What kind of monster would I be if I didn't end this adventure with Halloween? I guess since it was a Friday, I could have done Friday the 13th for all the number dyslexics out there. But I didn't. I went with Halloween, mostly because I had never seen it all the way through (although that means I miss out on Kevin Bacon getting an arrow stabbed through his neck while smoking a J).
Let me start by saying this movie has one of the most iconic horror movie themes ever, perhaps only rivaled by The Exorcist, but unlike The Exorcist, this movie hammers the theme into your brain until just thinking about the tune send shivers down your spine and makes you turn around to check for murderers. Also, John Carpenter, the director, made the music, so that's cool.
Speaking of turning around, that's where so much of the fear in this movie comes from, the sense of being watched an followed. This is a strategy of fear-inducing that has evolved into one of the found-footage genre's greatest tools. Several of the found-footage movies I watched this month featured a scene where the antagonist manned the camera, providing a first-person view into the nefarious acts of the bad guy. These scenes were often the most tense and scary of the respective movies. Halloween is not found-footage, but implements the first-person shots several times with consistently high tension-levels.
The murdering is also well-paced through the movie. After opening with a kill scene, the body count slows to set up characters, such as Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. But just because there is no killing during these scenes, doesn't mean they aren't scary. This is where the "being watched" scenes begin to appear, and the looming sense of dread starts to build.
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| "I'm in the corner, watching you kiss him..." |
Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos
