Plot: Six year old Michael Myers murdered his sister in 1963. He sat in the institution for 15 years waiting for his chance to escape. That chance comes on one dark night in 1978. Now he’s stalking three teenage friends as they spend their night babysitting, on one of the spookiest nights of the year. Halloween.

My Review (Originally Reviewed on 4/28/04): As I prepare to watch and review this movie, I draw all the shades closed, and cook some stove top popcorn. I put in my DVD and turn up the surround sound as I settle in to watch my favorite horror movie of all time. “Well if its your favorite movie of all time, you must have some good points about it” you are probably thinking. I’ll do my best but I find it really hard to review this movie since I saw it the first time when I was about two years old. My sisters used to think it was fun to force me into watching horror movies at such a young age.

The opening to this movie must have been quite a shocker when it was released, or for those viewers out there who have never seen the movie nor heard anything about it. For a first time viewer it is a must to watch this in the dark with surround sound turned all the way up if you can. This is the type of movie that uses a lot of lighting and sound to freak you out, instead of using blood and gore.

There are many problems with the movie, but thankfully most people don’t notice them the first time they watch and some don’t even notice them until they’ve read about them online. One really big flub being that Michael is stalking Laurie & Tommy at school with his mask on. Yet hours later when we see the sheriff at the store where there was a break-in, the alarm is still on and we find out that a few things have been stolen. Like the killers mask. I could point out a lot of other mistakes but then the movie just wouldn’t seem as fun.

The good things about this movie is that everything is so normal. Normal town, normal kids. I mean this story could really happen to anyone out there. Everyone has heard scary stories about babysitting. Especially the great urban legend about The Babysitter.

Babysitting is such a normal everyday thing, especially for many young teenage girls. Maybe not so much these days, but as I was growing up having a teenage babysitter was a very normal thing. I was a babysitter for many years, still do it from time to time. You start thinking about all the bad things that could happen, and you get really spooked because not only do you have to take care of yourself but you also have to take care of the children. I remember many times where I was babysitting watching the films in this series, and I would have to shut them off because my mind was starting to play tricks on me, and I was getting way too spooked out.

A few other great things about the film. The characters are great. As the viewer you actually care about all the characters. Another creep factor was the fact that we never saw Michaels face. We see a little glimpse of it near the end of the film, but if I remember correctly that was actually a little mistake.

During some of the really dark scenes, director, John Carpenter used this amazing blue lighting which illuminated Myers in many scenes, it gave the effect of a bright moon, and worked in creeping audiences out. He also made it so that Myers jumped out when you least expected him to, and when he jumped out, there was almost always a loud sound effect to go with it, which would make the viewer jump out of their seat. There are also some areas where Myers is lurking in the background, where you aren’t watching for him, and you might not even notice him. In fact, its rather hard to see on VHS. One of these scenes is when Annie is in the laundry room, most people don’t notice Myers outside the door. In fact, I didn’t notice it for years until I saw the clearer DVD version of the film.

I cannot forget to mention the music. The music is probably one of the creepiest things about the movie. Even creepier then Michael Myers himself. I remember watching the movie when I was little, and putting my fingers in my ears so I couldn’t hear the music because somehow it would make the movie less creepy, and it did.

A lot of people don’t enjoy this movie because “nothing happens” until almost an hour into the movie. But that isn’t really true. Sure there isn’t blood and gore and crazy spook factors until more then half-way through the film, but we get to know the characters during all this time, we get to like them. Unlike a lot of other films where characters are brought in only to be killed off and you could care less about them. Those types of movies are obviously just using these characters for a bodycount, where as Halloween seems to use the characters for the entire story instead of just placing them in there to be killed later on.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the “ghost” scene. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie. Another favorite scene of mine would have to be the chase scene at the end of the film. That is a classic creepy chase scene, and no matter how many times I see the movie I can’t help but want to shout at Laurie to run. I’ve had the pleasure of showing this movie to a few people for the first time, and they can never resist shouting at Laurie during that scene. Even my ex-boyfriend grabbed me and squeezed me while he was yelling at the screen.

Gore: There really isn’t any gore in this. Most of the killing’s aren’t done in a bloody manor anyhow. It doesn’t matter. I can easily watch this movie and imagine myself in Laurie’s shoes and be scared. I truly believe that this movie would not have this huge fan base if the movie had been based on blood and gore instead of lighting, music, and those little scares.

Character Development: You don’t actually see much of the characters lives. Just what they are going through on the day this all happens on. Through conversations we do however learn about the lives of the characters, such as Annie has a boyfriend who’s grounded, Laurie enjoys school, etc. Without all this character development through these conversations I don’t think that the characters would be as likeable as they are.

Sexual Content: Yes, there is a scene which includes a little female nudity. P.J. Soles shows her top half.

Acting: Top notch. Especially considering at the time none of these people were really actors, except for Donald Pleasence who had been in many movies before this one. Its nice considering horror movies aren’t known for their good acting. The acting just seemed to come so naturally to all the actors. They all seemed to get along and complement each other on the screen.

Overall: Those who know me are shocked that I enjoy this movie so much because I don’t tend to like “older” horror movies, but I do. This movie is a classic, and if you haven’t seen any horror movies yet you should see this one first, but remember its not blood and gore, it plays with your mind. Its a classic, how can you not watch it?

Rating:

View The Trailer

Tags: Babysitter, Halloween, holiday, John Carpenter, Laurie, Michael Myers, music, shocker, teenage friends

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 1:59 PM and is filed under G-L, Slasher. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.