View Full Version : HCR Rates The Movies #14: HALLOWEEN
So, our next film, Classic or Crud, Hit or Miss, what say you ALL?
Our next film open for discussion, and ultimately an Overall RATING by you all:
HALLOWEEN
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Let the discussions flow. Likes, dislikes, classic film or overhyped trash, and DONT FORGET to place an Overall Rating when youre done.
Its easy, just give a Rating from 1 (Jaws 4:The Revenge) to 10 (Jaws), and thats it. Course I'd love to have you all give reasons as to why you feel it deserves this Overall Rating, and more than encourage discussions with us all about them.
So, what say you all?
Next Film: ??????
Rokk_Krinn
11/14/2005, 11:19
Ah, now we're going to see a complete turn-around from my rating for "Shrek". :)
"Halloween" deserves a special status in movie history for a variety of reasons, many of which, ironically, are almost unfair judgements of the movie.
The first is that from a sociologists point of view, this movie helped cement a view about the holiday of the same name. Slightly before the time the movie came out, there was a downward shift in perception - especially in the cities - of the "value" of Halloween (the holiday). This was about the time you started to see the more-or-less urban legends of "killer razor blades in apples" and "poisoned candy" (there were a few cases of the first but no one was killed and in all cases of poisoned candy, it's always been by someone the kid knew well - not random slayings). More and more groups were banning the "paganistic holiday" and you saw nicknames for it like "Devil's Night". Associating a dark movie about a serial killer with the holiday not only added fuel to the fire but pretty much bonfired it in many people's eyes.
The second is the genre of movies it kicked off for a time. It's pretty safe to say that without the success of "Halloween" - and have no doubts, this movie was a box-office giant - there would've been no "Friday the 13th's", "Nightmares" over on that street, or even deadly "Sleepaway Camps". The slasher genre was the unintentional child of "Halloween" (which was to end up getting caught up in the genre itself). One can even argue that if this movie hadn't led to the glut of slasher movies - darn near turning even genre fans against horrour movies for a bit - there would've been no "Scream" and other "self-referential horrour films" that came about as a jab at the 80's slasher craze. This is the progenitor of horrour films as we've known them for decades now.
Now here comes the part that's really amusing: "Halloween" has more in common with dark suspense dramas than it does any of the movies that it birthed (including its' own sequels). It's a great example of a perceptional-illusion in a way - Hitchcock would've laughed I imagine - because if you ask most people, they will be positive "Halloween" is a gory slasher film. If you take someone and sit them down and tell them to actually count the amount of times you see blood in the movie, they'll be amazed. It's barely there. Continuing the Hitchcock references a bit, it's a lot like the way people are positive they see blood in the shower scene of "Psycho" - it's all in the mind based on how the movie is presented and the common beliefs of the film. We're so positive it's gory, that when we play it back in our mind, it's a brutal gory film. Frankly, to me, that says a lot not just about the power of mass thought, but the ability of John Carpenter. He made our imagination run rampant.
That brings me - after an admittedly long-winded and pompous rambling :) - to the crux of what DTM asks: is this movie good? I mean, I think I've established why I believe a film library should own a copy of the film - even if you don't like horrour films, this is a bit of film history - but being important doesn't always make a film good. I believe this is a great film though. As noted, it works you like a master puppeteer. At face value a film about a whiney Jamie Lee Curtis and a man in a bleached William Shatner Halloween mask playing cat-and-mouse shouldn't be quite so nailbiting but it works. Maybe to viewers raised on a higher body-count and "one-up" deaths, this movie seems slow-paced and boring but to me that's what makes it work...it builds and it builds and each time you think it's about to break, it makes you wait even more and lets you work with it to build yourself into a high-tension bundle of nerves and when it breaks, it's even better because it wasn't coming at you "one death per minute a'la MTV editing techniques".
