This film is magical


There are lots of logical reasons that one might admire Halloween: the brilliant direction, the spareness, the perfect pacing, the amazing score, the indelible images, etc., etc. But for me the ultimate brilliance of Carpenter's Halloween lies in something that's somehow more than the sum of its parts. The thing I really love most about this film is something that I can't quite accurately describe. There's a uniquely eerie and ineffable beauty to the film that was never recaptured in any of the sequels nor by any of its other countless imitators. It's almost like Carpenter & company accidentally tapped into something magical and uncanny. This is the real reason that Halloween is my favorite horror film of all time.

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I agree. The first film was perfect. Sure it had it's flaws, but those are easily overlooked in the grand picture. Basically it's an "it could happen to you" movie. Whereas a lot of horror films lean too much on it's only a movie cliches, this one feels like you're actually there, the POV shots, the raw feel of it. Like it was filmed on your street, your town. Any man can put on a mask and stalk and kill people. That is real fear. I tend to stay away from the woods and don't believe in dream demons, but anyone can be Michael Myers.

That's what makes this movie special.


"He came home." - Dr. Sam Loomis from the original HalloweeN

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I've watched it countless times and have never grown tired of it in the least. It's obvious that great pains were taken with it and that paid off in the long run.

It has a depth to it that most horror films don't... that, along with that extra unique something that you speak of helped push it to legendary status a long time ago.

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While I enjoy it immensely, I fear I cannot "overlook the flaws" so easily. They annoy me more and more with each watch. It's my favorite horror movie(really II is), but it's mistakes and Nancy Loomis nearly ruin it for me.

RIP Gene Wilder. RIP Robert Vaughn. RIP Carrie Fisher. RIP William Christopher. 2016 is the worst!

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Annie was the best looking girl...

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The thing I really love most about this film is something that I can't quite accurately describe. There's a uniquely eerie and ineffable beauty to the film that was never recaptured in any of the sequels nor by any of its other countless imitators. It's almost like Carpenter & company accidentally tapped into something magical and uncanny. This is the real reason that Halloween is my favorite horror film of all time.



Very much so.

The first movie caught lightning in a bottle and had a very simple concept and philosophy around the fragility of everyday life and how it can be touched by evil at any moment.

This concept was brought to vivid life with a combination of masterful direction, exceptional cinematography and an iconic, unforgettable score.

None of the sequels ever began (nor could they hope) to recreate this dynamic and conjure up the delicious eerie mystique of the original.

I believe this is why HALLOWEEN carries it's numerous flaws effortlessly while the sequels have little to counterbalance theirs and therefore seem weighed down by them.

In trying to live up to the original, the sequels were on a hiding to nothing from the outset.







And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

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Brilliantly put and "totally" agree ;) !!!!

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I never bore of this, or H20. I think they're both really good films.

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H20 isn't as good as this or II.

RIP Gene Wilder. RIP Barbara Hale. You were great in Perry Mason. RIP William Christopher.

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All them can be interesting. 1-4 are my favorite, the producer's cut of six and h20

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Yes.

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I don’t watch it specifically for the thrills or scares anymore (I do with the sequels, which I find some of them satisfactory), it’s the whole cinematic experience it provides. It’s mysterious, harrowing, mesmerizing, and basically stunning in its simplicity. A special horror film indeed.

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The film is not especially gory by modern standards. It is more focused on the deinstitutionalization of Michael Myers--and what would happen if a 'person with disabilities' who had been locked up and away was out in the community.

This is why it is a powerful movie.

There's nothing supernatural...etc about it. Michael is a guy who escaped from custody of people affiliated with a psych facility and was on the loose in a community. It's 'blackface' for disability.

The film looks very strange now because we live in era of ADA, when access to health care for people with disabilities, access to education has improved. Good deal of the film is Loomis referring to Myers as monster...etc

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The magic you describe I see as an innocence, it is a subconscious energy of the film people are attracted to, representing their lost childhood, that sense of wonder and unknown children have, it is sort of replicated in some sequels, but here and in the first sequel it seems the most prominent. Halloween also shows what happens when our sexuality gets repressed, whatever gets stuffed inside, in the darkness of our own consciousness reappears in the outside darkness manifested as accidents, murders, whatever demon it is. Yet Laurie also represents innocence along with Michael, they deserve each other as she has created him with her own hidden trauma. There are these two conflicting angles that are true to life. The reason she is "destined" to survive is because she is innocent inside, it is all in her carefulness, notice how her two girlfriends used to make certain blunders, making their clothes dirty, smoking, the way they talk, trying to be cool, and so on, watch for that. This is very.. perhaps unconscious on the part of filmmakers, but it is exactly our own unconscious that reveals our own very accurate hidden patterns of behaviour, truths about life, etc. The song Sandman in the second film reveals everything about this, how Michael and her are destined for each other, lighter side and darker side, people dont attract such dark presence in life sometimes because they have a certain balance, both light and dark, especially when it comes to sexual energy, which is the most powerful energy of the body that creates and manifests life into form, our thoughts and emotions get distilled into such an energy. So Halloween as a film is powerful exactly for these reasons, it is psychological, unconscious, many of us are not aware for why we are attracted to things we are. Whatever is repressed we are destined to face in real life in a symbolical way sometimes. She had to face her fears, not to be consumed and killed by them through. Why I see innocence in Michael and her, is because Michael represents to me the unknown, the silence, the primitiveness, the mystery that children have, the true darkness that childhood symbolizes of not knowing, of not being fully developed, yet Laurie represents a more civilized lighter side of innocence. One has to feel these things. Another thing is, Carpenter is aiming at our very deep psychic centers (no surprise since Carpenter is sort of an old hippie, his music scores are all psychedelic, creating a deeper feeling rather than superficial quick reactionary feelings), also notice the ending of the film, it is irrelevant whether Michael is supernatural, the film creates him as a form that can manifest anywhere, that's what makes it so scary, this is how the universe works, it is all supernatural yet real. Anything in life is possible, anything can happen, now manifest darkness like Michael, and watch how you feel, how frightened it makes you.

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Yes, it is.

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