The Horror of Halloween(1978)

Halloween is the slasher of all slashers, although not the first it is certainly the best. This film has inspired others like it but none come close to this one. Maybe the new comes close, as it proves that once again that the simple route is the best. Halloween is basically about a psych patient Michael Myers; who killed his sister and boyfriend 15 years prior on Halloween. The reasoning behind that is still anyone's guess. He escapes just as Dr. Loomis and his colleague Marion Chambers come to take him to court. Now on paper it doesn't sound scary at all. But what make it so are five reasons I'm going to explain.

The first reason it's scary, is due to what I just previously mentioned no one knows why Michael is doing this other than he is just evil incarnate. Dr. Loomis says something similar but there's no real reason. Not having a motive especially during this era of horror movies was unheard of at the time. The next reason why this is so scary is due to how simple it is. John Carpenter was on a budget, so he had no choice but to do a lot with a little. And he did alright the way it was shot by Dean Cundey, all the darkness and shadows. Where Michael is in certain scenes it's so suspenseful and you get that eerie feeling every time you watch it. I always feel like I'm being watched afterwards as well. He can be just on the other side of the corner or he can be right under your nose. The atmosphere was keeps you on the edge the whole time, no matter how many times you see it.

The third reason I have as to why this so scary is the fact that throughout the whole movie The Shape isn't hiding. He literally is in the background, in which is probably my second favorite scene in the movie. He's driving past what i assume is his own crime scene that Dr. Loomis and Sheriff brackett arrive at. In the car he stole from Dr. Loomis and goes unnoticed. Not to mention he stalks Laurie all day and night, not caring if anybody else sees him. The shape just doesn't care and that's scary. My favorite scene however is when Laurie finds all her friends dead. Sees the Judith headstone and goes into the hallway and The Shape slowly appears out of nowhere. He tries to knife her and she falls over the bannister, it's the scariest scene in the movie. Seeing that mask appear ,it being so haunted and expressionless is frightening. The best part of it all is that it's so simple!

That now brings me to my fourth thing or reason that makes this movie horrifying is of course the music. It ties everything i mentioned before together, it is the iconic theme that still scares everybody to this day. What would this film be with out it and the rest of the score. My personal favorite however is "The Shape Lurks". I don't know how true this is or not but i heard the idea behind Halloween came from a true story. The scene in particular is the one where Laurie is outside and she tries to get across the street and she’s knocking on everybody’s door until she finally gets let in by tommy before the shape gets her.That was inspired by a real incident,I would say that’s my third favorite scene in the movie and one the scariest I’ve ever seen.

Now on to that fifth reason why Halloween is so scary is how real it looks. Scary movies today are so polished and produced with a lot of effects. Not to say that’s bad they certainly have their place today in film. But the steadicam was fairly new at the time, that could have contributed to how John experimented with how he shot scenes. It feels a bit like a documentary and the long shots certainly created a sense of realism. And let’s face that’s rare in horror today as well.

But anyway those are the things that make Halloween the scariest slasher/horror of all time not just my favorite for me. I have question that has never been answered though. Why was Michael being escorted to court? I’m sure we can all assume, but I always wondered. Well there you have it Hopefully I'm not alone in my assessment!