Halloween (1978)
The night HE came home, He being mute psychopath Michael Myers who we see in the opening scene butchering his sister after some surprisingly quick teen sex, I mean seriously, they are up the stairs undressed done and the bloke is leaving in the time it takes for the murder moppet to grab a blade and head upstairs. Two bumps and a shiver seems to be a marathon for the Haddonfield boys, this is pretty much confirmed with a later sex scene with the lovely P.J Soles, I have to admit I'd be pretty 'eager' with her myself but I do wonder what would happen if any of these girls met a man with any sort of staying power... But I digress.
Michael has been locked away in smiths grove sanatorium for 10 years staring at a wall. His psychiatrist Dr Sam Loomis, played by veteran character actor Donald Pleasence (who is needless to say bloody marvellous in the role) has pretty much dismissed any idea of rehabilitation and instead has opted for the 'keep the bastard locked up and sedated' approach to mental health care after getting scared shitless by what he found after the few therapy sessions he attempted. Sadly it seems that smiths grove has the Arkham Asylum revolving door policy on security and Loomis finds himself headed to the hospital with Nurse Marion chambers only to find a mass break out and lots of the residents wandering the grounds like a scene from Night of the Living dead. Michael promptly nicks Nurse Chambers car and speeds off into the night. Loomis, who seems to have decent insight into Michael correctly deduces that Mikey is headed home. Back in haddonfield a group of babysitters, including wallflower Laurie Strode, are planning Halloween night blissfully unaware that evil has come to their little town and is planning a carve up.
It's a sign of a films quality that it holds up today, a lot of younger, seasoned slasher fans might find Halloween somewhat predictable and tame forgetting it pre dates the slasher craze and in fact was the film that kicked it all off. Certainly there are earlier films one can point to, most notably Black Christmas, however the sheer cultural impact of the film, combined with a huge profit, ensured that low budget film makers looking for a quick buck had a formula to follow and exploit. Later films (including the Halloween franchise itself) would get bloodier and bloodier in an attempt to one up each other, but the original does not need nor warrant this level of mayhem.
Halloween is a film about the hidden evil and terror that can Lurk in the seemingly peaceful middle class suburbs of small town America. Myers own identity is actually sort of irrelevant as he's supposed to represent the urban myth, the bad thing that happened at that one house down the road that fuels the suburban ghost stories the same way Jason Voorhies represents the invisible evil in the woods. Essentially he's the Boogeyman, the thing in the closet, the creature under the bed the thing that keeps kids up at night and the cause of many bed wetting's. The film pretty much confirms this by the end when Myers apparently disappears at the end, its not so much there as an invitation to sequel but to show that its an idea that cannot ever be truly killed off and can be lurking anywhere. Michael himself is refereed to as 'the shape' not so much a man as a thing that you glimpse from the corner of your eye, a thing lurking in the darkness. His mask (apparently a William shatner mask!) is blank and lacks any detail adding to the idea that Michael himself is merely an avatar for our own fears and neurosis A pretentious film student might even go so far as to suggest Dr Loomis obsessed search for Michael represents the frustrated and unending battle of the forces of psychiatry on the primal fears of mankind. As much as he can win a battle against Michael he cannot win the war.
Carpenter's score is simple and effective, no overly dramatic flourishes, just plain, catchy and to the point and really delivers the goods. Apparently screenings without Carpenters score didn't go so well and it was only really after the score was added that the films ability to inspire terror was apparent. The adoption of Stedicam, combined with the excellent photography from Dean Cundy also helps to sell the film giving it a fluid almost dream-like feel, as if we are trapped in some kind of suburban nightmare with enough dark spaces in frames that the shape could be hiding anywhere and in one memorable scene does indeed emerge as if from the shadows themselves.
Halloween is still a terrific film to watch today, even after numerous sequels, comic book spin-offs ect it still works effectively well. Ignore the TV version which has some added scenes to help tie it in to part 2, it sort of ruins the pacing and It's better to see them as deleted scenes.
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