Halloween
(1978)
The Night HE Came Home!
Director
- John Carpenter
Writers - John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Starring - Donald Pleasance, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes,
P.J Soles, Charles Cyphers, Kyle Richards, Brian Andrews,
John Michael Graham, Nancy Stephens, Arthur Malet, Mickey
Yablans, Brent Le Page, Adam Hollander, Robert Phalen, Tony
Moran
Review by Noel Baily
Itself
beholdin' to PSYCHO, this is where it started!
Reviewing
HALLOWEEN is a little like being asked to review GENESIS!
So many factors come into play here. Did you see HALLOWEEN
the year it was released? What age might you have been then?
Have you seen it multiple times since??? as a teenager? as
an adult? Are you an intelligent person?
All these
variables have relevance to your appreciation, understanding,
and interpretive skills of this landmark film. Actually made
on a remarkably low-budget, Carpenter really hit the jackpot
with this one. It WAS eerie....it WAS frightening and almost
ALL of this was achieved with suggestion...rather than graphic
violence. The evil and malignant INTENT of Michael Myers filled
the theater. Loomis' brave, almost unhinged pursuit of his
nemesis was tangible and horror would never be the same again.
Both FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH's Jason Voorhees and NIGHTMARE
ON ELM STREET's Freddy Krueger were the willing and predictable
descendents of Michael Myers.
As
integral as anything else here was John Carpenter's own musical
score which he re-arranged for both sequels, and other self-directed
films of the 80's including ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and THE THING.
The power of HALLOWEEN has not been diminished OR surpassed
in any of the seven sequels. If you are a teenager and have
never seen the original HALLOWEEN it might be an interesting
learning curve for you. You might say that you've seen it
all before.....but that's because it was here first.
Review by Jack Gatanella
Halloween (1978)
One of the best horror and independent films ever made,
John Carpenter has created a masterpiece with Halloween. Not only a terrific horror film, but a terrific independent picture as well (the film only cost $320,000). The pictures revolutionized horror movies and all movies by scaring you to the bone with a character who heard voices in his head and couldn't be stopped. Though the film goes a little slow, thats good because it gets the pace to a good tempo and that is what makes a good horror movie. Along with great performances by Pleasence and Curtis (her first film), this film needs to belong in motion picture history.
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