Starring: Donald Pleasance, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes, P.J. Soles, Nick Castle

Director: John Carpenter

Synopsis: Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night in 1963, Michael Myers escapes from his insane asylum and returns to his neighbourhood to kill again.

From the moment we hear this film’s famed music playing in the title sequence, there’s an anxious, unsafe atmosphere created that persists for the next ninety minutes. This theme, created and played by Carpenter himself, is notable for the piano riff that gradually builds at a fast, intense speed. There’s an evident ticking in the background and Carpenter succeeds using this theme along with an effective use of synths throughout when necessary to create tension and fear for his mysterious killer.

That mystique is immediately brought about when we are told by Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) that this unnamed inmate “hasn’t spoken a word in fifteen years” and it’s emphasised when his associate asks “can we refer to “it” as “him?” This is a clear indication that Michael Myers is something unique to your average horror film serial killer. What has always creeped me out in this scene – above the eerie sight of mental patients who have escaped their holding, standing outside in the pouring rain late at night – is the unnerving visual of Michael Myers climbing onto the car, it happens so quick and it’s truly animal-like. The slow looming movement of his hands down to the car window and his smashing of the glass with one of them gives a first, albeit brief, indication his strength in the film. Myers’ uniqueness is emphasised when he steals Loomis’ car and we learn that he “doesn’t know how to drive” despite him doing just that. It’s the first of many signs that Michael Myers is incredibly intelligent and it’s the moment that leads us back into Haddonfield, Illinois to properly set up the plot of the film.

The next several scenes introduce our protagonist, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her friends Annie (Nancy Kyes) and Lynda (P.J. Soles), and young Tommy (Brian Andrews) who Laurie is set to babysit on the night. Tommy’s fear at Laurie dropping a key off at the abandoned, decrepit and ‘haunted’ Myers house so her dad can sell it lets us know that the people of Illinois haven’t forgotten the murdering five-year old, but then again, how could you forget or ignore such a shocking event, even if you weren’t born at the time?

Laurie’s presence at the house stirs the now returned Michael Myers, and the camera shots of him used over the next portion of the film as he stalks Laurie are really well done. There’s enough of him shown to reveal to the audience his threatening and chilling being, but this is done so suddenly and at such a distance that Carpenter is able to maintain the mystery of this monster while reinforcing the eerie atmosphere through Myers’ iconic heavy breathing. The threat of Michael Myers and the events of the evening are teased courtesy of three young bullies telling Tommy “The Boogeyman is coming” – before one runs into Myers – and by Loomis who has rang the Haddonfield police and unsuccessfully convinced them that “he is coming” and that “you must be ready for him”, as the camera slowly pans to reveal a dead body – the first of many on this Halloween night.

Donald Pleasance is excellent at conveying the pending sense of dread, from subtle comments such as “he came home”, relating to the theft of the body and tombstone of Michael’s mother, Judith, to the frustrated stating of “this isn’t a man” after discovering the (still warm) dead body of a dog in the Myers house, and finally his most magnificent moment, where he describes meeting this boy with the “Devil’s eyes” and his trying to keep this boy locked up because he realised, after eight years of trying to help him, what was actually behind them. It’s no real surprise that Pleasance’s acting is immense, given his astounding filmography beforehand, but it’s most certainly worth mentioning.

As the night grows dark and Halloween night begins, so does Michael Myers’ killings. Having followed Laurie and Annie, he lurks in the shadows while they begin their babysitting duties, only seen here by Tommy, moments after asking Laurie about “The Boogeyman.” While watching this film I found two flaws, one of them being that while aptly watching The Thing – the second awesome pop culture reference after “Don’t Fear The Reaper” plays from Annie’s car radio as Michael’s car begins to follow them from behind – Tommy tells Laurie he’s “seen The Boogeyman” only for her to disregard it. Understandably, she’s going to tell this young child that there’s no such thing so he won’t be scared, but given she saw Michael earlier in the film and was told “you’re losing it” by Annie, you’d think she wouldn’t be so naive here and would put two and two together.

On the other side of the street, Carpenter uses excellent techniques to make the build up to Annie’s death much more intense, utilising the dark, wind, pale white lights, shadows and the tool of Annie becoming trapped in the shed after Myers is shown to be in the vicinity. The sudden appearance of Myers in the back of her car and the quick swipe of a knife to slit her throat gives evidence of the Psycho inspiration and again the intelligence of the murderer. Myers’ choking of Annie and choking of Lynda’s boyfriend, Bob, are what the examples of his strength earlier in the film were building to, and the death of Bob leads us to the wackiest scene of the film, and perhaps the scariest: the death of Lynda. There’s something funny about this deranged serial killer with a bedsheet over him, wearing the glasses of a man he’s just murdered, but the fact he just stands there, looking like a ghost, unresponsive to the questions of Lynda, who is completely oblivious to her imminent fate. It’s genuinely unnerving.

Thee final act contains my second flaw of the film. Loomis has been standing outside the Myers house for a majority of the night, but only here finds the car Michael had stolen at the beginning. This may have been used by Carpenter to go alongside his being scared from behind by Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers) to highlight his unpreparedness in this situation, but at the same time he really should be checking his surroundings if he’s waiting for a serial killer.

As Laurie, now concerned by the phone call she’s just received from Lynda, goes across the street to make sure everything’s alright, Carpenter plays a blinder by momentarily not playing any music. The music is used throughout this film to raise suspense and signify danger, but its absence here leaves us unsure as to when it’s coming. This all leads to the film’s best scene, where Laurie opens the bedroom door to reveal what was done with Judith Myers’ tombstone and what was done with the bodies of the three people he’s murdered.

In her debut role, Jamie Lee Curtis is really good at being a likeable teenager who we can sympathise with and root for to survive. Her biggest downside however is that it’s evident she hasn’t quite yet perfected convincingly realistic crying as it comes across a bit forced – though her screaming for help moments later is very good. That being said, her crying and the slow reveal of Michael Myers’ face in the dark is one of the best scenes in any horror film, there’s no disputing that.

The final few scenes showcase of the strength and highlight how inhuman Michael Myers is, surviving being stabbed in the neck, eye, gut. The sit up has since become an iconic trope in horror films, which says enough in itself about how influential Carpenter’s film and Michael Myers as a villain are for the horror genre.

While I would understand frustration with Myers getting shot multiple times and surviving after what he’d already suffered, it’s been made apparent throughout that he is something different and is clearly capable of surviving the damage he suffered. Like Laurie says and Loomis confirms, he’s “The Boogeyman”, so I can’t have any complaints about him being unbeatable. It also helps that the ending of the film is perfect, with shots of the house and the neighbourhood while Myers’ heavy breathing plays implying he could be anywhere. It’s just a shame the sequels (the thoroughly enjoyable Halloween II aside) were, well the Halloween sequels, because that’s a perfect way to leave this story open.

The way in which Carpenter builds to his finale by structuring a competent, thrilling, scary story is quite arguably the reason this film has stood up for forty years while others have fallen at the first hurdle. The run time of ninety minutes is the perfect length for a horror film and not a moment is wasted here. There’s jump scares throughout, of course, but that’s not what this film relies on and that’s what sets a genuinely good horror film apart from the rest. John Carpenter’s clever use of camera work and the way in which he uses the music playing in the background contributes to creating anxiety of the viewer. Carpenter shows that there’s more to a horror film than suddenly scaring your audience, you don’t need to show blood or gore as long as the story is there and the characters are worth caring about.

If you haven’t watched Halloween, then get to it.

Rating: 5/5

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