# The 1978 Halloween is an excellent horror movie (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257 "2008-09-26T00:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/21 "2008-09-27T01:16:23Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > It seems I remember that _Halloween_ was the first movie to present us with the point of view of the killer. Before, all horror movies were victims-running-from-killer POV. True, Cartooniverse? I can’t say definitively but I cannot remember such a POV being used that way before the advent of the Steadicam. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/22 "2008-09-27T02:29:38Z")
I think [Black Christmas (1974)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071222/) had some of that killer’s POV stuff in it. It also introduced that “the calls are coming from _inside the house!!_” gag that was later used in When A Stranger Calls. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/23 "2008-09-27T02:38:08Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > I think [Black Christmas (1974)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071222/) had some of that killer’s POV stuff in it. It also introduced that “the calls are coming from _inside the house!!_” gag that was later used in When A Stranger Calls. Random trivia: Hallowe’en was originally intended as a sequel to Black Christmas. And, yes, BC made extensive use of the killer’s POV…they came up with a fairly clever rig to allow it, as I remember, but I can’t remember the details. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/24 "2008-09-27T02:51:40Z")
I remember seeing it in the theater…and being disappointed. I love horror movies; it just didn’t do it for me. My idea of a scary movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street. I want something that crawls in my brain and won’t leave me alone. Nightmare brought a surrealism to the party that I still can’t dismiss. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/25 "2008-09-27T02:57:59Z")
I thought Nightmare was the least scary movie I’d ever seen, personally…even less scary than the sequels which ranged more into comedy than horror. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/26 "2008-09-27T03:04:11Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > I thought Nightmare was the least scary movie I’d ever seen, personally…even less scary than the sequels which ranged more into comedy than horror. I wouldn’t debate you on sequels, but with regard to the original, that’s interesting. What scares one person vs. another is fascinating to me. I really enjoy a scary movie and some of the others (E.g. “The Thing”) didn’t do much for me. I always _want_ to be scared, but it doesn’t happen often. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/27 "2008-09-27T03:40:02Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > I think [Black Christmas (1974)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071222/) had some of that killer’s POV stuff in it. So did _Jaws_ (1975) :). ---
**Author:** ![MidnightRadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@MidnightRadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightRadio)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/28 "2008-09-28T09:20:24Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Random trivia: Hallowe’en was originally intended as a sequel to Black Christmas. As was _When a Stranger Calls_. Weird, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/29 "2008-09-28T17:26:01Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > I disagree: the problem with Zombies remake is that it’s only a slasher film for about the third act. The other two thirds are practically a psychological drama in the tradition of “Henry: portrait of a serial killer” (No, I actually mean it. Yes. I’m not kidding.) > > There’s no way that movie could satisfy virtually anyone: the lovers of gore and teenagers running away have to endure an hour of Zombie’s deconstructing the American family, only to find a fairly stereotypical slasher at the end, and the sort of audience that would get the first part will enjoy it but be severely let down by the crappy b-movie ending. Then I must be one of the rare individuals that enjoy both genres. I’m an artist, so I’m already a bit loopy; that may be why. I thought Zombie might have done a better job to show the decline of Michael’s psyche into utter madness, setting up the slasher portion of the film. That was the hardest thing to accept, that he would go from talkative Michael to silent brooding killer so easily just by being isolated. He should have made more of Danny Trejo’s character inadvertantly giving Michael the nudges toward the end result (“Ya gotta learn to live inside your head; there’s no walls there that can stop you.”) But I thought that he tied in the two “halves” of the movie well with the contrasting breakfast scenes, and I found both the young and the adult Michael Meyers in this film to be pretty terrifying. It WAS missing a proper “sitting up calmly after just being apparently killed” scene (he does get up after being stabbed and later after being shot, but it didn’t have the otherworldly “OMFG” feel of the original) and I think sometimes Zombie kept some scenes or references in just to pay homage to the original; sometimes it works (The ghost and “see anything you like?”) sometimes it doesn’t (I thought the discovery of the desecrated grave seemed forced and unnecessary). All that being said, I thought that the ending was dragged out a bit, at least in the unrated version that I saw on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/30 "2008-09-29T15:01:34Z")
You want amazing POV? Try 1948’s Dark Journey with Humphrey Bogart. That movie starts with a fantastic POV sequence. We are the eyes of Bogey. The camera was a hugely heavy Mitchell camera- and the work is excellent. I’m just sayin’… ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/31 "2008-09-29T15:17:09Z")
