With his groundbreaking film, Psycho, Alfred Hitchock launched the slasher genre into the mainstream. In 1978, John Carpenter sought to move the slasher genre to the next level by creating an homage to Psycho and the entire horror film genre. That film was Halloween.
Halloween begins with one of the most startling scenes in film history. The entire scene is filmed in long and stunning tracking shots in POV style. Very quickly, Carpenter shows he can be an innovator in filming techniques as Hitchcock was. Even if the eventual story isn't as strong as that of your typical Hitchock film, the visuals give you the sense that this film could have been directed by Hitchcock. The scene continues to build suspense until its shocking conclusion. Unfortunately, Halloween is never able to meet (or even approach) the greatness of its opening scene. The film comes close with a scene that creates the right mix of campy and scary horror as Michael hunts down a young couple in a house.
The major problem with this film is that Carpenter works to hard to create an homage with this film. The slasher genre as a whole is not that good to begin with. There is only so much you can do with a killer on the loose before everything becomes too predictable. Even with this film (which came early in the slasher film craze), you can easily pick out who will survive the film by the end of the first act. The other thing that prevents Carpenter from pulling of this homage successfully is that he and co-screenwriter Debra Hill don't create any interesting characters. Most just seem like fodder for Michael. Even the best written character, Laurie, is horribly miscast. Jamie Lee Curtis was clearly too old to play a high school student, but she didn't even try to capture the mannerisms of a high schooler. The supporting cast does reveal anything special either as it features your typical teenage character performances from Nancy Kyes (the better and spunkier of the two) and P.J. Soles. The best of the bunch is probably Donald Pleasance as a man on a mission who has a connection to the film's villain, Michael.
I will give credit to Carpenter for putting his own spin on the genre with the anti-promiscuity message he puts into the film. It is kind of cheesy, but it undeniable that this had a major influence on the future of the genre. However, the best thing Carpenter does with this film is his iconic score. Carpenter finds the right strains of originality to combine with a very-Hitchcockian musical score.
As usual with films of the genre, Halloween ends in way over-the-top fashion, however, it is here that the film betrays its Hitchcockian influences. Hitchock would have used some restraint. The ending has many similar problems with the film as a whole. Some sequences make the film seem like it is an expert display of suspense and scares while others fall apart in a display of goofiness. It just seems like this film was always taking one step back with each two steps forward.
7/10
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Good piece on the film, though I tend to disagree on some points.
ReplyDeleteWhen the film first came out the slasher sub-genre did not yet exist. We had a hand full of films (Texas Chainsaw, Black Christmas) and therefore the cliches one sees in the original Halloween were not yet cliches (for the most part). We were not yet in that self-referential world of movies like Scream yet. But by today's standards it does seem awfully cliche'd. Much the way Ford's 1939 Stagecoach seems to be filled with Western cliches, yet that was the film that created most of them. Just an opinion.
As for Jamie Lee being too old (and she does look too old!) the funny thing about that is she is nineteen and younger than any of the other "high school kids" in the film. But yes, she may look too old but there was no way Carpenter was going to miss the opportunity to pay the biggest homage to Hitchcock that he could - having Marion Crane's daughter as his Scream Queen.
Overall, I liked that the film used little gore and violence, and relied more heavily on what may happen next. You know, real terror. And yes, that music is creepy as hell.
I do not mean to make any stupid arguments, or seem like an ass - I was just giving my opinion on things. I quite like your site and your writing.
You don't come off as an ass at all. A lot of the information you provided is very insightful (I had no idea that Jamie Lee Curtis was 19 at the time of filming). I know I am in the minority opinion about not loving this film and that it is a major influence on the slasher genre. It just felt too much like a love letter to the horror genre for me when it could have put more effort in other areas (which is strange because I loved Super 8 which was a love letter to Spielberg). Thanks for commenting.
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