The most shocking thing about Halloween is that it took me 30 years to see it. It is one of the 3 or 4 most definitive horror movies ever and horror is a genre I enjoy greatly. I had no reason to take this long to see it other than dumb chance. I'm glad I finally did get to it.
The nice thing about classic horror movies is that they hold up well without having to excuse a lot. With many older films I watch, there are things I have to forgive. The performances aren't very natural or the plot is something that's been repeated and improved over the years. Things that work well in horror don't have to age nicely though. The best movies avoid too much gore, so I'm not as distracted by bad blood effects. Since everyone is supposed to be scared or terrified in the films, I can forgive some big or un-nuanced performances. They rarely have big budgets, so a lot of effort goes into working around those budget limitations and not relying on effects. All those things apply to Halloween. It's a straightforward movie. John Carpenter takes a lot out of Hitchcock's playbook and does so effectively. The film is very patient and limits the violence shown, which makes the moments that are violent much more effective.
And that score: iconic.
Halloween is often pointed to as the movie that began the 80's slasher onslaught, which produced a lot of godawful, misogynistic, sadistic, lazy movies. It's not Halloween's fault that most of what followed it, including most of its sequels, were poor imitations that learned all the wrong lessons.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment