Halloween (1978) [movie]

[purpleravenhawk]

Anyone who hasn't seen this one needs to drop what they're doing and go rent it. 3nodding Or at least look for it on TV, since it's on around Halloween every year. Best slasher movie ever. Pretty much invented the genre. Spawned a ton of sequels, none of which were as good as the original and most of which didn't even seem to be trying. Jamie Lee Curtis rocks in this movie, and suspense was maintained at just the right pitch. Watch it in the dark with the windows open, and I guarantee you'll be paranoid by the end of the movie. On the surface, the plot is a typical slasher movie one: killer stalks young, sex-crazed high schoolers and kills them one by one. But there's more to the story, especially when we learn that Jamie Lee is actually SPOILER: Michael's long-lost sister, and he's looking for her. Plus, Michael's not really a normal human. We don't know why (until movie number 6 mucks it up), but it makes him that much scarier. The best thing about the movie, tho, is the slowly building suspense and the normal scenes of every day life that seem to have something tiny wrong with them. It's more subtle than most slasher flicks.

The second movie in the franchise came closest to duplicating the perfection of the first one, partly because it picks up right where the first one leaves off. The third one had nothing to do with the iconic killer Michael Myers, which was a huge mistake and really weird. The fourth and fifth and sixth ones don't really fit in with the chronology of the ones that come after it, but they're okay on their own. The sixth one tried too hard to give Michael a well-rounded background; part of the scariness of the original was that you didn't know where the hell he came from; plus, they basically turned him into a puppet, which was stupid. The seventh one came 20 years after the first and was called H20; it was the best of all the sequels after the second one, if only because it brought Jamie Lee back to the series and seemed to resolve a lot of stuff and give a satisfying end to the whole story. But then, they made another one. The last one (so far) was called Resurrection, and for some reason, it negated the end of H20, which was the best part of that movie, and used brand new people to do a stupid reality show story about idiots hanging out in Michael's old house, which for some reason pisses him off. It was the dumbest movie in the series. Then, there are the new remakes of the first two movies. I haven't seen them, and I'm not really interested. If you have, let me know what you thought and how they compare to the first ones.  

[Moonracer]

Huh...had no idea about that. Though I think I've seen tidbits of this movie mostly because of spoofs off of it or mention of a scene ya know that kind of stuff. I've never really been one for horror flicks or slasher flicks, but who knows maybe one day I'll give this a try we'll see.

As for the remakes my friend is a HUGE horror/slasher/whatever fan and so has probably seen them. I could ask her for her take on them if ya like?  

[purpleravenhawk]

Please and thank you. 3nodding I wanna know if they're any good.  

[Moonracer]

You got it! I'll talk to her and see if she's willing to do that. ^_^

*blink* Sweet mother of the dark ones...that is a lot of stuff. Okay this is what she says about the remake of the first movie. (It's the only one she's seen so far.)

Like many of the horror fans out there I went through my phase of being angry and disgusted that they would remake Halloween and especially that Rob Zombie would be the director to do it. This eventually wore off and I came to terms with it. I am a fan of Rob Zombie and as it got nearer to the release date I came to believe that I would probably enjoy the movie, although I figured it still wouldn't compare to the original. Hell, I was even pretty excited to go see it (It's rare these days that we get to see horror films out of Hollywood made by people who actually give a s**t about the genre, which is why I like Zombie even though I don't find him to be a genius director or anything like that.)

Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with what I saw. For the most part, the first half of the movie was interesting and held my attention but once it became night time, the whole film went downhill. Essentially, like many "slasher movies" today, the last 30 minutes or so of the film turned into a string of boring chase sequences. Don't get me wrong, chase sequences are essential to these kinds of movies, but they can't carry a movie for half an hour.

It seemed to me that one of the main problems was that Zombie seemed to drop the ball when Michael Myers completely turns into a silent killer. His talent as a writer is in creating interesting characters (i.e. house of 1000 corpses & the devil's rejects), but with no personality left in his killer, the script and other characters become boring. Rob Zombie is not a suspense director and the attempts he made at it during this film were pretty lame. It wasn't scary and none of the "jump scares" worked. This isn't to say that he is a bad filmmaker, he just seems to be out of his element with this movie.

Although I thought the back story was decent and entertaining enough, I still tend to find Michael Myers a more interesting character with less back story and more mystery like in the original.

(That's what she said about the first remake since she hasn't seen the second she can't say, but it sounds like she's going to see the second. So if she does I'll make sure she writes a "Her take" on it and then I'll post it in here. ^_^)  

[purpleravenhawk]

Thanks! That pretty much confirmed what I was expecting. I like Rob Zombie too, but I also think he should stick to his own element. I wasn't expecting anything great for these remakes. Thank your friend for me. Now I know not to waste any money on this one. whee The Halloween movies are nothing without suspense and mystery; you'll notice I mentioned that in my first post. surprised Looks like she and I are on the same page here.  

[Moonracer]

Whatever you say man this is out of MY element. *laughs* Anyway, yeah sure I'll let her know that you appreciate the info. If she watches the second one remake do you still want to hear what she has to say about it?  

[purpleravenhawk]

Yeah, I'm curious whether they made any improvements, or if it's all downhill from there.  

[Moonracer]

"If you like Rob Zombie movies, sans Halloween I, then you will like this one. Its definitely a psychological aspect of the original, however, its much more modern-like. I cannot say much or I'll ruin it however it shows Lori's (I think that's her name, its been a while) mental spiral and how the events effected her mentally. The movie picks up for a moment at the hospital then literally a moment or two after movie one, like it just smoothly continued on. Sorry I can't say much more. Oh! Watch the alternate scenes and bloopers, you can watch the head eating toilet."

(That is what my friend said about Halloween II the remake version. I thought you'd be interested in that.)  

[purpleravenhawk]

Hmm, I like psychological stuff, but it doesn't sound like much of an improvement on the first one, honestly. Thanks for letting me know. 3nodding