"It's Halloween, everyone's entitled to one good scare..."
REVIEW 1:
Halloween. 1963. Haddonfield, Illinois. Michael Audrey Myers, 6 years old, murdered his sister Judith Margaret Myers and was immediately confined to the Smith's Grove-Warren County Sanitarium. A year later, Dr. Sam Loomis tried to get Michael moved to a maximum-security establishment, knowing full well what Myers was capable of. Not heeding his warnings, the court ruled against Loomis and kept Michael at Smith's Grove, declaring that Michael would be tried as an adult on his 21st birthday (Halloween, nonetheless).
On Halloween Eve Night, 1978, Loomis and his assistant, Nurse Marion Chambers, are to transport Michael to his court hearing, but they arrive at Smith's Grove to find all of the patients roaming freely on the grounds. Loomis, instantly knowing what the problem is, gets out of the car to phone the hospital. Meanwhile, Michael commandeers their car. The next day, Loomis reports to the hospital and examines the carnage wrought on Michael's room, finding the word "sister" carved into his door. Loomis now knows where Michael has gone: Haddonfield.
Halloween in Haddonfield had always been quite normal for Laurie, Lynda, and Annie. But, Halloween '78 turns out to be a different story altogether, with the girls being stalked by a mysterious "Shape" (hence direcotr Carpenter's nickname for Myers). One by one, the teens are offed, culminating in only one survivor. The ending leaves you KNOWING a sequel is imminent.
Halloween is one of the first "slasher" horror films, and is the greatest of them all, not to mention that it is one of the finest films in any genre. Nothing touches it, and its un-flattering imitators don't even come close.
The biggest problem I have with this movie doesn't pertain to the movie itself, but with one of the formats it's presented in. Usually, when an R-rated horror movie is shown on cable TV, extra scenes not included in the theatrical and retail versions of the movie are added in order to make up for the editing that has to be done. The TV version of Halloween contains many extra scenes that actually enhance the experience of the movie because they reveal more about the plot, events, and characters. With that said, it brings me to the "Restored Edition" DVD of this movie: out of all the extras on the disc, there are none of these TV extras available. Why not?! It's supposed to be the "Restored Edition", for Yahweh's Sake! But enough about that, because my prayers have been answered: Anchor Bay Entertainment released an "Extended Edition" DVD in August of 2001, which contains the 12 minutes of extra footage from the TV version integrated into the R-rated footage. Too bad I've already spent the $20 for a different and far less worthy version...
The only other problem I have with the movie is the acting. Now granted, the acting isn't terrible throughout the whole picture, but only at times; P.J. Soles (Lynda) is by far the guiltiest of the cast. But, Carpenter could have done a lot worse than pick a few crappy actors for a low-budget indie flick that was filmed in 22 days.
The great thing about this movie is not it's plot--which isn't bad, by any means--but the threatened mood the film maintains throughout, due to the stalking images of The Shape and Carpenter's wonderful soundtrack. Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie) does quite a good job of getting across the "scared out of my fucking mind" message she was being paid to convey. And the death scenes, at the time, were very graphic and very innovative.
There are many things in the flick that set precedents to come in the horror movies ex post facto: Lynda and Bob make whoopee (obscure movie quote: "What? Like fucking?") and then get whacked, the main female gets out alive, the killer doesn't die, many sequels follow, there is a suspenseful soundtrack, and the list goes on. The end of the movie is one of the better horror endings in history, right on par with Night of the Living Dead '68 and Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56, and it sets up its immediate sequel very nicely. Speaking of the sequel, it's one of the better horror movie sequels ever.
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