Halloween
by John Carpenter
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Actor: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes, P.J. Soles, Tony MoranDirector: John Carpenter
Brand: STARZ HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Writer: John Carpenter
Writer: Debra Hill
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, NTSC
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-14
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Anamorphic; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Halloween
DVD Review: The Blackest Eyes......The Devil's 5 Stars
Horror films tend to succeed on one of two levels: by appealing to the imagination, or by assaulting the emotions(or in some cases the senses). I don't know that any movie has ever managed to achieve as much, on both levels simultaneously, as Halloween. The movie is beautiful and stylistic,on the one hand, yet primal and suspenseful on the other.There are just so many things in this film that work. So many things that are just 'right', for lack of a better word. Take Michael Myers himself, for example. He is the ultimate slasher villain. You can conceive him as an insane freak of nature, or the very embodiment of Death itself. He can be this macabre phantom one a brutish animal the next. Despite his size, he can appear out of nowhere, get from place to place without being seen, be right in the room with you but go unnoticed. Yet alongside of this ethereal quality there exists a savagery, vividly demonstrated when he impaled that strapping young man to the wall, or when he sated his hunger by devouring a local dog.
I have heard people refer to Michael Myers as an 'efficient' killer. Usually producers and other business oriented people who are utterly clueless about such matters. Of course, Myers CAN be efficient when he so chooses.But it is hardly his typical mode of operation. Myers is a gamesman, a prankster........the ultimate sportsman.
Again and again, he offers opportunities to his prospective victims to salvage their lives. The most glaring example is when Annie gets trapped in the laundry room. At one point, she even gets stuck halfway in and out of the window. There could be no more convenient juncture for an 'efficient killer' to do his thing. But what does Myers do? He eschews this golden opportunity. Far, far too easy.
Even when he's lurking in the back seat of the car, he goes so far as to give her one, final chance. One last, brazen hint, which she DOES eventually she gets it about 3 seconds too late.
Linda and her boyfriend get similar clues. Laurie not only gets hints as to what is happening, but once the attack is under way, he even gives her what amounts to a couple of TIME-OUTS!!
An efficient killer does not operate this way. But a hunter, if he is a true sportsman, does. And this is what makes Myers the ideal slasher killer. He may offer you several chances to save your life.......but you cannot count on this. He is the ghoulish personification of Death, and the unrivalled alpha male among slasher villains.
Myers is the most obvious factor. But Dr.Loomis is essential, as well. Strong, determined, and obsessive, he is the virtuous flipside to the hunter he is, himself, hunting.You get the feeling that Loomis feels just about as at home in those shadows as Myers himself.I regard Loomis as the premiere hero in horror history, certainly the most essential character in this series aside from Myers. Donald Pleasence anchored this series, and his death was something from which the Halloween movies have never even come close to recovering.Jamie Lee Curtis, of course, was cast in the other major role in the film. Laurie Strode is a terrific 'final girl.' Awkward, shy, and good-natured, but resilient and courageous, as well. In many respects, she set the standard for what we have come to expect from slasher heroines.
There are so many 'little' factors that serve to enhance the atmosphere of this film. The sound of children's voices chanting that creepy nursery rhyme. The muffled sound of Myer's animalistic breathing through his cadaverous mask.The mystique of Dr. Loomis......what exactly did he see during those 15 years in the sanitarium that aroused THIS level of obsession? The occasional glimpse of cascading leaves, or a solitary jack o'lantern, to offer us subtle reminders of the season. The ghastly shadows on the front of the Myers' house. The sight of the escaped lunatics, in their white hospital gowns, roaming aimlessly on the horizon. The way Myers tilts his head,like a curious animal, when he is gazing at the victim he had impaled to the wall with that huge butcher knife.......
Yet, for all that, it would not be the same film if not for the pace. The pace of Halloween feels virtually like real-time. Once you get to Halloween morning, the action is timed in such a way that it feels like you are watching an actual day unfold. The downside is that the film feels a bit slow in the middle. It didn't really bother me, but I have heard some people complain about this. The upside, of course, is that, once you buy into the timing, everything feels so authentic, so absolutely real.
I have never seen a more suspenseful film than Halloween. The final twenty minutes or so, it is like you are literally watching a young girl fighting for her life. For pure suspense, that closet scene may be the greatest moment in slasher film history.It is one of the most suspenseful,nervewracking scenes you will ever encounter in ANY film, from ANY genre.
But compare that to another sequence in the movie, that took place a few minutes before. I refer to the part where Laurie Strode goes over to check on her friends. That's basically all there is to it-a girl crossing a street, going from one house to another.But, in its own way, this scene is nearly as brilliant as the closet segment. A brief, simple walk, across a lonely street, to see if her friends are okay. You don't see any killers, or dead bodies, or violence of any kind. Just the occasional falling leaves, or the gentle autumnal winds caressing her hair. Just a girl crossing a street.
But Carpenter imbues that one scene with more dread, more anticipation, more mystery, more subdued horror, than most directors are able to attain over the course of entire films.
So often, genius lies not in what you do, but in HOW you do it.
Michael Myers, Dr. Loomis, and Laurie Strode are the participants in a deadly 'triangular hunt', of sorts. All of it takes place in a typical American neighborhood, against the backdrop of an idyllic Halloween night......and there is simply nothing else like it.
Description of Halloween
The film which ushered in the modern age of horror stands well above its many sequels and clones because John Carpenter's taut direction makes it truly scary. Jamie Lee Curtis in her debut role plays a babysitter who must protect herself from the deadly Michael Myers a mental institution escapee who killed his sister on Halloween fifteen years earlier. Called "the most successful independent motion picture of all time" HALLOWEEN is also one of most frightening films ever made.System Requirements:Running Time: 92 mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 013131542899 Manufacturer No: DV15428Bestsellers in DVD
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