HALLOWEEN (1978)
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis (Lauris Strode), Donald Pleasance (Dr. Sam Loomis)
Directed by: John Carpenter, Written by: John Carpenter and Debra Hill
Rated R by the MPAA for blood, violence, nudity, sexual situations, strong language, drug usage, oh hell you name it.
Reviewed by Doug Skiles
Why, you ask, is this labeled as a review and not a retrospective? And why, you ask, are you reviewing this in Febuary?
Alright, here's the deal. Back in October of 1997, a nice little theater here in the St. Louis area, the "Mid Rivers 6" (one of those little mall theaters) decided to show the original HALLOWEEN film on one of its big screens - you know, like they say all the time, "the way it was meant to be seen." Anyway, since I didn't see HALLOWEEN for the first time until October of '97 (yes, sad isn't it?), and it was playing in a theater, it's a review. As for why I'm writing it now... well I just got around to it, that's all. Sorry I couldn't have a better story for all this.
Anyway, this, the first of what is about to become seven HALLOWEEN films, is quite the damn good show. You have to keep in mind, this movie was made for less than 1 million dollars, is scored via John Carpenter's keyboard, and is the film that spawned oh, say... ALL the slasher flicks of the 80s.
So in other words, the plot here has become the stuff of legend and the stuff of so many imitators that it's predictable on a level that most people don't even know existed. And so what? It's still effectively spooky, and a good time.
Okay. Here's the story. This guy, Michael Myers, killed his sister in Haddonfield, Illinois, when he was six. And then he got shipped off to the mental hospital and all that kinda stuff. With me? Good. So this Doc, Dr. Loomis, is studying the freak, and realizes that he's is "PURE EVIL" (a Dr. Loomis catch-phrase). And that means he's one of the most wigged people when Mikey escapes over a decade after his original crime and heads home... on Halloween. Hence the title. And hence the line from the ads: "The Night HE Came Home." Get it? Good. Oh yeah, and this girl, Laurie Strode, happens to be babysitting this night, and so are her friends, and they're all doing this in the same area, and, well, you can figure out the rest.
It's suspenseful, that's what this comes down to. The music, cheesy though it may seem at first, works. The acting, particularly from our two leads, works. It's a classic, and it deserves to be, it's damn fun. Sure it's predictable. But so? A lot of movies are - you knew that John McClane was going to kick terrorist ass in every DIE HARD movie right? It's all of matter of how you get to that point.
So yeah, it lives up to the test of time. It has the FEEL of a classic, and that goes a long way towards the fun - even at the hokey times, you know it only seems hokey because of the time period it was made in.
Anyway, that's enough from me. All I really have to say is, you've heard it's a classic film, and I'm agreeing that it deserves the mantle. Not many horror/suspense DO, after all. All that without the KWC. And you know, nothing's scarier than a William Shatner mask, either.
RATING: ***1/2
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