Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
No Result
View All Result
Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
Home Movie

The Best Parts of John Carpenter’s Slasher Classic

rmtsa by rmtsa
October 25, 2023
in Movie
0
The Best Parts of John Carpenter’s Slasher Classic
74
SHARES
1.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

Are You Ready For Some Football Horror?

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Reviews Lead to Poor Rotten Tomatoes Score

Marlon Wayans in Jordan Peele-Produced Football Horror

45 years ago, John Carpenter hit the kind of paydirt that keeps him in snacks and video games to this very day. There’s really not much left to be said about Halloween‘s impact since its release in 1978. A small-scale yet fleshed-out feature film born from the ideas and visual style of Carpenter’s student short Captain Voyeur. It created a horror icon in Michael Myers and gave the movie world Jamie Lee Curtis, which I think was a pretty good thing.

There’s so much to look at with the original Halloween, and it’s something that gets more fascinating to examine the more sequels, spin-offs, reboots, and requels are added to its legacy.

But for here and now, we’re focusing on the original, and picking our favorite aspects and moments from it in no particular order.

The Opening POV Kill

It’s hardly a surprise anymore, but the first time I watched that opening where a young Michael brutally murders his sister and saw it all from his point of view so that end reveal was a genuine shock. It’s been homaged to the hilt in the years since and it wasn’t exactly original to begin with, but it’s such a beautiful way to give birth to the character of Michael Myers. We establish he’s a stone-cold psychopathic killer from a young age, and that serves you up the delicious question of ”If he was that bad then, what’ll he be like now?”

Donald Pleasence: Monologue Machine

There’s a Mount Rushmore of important things that carry Halloween to greatness, and Donald Pleasance definitely has his face carved out on that rockface. His arrogant, alarmed, and downright maniacal turn as Dr. Loomis acts as Michael Myers’ biggest hype man by seriously scolding anyone who’ll not listen to him about just how dangerous his former patient is.

And I love that it’s not all high drama with Loomis. The scene where he pranks Lonnie on Halloween night shows he’s not afraid to partake in the seasonal festivities, even when staking out the house of a psychopathic killer.

I love Pleasence as an actor, especially his dangerously unhinged role in Wake in Fright, but he’s just as important to Halloween as Michael or Laurie.

The Mood on Halloween Night

Before the waste hits the proverbial fan, there’s something quite cozy about the atmosphere of Halloween Night. Set in a time before decorations were as gaudy and Day-Glo bright as today, there’s an understated, almost ineffectual amount of decoration for the event.

You could say that Michael’s presence blankets the celebration in darkness, but no, darkness is as much a comfort as it is a threat in Halloween. When Tommy Doyle or Lindsey Wallace sit watching movies on TV in the dark, illuminated only by the black and white glow of the screen, it’s an oddly comforting image—a nostalgic feeling for many horror fans who used to revel in that ritual in their youth (and still do).

You’ve Got (No) Red on You

David Gordon Green’s recent trilogy of Halloween films is pretty damn grisly, and it’s a far cry from the almost chaste nature of the original film’s violence. That’s not to say Blood and Guts can’t work in a Halloween movie, but it’s still quite impressive how Carpenter makes it seem like a more violent movie than it actually is. The power of suggestion plays a part, we look in quizzical awe at Michael pinning Bob to the kitchen wall with supernatural ease, but we see very little of what it has done to him.

What little blood there is feels so much more impactful and dramatic, making that finale the classic encounter it is.

Myers Has a Sense of Humor

There’s some great moments of silliness in Halloween that knock back the grave seriousness. Loomis enjoying a Halloween prank after screaming at everyone about how urgent and dangerous the situation is definitely qualifies as one, but another wrinkle in Loomis’ insistence that Michael is nothing more than a cold-blooded killing machine comes after Michael kills Bob and heads up to the bedroom. Laurie’s friend Lyndsey is waiting for her boyfriend, and when a figure looms in the doorway, that’s who she thinks has shown up.

See, Michael put on a sheet and popped poor old Bob’s glasses over the top, so Lynda thinks it’s just Bob playing dress up. It’s almost a masterclass in deadpan humor that Michael even does it as a prelude to murdering Lynda. Especially as his understanding of whatever bit he’s doing extends to strangling Lynda as she’s on the phone with Laurie, who just thinks Lynda and Bob are getting frisky.

