October 31st...Not So Far Away

Well since Halloween is rolling around what other movie would I discuss besides well ...John Carpenter's Halloween. Insert creepy jingle here* (Notice that I said John Carpenter's and not that horrible remake by Rob Zombie) Halloween is the best movie that Carpenter has ever made and one of the best horror movies ever made. I beleive this to be true for a few reasons; the ability to relate to Halloween, the creation of terror without blood, and the character of Michael Myers.


I ralked about this a little bit in my earlier post, but Halloween is so scary because the majority of people have experienced trick-or-treating. These experiences hold a special place in the minds of many. When something so positve from your childhood is turned into something evil, this has a lasting effect. Also it is a topic everyone can relate to. People can imagine this sort of thing happeneing in there neighborhood and the scenes are set up so well that it could be any neighborhood in the midwest.

The next big thing this movie did was create terror in scenes without using alot of gore. Instead of using alot of blood to get the shock factor Carpenter chose to depict the scenes are realistic as possible and use that to frighten the audience. The other aspect that allows the movie to still be scary and not use blood is the use of emotion in scenes. Jaimie Lee Curtis was extremely emotional over everything with her character. On the other end of the spectrum is Michael Myers that did the most horrible things and never showed and ounce of emotion.

Speaking of Michael Myers, lets discuss him further. Myers is just pure evil. He killed his family, among many other people, and never once showed an ounce of emotion. This is scary, usually we would expect people to fell bad about things. Some killers in movies will show an enjoyment for killing, but Myers does not even do that. Michael Myers maintains a stoic expression throughout the film...creepy.

This movie is truly revolutionary and out of all the holiday movies made this is the only one that ever really caught on. Other movies use forgetable actors in roles that should have never been written. Then they use a holiday theme to try and make a quick buck. Halloween has a great actress in Curtis and one of the most frightening monsters in Hollywood history with Michael Myers. I can not wait until I have kids that are old enough to watch this movie. I will show it to them on Halloween just as my parents did to me...scaring the crap out of them and giving them a love of the holiday.