I was gonna agree that I lack patience in films, then I remembered that I love Heat. That's not a film for the instant-gratification crowd. Main thing I remember about Halloween was it kept doing the "Oh my god, something is creeping on them... BANG! Nah, it was just a kid/cat/someone coming home. Fooled you!" cheap scare thing. I'm not into horror films at the best of times, but this one was just dull.
While I liked this one more, it's one of the reasons I liked the remake so much. It just had so much more going on with it.
No, he didn't. John Carpenter co-wrote it with Debra Hill (with some help from Al Cohol) and Rick Rosenthal directed it.
Well, now I know. I'd thought he was still involved with it, but had totally forgotten who'd directed it. And heeeeeyyyy...I know that Al Cohol guy! I've watched a few of those movies with that dude!
Seems tired if you compare it to everything since, but for the time it was pretty well done. I think it's a very well put together film. The composition of shots and pacing alone is very impressive. I'm sorry to compare it to Rob Zombie's, but instead of relying on exploitation and cheap thrills it's very subtle with a lot of thought behind it. I love it, even purely in terms of the craft. It's a shame they had to dilute it with endless goofy sequels.
A guy at work was telling the first John Carpenters Halloween movie is based on a book. He told me the book explains more of the origin of Micheal Myers. I never heard of the movie based on a novel. Has anybody else heard about it?
That's not true. Halloween was just an idea John Carpenter came up with because he wanted a movie to scare babysitters.
My gripe with latter day horror is that there is always a know it all "idol of the month" lead character and they are so smart... older horror seemed down to earth. What makes Halloween great is Jamie Lee Curtis is nothing special, (her character, not her, she is AWESOME) but she digs deep to survive. Same with Ripley in "Alien", just one of the crew, but manages to survive. i guess i am trying to say old horror movies have realistic "heroes", while modern has these wannabe "Scoobies". Something about the beginning of Halloween that curled my toes is just how fucking scary the POV shot through the two holes in the ghost costume was. never fails to get my heart rate up a few thumps. That was horrifyingly genius.
What Carpenter's film does that most films of the like don't is that it's a slow burn that leads up to an explosive finale. Today's audiences don't have the patience for that anymore. It's got to be one big thing after another and there isn't any suspense in that. That's why most modern horror films fail.
I liked the old horror movies because characters were actually important to the story. Nowadays they are just there to be killed brutally and graphically.
On a somewhat related note, I went by a Spirit Halloween store over the weekend and they had a set of skull string lights that flashed and played the Halloween theme song. It was $20 but I thought it was really cool. I plan on going back and getting a couple of sets before Halloween.
They have them in Home Depot as well. I believe they were cheaper there. Check by the garden section. 'Tis the season! - Coeloptera
AMC's Fearfest movie lineup has been posted and it looks like the first Halloween and parts 4&5 will be shown. You can see the complete lineup at AMC - Blogs - Horror Hacker Talk.
Yeah, those three are mainstays in AMC's Fearfest. In fact, they're played regularly throughout the year. I found those skull string lights that plays the Halloween theme song at Target for $10! They also had a set with pumpkins instead of skulls. I bought two sets but, unfortunately, you can't plug one into the other to make one long string of lights.