Michael Myers can do comedy and horror, just like his Canadian namesake.

He’s Not Dead

It’s quite the cliche at this point, but Michael’s repeated revivals really sell his relentless murder lust. That’s mainly down to how Carpenter frames it. Long before The Undertaker was getting a pop for ”rising from the dead” in a match, Michael had perfected it. The intensity of Laurie’s panicked scrambles as she temporarily staggers Myers, the dread drop of him getting back up time and again, and especially that final escape .

The Haunting of Haddonfield

It’s almost unfortunate we ever had a single sequel to Halloween’s story because the impact of the ending would be so much stronger, having the ambiguity of Laurie’s future after these events and the dread-inducing worry of where Michael had gone and whether he was alive or dead. Either way, you feel that Myers haunts Haddonfield forever.

But that genie is well and truly out of the bottle at this point, so we can only admire the other way he haunts Haddonfield on Halloween. His uncanny ability to be both in plain sight and almost invisible is intriguing. In daylight, he gets to blend in simply because of the date, but come nightfall, he sticks to the shadows and goes full killer. Either way, Michael is always there, always watching, and when night does fall, he’ll kill again. He’s the ghost of a town’s tragic past.



Source link

Tags: CarpentersClassicJohnpartsSlasher
Share30Tweet19
rmtsa

rmtsa

Recommended For You

Are You Ready For Some Football Horror?

by rmtsa
September 18, 2025
0
Are You Ready For Some Football Horror?

Football is like a religion in America. That’s a juicy premise for a horror movie that conflates one with the other. But just as the most clever play...

Read more

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Reviews Lead to Poor Rotten Tomatoes Score

by rmtsa
September 18, 2025
0
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Reviews Lead to Poor Rotten Tomatoes Score

The romantic fantasy feature A Big Beautiful Journey has received mixed to negative reviews from critics, leading to a disappointing score on Rotten Tomatoes. Kogonada (Columbus) directed the...

Read more

Marlon Wayans in Jordan Peele-Produced Football Horror

by rmtsa
September 18, 2025
0
Marlon Wayans in Jordan Peele-Produced Football Horror

There are so many horror stories about professional sports that it’s surprising there aren’t more horror movies about professional sports. The new film produced by Jordan Peele aims...

Read more

Hi /r/movies! We’re Rich Williamson & Shasha Nakhai. Our film BOTS just premiered at TIFF and is now available for free on YouTube. We also made SCARBOROUGH (TIFF People’s Choice Runner Up in 2021), TAKE LIGHT, and FRAME 394. Ask us anything!

by rmtsa
September 18, 2025
0
Hi /r/movies! We’re Rich Williamson & Shasha Nakhai. Our film BOTS just premiered at TIFF and is now available for free on YouTube. We also made SCARBOROUGH (TIFF People’s Choice Runner Up in 2021), TAKE LIGHT, and FRAME 394. Ask us anything!

Hi r/movies! We’re Rich Williamson & Shasha Nakhai. Our film BOTS just premiered at TIFF and is now available for free on YouTube. We also made SCARBOROUGH (TIFF...

Read more

TULSA KING Renewed for Season 4 with Terence Winter Returning as Head Writer — GeekTyrant

by rmtsa
September 18, 2025
0
TULSA KING Renewed for Season 4 with Terence Winter Returning as Head Writer — GeekTyrant

Paramount+ isn’t ready to let go of Tulsa King just yet. The streamer has officially renewed the hit crime drama for Season 4, and along with the announcement...

Read more
Next Post
Meghan McCain Slams Ariana Madix for Blocking Her on IG

Meghan McCain Slams Ariana Madix for Blocking Her on IG

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized

CATEGORIES

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
No Result
View All Result

Recent News

  • Candiace Dillard Bassett Teases Traitors Season 4 Reunion Drama Exclusive
  • Dave Portnoy Stirs Up Controversy With His Take On Jimmy Kimmel Cancellation
  • Fredo Bang Opens Up About Pain, Progress and Putting Family First

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In