Halloween | | Cast : | Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran | | Director : | John Carpenter | | Studio : | Anchor Bay Entertain | | Format : | Color, Widescreen | | Released Date : | October 25, 1978 | | DVD Released Date : | August 05, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | A Bloodless Horror Classic | Content
 | This horror film is a classic. No doubt about it. It may not be my fave horror film like Elm Street, An American Werewolf In London or the Thing, but it's still a classic. Apparently there is an Extended Edition on Anchor Bay DVD, in fact there IS an Extended Edition on Anchor Bay DVD, because i have it. (It goes for 104 mins) The music score is an instant classic movie score too, not relying on Symphonys or anything else, just John Carpenter's brilliant mind of making an unforgettable score on just a synthisizer. Donald Pleasance will be remembered mostly by horror fans as the brilliant (& never giving up) Dr. Loomis, who is the only one who thinks Michael Myers is heading back to Haddenfield to kill again. All in all, one of the best horror films in movie history. A true horror gem. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | One of the best horror movies | Content
| An absolute must see it uses verry litle blood and alot of suspence and tension and the begining of modern horror it invented the slasher genre and was immitated so many times with seven sequels none of them will ever pass the original halloween is so scary a must see is to litle of a word. Even though this was the first slasher it so much better than that label unfortanetly people put halloween with its immitators not knowing halloween is so much better. If you want to get scared or fall in love with a movie or just get entertained Halloween is the movie for you even if you do not like scary movies this will change youre oppinion on scary movies |
| Rating | | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | 'DEATH HAS COME TO YOUR LITTLE TOWN SHERIFF" | Content
| In the spring of 1978, young director and then virtually unknown John Carpenter and his girlfriend/writing partner, the late Debra Hill crafted a simple tale of a night of terror for a babysitter (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her two friends (Nancy Loomis and P.J Soles) at the hands of the scariest monster in horror movie history, Michael A. Myers. It is, like I said, a simple story that anyone at virtually any intelligence level can understand. What makes this movie scary, besides the downright creepy music, which is again, a simple score that John Carpenter himself wrote, is all of the implied sequences that take place, which proves once again you don't have to have nonstop blood and gore to make a horror movie work. Most of the movie is very much left to the audience's imagination. While this movie never won any Oscars or even garnered any nominations, it really never needed to. The plot is, like the key word to this movie, simple: Michael Myers brutally murders his older sister on Halloween night, 1963. Sixteen years later, on October 30, 1978 he escapes the Haddonfield Mental Hospital in search of, as we discover in Halloween II if you've seen it, his sister, which is Jamie Lee Curtis. The body count continues to rise until he reaches her in the film's horrifying conclusion. As a very entertaining sidebar to the main plot, the late Donald Pleasance delivers an outstanding portrayal of Myers' doctor, Sam Loomis who is determined to find Michael and lock him up before it is too late, the latter in which he fails. He spends basically the entire film explaining and trying to convince skeptical people from the nurse at the beginning to Haddonfield's Sheriff (Charles Cyphers) just how dangerous Myers is and what kind of monster has been unleashed on Haddonfield. The following is an excerpt of one of the most haunting scenes in the film:
Sheriff: I think your just plain scared.
Loomis: Yeah I am-I-I met him sixteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no understanding of even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of right or wrong. I met this six year old child with this blind pale emotionless face and the blackest eyes. The devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply...evil.
The element that is omni-present throughout this entire film is this almost overwhelming feeling of dread, that is literally there from start to the horrifying finish. One of the things I was most surprised about this movie, unlike its mostly awful sequels, is that there is almost no blood or gore in this movie whatsoever. This film was also made so dirt cheap ($300,000) some Hollywood hot-shots today would probably wonder how it could have been made. This film proves without a doubt that a movie does not have to cost millions of dollars to film and include buckets of blood and gore to be successful and be entertaining to watch. This film made over twice as much as what it cost to film, and that should say plenty. Bottom line: if you want a film that will scare the pants off of you for 90 minutes and leave you sleeping with the lights on for several nights afterward, Halloween is the film for you. Horror the way horror should be made: gritty and dark to the core. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 16, 2005 | | Summary | scary fun | Content
| It is a great movie to watch in the dark.I first saw it on halloween night 2004 and i loved it.It would have been better if they hadnt shown us mikes face. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 08, 2005 | | Summary | One of the best ever | Content
| One of the best suspense movies ever made (not necessarily horror although that's its label).
Obviously the fact that this movie was filmed on $300,000 and ultimately went on to rake in millions gives much hype to the movie, but the financial success aside, this particular movie, more so than any other horror/thriller, has held my top spot on my list of favorites for the genre.
Horror and suspense is subjective and different people are frightened by different things. The one fear inducing characteristic of this movie is exactly what others have said didnt like about the killer- he doesnt do anything. Thats the whole point- Its the suspense angle (M Night Shalyman, Hitchcock, Euro horror/ thriller directors,etc.) that what the audience doesnt see on the screen is in fact scarier than what they can see on the screen. Thats why Michael Myers is called "The Shape".... to leave the possibilities of the imagination a little more open ended instead of taking the gore route or something more direct. However, I think Michael Myers does plenty to induce chills and Im glad that there isnt a bunch of gore in this film, or dialogue from the killer- leaves way more up to the imagination.
Another intersting tidbit about this movie that Carpenter has talked about is that this movie was also mislabeled as a big gore splatterfest....when in fact there is virtually no "splatter"- very little blood and only 1 killing shot. Again it all goes back to Carpenter's style and how he tries in this film to scare by creating moods that dont spell everything out by dumbing everything down (like Aviator or your typical flavor of the month Hollywood crapfest that requires every scene to be active and filled with props to appease the American masses).
The story is basic and simple but its setting, Halloween Night, is anything but basic- what can be more powerful and fantastical than staging a thriller on Halloween night? If your a fan of the huanted house motif, there are lots of images in this film that deliver.
Carpenter's music, as another poster has indicated, is also a big componet of his effective style- He is a dynamic musician that scores many of his own films. If youve never seen Escape From New York, the Fog, or Halloween, he uses lots of synthesizers and bass heavy techno beats that create a forbodding atmosphere- totally effective and Im not even a techno fan. He was doing techno before there was techno probably.
The commentary is refreshing on the special edition as both Carpenter and Debra Hill come across as intelligent, creative, and enthusiastic. Ive only watched the commentary haflway thru though (even though Ive seen Halloween probably 50 times off and on) so I cant comment on everyone else but I have rolled my eyes when Jamie Lee Curtis starts talking about herself (no one cares)- hopefully she will add something interesting later.
Lots of social commentary and dialogue has been created as the result of this film and regardless how scary, good, or bad people think this film is it has cemented itself in the history of one of the most important films of our time.
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