Every Monday, we’ll highlight a piece of writing from our vaults. This review of Halloween originally ran as part of our countdown of the top50 horror movies of all time.
The film that started a long run of slasher films set in the suburbs, Halloween proved that horrific things could happen to us white middle-class types — playing directly off of the old Universal horror film trope that monsters were from strange European-ish backgrounds. It not only started this trend, but is the best of it, with superior cinematography and one of the top three horror soundtracks ever (can be argued with Jaws and Psycho as the best). Carpenter proves himself a master director, building tension through his camera movement in a first half that doesn’t otherwise offer much in pure horror. His use of perspective, giving us in the vision of Michael Myers, makes every shot worth something. You never really know where Michael might be lurking with this technique — he could be just off screen at any moment. Pound-for-pound, it is arguably the best shot horror film ever.
