BLOOD WORK: HALLOWEEN HORROR DAYS ~ DAY 31: HALLOWEEN (1978)

We made it! We survived! Here we are at long last, the finish line! Happy Halloween, everyone! I should've held off on this one for another couple of years, but I decided 2015 would be the year I gave a write up of my all-time favorite horror film: John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. At one time it was the most successful independent motion picture of all time (until Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat it out in 1990). More financially successful than the original FRIDAY THE 13TH, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and arguably more influential. JOHN CARPENTER solidified his career when he made Halloween.

The Slasher film owes a great deal to Halloween. Halloween wasn't the first horror film to have a masked killer stalk unsuspecting victims. THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (1976), TORSO (1973), the 1970's Giallo films of Italy, and PSYCHO (1960). All of these films had the basic elements of what is now referred to as Slasher films. In fact Carpenter has cited the giallo films of DARIO ARGENTO as influences on Halloween. But none of them have quite the perfect blueprint for the Slasher genre that Halloween has. Nor do any of them have a villain as effective as MICHAEL MYERS (this is arguable I'll grant you). Add in Carpenter's brilliant directing and DEAN CUNDEY's amazing cinematography, the most frightening and memorable horror film score you've ever heard, and the incredible acting skill of DONALD PLEASENCE and what you get is one of the greatest horror films ever made.

THE PLOT

In 1963 six year old Michael Myers stabbed his sister to death. Shortly thereafter he slipped into a catatonic state and was admitted into a psychiatric hospital. In all the time he spent at the hospital he never talked, never moved, and remained mentally vacant or so it would seem. 15 years later on October 30th 1978 Michael Myers escaped the Smith's Grove county sanitarium. The next day, October 31st, he stalked and killed 4 people before being shot 6 times by his former doctor, Sam Loomis. When Dr. Loomis approached the body of his former patient the body was gone. The nightmare had only just started.

THE GOOD

Where does one begin? How about the villainous boogie man Michael Myers? He doesn't speak. He only walks. And he is inhumanly patient. This is the kind of demeanor the character exhibits from beginning to end. Separately these mannerisms aren't much but combined they give a subtle inhuman quality to him. Add the haunting white featureless mask (originally a Captain Kirk mask!), he comes across monstrous and sinister, the embodiment of everything we fear. His statuesque demeanor is unnerving. The fact that he wears a mask and doesn't speak takes away what human qualities he may have had. He can't be reasoned with or bargained with or dissuaded. He's like the shark in JAWS or a force of nature.

In the original film it is never revealed why he is killing nor why he chooses the victims he does. It is seemingly random. And that's what is most terrifying, not knowing why. Of course the character is further developed in the sequels and we learn his motivations for the first film, but at first he is a complete mystery. This has since become the usual villainous archetype for these kinds of films but Michael Myers was the first. Even Jason Voorhees eventually appropriate many of Michael's mannerisms. One of the strengths of Halloween that many of its countless imitators lacked was a truly terrifying villain (one of my criticisms of the original Friday the 13th).

The Cinematography. It's usually a safe bet that you never receive any technical merits worthy of note in most horror movies. Here on the other hand the cinematography is nigh Hitchcockian in precision. The opening scene we experience in first person POV, tracking around the outside of a house, inside and up the stairs where we watch as the person's POV we're peaking through kill someone in cold blood, then back down the steps and out the front door, all seemingly in one continuous shot. The camera shifts and suddenly we see whose POV we were watching, that of a six year old boy. And that's only the beginning.

Carpenter fully utilizes widescreen camera format. Throughout the film we are privy to shots where the camera slowly pans back until we see a shoulder or only the tiniest part of the killer. The killer's presence is felt throughout the film in little reveals like these, driving home the uncomfortable voyeuristic feeling. Again the audience is essentially placed in the killer's POV stalking his victims right alongside him. Before Widescreen televisions these scenes were cropped on the edges cropping Michael Myers completely out of the shot. Watching this movie was when I truly realized the differences between widescreen and full screen formats.

The Score. This film was made early in Carpenter's career back when he was serving double and sometimes quadruple duty on a film writing, directing, editing, and even scoring his movies. He does so here on Halloween and delivers some of the most iconic and recognizable music of any genre, certainly among horror films. The music has become as much a part of the Halloween franchise as Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis. It's a character as essential to the success of these films as Michael is. Carpenter has never topped this score in my opinion and with maybe the exception of Jaws or Insidious there are very few horror film scores as effective.

THE BAD

I got nothing. I suppose you could say that the film is a little dated by today's standards but if not for Halloween we wouldn't have half the horror films we have today. It is a little light on graphic violence and gore but I wouldn't exactly call that a weakness of the film but rather a choice on the part of the director. In the extended cut we find out that Michael Myer's middle name is Audrey. That's not a very good middle name for a boy. Some of Dr. Loomis's monologues are little too melodramatic but actor Donald Pleasence sells it so well that it works beautifully. All in all I got nothing bad to say about this movie. I am totally biased so take this as it is.

THE VERDICT

The Halloween films were my first modern horror loves. Of all the horror franchises out there that I enjoy I prefer the Halloween franchise above all else. Just as the 1932 FRANKENSTEIN marked a turning point in horror cinema so too did PSYCHO in 1960 and Halloween did it again in 1978. This movie is my all time favorite horror film. If you've followed me this far then what else need be said except... HAPPY HALLOWEEN! If you haven't yet please join me in a scary movie tonight after the trick r' treating has grinded to a halt. Until next October, I hope you all enjoyed this season of horror films as much as I did. And remember, "It's Halloween. I guess everyone is entitled to one good scare, huh?"