Halloween – A classic horror film

Spooky season comes to its close at the end of October every year. What better way to celebrate the Halloween season than with the season classic “Halloween.” 

Before watching the film, I had low expectations for the film. I have seen jokes online about some of the deaths and scenes involving the slasher, Michael Myers. 

However, this movie was a pleasant surprise. The pacing, score and acting in this film are amazing, with there only being a few laughable moments. 

The most important part of this movie is the directing by John Carpenter. He uses darkness and clever camera angles to build suspense and horror in the movie. 

One way this is seen is toward the end of the film, where Laurie, the main character, is standing next to a dark doorway, and the audience slowly starts to see Myers being revealed. 

Another way Carpenter builds suspense is with his wide camera shots. Anytime a character is walking on the street or down a hallway, Carpenter uses a wider shot. 

This choice has two benefits. One benefit is that it makes the scene feel more natural as the characters are already talking in the scene, and their conversation becomes more hearable as the audience approaches. 

The other benefit of it is that it makes the audience scan the background. Throughout the movie, it shows Myers watching and stalking Laurie; whenever a wide shot is used, the audience instinctively looks past the talking characters to see if Myers is there. 

Another strength of the movie is the score. Carpenter not only directed the movie but also produced the score.  

He made the iconic theme for when Myers is on the hunt for his next victim. This helps build the suspense because, as Myers’s victims run from him or are dying, the music feels like it increases with the stress in the scene. 

After the music, the next great part of the movie is the acting, specifically the acting of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie. This film is Curtis’s debut role, and she absolutely crushes it. 

In the movie, the audience sees Laurie and her friends as babysitters on Halloween, with Laurie being the only responsible one. The other two want to go out and have fun, while Laurie wants to do her job. 

At the beginning of the film, the audience sees a young Myers kill his sister because she spent time with her boyfriend instead of babysitting him. He is now back in his hometown to target these bad babysitters and Laurie. 

Curtis portrays Laurie as a smart, intuitive person. She knows when to attack Myers and when to run away. 

The best part of Curtis’s acting is her scream. The scream of pure terror she has when she sees Myers makes the scene feel real, making it no wonder why the acting legend is called the scream queen. 

While the movie does have its positives, it was also laughable at some points. The first being most of Meyer’s kills. 

Meyer’s first couple of kills are made to enhance the fear the audience is supposed to have in him, but his following kills lead to silly moments. 

His killing of one of the babysitters and her boyfriend is a fantastic example. Myers kills the boyfriend first and then goes upstairs to kill the babysitter. 

When he kills the boyfriend, Myers chokes him out, lifts him in the air and stabs him through the chest. Myers then steps back, and the boyfriend is suspended in the air against the shelf with the knife holding him up. 

This made me laugh because the knife is not that big, and over half of it is sticking out of the guy’s body. However, Myers decided to be a comedian for his next kill. 

When he kills the babysitter, he has a sheet over his body and the dead boyfriend’s glasses over the sheet. The babysitter thinks it is just her boyfriend messing with her and goes to answer the phone before Myers comes behind her, choking her out with the phone cord.  

The final laughable scene is when Laurie learns that her friends are dead. She is walking in the house when she sees one of her friends lying out on the bed with Meyer’s sister’s headstone on the headboard.  

Laurie screams and opens a cabinet, trying to step away and sees her other friend stuffed in there. Becoming hysterical, she tries to leave but opens the closet door, where her friend’s boyfriend’s body swings from the ceiling at her. 

The rest of the scene is fine, but the final body reveal is hilarious. The other irritating part of this movie is the character Dr. Loomis. 

Loomis was the doctor of Myers before his escape. In the entire film, the audience sees Loomis warning law enforcement about how dangerous Myers is, but nothing else. 

He does absolutely nothing until the end of the film. Loomis shows up at Laurie’s house right before Myers can kill her and unload his gun on him, causing Myers to fall off the balcony. 

Loomis should have been investigating how Myers escaped instead of the audience coming back to him, still doing nothing of value. 

While the movie does have its faults, the positives outweigh the negatives. The movie holds up well, becoming a classic horror film in the modern age. The scares in the movie make it worth watching, even through the questionable scenes.