im eschewing the HTML posting for this one because i dont have the patience to sit here and format an entire review to look like its from deltarune or into the format of a pesterlog and i really dont think anyone would want to suffer thru reading something like that either. also because this is being posted to tumblr as well (minus this preface) so it just makes more sense to skip it.
bussyween is simultaneously a terrible idea on my part as well as an excuse for me to post more to non-twitter social media sites. as the name hopefully suggests, im slogging my way thru the entire halloween film series, all thirteen films, and posting reviews for each one. for this first installment, we have none other than the obvious first film in the series: 1978s halloween, directed by john carpenter.
of the thirteen films in this series this is one of only two that i have actually already seen before. ive seen it a small handful of times over the last few years and its easily one of my favorite films of all time. because of that i may have some bias towards this one but if you go into reading a review of a piece of media not expecting some kind of bias from the reviewer then you're probably an idiot.
the film opens with arguably one of its most effective scenes. following the beautifully presented opening credits we have a roughly four minute unbroken shot of a 6 year old michael myers sneaking back into his house and murdering his sister judith. you can see the extent to which carpenter and crew took advantage of their scant (at the time) budget, most notably in the way the first person perspective carefully hides the various crew members moving things around as needed while the young michael makes his way thru the house. theres also the wonderfully hammy "dying" movements that judith makes as shes stabbed to death, or the way the camera looks away from her while michael continues to stab so the crew can presumably cover the actress in blood. its sort of a microcosm of the entire rest of the film, with many more such examples occurring throughout the runtime.
the hamminess and somewhat cheap looking murders in this film dont particularly ruin the experience though. a notable aspect of this film that its many, many sequels and imitators dont really seem to get is that its ultimately not a particularly violent film. instead if anything its more of a thriller than the typical slasher film. so much of the film is focused on creating a tense, suspenseful atmosphere instead of shocking the viewer with endless gore and violence. its one of the many things about this movie that i feel help it continue to hold up nearly 45 years later.
another one of those aspects is how little explanation we get for michael. the sequels go out of their way to explain as many things about him and his motivation as they possibly can, but this movie keeps him a mystery. at most hes a random guy killing teenagers in his hometown. something like this could happen to just about anyone. thats why it feels so effective, so unsettling, even so many years later. granted part of that is i am a scared little bitch who has a hard time with horror movies, but still.
something else i appreciate about this film is just how good it looks. its shot so beautifully, and even though it really doesnt look remotely like the illinois suburb it claims to take place in, it still manages to give off the vibes of a chill little suburb. it feels believable. it feels like my little neighborhood. the shots are framed beautifully too. carpenter and cinematographer dean cundey make such incredibly effective use out of the wide frame they were working with, especially when it comes to michael himself. so many of the scenes he appears in thru the film, he occupies such a small amount of the frame as to almost be unnoticeable, and it makes him even more terrifying as a result.
im gonna end this here because i honestly cant think of anything else that hasnt already been said. this movie is almost 45 years old and almost every aspect of it has been covered to death. theres so many things id like to say about the music or the finale or other aspects but there doesnt feel like much else to be said. plus i wanna keep these fairly short, i dont feel like spending 8 years writing an entire novel. i still have 12 more movies to get thru, i dont have time to write too extensively.
tune in next time where we cover the very first in a long line of sequels, the aptly-named halloween ii.