Halloween (1978) Is OVERRATED

After having seen only bits and pieces of Halloween I finally watched the full movie from start to finish and I have to say what a piece of overrated shit it is. The dialogue and overall story is abysmal and childishly simple. There isn’t a memorable or interesting conversation or verbal exchange in nearly the entire film unless you count the numerous times the psychiatrist goes into how MM is the embodiment of evil. The film is also badly paced has uninteresting shallow characters and is really hard to watch. The cinematography and editing weren’t always great either.

There’s also some dumb things that happen in the film such as the woman goes into a wash room and accidentally locks herself inside from the inside. Later she wants to drive somewhere so walks all the way to the rear of the house into the garage. When she tries to open the car door and finds it locked she then realizes it might be a good idea to go and get the car keys which is all the way back in the house.

At one point Michael Myers sneaks up on Jamie Lee Curtis’ character and tries to stab her in the back but for some reason—possibly a lack of depth perception—he only manages to graze her tricep and rip her sleeve. I mean this guy comes straight down in a stabbing motion with a butcher knife on a mark who isn’t moving and doesn’t know he’s there and all he gets for his trouble is a ripped sleeve and a scratch on the back of her arm that doesn’t even require stitches.

At another point JLC is sitting on the floor with her head resting on the couch when MM sneaks up on her again. This time he takes careful aim comes down in a stabbing motion and…completely misses JLC who never moved and he stabs the seat cushion next to JLC’s head.

I realize this is an old movie but if you compare it to other films of the time Carrie and The Omen for example you’ll find two films with much more engulfing characters and much deeper stories even though they both came out two years earlier. It makes you wonder how this film ever became a phenomenal cultural hit and the answer is simple: a creepy but cool mask and soundtrack coupled with a cool nearly indestructible killer. Basically the concept of Michael Myers, his mask and that unforgettable piano cord is what was phenomenally ground breaking, the movie was just meh.

 

It's very overrated.

Black Christmas, which came out a few years before and was far less heralded, is a far better slasher flick than Halloween.

 

When I first watched it on its home video vhs release I thought exactly the same thing, BUT we need to keep in mind a few things that made it the cult classic it became:
1. It was an extremely low budget movie that did marvels with its almost no-money production. Donald Pleasant's salary was depending on if its box office made any money with the promise he will get paid immediately after it started making a buck. Jamie Lee Curtis was no star, only the thing going for her was being the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.
2. Young John Carpenter, a recent film school graduate, only had a prior directorial job which was a co-direction with Dan O'Bannon: Dark Star, a film practically no one watched...except the Halloween producers who thought 'this kid can do something with no budget'. Carpenter also did the writting, wrote the music with the composer and even played instruments and did odd jobs on the set too.
2. Its theme was innovative. Just the title alone was catchy enough for the Halloween season so going to see this movie was a no-brainer back in 1978.
3. as pointed out before the indestructible killer was something new...and scary.
4. The film do have scenes which are quite suspenseful not to say terrifying for its time.
5. This film's success started the whole slasher genre of the 80s. Without it there would not have been a Friday the 13th nor a Nightmare on Elm Street.
6. No one remembers Black Christmas because no one watched it. LOL

 

Oftentimes, "Classic" and/or "Groundbreaking" Material Doesn't AGE Well...

Like Hip-Hop for Instance...The Rhymes of a Run-DMC or Kurtis Blow DON'T Measure Up by Today's Standards, But That Doesn't Diminish Their Status as True PIONEERS of the Art Form...

Ditto for "Halloween"...





REED

 

Most 70s classics have aged wonderfully. It was the era that had the most combined directorial talent, where studios gave them free reign to be as original and creative as they wanted.

There's a lot of 70s horror classics that have aged like fine wine - I.E. Jaws, The Exorcist, The Omen, Carrie.

Most of Hitchcock's thrillers from the 40-60s are still terrific today.

Age isn't an excuse for Halloween. It's just a mediocre movie.

 

As Panchy Pointed Out, "Halloween" was Done on a SHOE STRING Ass Budget...Literally 20 Days of Shooting, $320k - $325k Budget...

Jaws Had an Approximate Budget of $9MIL...$12MIL for the Exorcist...The Omen, $2.8MIL...Carrie, $1.8MIL...

To Gross $60-$70MIL Off a $325k Budgeted Film is REMARKABLE and the IMPACT of the Movie Itself, Literally Creating a Sub-Genre within Horror Flicks, is IMMEASURABLE...Fuck Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger, There's No "Scream" without "Halloween"...

