Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
4/4
Simple But Intense
PandaMonium - wrote on 10/30/2012
HALLOWEEN is a classic and with good reason - it completely changed the face of the genre upon its release and set us up for a parade of copycats that continues to this day. It's a film that understands the subtleties of lighting, the effect of music, and the terror of a methodical, unreasoning killer, and the result is terror that remains potent to this day. Perhaps some of the performances are a little wooden and the outdoor scenes look very much like sunny California covered in fake autumn leaves, but those are just side-effects of the microscopic budget HALLOWEEN was made on. What's truly impressive is that, with just over $300 000, director John Carpenter managed to create a surprisingly simple but ruthlessly effective nightmare that continues to terrify more than thirty years …
Rating of
2.5/4
"Halloween" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/19/2012
Michael Myers became an icon after the release of Halloween, which is still considered THE slasher movie. I think the reason Myers struck such a chord is because he was not some supernatural, super-powered demon from hell; just an institutionalised sociopath with absolutely no concept of right or wrong. When he kills his victims, it is not with gleeful malevolence, hacking them to bits with violent fervor; he's more like a little boy pulling the wings off an insect. But it's Donald Pleasence (who is really the only "proper" actor on display) as Dr. Loomis that makes the film. A criminal psychiatrist who is clearly terrified of his charge is a powerful image. It's very difficult to take slasher movies seriously these days, and it has dated rather badly. The vast number of imitators, …
Rating of
4/4
Halloween (1978) review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 12/19/2011
In 1963 a 6-year old Michael Myers (Will Sandin) murders his 15 year old sister Judith (Sandy Johnson). Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasance) sees after Michael. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) looks after Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) while Annie babysits Lindsay (Kyle Richards) and encounters her friends corpses. Only reservations this reviewer has was the lack of depth in the plot, likable characters and better dialogues. The popular spooky score, creative camerawork and the performance of Jamie Lee Curtis makes this a classic. Its rare to see a horror film with less blood and yet you feel the fear of the presence of the antagonist when he appears onscreen. Halloween spawned numerous sequels, remakes, novelization and influenced countless horror films to be produced. Definitely …
Rating of
3.5/4
He is coming to your little town!
gideon43 - wrote on 05/20/2010
Halloween is still the granddaddy of all slasher movies and has lost little of its impact and influence. Its status as one of the most important movies in Horror Film history is undeniable.
Mirroring Psycho (1960) and employing various techniques first used in the excellent Bob Clarke helmer "Black Christmas" (1974), Halloween is masterfully directed by John Carpenter and totally belies its low budget roots. Many of its plot devices, camera shots and character interaction are now staple ingredients in the majority of all slasher flicks. Genuinely scary and manipulative, Halloween has very little gore relying more on an imposing and angst filled tension to shock the viewer. This is a movie that redefined the rules, spawning a number of inferior sequels and imitations.
Boosted by a …
Rating of
3.5/4
Michael Myers becomes a Legend.
mdtinney - wrote on 09/17/2009
Halloween is definitely one of the best and scariest horror film ever in my opinion. It is extremely creepy and bone chilling. Watching this in pitch black in the middle of the night will guarantee difficulty getting to sleep. If your looking for perfect horror, this is for you. Now, there are some people who may not like it. Gorehounds and other fans looking for "gnarly and insane" horror. Or in other word, recent hard R scary movies, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre (still a good movie), The Hills Have Eyes, Hostel, and other gory flicks. No, if your only looking for movies like those, this won't work for you. But if your looking for genuine horror, keep reading. This movie isn't superbly intense or bloody, but it is very creepy and suspenseful creating the overall scare level to the max. …
Rating of
4/4
the night HE came home
The SHC - wrote on 08/11/2009
What much more can be said about Halloween that already hasn't? Halloween is scary, eerie, creepy, excellent, helped start the slasher sub-genre, one of my favourite horror genre ever, and it accomplished this without showing buckets of gore. John Carpenter truely made film history with HALLOWEEN, which is still scary to this day, 31 years later. To give you an understanding of the rules and foundations of a good slasher..hell, a good horror, here is what you need, and when these were accompllished:
PSYCHO (1960): Alfred Hitchcock started it all here. It was here that Hitchcock introduced two key components to slashers: A memorable killer (Norman Bates) and tone-setting music.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974): In his controversial film, Tobe Hooper adopted a theme from …
Rating of
2/4
Jamie Lee Curtis at her Weakest
Topher - wrote on 08/16/2007
This film is largely responsible for the slasher genre of horror -- a genre which targets a teen audience and lowers the standards of pure horror to cheese.
The underlying subtext of this genre is rape fears/fantasies. The psycho targets nubile young women, usually scantily clad, and chases them with a phallic weapon. Sex is bad: the psycho always goes after the copulating couple. And the heroine is always a virginal do-gooder who must utilize her passiveness to lull the killer into a false complacency.
Women always occupy the victim role; men, the menace. In this way, the films instill sexual fears in the teenage audience and contribute to the victim mentality many women carry over into adulthood.
The good news is this film generated as many smart responses as it did …
Rating of
4/4
When Horror was Horror
Matthew Sanchelli - wrote on 08/08/2007
I may be a bit biased as being a huge horror fanatic, however I have this movie to thank for starting my love for the genre.
This movie is the horror movie of all horror movies. When horror wasn't all, as they say these days...porn and gore. Yes, sure... there was nudity in Carpenter's Halloween; however not as much as you see in the movies today (come on...it was 1978, nudity in movies was "in".)
As for blood. Very little....to pretty much not a single drop of blood was shown in the entire movie.
The scares were all suspense. The dark settings. The quiet neighborhood; that any of us could have grown up in. And here's this masked silent killer skulking around the neighborhood; killing people...unseen by others.
Some may say this movie is very slow and dull. Difficult …