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Lets discuss John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978)

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Horse Detective

Why the long case?
So I am aware that Gaf does not have much of a slasher horror fan base, but I figure many of you have seen this film.

Did it do anything for you?

I personally find it to be the most enjoyable of the slasher-horror sub genre, simply because the music and overall feel of the setting is so creepy. Another thing I have always liked is how iconic the design of "the shape" is.


jRvAhQ3YFLhxQ.jpg
 
The beginning scared the shit out of me as a kid, whereas I didn't find most of the rest that scary. Still, I always thought it was very good

Donald Pleasence deserves a lot of credit for giving some weight to the film. A lot of horror or "cheesy" films have a serious British guy to make you believe something, and he handles the job perfectly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBMoxTSPq-c
 

Jangaroo

Always the tag bridesmaid, never the tag bride.
One of my favorite horror movies of all time. It's been years since I last saw it though. Should probably check it out again.
 

MikeMyers

Member
I put my username as MikeMyers after this film.

I'm a huge John Carpenter fan, and meeting him was the greatest moment of my life. He's fallen off since 1995 though. :/
 

botty

Banned
Halloween is an incredible film.

The most tension comes from how perfectly paced the music is with Michael Meyers. Watching Michael move slowly towards his victims, while that iconic theme comes on is just gold.

I really like Michael's mask too. It's pale, emotionless, and has these two eye holes that are just always pitch black. Crazy that a WS mask would be so terrifying.
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
I really like Michael's mask too. It's pale, emotionless, and has these two eye holes that are just always pitch black. Crazy that a WS mask would be so terrifying.
William Shatner's face spray painted white is pretty creepy!


I've seen the entire series millions of times, but I would only recommend the first one.

Yeah, the others don't really build on the story, and by part 6, it turns into this weird convoluted shit fest.

He is a lot scarier when the viewer is not sure what is driving him.
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
H5 and H6 were weird, but I kinda dig them, the opening credits to H5 with the pumpkin carving was awesome.

The opening of part 4 is my absolute favorite. (not the hospital scene, the intro where the fall setting and the landscape is shown). When I saw that as a kid I thought it was the creepiest thing.

I enjoyed the movie itself, but it was still a "meh"/5.


The original is great. The Rob Zombie remake is a piece of shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8QWGrtPVyU
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
One of the scariest movies of all time. I was traumatised as a kid!

Also, what's "the shape"?

The name of Michael before they called him Michael.

I only use it because as a stand alone film discussion, it makes more sense. The whole "Michael Myers" angle didn't really build until the sequel.
 

vidcons

Banned
Good movie.

Amazing box art/poster.

Seriously, look at that thing. The motion of the hand and knife into a jack-o-lantern. Just like.. damn, the guy who drew that actually saw the movie beforehand.
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
It was awful, isn't there second Rob Zombie Halloween out there?

My main issue with it was just that I hate Rob Zombie's style.

Other than that, I guess he did okay, since he at least did something new. He did not capture the same feeling of the original at all.
 

-Mikey-

Member
I LOVE the original. I was pretty obsessed with scaring the shit out of myself when I was 10 and watched it at night by myself. Bad move.

One of those showings is pretty close to me! Can't wait to see it on the big screen.
 

Daigoro

Member
love it. probably my favorite horror film of all time.

i love how creepy the first part of the film is during the daylight. thats one of my favorite things about it. scary in the light of day is the best kind of scary.

definitely a classic.
 

Lakitu

st5fu
While the rest range from mediocre to shit, the original is classic. Going to be watching it this October for sure. One of my favourites, so much tension.
 
Saw these guys play a years time ago and it reminded me of how much I loved this damn movie. Remember as a fairly young kid buying a VHS box set with the movies, power and a shirt in, was wearing that with pride despite it being way too large for me.
 
Great movie. Very fun!

Did you know that during the production of the movie, John Carpenter and part of his crew gave a talk at a university about the movie. The students panned it and called the group of film makers "sell-outs" and said the movie would suck because it wasn't "art". Hoho. In your faces pretentious film school kids.
 
One of the very horror movies I watched when I was a child. Loved it, saw it hundreds of times, and enjoyed it so much I make myself watch every sequel or remake.
 
It's iconic.

Can't believe the remake tried to give Myers a backstory and tried to explain his motivations. Not knowing why he did it was what made it scary!
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
It's iconic.

Can't believe the remake tried to give Myers a backstory and tried to explain his motivations. Not knowing why he did it was what made it scary!

Yep. With respect to the argument that remakes should be unique to the original, there was no place for a back story in this film. It was just unnecessary.
 

sega4ever

Member
is this the one with the hot chick who's father is a cop and she has a shirt that says cops do it by the book?

even if part 2 is weaker, i love that its starts immediately where the 1st ends.
 

MattDoza

Member
When I think about it, I immediately hear the music. Also, all of the moments you see Michael, lurking.

Yeah, I'm totally watching this again, this Halloween. It's been a long time.
 

DiscoJer

Member
It's really not a slasher film. It works so well because it's really suspense and building up the characters, only to kill them off at the end. When you like characters it has so much more of an impact.

I mean, in most movies I get more upset about when the dog dies than the people.
 

Solo

Member
Greatest horror film ever shot. Carpenter understood suspense like Hitchcock did and like no one who has touched the franchise since has. What you don't show is a lot scarier than anything you can show. Also big ups to Dean Cundey's cinematography. I could watch this weekly and never tire of it.

And of course, Carpenter's score is the most springe-tinglingly awesome one you'll find in horrir outside a Goblin score.
 

Solo

Member
I love the franchise. Don't get me wrong, the first film is the masterpiece and none of the rest are even remotely close.

Havong said that, both 2 and 3 are damn fine movies. Not surprising since Carpenter was still in the picture. 2 is kind of a retread, but its done quite well and has some great sequences and an awesome ending. 3 is awesome and it pains me to see how it failed with audiences and how Carpenter's idea of each Halloween film featuring a different terror was jettisoned in favor of THE MICHAEL MYERS SHOW.

4, 5 and 6 are pretty bog standard slashers and brought in that "curse of thorn" nonsense, but they are inoffensive for the most part.

H20 was kind of fun and I nice return to the roots........until Resurrection came along and shit all over the franchise.

I liked Zombie's movies - they were the best efforts since 3. But his films had 2 fatal flaws: first, his trailer-trash hillbilly dialogue style was 10 shades of wrong for Halloween, and second (and most grevious), he committed the cardinal since by trying to humanize Michael.

1 >>>>>>>>>> 3 > 2 >>>>>>>>>> RZH (9) > RZH2 (10) > H20 (7) > 4 > 5 > Curse of Michael Myers (6) > Resurrection (8)

First 3 are the only 3 I would ever recommend to anyone though, unless I knew they were Rob Zombie film fans.
 

Horseticuffs

Full werewolf off the buckle
I love part 1 soooo much. I even edited out the nudity/sex talk in Windows Movie Maker so that my kids could watch it with me.

Part 2 was totally awesome, too, but you can tell that they felt pressure to be influenced by what the other big slasher films of the time were doing. It feels more like a Friday the 13'th than a Halloween.

I even love part 3. I wish that they had stuck with the direction that Carpenter wanted with the series (a new story based on the holiday every year or two).

Hell, Halloween 4 and 5 are really fun guilty pleasures, too.

It's a shame that everyone ever involved with the franchise, EVER, died in that tragic yacht fire after part 5 and that they'll never make any movies in the franchise again after part 5, right guys?
 
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