Rating: 9.5
Inbetweener
11/14/2005, 11:40
Halloween is the original slasher film. It is the template for an entire sub-genre. Anything like it knew what to copy and it was all down hill for films like this from here. Nevertheless, this film stays psychological and bloodless while managing to keep an essense of mystery and the supernatural. Horror is just madness without the mystery. What makes Michael so evil? Is he just a sociopath? Is he possessed? Is he some kind of supernatural force that can't be stopped? The film uses all the most effective suspense devices that came before it, and was innovative in doing more for suspense in films that followed. John Carpenter shoots with such an errie emptiness in his films (mainly this and The Thing). It makes Halloween seem so much more real and compelling...and so much more terrifying when we realize that Michael is likely not human and cannot be killed. All that and it seems kind of funny that two of the most effective things that make the film timeless and truly invulnerable to knock-offs, are also it's simplest: the soundtrack and Michael Myers' paintless Bill Shatner mask.
Rating: 9.5
Ive gotta say, I agree with you both. :)
Halloween is one of those films that you cant simply rate on how it itself is, but on its affect on cinema thereafter its release. As mentioned above, the success of Halloween (which came out in the late 70s) pretty much started a HUGE craze of slasher and horror films, even up to today, some of which are really great films themselves.
Now to the film, not a bloody horror gorefest at all. This film relied on music (a Classic score written by Carpenter himself), suspense (The Shape walking across the street to get Lori while shes banging helplessly on the door to the house) and even a few BOO scares (when Loomis and the Sheriff are in the Myers house and the drainpip hits the window).
As for as horror movies go, this is truly a classic, up there in my mind with The Exorcist and The Omen (2 other Brilliant 70s Horror films). Michael Myers is a classic horror movie character, and this movie deserves an overall Classic rating from me.
Halloween - 9.25 / 10
Come now, surely more than 3 of us have seen this Horror movie classic?? :)
ReZourceman
11/16/2005, 13:26
"Horror movie classic" certainly says it DTM. Id say it defines the slasher flick / stabber movie. And its certainly a good movie....It plays on the mind and makes you scared when walking round dark corners or up cold stairs...which a horror should do...and I like it.
8.0
Current HCR Member Rating:
HALLOWEEN - 9.06 / 10
Still only 4 members particpating in this one. We sure could use all the support we can get for these, and I cant believe only 4 of us have seen this film now. :) Whether you loved it, or hated it, wed like to hear from you all.
coyotejack
11/18/2005, 15:00
Halloween became not just a classic and the defintion of the sub-genre of slasher films but it showed us something even worse than a demon or a killer borne out of a traumatic event...little Michael was just born that way. No real trauma to speak of, just a troubled little boy that grew into an evil killer. Nothing could reach him, he just was .
Great stuff, the intro with the boy weilding a bloody knife and a blank stare still gives me chills. Definately 9.0.
d_knight7
03/31/2006, 18:03
9/10, invented the genre.
hulkamania85
04/01/2006, 15:44
9.75
Donald Pleasence is one of ### best horror movie protagonists ever. He really helps push this movie above and beyond ### typical slasher.
Gacy's Clown
04/01/2006, 15:55
9.8 for me. One of my all-time favorites!:)
torontcollectr
04/07/2006, 20:41
A solid 8 !!!
No problems with Jamie Lee Curtis or the whole movie. Familiar yet scary plot. Suspenseful and appealing.
Only downside is the everfaithful sequels. Not to mention the "homages"
A solid 8 !!!
No problems with Jamie Lee Curtis or the whole movie. Familiar yet scary plot. Suspenseful and appealing.
Only downside is the everfaithful sequels. Not to mention the "homages"
Please keep in mind that the films on these threads really should be graded as their are by themselves, and not frowned apon (not saying you are) due to lesser made sequels.
deadshot042
04/08/2006, 00:34
This movie really helped to reinvent the genre of horror in America. I appreciate any horror movie that can be scary with a minimum of gore and that's exactly what Halloween did. It used tools like music, camera angles and long build ups to make you jump. One of my favorite horror movies.
