Review #169: Halloween (1978)

This review was originally written in 2020, and reposted as part of the Bucket List Challenge in 2022. There may or may not be small differences between the two reviews.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #24: Halloween (1978)

So, I watched and reviewed this movie two years ago, along with the rest of the series. This is my first time watching it after having seen all of the others- last time I'd only seen this one and the 2018 sequel, which I'll be reviewing in a few minutes- and my thoughts are largely the same as when I reviewed it then, but there's some more I wanted to add. Because of how the 2018 sequel ignores all of the other movies in the series, I'm trying this time to view these two movies as a piece, since they're the only two "canonical" entries- and as will probably come out in my review (particularly my review of the 2018 sequel) I think that as a two-part story, these movies.... really don't work. More on that later I guess.

While this film was good, and I definitely see why it was well-remembered, I wasn't 100% pleased with it. One thing I couldn't help but notice is that this movie seemed like the epitome of "Tell, Don't Show". Dr. Loomis' entire role in this movie (save for the final scene) consists of talking about how Michael Myers (or, as he is credited, The Shape) is "pure evil" and how he "has black eyes, like the devil's eyes". We're TOLD so much about Myers, and then for the first two-thirds of the movie he doesn't actually DO anything, except just kind of show up in the background every other scene. I get that it's trying to set up a spooky atmosphere (and having Myers show up in the background does a good job of that), but I see no connection whatsoever between Loomis' impression of Myers and what we actually see him do on-screen. Compare this to Jason Voorhees, for example- Jason has basically the same amount of screen presence in any of his films, yet nobody ever credits him with being "pure evil", nor does he need it. If the series were trying to establish some sort of supernatural element to Michael Myers (which the later ones sort of do, but those aren't "canon") then that would be one thing, but on this watch it just felt like they didn't think the killer was scary enough so they inserted a character whose only role was to talk him up for the whole film to make him seem scarier.

And on that note, another negative is that Dr. Loomis seemed incredibly pointless (like I said, all he really did was predict doom and gloom for most of the film), and his plan- if he even had one- was laughable at best. Myers escapes, so he tracks him down to Haddonfield and... stands outside his childhood home? That's it? He stood outside the house, sort of hidden behind a bush, and for the majority of the timeline of the film he's just standing there, watching the house. What exactly was he expecting? For Myers to just walk up to the house? That would only work if Myers came to the house from one specific direction (because otherwise he'd be coming up behind Loomis...) and it seems like it would have been a much better plan to wait INSIDE the house. Also- it took him the entire night to realize that the car Myers stole (the one Loomis himself was riding in to visit the asylum) was PARKED LITERALLY RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE. Again, what was Loomis' plan? Stand next to a bush waiting for Myers to just walk right up in the open, but only from the left side of the house, and all the while Loomis didn't even look at his surroundings? The only thing of any consequence that he did in the entire film is shooting Michael at the end, but considering how that turned out I kind of wish he was cut out of the film entirely (and Laurie just kicked Myers out the window or something on her own). But then the spooky villain would seem a lot less spooky without someone telling us how spooky we're supposed to think he is.

Oh, and speaking of Michael being shot and falling out of the window: you know that scene in The Simpsons when Poochie gets lifted directly out of the cartoon and there's a splash screen that says "Poochie died on the way to his home planet"? By making Halloween (2018) the only canonical sequel, it essentially interjects a splash screen into the final shot of this film, right after Loomis sees that Michael has ultimately escaped, that says, "Michael was apprehended immediately and spent the next forty years without anything noteworthy happening." Wow, what an exciting ending that's been retconned into this one! It's even better than how the Star Wars sequel trilogy made Darth Vader's heroic sacrifice meaningless by bringing Palpatine back. One of the most suspenseful cliffhangers in the entire horror genre, undone offscreen between films. I can't wait for what other fitting consequences happen in the next film!

Overall score: 7/10 aviator-wearing ghosts

One Thing I Gotta Ask: Really though, how did Michael learn to drive?