Listen now | The final movie in Spooky Month is John Carpenter’s Halloween. We both really enjoyed this movie! John Carpenter is a skilled filmmaker, and he thrives within the constraints of a low budget. There’s such an ambitious creativity behind Halloween, it’s easy to see why it’s considered a classic.
I didn’t dislike this movie, but I can’t say I got much out of it. It’s so simple that it feels a bit substanceless.
Mike Meyers doesn’t have any depth or personality, he’s just evil. His doctor doesn’t have much to do besides reminding us how evil he is. Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends are like sketches of generic teenagers without a ton of depth. The plot is extremely simple, and for most of the film there’s very little momentum.
None of these things are deal-breakers, but put together, there’s not much I can latch onto in this film besides some effective shots. I feel like you could cut this movie down to a half hour and not lose anything. I haven’t seen many slashers, so this might just be me not connecting with the genre.
This is a great movie that works so well because of its simplicity. Not only in the actual production of the movie but in the pretty much every other element as well. I love the main theme and it’s funny to hear John Carpenter talk about writing it and the rest of the score in only three days. He said he was heavily inspired by the theme from The Exorcist as well as the score for Suspiria, two other horror classics. It’s funny that both this and Psycho got selected for this month because Janet Leigh, who plays Marion in Psycho, is Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother. They are both horror icons with Janet Leigh being in the first real slasher movie and her daughter being in the first one that really solidified the template for all the ones to come. If you guys are interested in watching more John Carpenter you’ve got to check out The Thing from 1982, another horror classic.
Oct 28, 2022·edited Oct 28, 2022Liked by Anna Rettberg
It's the first time I watch Halloween and I was really impressed, I wasn't expecting a movie that intense. I haven't watched a ton of slasher films either, but it's the first time I see a film with so many 1st person shots from the point of view of the killer. I think Carpenter really nailed the mood of being stalked. The way he shots from the car driven by Myers creates a contrast between peaceful suburbia and the character's deranged point of view, which makes the whole thing extremely uneasy. I liked how the houses were shown as death traps as well, with every room threshold being a potential place to be attacked. Carpenter uses a lot of frame within a frame shots with door frames or through windows, I thought it really captured well the feeling of being trapped.
For the historical perspective, Psycho is considered the first slasher movie, then in the 60s there were italian Giallo films, and then Halloween was the first film in the 70s to set a trend of slasher movies in the United States. Siskel and Ebert even made a special on that, they were both appalled by the number of low quality slashers movies that came out in the early 80s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2TC1E8nn-M
In a way, for me the highlight of the month may be Psycho, I thought about it for the last two weeks and I think I'm starting to get more out of it. From what I know the usual take on it is how the shower scene editing was new and the plot structure was looser than usual with Marion Crane being killed midway, but to go beyond that I think the key is what you said about how Hitchcock cared about villain characters. For me the interesting part is the intimacy you get with Marion Crane and Norman Bates. Like you said in the Psycho podcast, we hear inner thoughts of both characters, but I would also add that we also see them in really intimate settings. The two scenes that stands out for me is Marion Crane driving under the rain and Norman Bates standing pensively at the swamp. There's also the scene when Marion Crane is interrogated by the policeman in the car, I think Hitchcock succeeded to make you feel how nervous and threatened she feels. So like Halloween is a much better horror slasher movie, but Psycho to me has really interesting psychological slice of life moments and more proximity with characters.
I didn’t dislike this movie, but I can’t say I got much out of it. It’s so simple that it feels a bit substanceless.
Mike Meyers doesn’t have any depth or personality, he’s just evil. His doctor doesn’t have much to do besides reminding us how evil he is. Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends are like sketches of generic teenagers without a ton of depth. The plot is extremely simple, and for most of the film there’s very little momentum.
None of these things are deal-breakers, but put together, there’s not much I can latch onto in this film besides some effective shots. I feel like you could cut this movie down to a half hour and not lose anything. I haven’t seen many slashers, so this might just be me not connecting with the genre.
This is a great movie that works so well because of its simplicity. Not only in the actual production of the movie but in the pretty much every other element as well. I love the main theme and it’s funny to hear John Carpenter talk about writing it and the rest of the score in only three days. He said he was heavily inspired by the theme from The Exorcist as well as the score for Suspiria, two other horror classics. It’s funny that both this and Psycho got selected for this month because Janet Leigh, who plays Marion in Psycho, is Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother. They are both horror icons with Janet Leigh being in the first real slasher movie and her daughter being in the first one that really solidified the template for all the ones to come. If you guys are interested in watching more John Carpenter you’ve got to check out The Thing from 1982, another horror classic.
It's the first time I watch Halloween and I was really impressed, I wasn't expecting a movie that intense. I haven't watched a ton of slasher films either, but it's the first time I see a film with so many 1st person shots from the point of view of the killer. I think Carpenter really nailed the mood of being stalked. The way he shots from the car driven by Myers creates a contrast between peaceful suburbia and the character's deranged point of view, which makes the whole thing extremely uneasy. I liked how the houses were shown as death traps as well, with every room threshold being a potential place to be attacked. Carpenter uses a lot of frame within a frame shots with door frames or through windows, I thought it really captured well the feeling of being trapped.
For the historical perspective, Psycho is considered the first slasher movie, then in the 60s there were italian Giallo films, and then Halloween was the first film in the 70s to set a trend of slasher movies in the United States. Siskel and Ebert even made a special on that, they were both appalled by the number of low quality slashers movies that came out in the early 80s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2TC1E8nn-M
In a way, for me the highlight of the month may be Psycho, I thought about it for the last two weeks and I think I'm starting to get more out of it. From what I know the usual take on it is how the shower scene editing was new and the plot structure was looser than usual with Marion Crane being killed midway, but to go beyond that I think the key is what you said about how Hitchcock cared about villain characters. For me the interesting part is the intimacy you get with Marion Crane and Norman Bates. Like you said in the Psycho podcast, we hear inner thoughts of both characters, but I would also add that we also see them in really intimate settings. The two scenes that stands out for me is Marion Crane driving under the rain and Norman Bates standing pensively at the swamp. There's also the scene when Marion Crane is interrogated by the policeman in the car, I think Hitchcock succeeded to make you feel how nervous and threatened she feels. So like Halloween is a much better horror slasher movie, but Psycho to me has really interesting psychological slice of life moments and more proximity with characters.
See you in November!