enjoy. You don't have to have a titanium stomach (unlike most gore drenched movies) to actually have the pleasure of delightfully being scared out of your wits for this horror film. Even 20 years later after Halloween was made, it is still a powerful and highly popular and rented horror video. Halloween scares the daylights out of the audience with **** out of ****.