C.T Recommended: Halloween (1978)

Directed by John Carpenter

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence

The story follows Michael Myers who killed his sister on Halloween night. Fifteen years later, he escapes a sanitarium to stalk again in the town of Haddonfield.

Finally! We are in the month of October, and I would like to announce the 31 Days of Horror. To celebrate, I will be posting horror content everyday, and this will also go towards C.T Recommended, Reviews, and Lightning Reviews. Without further a do, Let us dive to my first recommended film of this month, a film with so much legacy, the original Halloween.

The one, the only, the classic, Halloween. A movie with so much influence to the horror genre, that it highly popularized slasher films in the 80's, and became a blueprint for horror films such as Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. The original's high success with it's low budget of up to $325,000, helped spawn seven successful films, but not quite hitting the mark like the original did with it's suspense.

The acting was great, with Jamie Lee Curtis playing Laurie Strode, and Donald Pleasence playing Dr. Sam Loomis. The film's impact help popularize the final-girl trope in horror films, which were used in other successful films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and Ridley Scott's Alien, giving Curtis the label "Scream Queen". The camera work in the film was incredible, using the first-person POV in the beginning scene to see from Michael's evil eyes as he carry's out his sister's murder. The tracking shots on the streets establish the environment and the mood of the holiday as well as the film. Michael as a character, is threatening and terrifying and that wouldn't be the case if it wasn't for Tommy Lee Wallace, the production designer. He created the trademark mask Michael Myers wore throughout the film. The mask was originally a Captain Kirk mask, with significant changes the mask was altered to look really frightening and emotionless.

The cinematography was done incredibly by Dean Cundey, who's silhouette and lighting shots gave the film the edge in the slasher genre, making Michael Myers a visible threat. The score done magnificently by John Carpenter was simple and unsophisticated, as well as keeping the suspense evident throughout the movie.

With the new movie directly being a sequel to the original, I as a fan cannot wait for it's release, and seeing Halloween go back to it's roots with its suspenseful horror, instead of the body-counting graphic horror they tried to do in the pointless sequels.

My rating: 10/10

#CTRecommended #2018