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HALLOWEEN
 Michael Durrant
RE: Classic Horror If there is one movie that had me up all night shaking in fear then it was HALLOWEEN. When you're scared u just keep reminding yourself that it's only that?? Well sometimes that just doesn't work. And it never will with HALLOWEEN. Twenty years on and it still taps into those fundamental fears of the insane, and our fear of death, not peacefully in bed, but at the hands of a killer. Myers' mask was expertly used throughout the film, especially during the classroom sequence when Laurie sees him watching her from the car. And when she looked back - we all thought that he would be gone....no way!! Myers' relentless slaughter and supernatural attributes have been critised by many - they should learn to suspend their disbelief and enjoy!! HALLOWEEN is a film that extends well into the realms of plausibility - the next time I go downstairs during the night for a glass of milk I always wonder if I'll see Myers' face looking in through the kitchen window at me...... (Sorry about the 'u' - for some reason the thing wouldn't sort it out!!) Michael Durrant |
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Carey
RE: Halloween John Carpenter made a film that paved the way for a whole new genre that changed a lot of the horror we saw in the eightees. Yet,none of them, no matter how cleverly gory they are, or how much better they look due to having a much bigger budget, can measure up to film that still chills me to the bone if I decide to watch it alone. John Carpenter is relentless with the suspense he generates with his wide lenses. Never has a fright film toyed with it's audience so much. I can almost see John Carpenter behind the camera giggling like a ring master who revels in what he has created. Sadly, this is still his masterpiece. He has been unable to achieve the same effect with horror fans with his bigger budgets (the only exception being The Thing). But hey, he still consistently churns out entertaining horror films that a serious Carpenter fan like myself can appreciate. And no one can ever take Halloween away from him, not even these filmmakers who even today produce the same crap we've seen in all the Friday the 13th sequels already. It just justifies Halloween's place in the horror hall of fame even further..........by the way, this site is a real winner, i'm spending way too much time on here. But how can you not, this is good stuff. congratulations. Keep it up. Carey |
 Robert Scott Sutton
RE: Halloween and the new sequel I was first introduced to Michael Myers at age eight, when my babysitter watched "Halloween II" on HBO. My brother and I were terrified, both of the movie and the fact that we shouldn't have been watching it (our parents did not allow their two very young children to watch R-rated movies), but we watched anyway. In later days, I recovered from the shock and became fascinated by the idea of the Halloween movies, and the name "Michael Myers" was permanently etched in my brain, although I couldn't do much about it at the time. Finally, when I was in seventh grade, "Halloween II" hit TV, and was broadcast about five or six times in my area. I watched it every time (not bad for an eleven year old). This sent me on a hunt for the original, which at the time was difficult for me to rent. Finally, that next summer (1986), I found a copy *for sale*, borrowed a couple bucks from my brother to have enough for the purchase, brought it home, and had my life changed forever. This movie scared the pants off of me (and the rest of my family; my father had to leave the room after the first scene), and I loved it. That summer, I saw every horror movie I could catch; "Halloween" made me a horror fan for life. This being the summer that "Big Trouble in Little China" came out, I realized I was also a John Carpenter fan for life. Two years ago, I saw "Halloween" on a (relatively) big screen at a rep house in San Francisco, and I was the happiest man on Earth. This movie just has everything in it that I love in a movie: great visual style with the camera and lighting work, great music, great atmosphere, credible performances, and a no-apologies, go-for-the-jugular attitude in trying to keeping the audience as scared as possible for as long as possible. Unlike most movies that seemed cool during youth, "Halloween" just gets better with age. Which brings me to the new sequel, which I saw at a sneak preview on July 30. Funny that after all this time, it takes a rip-off (I mean, *homage*) like "Scream" to get people interested in the real deal again. Three years ago, "Halloween 6" got crappy treatment from its makers; now "Halloween 7" gets the major summer-release treatment. Does this mean it gets more respect from the producers? No. That title alone is one of the biggest strikes against it; whoever though that "H2O" was a good title deserves a fully grown pumpkin where the sun don't shine. Also it was quite short, under 90 minutes, making me think that they were afraid of this little endeavor lasting longer than our interest. It does have its good points, though, mainly in the many references to the original film and the first sequel, playing on our love of that, if nothing else. Too bad the same care didn't go into making this movie as scary as the first. Robert Scott Sutton |
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