Halloween

John Carpenter's Halloween is the scariest film ever made. It practically made the slasher genre from nothing. Amazing really, because when it was made, John Carpenter was not that experienced of a director, it was Jamie Lee Curtis' first movie, and it didn't have many predecessors to use as reference points on how to approach scares.

Halloween embodies what all horror films should be about. Suspense. It's a slow film, but it doesn't feel like one, because your heart rate is up, and you're drawn into the scenes in a way that isn't achieved in modern horror. And thankfully it doesn't aim to disgust like the pathetic Texas Chainsaw Massacre films which are completely mislabelled as classics, nor does it make any 'subtle' social commentaries as in the transparent Living Dead films. Halloween's sole function is to pull the viewer in and frighten them in a way no film had ever done before, and judging by horrors current direction, never will again.

The film is simplistic, and this works greatly in it's favour. Each scene serves a purpose, and tells us a great deal about the characters in it. The storyline can be summed up in just a few sentences: Michael Myers, who as a child killed his older sister on Halloween night and was put into a mental institution, has grown into what his psychiatrist believes is the personification of evil. 15 years after killing his sister he escapes from the asylum and heads to his hometown of Haddonfield to murder once more, while his psychiatrist pursues him.

In a sense, we follow 2 narratives in this film. We travel with Dr Sam Loomis as he makes the journey from Smiths Grove Sanatorium in pursuit of escaped mental patient Michael Myers, and we watch Laurie Strode and her friends fall into place as Michael's victims. Eventually, these 2 stories converge in excellent fashion, culminating in one of the best endings in film history.

I haven't written enough reviews to be able to do this film justice, and don't know enough technical language to say exactly why what John Carpenter does works so well. Still, here goes..

The music in Halloween is perfect. It's used perfectly and heightens the atmosphere. It matches, and in my opinion, surpasses many scores composed by professionals in the industry. Halloween is one of the main reasons why I watch horror films at such a loud volume, because what we hear should be as important as what we see. In good films generally this is the case. But in many horror films there is just too much screaming and too much shitty rock music.

As perfect as the sound is, Carpenter equals it with the lighting in this film. The darkness of each scene allows us to see just enough to let our imaginations do the rest. What little we know of Michael Myers is matched with what little we actually see of him. We're just treated to a dreading sensation as he creeps into the film.

The film works best at points when we see what the characters in the film don't in the "he's behind you" sense. Michael Myers stalks his victims, and we're privy to his field of view on occasion, or we're briefly shown a shadowed area outside from where Michael Myers is watching once of his intended victims. Did we see him? And did his prey see him? The tension mounts as Michael gets closer and closer to his quarry.

You can't kill the boogeyman!

Dr Sam Loomis' speeches are the most intense speeches in any film that I've seen. Donald Pleasance had a unique voice which imbued his characters insights into Michael Myers psyche with a real terror. Here's an sample:

"I met him, fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes... the *devil's* eyes! I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... *evil*!"

Equally affecting is Loomis' fear, we can see how scared he is, and we share that fear.

A great thing in Halloween is that we aren't given any preconceptions on how powerful Myers is. In Halloween's sequels, and in other horror films we've grown accustomed to the unstoppable supernatural killer. At the beginning of the film we see Michael as a child, we know he is human, and in a way this makes him all the more menacing. There's no stopping an immortal monster from hell, so what's the point in us caring?

This is no lie, Michael Myers is the only character from any movie I've ever had a nightmare with. The character is credible, which is one reason speculation for the reason why he and he alone features in my nightmares. Another reason is that his method of attacking people in their own homes, or places where they are comfortable is fucking scary. What could possibly be more scary than being attacked in the one place you should feel the safest? Anyway, I'm not gonna bother trying to psycho-analyse anymore than that, there's plenty of pretentious cocks out there who could theorise on the subject.

In my Predator review I mentioned that I would never give a horror film top marks. Well, I repeal this statement after re-watching Halloween, and award it a solid 10/10. It's a shame that John Carpenter isn't still doing horror like this. He may have moved on to different things, but as a viewer I'm still right back where viewers were in 1978.