Movie Review: Halloween

Oddly enough, I haven’t seen Halloween in 2 decades or more, and I recently did go through Halloween 4 & 5, two movies I have never seen before, and I was able to get a whole marathon on DVR during the scary season.
I’m a big fan of John Carpenter, even though less and less as I get older and watch/rewatch these. I did like the reboot remake from Rob Zombie, let’s take a walk through the Original that is only 5 years younger than me.

Holy Cripe, I’m old.

In 1963, on Halloween night, Judith Myers has a booty call with her boyfriend, and when he leaves, Michael Myers takes a knife and stabs her to death. Kind of a freaky opener, and I’m going to do my best to not compare it to the remake.

Now 15 years later, before he was supposed to go to a court hearing that was supposed to keep him locked up forever, Micheal is able to swipe a car and haul ass to Haddonfield.

Carpenter gets his math right, and Michael is 21 years old. He starts stalking Jamie Lee Curtis, who looks damn near 30 at this point. HOLY SHIT- She’s only 20 during this filming. DAMN. Jamie Lee Curtis- er, Laurie Strode, has the feeling that someone is watching her, but her buddies don’t care. We get a nice spooky moment when Michael Myers is standing out in her yard.

Dr. Samuel Loomis shows up and he is panicking about Myers coming back to Haddonfield and killing people. Loomis goes to the Cemetery, and headstone of Micheal Myers’ mom is gone. Loomis finds the Sheriff and explains to him whats going on. They start looking for Michael Myers.

Laurie goes to babysit one of the local kids, and her buddies is babysitting right across the street. When her buddy gets a booty call, she dumps the runt off to Jamie Lee Curtis and goes and gets her groove on. But Micheal is the ultimate cockblocker and kills her. The little kid sees Micheal carrying her body to the house, and runs to tell Laurie, but she blows him off.

Next, we get the most iconic part of the entire Halloween series that doesn’t include Busta Rhymes. Hot Chick and guy has sex, guy gets nailed to the wall, and then she gets strangled by Myers in a Ghost costume. Part of the greatness of this scene is Laurie on the phone with the girl as she is being strangled. Just an awesome scene.

Jamie Lee Curtis puts the two kids to bed, then skips out, and finds 3 bodies, and I love how killers have time to frame people for maximum effect. Michael shows up and Jamie takes off. The Door is locked, and she doesn’t have the keys, being a female in the 70s, but at least she didn’t fall down over the painted yellow line in the road.

Now onto the Final Battle!

Lets hit the Scale!

Enjoyment (1-5)

So does it hold up?
Yes.
Is it still worth it?
Yes.

Halloween is far from perfect, its a bit slow, it’s a bit on the dull parts at times, and there is a TON of world building in between the initial killing of the sister and the assault on Haddonfield.

This is must see Horror Movie here. It has one of the best kills in history, and Carpenter, for all his flaws, knows how to frame a scene and he does get good work from all the major characters. Loomis is great when he’s on the screen and Jamie Lee Curtis is Jamie Lee Curtis. Going full 5.

Rewatchability (1-2)

This one is a bit hard to judge, Its not worth buying- unless there is some massive commentary tracks. I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again on my own- unless I’m watching it with some people that have never seen it- but I do think it has to be seen by everyone that loves horror. 1 point.

Recommend (1-2).

Cannot Recommend the movie highly enough. Its a cornerstone of modern horror. The reverence this movie has both among horror nerds and movie geeks is deserved,  I’ll go the full 2 points.

Bonus (0-1)

This is why I changed to my new scale. I gave the original one a 7 on a 10 boilerplate scale. But I think this movie is great enough to get the bonus point for a full 9 here.

Agree/Disagree? Hit me up below

Note: Original review was 2015 – Edited and scaling added.