Halloween - Film Review
Halloween is directed by John Carpenter and stars Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis, P. J. Soles, Charles Cyphers, and Nick Castle.
Plot
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers (Nick Castle) escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield to kill again.
Review
I don't know what to say about Halloween that hasn't already been said, it's a classic. It's one of the greatest horror films ever made.
This may be my favorite horror film, I don't know, there are others I love, but this is definitely one of them.
What I love about this movie is that it doesn't focus on the blood and the gore and the sex and just focuses on the suspense and the atmosphere, which Rob Zombie didn't get the memo about, but I'll get to that when I get to that.
This movie's ending opened up the door for sequels, and just a few of them were good. One sequel was so good that they had to make the previous three non-canon, and now all of the sequels are non-canon with the new one.
This was shot for a low budget, and it shows with the mask, which every horror fan knows about, just a William Shatner mask that was modified into the Michael Myers mask, because of the $325,000 budget. And you can tell it wasn't filmed in Illinois because you can see palm trees.
In the scene where Michael escapes, you can see that he has a wrench taped to his hand to break the window, and near the end when Michael kills Annie (Nancy Loomis), they use the same choking sound effect twice.
Let's talk about the ending, Loomis (Donald Pleasence) shoots Michael after he tries attacking Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and he falls off the balcony, and when Loomis goes to check, he's gone. I'm sure that was surprising back in 1978 when it came out, but it's rather cliche now. It is a great ending though.
Let's talk about the characters. Donald Pleasence is great as Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael's doctor. He's probably my favorite character in the movie. I love his speech about the evil of Michael. That speech makes Michael scarier IMO. Also, Sam Loomis in this movie was named after John Gavin's character, Sam Loomis, in Psycho.
Jamie Lee Curtis is great as Laurie, I'm pretty sure this was her first role. She was one of the first final girl tropes, not the first, but one of the first. One of the best IMO, along with Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Ellen Ripley from Alien, and Alice and Ginny from Friday the 13th.
Can't really think of much else to say, as we learn more about her in the other movies in the series, as in here she babysits two kids and isn't like her two friends.
Nick Castle is good as Michael, or The Shape, the boy who killed his sister in 1963 and escapes from the hospital 15 years later. Not much to say as we learn more about him in the sequels.
And everyone else is good too.
Overall, Halloween is a classic, it's one of my favorite horror films, if not my favorite. What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said, just go watch it if you haven't.
Halloween gets a 10/10.
For the next few days until the new movie comes out, I will be reviewing all of the Halloween movies, so come back tomorrow for a review of Halloween II.
Previous review - Venom (Spoiler Talk)
Next review - Halloween II
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