"Halloween" Franchise Rewind Marathon: 'John Carpenter's Halloween'

The one. The only. The classic.

By: Josh McCormack

For the past few days I have been taking a look back at the long-running "Halloween" franchise leading up to the release of David Gordon Green's latest entry. Since the newest film is wiping the slate clean of all the sequels and remakes, I thought we could turn back the clock and talk about all of the films in reverse order. 

Happy Halloween!

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I'm about to tell you what most of you already know, but John Carpenter's 'Halloween' is a masterpiece. 

It is rightfully renowned as one of the crowning achievements in horror cinema and it is in its simplicity that it is leaps and bounds better than its imitators. 'Halloween' changed horror films forever. Even more so than a cultural milestone like 'The Exorcist'. It proved that it didn't take big names, a huge budget or even the most high-tech equipment to make an effective horror movie. And it singlehandedly launched the slasher genre into the mainstream.

This review will be less of an analysis on the film itself (y'all already know how great this movie is), but more of a look at why this movie works when most of the other sequels just don't.

For starters, 'Halloween' is a movie that cuts out any of the fat it doesn't need from a storytelling perspective. You could say this is because of budget, but I think it's because John Carpenter is just a brilliant storyteller who doesn't want to bog down a movie that's meant to shock an audience with useless exposition. Michael Myers kills because he is "purely and simply evil". There's no bullshit about his family life (Ya hear that, Rob Zombie?!), he doesn't share any telepathic connections or blood relation with his victims. His insanity and murderous nature is almost supernatural since there is no rhyme or reason to it. I love the way even Donald Pleasance's Doctor Sam Loomis (named after the male hero in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho') seems to not even know how to reach him after fifteen years of having Michael as his patient.

It's in the enigmatic nature of Michael that makes him the most frightening. Referred in the film's closing credits as none other than "The Shape", Michael spends more of the film silently stalking and terrorizing the film's protagonists than he does violently murdering them. It's this game of cat and mouse that is another element lost in the later films. 'Halloween' is a slow burn and the best type of slow burn, because the payoffs feel absolutely worth the wait.

In a video I attached to my review of Rob Zombie's 'Halloween II', Gene Siskel mentions how everything in the original 'Halloween' is "up" and gets you excited rather than making you feel depressed and I feel this is an aspect of the Carpenter's original film that doesn't get commented on enough. By no means is 'Halloween' winking at itself, but it knows that the audience is there to have a good time as well as get scared.  The movie is actually really intentionally funny sometimes with a whole lighthearted sense of fun from its lead characters that just makes you root for them, rather than want to see them get killed by Michael as you would in the sequels.

Speaking of the characters, the original 'Halloween' also succeeds because it keeps its cast to a limited number and gives each of them time to breathe and leave an impact. They all are very well-defined with Lynda being the "Totally" bubbly cheerleader, Annie being the snarky best friend, and Laurie being the shy but eventually resilient main character.

Donald Pleasance is also at his best here. Before his character would wind up being a caricature, Doctor Loomis is initially a man just as frightened as everyone else about Michael's reign of terror, but he's trying to keep his cool and almost always failing at it till the film's climax. 

What else is there to say about this movie? It's gorgeous to look at, the score is iconic and it still remains pretty damn scary. And all of this for a budget of only $300,000!

John Carpenter's 'Halloween' has and will continue to have many imitators. But I don't believe any will ever be able to reach its heights.