9.75/10
10/10
The Godfather of all slasher-flicks and probably the horror movie I've seen the most amount of times.
One of my favorite flicks ever.
Don't have much more to say than what was said in the three first reviews (I especially appreciate Inbetweener's comment : "John Carpenter shoots with such an errie emptiness in his films (mainly this and The Thing).", it's brilliant).
I love the way Laurie is more and more enclosed untill the final encounter with Myers. A classic.
9/10
P.S.: DTM, you're absolutely right about The Omen and The Exorcist (especially The Omen, fear Damien Thorn, puny humans! :p).
Chief Pokishi
05/24/2007, 02:01
There's only one word that can justly describe this movie: brilliant! Like said before, this movie invented a genre and hasn't really been duplicated after all this time. Loved really 2 things about this movie. First off, the villian is human. I love me some monsters and such but this movie truly captured that evil isn't just something with large teeth and slime all around it. It is a person just like anyone else and worse, someone you know. Second, while later films really pack in the gore and blood( some admittedly done in a tasteful manner), this movie was almost devoid of any. Proof you don't need 5 pints of blood and intestines pouring out of someone to exhibit horror. Plus, get soundtrack. Ohh did I get so scared when I heard it come on.
10/10. This movie is perfect. Plus, Dr. Loomis, by far perhaps one of the most underrated and underappreciated characters in the horror genre. Myers gave us fear, he gave us hope.
monkeyshines
05/24/2007, 19:08
Halloween is the original slasher film. It is the template for an entire sub-genre. Anything like it knew what to copy and it was all down hill for films like this from here.
What makes Michael so evil? Is he just a sociopath? Is he possessed? Is he some kind of supernatural force that can't be stopped? The film uses all the most effective suspense devices that came before it, and was innovative in doing more for suspense in films that followed. Rating: 9.5
Actually it really wasn't that original but it was an originator. That is to say it popularized but did not invent the genre. Movies like the original Black Christmas among others had come out before it.
As far as the, he's just that evil, motive that always seemed weak to me. Still the movie was done well and better than many of the copycats that drove this genre into the ground.
I'd give it a 7.5
monkeyshines
05/24/2007, 20:32
I may be mistaken on this but I think Black Christmas also invented the "killer cam". Meaning it actually featured the scenes from the killer's perspective for the audience. Something that was also a feature of Halloween. The holidays were never safe again.
It also had Superman's Margot Kidder in it. Still I would rate it at 7.5 as well.
iameleveneight
10/01/2007, 17:43
9/10 Its a brilliant movie. Not my favorite of the slasher genre but its definitely genius.
Boosnickerty
11/04/2007, 13:37
10! This the greatest horror movie of all time. Forget Texas Chainsaw (which I really like) and the Exorcist (which I trully hate), it all started here. Every slasher owes its life to this movie. I watch it every Halloween and a few times inbetween. Shame what has happened to the franchise since. A victim of its own creation.
Boosnickerty
11/04/2007, 13:38
10! This the greatest horror movie of all time. Forget Texas Chainsaw (which I really like) and the Exorcist (which I trully hate), it all started here. Every slasher owes its life to this movie. I watch it every Halloween and a few times inbetween. Shame what has happened to the franchise since. A victim of its own creation.
Sorry, double post.
monkeyshines
11/05/2007, 09:58
Every slasher owes its life to this movie.
I would say that more about the 60's Psycho, where even Halloween, got its famous closet scene from.
It just turned it on its head and had a Leigh stab the slasher in the shower, rather than the other way round.
Horror is my genre and this is the cream of the crop. One of the greatest films ever made. Even though I liked the remake this one just holds so much more mystery for me. In the remake Michael is a product of his environment, they give him reason. In the original there really is no reason why he is a killer.
10/10
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