Horror Movie Reviews
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Title: Halloween : Extended Edition (2001) |
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Review of Halloween : Extended Edition
- Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie's freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin's character in Psycho. In the end, though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience--it's one of those movies that had audiences literally jumping out of their seats and shouting at the screen. ("No! Don't drop that knife!") Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original. Curtis returned for two more installments: 1981's dismal Halloween II, which picked up the story the day after the unfortunate events, and 1998's occasionally gripping Halloween H20, which proved the former baby sitter was still haunted after 20 years. --Robert Horton
Amazon.com essential video
- Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie's freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin's character in Psycho. In the end, though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience--it's one of those movies that had audiences literally jumping out of their seats and shouting at the screen. ("No! Don't drop that knife!") Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original. Curtis returned for two more installments: 1981's dismal Halloween II, which picked up the story the day after the unfortunate events, and 1998's occasionally gripping Halloween H20, which proved the former baby sitter was still haunted after 20 years. --Robert Horton
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Comments for Halloween : Extended Edition
- Posted on 2008-07-25
"Halloween" Goes Blu
Halloween Goes Blu
John Carpenter's "Halloween" was, is and will remain the best horror movie placed on film and now Michael Myers can murder in high definition blu-ray. This 1978 low budget movie couldn't afford hi tech effects, so Carpenter brilliantly manipulated the greatest fear of all fears, "the element of surprise." I first saw this movie in the theater when released along with 4 other friends. 3 of those friends walked out they were so frightened, as did other movie goers. The remaining diehards like myself who stayed, frequently jumped 2 inches out of seats as ear piercing screams filled the movie theater with a deep sense of dread, panic and terror. I have owned the movie on VHS, Laser Disc, DVD and now Blu-Ray, it is the only movie ever I felt so strongly about to own every format. Through the years I have talked with others who enjoy this movie and we discuss the small little errors that even John Carpenter himself has talked about. However, there is one huge error in this film that to this very day I can not find one other person who caught this major mistake. If I ever someday have the privilege to meet or talk with John Carpenter I would be most curious to ask if he himself knows of the mistake. Until such time I will go to the grave keeping this huge flaw a secret. Blu-Ray lovers, the HD format in "Halloween" does exactly what it should do, making it worth the upgrade from standard DVD. The HD visuals are awesome giving this 30 year old fearful tale a makeover fit for the walking dead. For the first time ever in all formats the enhanced HD sound track gets the surround sound almost right. The only recommendation while watching "Halloween" in blu-ray is during the beginning credits while Carpenter's spooky theme song is playing, adjust your home theater audio channels. You will find the blu-ray enhancements on the center speaker will require extreme find tuning to match the other speakers. Failure to adjust the center channel will easily throw off your complete sound separation experience. Other than that, take a seat all you good couch potatoes, relax, take your shoes off, don't fear the reaper, and enjoy "Halloween" renewed. Halloween gets a rating of, "7 Potato More". Michael Couch Potato.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-06-20
The best of the best, bar none!!!
The shape, the scream queen, the atmosphere.....it's all here.
The single greatest horror movie of all time, period.
The big three slasher movies?
Halloween
Friday the 13th part 2.
And the original Nightmare on Elm Street.
These three are the masterpieces of the genre.
Halloween?
My favorite holiday and my favorite horror movie.
This movie has inspired and horrified sooooooo many people, and still does after all these years.
A masterpiece in every way, the simple but effective story line, the music, the acting, everything about this movie is timeless and classic.
A must have, a must see.
I can't give this movie any more praise than I already have.
If you haven't seen this, and I have a hard time believing anyone hasn't.
RENT IT!!!!!!!!
BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-06-04
Pure Evil
This by far is the single most important film of it's kind ! Everything works.This is by far the best movie of it's kind ! The movie is a complete masterpiece with it's music and camerawork. Nothing will ever compare to this film nor will John Carpenters work to follow . The Rob Zombie film should be passed on as the rest of the halloween films. H20 showed some promise however. The 1978 Original Halloween is a classic and a great lesson how horror films should be made start to finish.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-05-29
Purdy Good
This movie was a purdy good one, suspenseful, check. Cool, check. Scary, ehhhm, hmm, uhh... check! Not a great movie, but the best, I'd say, as far as slashers go. If you liked Psycho, you're gonna LOVE this!
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-04-29
Blu-Ray transfer looks great to me.
Just my opinion here, but the night scenes still have plenty of blue in them -- and I do not think that this edition warrants a 1 1/2 out of 5 stars for video quality as some sites would have you believe. I am familiar with the Criterion laserdisc of this film (one of the best sets in its day) and there are certainly some differences...but honestly, like a lot of other people I always kind of felt like the night scenes had a tendency to look too "gelled" and either Cundey overdid the atmospherics a bit back in 1978 or folks started to get a little too nostalgic over at the THX mastering suites. I have a feeling it was a bit of both as the original widescreen video release of this classic was heralded as a total revelation of it's inherent style and I can see them pulling out all the stops to emphasize the visuals.
These day scenes do look a tad more green, and I would have preferred them to have more of the original autumn tint. But, any gripe about this is almost totally nullified by the gorgeous resolution the Blu-ray offers that is the best gift Cundey's cinematography could ever hope for.
Score: 5