> [@shy\_guy](#): > > I’d say that the biggest problem with Zombie’s movie isn’t that he departed from the source material but that he did so _abysmally_ and without any sort of conception of what made the film good in the first place, but YMMV. Agreed. Zombie took Halloween’s reputation (a relentless bloodbath of teenage tits and buckets of blood) and made it a reality. Then he tacked on 60 minutes of the Jerry Springer Show Does Haddonfield. It was a mess. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/32 "2008-09-29T15:53:51Z")
That goofy doctor (played by the late donal pleasance)-was it Dr. Loomis? The guy comes across a s a prize idiot. fisrt, he allows Michael to get out of the asylum. He knows that MM has evil intentions-but instead of alerting the local polic-he dcides to try to kill MM himself. The local PD chief is pretty goofy as well. So know its Halloween-and MM is busy filleting horny teenages. The gall has to wash her cloths-and whilst stripping off, MM (conveniently) comes upon her. All in all, light entertainment…and a sobering indictment of Dr. loomis and his mental hospital! ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/33 "2008-09-29T16:22:59Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I thought it was boring. Nothing really happened. At least in Psycho, in addition to people getting slashed, you have a plot. The plot here seemed to be horny teenagers have sex or get naked and then get killed. What was the point? The point was Halloween can be considered the first modern slasher film. Certainly the first in the mainstream. It’s very Frankenstein-like with an unbeatable monster, townspeople chasing him (primarily Loomis, but this isn’t a literal remake, or even reimagining, I just think there are similarities), and “good” versus “evil”. Was MM evil? Who knows, since we don’t know why he did what he did. Was he misunderstood, or just like killing for its own sake? And besides, Dr. Loomis…Sam Loomis. Who was Marion’s fiancee in Psycho? Sam Loomis. Call it an homage. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/34 "2008-09-29T16:57:53Z")
Hopefully we can at least agree that the girls in the remake were more believable as hot horny teenagers than the original. Old: [http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjE0Mjk0NzQ0OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNjQ3Mjky.\_V1.\_SX450\_SY356\_.jpg](http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjE0Mjk0NzQ0OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNjQ3Mjky._V1._SX450_SY356_.jpg) New: [http://www.mtv.com/movies/photos/h/halloween\_08272007/the\_girls.jpg](http://www.mtv.com/movies/photos/h/halloween_08272007/the_girls.jpg) Especially the new Annie Brackett. RWWWOOAAARRR!! ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/35 "2008-09-29T17:02:49Z")
> [@Marathon](#): > > And I maintain that the shot at the end of Laurie, where Michael Meyers just quietly sits up in the background, is one of the most supremely terrifying cinematic moments. Seconded. The first time I saw Halloween, I let out a scream that could have been heard at the South Pole. I’ve watched RZ’s version and I’m sorry, Rob, you just didn’t do it for me. I’ll give you a B+ for effort. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/36 "2008-09-30T04:40:40Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > You want amazing POV? Try 1948’s Dark Journey with Humphrey Bogart. You’re thinking of [Dark Passge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Passage_(film)). Not that [Dark Journey](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028767/) isn’t a good film, though. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/37 "2008-10-08T01:30:46Z")
:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack: **Passage, Journey, Night, Knight, Side Of The Moon** , what-have-you !! Me, I shoulda IMDB’d. I sit corrected. 🙂 The hand-held work… SUCH a heavy camera. Brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/38 "2008-10-08T13:48:48Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > I think [Black Christmas (1974)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071222/) had some of that killer’s POV stuff in it. It also introduced that “the calls are coming from _inside the house!!_” gag that was later used in When A Stranger Calls. Now _that_ is a righteous horror movie. The killer’s phone calls to the doomed sorority chicks while he’s hiding in their attic – which we know already, having seen him climb up an ivy trellis and go through an open window within the first five minutes of the film are among the most unsettling moments of dialogue you’re likely to hear in a fiction movie. Seriously, **BC** (aka \*\*Stranger In The House \*\*and \*\*Silent Night Deadly Night \*_– beware of much-inferior movies with almost-identical names!) delivers. Indeed it has the distinction of being one of exactly five_ horror movies I’ve seen as an adult which had grown-up me uneasy about being in my home alone late at night for a week after seeing it. P.S.: So as not to highjack the thread too badly, allow me to take a moment to join in on the praises being sung to the original version of **Halloween**. It’s a tight, effective little chiller which often misses the credit it deserves, and gets wrongly dissed for the stupidity and predictibility of the floodtide of drek that followed hard on its release \*P.P.S.: Oh, all right – if you _ **must** _ know, the other four were **The Addiction, The Blair Witch Project, Cookers** , and **Henry,Portrait Of A Serial Killer**. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/39 "2008-10-08T17:20:06Z")
Question: when jamie lee curtis is stripping off in the laundry room (and making sure everybody gets a look), she senses something isn’t right. So how come she doesn’t call up Dad and get the cops involved? I don’t see how MM gets around so quick-did he steal a car or something? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257/40 "2008-10-08T17:35:42Z")
I think the original is a totally great film, but there totally was one thing that was totally pointed out to me that makes it totally unwatchable. The trees are totally green. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-1978-halloween-is-an-excellent-horror-movie-open-spoilers/465257.md?page=3)