Can you believe I’ve never reviewed Halloween before?! Here goes.

I remember the first time I saw Halloween on VHS in the late 80’s here in the UK. It was in pan-and-scan, and hence not the perfect format to watch a film that used the frame so brilliantly. But I’d learn that as the film would be released in widescreen on VHS, then DVD, then Blu-ray, not to mention 4K. But this first screening still worked and I knew I had just watched a masterpiece.

The film concerns the apparently random killing of Judith Myers by a killer, from his point of view. Shockingly, the killer is then shown to be her six-year-old brother, Michael. Years later and he has been in the Smith’s Grove mental facility ever seen. Unfortunately, he escapes in his doctor’s car with Dr Loomis following in hot pursuit. Loomis knows where he’s heading- Haddonfield, Illinois, where he murdered his sister. He may want to repeat history and kill someone else.

There’s so much to love about Halloween- the look of the film with its use of Panavision (this looked even more distinctive in pan and scan), the colour palette, the iconic score (director John Carpenter also wrote the soundtrack. He tells a story about when studio executives saw a rough cut of the film without the music and said it was pretty good. They then saw the film with the score in place and said they had just witnessed a masterpiece that had scared them witless!), the perfect cast, the build-ups, the kills themselves…the list is endless.

But there’s more going on within the film. It feels like the plot could have been told in 1978, 1878 or now. It’s timeless, like a campfire tale or an urban legend. A tale that is still as relevant today and has been passed down from generation to generation. Its theme of Good vs Evil is all around us and always will be.

I also love the fact that it’s purposefully atypical and could take place anywhere. The fact that it’s set in Haddonfield, Illinois, a small town in the Midwest makes it feel like it’s set in Anytown, USA as its tale and themes are so universal. This is also demonstrated at the end of the film where we get a final look at some of the locales where this bloody tale has taken place whilst we hear Michael’s heavy breathing over the soundtrack.

Some of the characters are also archetypes and do archetypal acts in their roles. One example is of the three teens Laurie, Lynda and Annie, especially the scene of them together, talking about things teenage girls would talk about (cheerleading, boys, homework). These girls could be any three girls whereas Michael is the personification of Evil.

Freud would have a field day with the case history of Myers and his motivations. He is dark instinct. That’s why in the later sequels, where his kills become more and more Hollywood, it doesn’t ring true to me. Within this first film, he is a killing machine, a human shark and is so much more terrifying because of it. Michael’s blank expressionless ‘face’ (a Captain Kirk mask altered by members of the production team) is the perfect outward display of someone who has human features but no emotion. Witness his reaction to the dead body of Bob. His reaction to his death is one of puzzlement. As is stated in Halloween, Michael Myers is The Bogeyman but made flesh.

There needs to be special mention made to the amazing character of Laurie Strode, the primary target of Myers. What an amazing female character with her being shown to be intelligent, pragmatic and almost psychic when it comes to the horror that awaits her. One scene that always struck me when I first saw the film, was the walk she takes over to the house where her friend is babysitting (or so she thinks) and how much it reminded me of Vera Miles’ walk over to the Bates house in Psycho. In any other hands, these scenes would be pure filler, but set up by masters such as Carpenter and Hitchcock, they are doom-laden, suspense-filled moments and precursors to unbridled horror.

The Panaglide also lends an ethereal element to proceedings with the camera seemingly floating ominously throughout the film as if events and characters within the narrative are heavily medicated. When this is combined with the POV (point of view) shots and the heavybreathing behind the mask, this is truly devastating.

Halloween also features what I still consider to be the scariest sequence of any horror film. Laurie has just defeated Michael (yeah right) and is taking a breather when Michael’s upper body arises and his head twists round to face her. Utterly terrifying. There’s a great video on YouTube of the audience reacting to this scene from an original cinema screening of the film. They go batshit crazy.

After the first time I saw Halloween, something else struck me. It altered how I saw the world straight after it. Haddonfield, 1978 isn’t some Transylvanian castle but is here and now, everyday life in the present world. The music had burrowed its way into my head, and a trip to the local shop after the film had commenced seemed more sinister and fraught with danger. It made me look at the world through the lens that Carpenter had intended.

Of course, Halloween was so successful (the highest-grossing independent film at the box office until The Blair Witch Project came along), that it even initiated its own genre within horror, the slasher film. I love that Halloween even breaks the rules of the genre it inspired (Laurie smokes a joint but doesn’t die).

Halloween is a stone cold classic, up there with Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Exorcist. In my eyes (‘the blackest eyes…’), it’s the best horror film ever made. I feel immensely privileged to have experienced the film in many different formats right through to seeing it as it should be viewed, which is in its original aspect ratio, remastered and in 4K. In a cinema is always great (especially if you’re watching it with people who have never seen it before) but in your living room is also fantastic as the domestic setting matches the domestic settings of the film which adds an extra layer of terror to everyday life (as if we don’t have enough already).

If I could give this film 6 out of 5 stars, I would (but that wouldn’t make sense).

5 out of 5 stars