Halloween is one of the all time classic horror movies of all time, and when you take a look at it closely, you begin to see why. What is it about the original movie that scared so many of us, and turned Michael Myers into such a big draw at the box office? Was it the story? The acting? The music?
The answer these questions is yes. Yes to each and every one of them. Let us take a look at three things that make a great horror movie, and how Halloween stacks up:
The story of Michael Myers and how he eventually ended up being a mad killer was not heavily covered in Halloween’s original movie. Ideas about this did come up in later years, sequels, and remakes, but it is not important to the original movie’s success. The original focused less on why, and more on what. He killed his sister on Halloween as a boy, and then escaped a mental hospital to return to Haddonfield to kill his other sister and anybody else he came across. This simple premise was the beauty of the story in the original. It did not seem so far fetched back then. It was simply a matter of a crazy man doing crazy things. It worked.
The acting is an often overlooked aspect of this early horror movie. Slasher movies are notorious for pretty bad acting, and Halloween was not an example. With up and coming star Jamie Lee Curtis as the star, Halloween was actually pretty decently acted. You actually found yourself engaged by the characters, and not focused on poor acting. That was a huge reason the movie worked so well. In particular, the actor who played Michael Myers was extremely spooky with his movements. The way he moved deliberately but slowly lent some horror to the movie even when he was not killing. The movie was just plain creepy, and the acting took nothing away from it. That is a pretty good deal when it comes to horror movies.
Finally, the music. The music in Halloween has as much to do with the success of it as anything. The music is ominous, creepy, scary, and downright alive. Alive? What I mean is that the music seems to take on a life of it’s own within the movie. Not many people can sit through the movie and not freak when Myers is slinking across the lawn towards Laurie while she tries to get the door open. Why? Because of that creepy piano in the background inferring just how close he is.
Halloween was the perfect storm for horror. It had every single thing that a great horror movie should have, and the vast majority of things needed for a great movie in general. John Carpenter directed the movie brilliantly, and Jamie Lee Curtis was the perfect blend of innocent and tough. Halloween is a classic and always will be considered as such. It is a movie that is just as scary today as it was way back when it first came out. No better compliment can be payed to a movie.
