MovieChat Forums > Halloween (1978) Discussion > This movie is pretty terrible

This movie is pretty terrible

posted 2 years ago by [deleted]
24 replies | jump to latest

The first 10 minutes have some of the worst pacing I’ve ever seen.

For a slasher movie the kills are overly tame and nothing special, hardly a drop of blood.

John Carpenter overuses the Halloween theme to the point of detriment, it becomes annoying after a while.

This is supposed to feel like autumn time in the Midwest yet the movie doesn’t even capture the look or feel of Halloween time. You can see palm trees in the background, hardly any Halloween decorations in the homes, just lazy Beyond belief.

Donald Pleasance is given hardly anything to do, spends the whole movie running around and hiding in bushes.

Michael Myers stalks and stalks and then stalks some more.....we get it Carpenter, you’re trying to build suspense, how exciting.

Could the supporting characters be anymore “meh”? They go on and on about how they plan to spend their day, are we supposed to care?

The ending makes no sense, is he the bogeyman or just a man in a mask? No man could survive that many shots yet there is zero explanation for how he could be the boogeyman.

Like I said, pretty terrible.

[–] millsey72 (9557) 2 years ago

Agreed. All of the sequels as well as the Zombie films are better than this one

[–] Magicdave (472) 2 years ago

Your opinion. Not mine.

[–] Kowalski (58125) 2 years ago

LMAO...WHATEVER.🙂

[–] Narwhale37 (700) 2 years ago

Halloween isn't for everyone because it's a slow burn horror and them using is used to set the atmosphere.

I have no idea what you mean that it didn't seem like Halloween. Maybe there wasn't a lot of trick or treaters due to the infamously low budgeting?

Also the ending is supposed to be ambiguous.

If you ever seen John Carpenter's The Thing, you would understand what exactly his style is.

You would definitely love Rob Zombie's version for sure. Although he does use the theme a lot as well.

[–] Dogiswhite (1112) 2 years ago

But The Thing is a true classic, not just a typical slasher movie.

[–] legnadibrom (5711) 2 years ago

agreed, i watched at least 10 seconds of the movie and in that span not a single jump scare let alone a person being killed happened...
i tapped out bro

[–] Martoto (4162) 2 years ago

Takes a special kind of idiocy to criticise a suspense movie director for creating that suspense

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

I never said that he accomplished suspense, only that he tried. If you want real suspense, High Tension is a much better film. If you want a better slasher, watch Madman instead. If you want a better movie, just about anything is better than this piece of crap.

[–] SandyR (7347) 2 years ago

High Tension? What's the French word for predictable?

[–] mirelurk (884) 2 years ago

I saw this movie probably close to 30 times growing up. I think I know most of the movie by memory, and I agree with some of your points

It's extremely apparent with hindsight that this was done on a tiny budget by a group without mainstream experience

It has also aged poorly in the sense that slashers became so popular that they quickly escalated just about every aspect of the genre: kill count, complexity of plot, etc.

What I appreciate about the movie is the characters. They're not super interesting but they are believable. They're mostly all self-absorbed horny teenagers who think a night of beer and sex is the most exciting thing in the world.

They never have ANY clue what is coming their way. The only reason we know, where the suspense comes from, is because we see from the killer's pov. Something the franchise should have never abandoned

As for the character of Michael, I agree that there's not a whole lot there. In the first one hes intentionally 1dimensional. Just a creepy killing machine

[–] sONOMArEturns (1253) 2 years ago

I agree with this point:

"Michael Myers stalks and stalks and then stalks some more.....we get it Carpenter, you’re trying to build suspense, how exciting." The first time I saw it, the 2nd act bored me to tears. How many times do we need to see Myers hiding in the background, only for nobody to notice and for him to do nothing at all? It's like being promised a piece of candy, but every time you get close to it, they take the candy away and ask you to try again. After the 15th time of being promised, you already know nothing's gonna happen, so there's no suspense anymore.

The rest of the points I generally disagree with. The music, atmosphere, cinematography, acting (particularly from Loomis), directing, and ending are all excellent.