Halloween (1978)

JOHN CARPENTER

HALLOWEEN

USA, 1978

10/10

"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."

While it is in no way the best made film ever made (although you can expect that with a budget of only $325,000), HALLOWEEN (1978) manages to frighten me on a level that no other film has been able to do. Sure, Jason Voorhees is cool with his hockey mask and machetes, and Ghostface was the first slasher villain I really, truly loved, but everyone pales in comparison to the blank stare, the heavy breathing, and the emotionless and terrifying mask of Michael Myers.

John Carpenter, my all-time favorite horror director, directed this film and, as he does with many of his films, had the ability to make the film look much more expensive than it actually is. As I mentioned before, the cinematography is no Oscar-winner, but considering the almost non-existent budget this was filmed with, it's extremely, extremely impressive. 

HALLOWEEN is quite different from other slasher films in the fact that it has both a very long build-up and very little gore. Despite these uncommon factors that, to someone unfamiliar with the film, you might expect would make the film boring, HALLOWEEN is still incredibly, incredibly frightening. Just seeing Michael Myers driving his car behind Laurie sends shivers down my spine.

This film also uses many killer POV shots. The entire opening scene, except for a final shot of child-Michael, is shot from Michael's perspective. The only film that I think did this better is BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974), even though HALLOWEEN is still a far superior film and was much more influential then BLACK CHRISTMAS ever was (even though B.C. is still a personal favorite of mine). This film also features many shots of Michael, his back to the camera, observing the characters he is going to murder later in the movie. This technique was used in many, many FRIDAY THE 13TH movies and many of the HALLOWEEN sequels, though it is never nearly as effective as it is here. 

HALLOWEEN is not the best horror film of all time (I believe THE SHINING (1980) to be the best), but it is definitely, in my opinion, the scariest film ever made. This film is highly recommended to any fans of horror and slashers, and is the beginning to a great franchise (none of the films all that good, though; HALLOWEEN is the best of the bunch), and (along with the FRIDAY THE 13TH movies), kick-started the 1980s slasher craze. This is one of the most influential horror films of all time, and is incredibly, incredibly frightening, entertaining, and interesting. It is a must-see for anyone even remotely interested in horror.