REED Saw "Halloween" Live in a Movie Theatre as a 7 or 8 Year Old, and was NEVER More Terrified In His Life, to That Point...You Can NITPICK and Find Things to DISLIKE About Virtually Any Film Ever Created...







REED

 

I'll take Run-DMC any day over any of today's 'artists'. Not everything good ages well. My all time favorite scifi movie, Close Encounters of the third kind, aged badly in less than 10 years after its release. It is still a damn good movie, but it is also a very recognizable cultural icon of the 70's, unlike Star Wars which is still ageless even though it was released the same year (1977).

 

Close Encounters is boring. Its superbly made... but very boring. It hasn't aged badly, but it also hasn't aged as well as say, 2001.

 

Halloween could have been great. I get the aging and shoe string budget stuff but that’s no excuse for bad writing, acting and just an overall mediocre story. I don’t disagree the film is ground breaking I’m just saying I believe it’s only ground breaking because of the innovation of the character.

Take Alien for example, if the story/writing surrounding that film had sucked in a similar way to Halloween’s it still would have been a famous ground breaking film just because of how innovative the creature was. Fortunately we were blessed to have a story that was every bit as innovative and satisfying as the creature was.

I too saw Halloween as a kid and thought at the time it was the scariest thing ever created. This was despite the fact I covered my eyes throughout the whole damn movie.

 

Halloween never scared me as a kid. The Excorcist did, but never Halloween.

 

I have watched CE3K like 40-50 times. I find nothing boring about it, but if you were expecting an action movie or a horror movie, then you will be disappointed.

 

The Exorcist is the sole film that truly TERRIFIED me to the point I thought I was about to have a heart attack watching it and gave me nightmares for many weeks. No other film has come close to that and I don't want to experience that ever again.

 

It's still a creepy movie, even now.

I find that The Excorcist and The Shining have aged better than any other horror flicks. And you can attribute that to the brilliant filmmaking of Friedkin and Kubrick. They still feel like fresh, innovative horror masterpieces after all these years.

I would include Jaws in that class, but Jaws isn't a pure "horror" movie. It's as much an adventure classic as it is a horror classic.

I'm talking pure, psychological, supernatural horror flicks.

 

I also was also scared of The Amityville Horror as a kid, but that was largely a locational thing. I grew up in Queens, which is right next to Long Island, so it felt as if I wasn't too far from that house.

 

I’d add The Omen and Carrie to those lists of still watchable horror films. Amityville Horror was a great book but the movie was always pretty bad.

 

A complete snooze with a total shitbag of a main character.

 

Watch your mouth kid or you'll find yourself floating home...

 

Dude leaves his family to get on a spaceship. He’s a shitbag and at least 40% of that film is sleep inducing.

 

Had he stayed with his 'family' he would have ended disintegrated too. Sleep inducing? LMAO! That is the first time I heard that phrase to describe the movie that had millions of people jumping up and down in excitement.

 

Millions of people jump up and down for shit everyday. Stop trying to use that as a basis for why this is a good film. It's a fucking snooze.

 

"A masterpiece"
"An instant classic"
"Best movie of the year!"
"5 stars highest rating."

Just some quotes from real critics at the time. Plus it still has a 92% Fresh rating at RT and 91% of Google users liked the film. (I guess you are among the remaining 9%).

 

I’m ok with that. I don’t need to be in the majority of anything to validate my own opinion. You should try it.

 

You are entitled to your own opinion and you also are entitled to be completely wrong.

 

Easy there Siskel & Ebert. Halloween the original was a really low budget slasher. That rellied on jump scares. The movie wasn't expected to do that well at the box office and become a cult classic. Was it perfect? No of course not. By today's horror movie standards... indie film movie snobs would pick it apart. It never pretended to have a deep story line and again its a slasher fill not the Exorcist. But for that time it delivered to its target audience. I watched it as a kid and it scared the shit out of me. But it was different times.

 

All I keep hearing is excuses for this film as if we can’t speak the truth about it because of what…a low budget or it was made so long ago? You don’t need a big budget to have decent dialogue and a credible story and lots of other horror films from the same period still hold up today. So no I’m not giving this film a pass. Yes it was scary at the time based on what I said before, atmosphere, suspense and a unique villain. Unfortunately that’s all the movie had going for it. It was a success and deserves kudos for that but it’s an overall terrible film which doesn’t take away the fact it’s also a cult classic.