Halloween [1978] (DVD)

In 1978, John Carpenter re-invented the dying slasher genre with this low budget slasher. Made for a pittence of $300,000, it has gone on to be one of the most successful independent films of all time, spawning 7 sequels, and a recent rather enjoyable re-imagining (remake to you and I). Beginning in 1963, an anonymous figure ascends the stairs and dons a clown mask. The audience doesn't quite know whats happening yet, but the figure's intentions soon become clear as he enters the room of a naked teenager, and stabs her to death. Outside a car pulls up, and as the parents of the figure step out of the car, it is revealed that the anonymous killer is a 6 ...  Read the complete review

Halloween is a classic 1978 horror film directed by John Carpenter. Though shot on a shoestring budget, the film is regarded as a highly influential one and spawned a host of 'homages' or copycats as part of the 'teen slasher' genre in addition to several (mostly mediocre) sequels. The film begins on Halloween 1963. In the (fictional) town of Haddonfield, Illinois, six-year-old Michael Myers stabs his older sister to death in his clown like Halloween costume after he spys her fooling around with her boyfriend. Young Michael is understandably confined to an asylum where psychiatrist Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasence) studies him and comes to the conclusion that there is little ...  Read the complete review

Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year, mostly on account of a lifelong love of horror cinema. Each year, I'll go out of my way to amass a selection of films about me, some of which I'll have seen - for one must be sure of being scared somewhere along the line, and that certainty is not always there with new acquisitions - and some of which will be new to me. In this spirit, I'm going to be posting a series of reviews of pictures you might want to check out for the same reason, pictures that are, in my opinion, fairly certain to set the nerves a-jangling of an hour or two come the 31st. First up, the ultimate Halloween picture - John ...  Read the complete review

Halloween is an American Independent horror film which was made in 1978. The film centres around events occuring in the fictional midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night. The film is directed by John Carpenter, and also co-written by him along with Debra Hill. At the beginning of the film it is Halloween night in 1963 and a six year old Michael Myers butchers his seventeen year old sister ,Judith, to death with a carving knife. As the audience we see a very interesting point-of-view shot of the young boy in the act, it places the audience in the uncomfortable first person perspective where you are placed in the shoes of the ...  Read the complete review

With a startling lack of originality, every year one of the main TV channels decides to show Halloween (or one of its many sequels) on, erm, Halloween. It’s a shame, because the original at least deserves far more than to be treated as a convenient schedule filler. Released in 1978, it still stands out as one of the best horror movies made. It’s one of the most copied films ever and its introduction of certain conventions gave the Scream franchise plenty of ammunition. Yet, it’s so much more than that: it’s one of the spookiest, most unsettling films, without ever actually being “scary” in the traditional sense of the word. Much of the reason for ...  Read the complete review