Halloween - Television Version (Limited Edition)

Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie's freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin's character in Psycho. In the end, though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience--it's one of those movies that had audiences literally jumping out of their seats and shouting at the screen. ("No! Don't drop that knife!") Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original. Curtis returned for two more installments: 1981's dismal Halloween II, which picked up the story the day after the unfortunate events, and 1998's occasionally gripping Halloween H20, which proved the former baby sitter was still haunted after 20 years. --Robert Horton
Customer Review: Classic Parts Are Much Better Than The Whole
In my eyes there are two categories of people when speaking of favorite holiday slasher films: those that like 1974's Black Christmas to those who rather prefer 1978's Halloween. Count me a part of the former's category, as Black Christmas is a forgotten perfected-diamond that not only chills the marrow, but is also intentionally hilarious in spots. Halloween, however, is a pretty good movie, damn near great in spots, in fact. Although it features scenes not only worthy of Psycho, and of which have found their rightful place inside classical cinema, yet the parts are indeed better than the whole. Halloween's approximate first 11 minutes and final 36 minutes (yup, I checked the runtime) are truly the reason the film is held in high proverb-- it's too bad that that only makes up a little over ½ of the film's total length. Halloween may in fact have a greater affinity for art-house horror fans like myself, than blood-and-guts fans, so I almost hate to say it, as Halloween I also remember fondly from my younger years, and it is one of those films that got me obsessed with horror, but nostalgia should never get in the way of being an honest and fair critic (or wannabe critic.) Halloween is a good movie, but damn that middle section sure is mightily flawed, and even seems cheesy in parts. Yet, the term arty can also be applied to the good parts of the film, as well. Yet, I hate to use that term "art-house horror movie", as that implies that horror is on the contrary, but I believe when viewing Halloween that it does in fact fit. This is due to the way John Carpenter directs the movie: stylish and relying on Hitchcockian-like suspense and a real sense of horror, rather than bodycount. I also must first point out that the dialogue throughout the film is actually one of the best components of the script. Often the everyday conversations about normal day things that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her school friends have does in fact seem natural, rather than boring. Though we don't necessarily "know" the characters all that well from a literary perspective, we do like them, as they seem like any real life type of girls that both you or I might know in high school. Yet, the overbearing dialogue exchanges between Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) and the Sheriff (Charles Cyphers) seems necessary, it's also too bad it's not known until about that 55 minute mark. As the masterful opening scene, and its follow up "escape from the hospital scene" is long forgotten after about another 45 minutes of misstepping true scares. As although the mask-wearing Myers may be indeed a scary villain, not due so much to the ice-cold way he dispatches the characters, but much more due to the fact that he truly feels like evil incarnate. Yet, it also must be said that the way that Dr. Loomis perceives Myers in dialogue at first seems like it's overblown, lame, and not natural. What doctor really talks of a patient in high-strung, diabolical terms: "Death has come to your little town, sheriff." To the films credit, however, although it at first slips into this "only in Hollywood" jargon, yet that is later completely evaded and it even becomes justified when we do later in fact agree with him in that final act when this "bogeyman" character is finally put and secured into a menacing night backdrop. Because, as good as John Carpenter is as generating suspense and menace in the terror scenes, in the initial daylight stalking scenes sadly lack that blood luster. As framing a character that your film makes out to the "The Bogeyman" not just in daylight, but also (hilariously) standing outside a school window just next to laundry, honestly brings a roll of the eyes, and a bad smile to my lips. Then having this evil character possibly hide behind bushes and a bed sheet makes me cover my eyes with my hands, shaking my head. Call me cynical, but it truly feels like two different kinds of films throughout the acts: a masterful frightshow, then a cheesy B-movie, and then back to a white-knuckle terror ride. In conclusion, despite that I still like Halloween and even if its opening scenes and final act are amongst my favorites, I must admit that in parts I can't really take the bogeyman threat that serious. Sorry. Score: 8.0 / 10.0 (In 0.5 increments)
Customer Review: My Favorite Movie Of All Time!
I was only 2 when it was released in theaters but growing up in the 80's it became and instant classic to me. Thank You John Carpenter for making Awesome Movies! And Thank You Mom for letting me watch all those horror movies growing up.

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