Hopping back on the scary movie train, I re-watched Halloween (the original). I remember thinking it was a pretty good horror flick when I first watched it back in college. Not much has changed.
In the opening scene of the movie, 6-year-old Michael Myers stabs his older sister to death on Halloween night while she's "babysitting" him. (Obviously to babysit in this particular 70's suburbia just meant ignoring the kids and inviting your boyfriend over to have sex.) Michael is then sent away to an institution.
Fifteen years down the road, Michael escapes the crazy house and heads back to his hometown, with his psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis, hot on his trail. On Halloween night, friends Laurie and Annie are supposed to be babysitting across the street from one another. Laurie believes in the traditional form of babysitting, while Annie prefers the above mentioned ways. During the day, Laurie sees a man in white mask following her everywhere. Yeah, it's Michael. When night falls, and the girls are babysitting, terror begins to reign.
So this film is one of the forefathers of horror slasher flicks of the genre, despite the fact that there is very little gore. It has even been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," but so was Eraserhead, so that award doesn't really mean much. This is one of the movies that help set horror movie rules in stone: 1. Never say "I'll be right back." 2. Never drink or do drugs. 3. Never have sex. If you break any of these rules, you will surely die.
What makes Halloween scary? Michael Myers. He creeps and stalks, like a jungle cat, then pounces and kills when ready. He is always in the background, even in broad daylight, stalking his prey. Watching, listening, waiting. A patient killer in movies is the scariest kind. Things like his superhuman strength and his inability to die don't frighten as much. It just means he can come back in crappy sequels, of which he has had his fair share, just like Freddy and Jason.
Of course, all of Michael's stalking wouldn't be nearly as terrifying without Carpenter's eerie music playing throughout the film. This is one of those films that needs the music to help set the mood. And the score does that very well.
The acting is lacking, but I don't think anyone was hoping Oscar would be calling them on the phone. Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence were the only tolerable actors, while I anxiously awaited everyone else's death.
Of course the plot lacks any type of explanation as to why Michael was stalking Laurie and her friends, but we find out the truth in Halloween II, which is a continuation of the first, written and directed by Carpenter and still starring Jamie Lee. I guess it was all too much to fit into one film.
Though I didn't feel freaked out for the rest of the night after watching Halloween, I still think it deserves the honor of being mimicked by so many horrible, low-budget flicks over the next two decades.
4 pieces of fan mail:
I think the idea of a random stalker/killer is scarier than the killer who kills for a reason. It seems like the story loses something when everything is explained.
In the right movie killing at random can be very scary. But I like to hear the killer's twisted reasoning behind choosing their victims too. It's freaky how some people attempt to use logic to justify their killings.
I think the thing about Halloween was the way in which you always knew that Michael was always there, close by in the shadows. I think Carpenter set this up perfectly when he had the girls yell at him when he was driving down the street in that car.
Still, I think the original has one of the most amazing shots I've ever seen in a horror move. I can't remember exactly when it was, but it is when Laurie (Jamie Lee) is next to the closet, and the camera pans ever so slightly changing the lighting and Michael Myers seemingly appears out of thin air. And you think, "Was he standing there all that time and I just missed him."
It may be on the DVD also, but on a special they had on Monster HD, they explained how they achieved that shot.
I agree. I didn't remember a lot about the movie from the first time I watched it back in college, but that one scene stuck in my head. It is AMAZING. And so freaking creepy, it had me turning around to make sure no psycho killer was standing behind me.
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