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John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (theatrical) vs. John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (extended)
For my first review on this te I thought I would go back to the movie and director that has had the most influence on me as a stage actor and stage director but I'm changing it up a bit.
John Carpenter's Halloween is the greatest horror film ever made.
Don't believe me?
John Carpenter did what few others were able to do: Take an over done premise of a lunatic escaping from the nut ward, give him a knife, mask, innocent victims, and a holiday and make a successful horror film that actually is scary.
This is not a splatter film, there is hardly any bloodshed at all.
The film takes it's time telling it's story and builds suspense along the way.
Jamie Lee Curtis is outstanding in her film debut but she isn't alone.
P.J. Soles also delivers a very strong performance as does the great Donald Pleasence.
Now I have heard that in the Halloween franchise Dr. Loomis knows way too much for the given tuation and I think I can answer that.
He spent more time with Michael than anyone else so he was able to get into Michael's head and learn his patterns and behavior.
True having him turn around and see the car towards the end is a little huh but c'mon, the film was ending and we needed to wrap things up.
As far as muc goes it is unbeaten.
The main score is still a timeless clasc and I wish the John Carpenter would continue to score his own films but unfortunately he says on the commentary track for The Ward that he is far too old to be doing that any more.
A shame.
Now for the comparison.
I liked both verons of this film.
I can understand that the theatrical release needed to be wound tighter for suspense but I feel that by long scenes of Michael watching Laurie from the yard, Loomis at the hearing, and even the scene where P.J. tells Jamie that she thinks someone was watching her, I feel that you lose the impact that some of the later scenes have, such as P.J. chewing her boyfriend out for spilling beer on her shirt (which in the extended cut we find out is actually Laurie's shirt).Halloween is a film that launched the American slasher franchise.
In a behind the scenes extra on Friday the 13th the Killer Cut Sean Cunningham even said that the head of the film company he worked for told him to go see John Carpenter's Halloween and rip it off.What worked:
Everything about this movie is a clasc moment.
The opening POV shot, the main titles, Michael killing his ster, the escape from the institute, stalking Laurie, the constant conversations about the Boogeyman, the clasc horror films on the televions, the murders, the closet scene with Michael coming after Laurie, Sam Loomis saving Laurie from Michael, and the final shot of the film.
Evil is out there.
What didn't work:
Very little of this film didn't work.
A few of things that didn't work for me though.
Oddly enough I didn't like the fact that Sam showed up in the end and shot Michael.
I thought that took away from Laurie's struggle to overcome this evil that presented itself.
She goes through seeing her friends dead, escaping Michael in the house, fighting back against the monster, and for what?
To have Sam Loomis save her.
I would have preferred that she stood up to the monster and slayed him herself.
I thought the two children were really pushing it with the constant boogeyman scares.
I understand the scene with Tommy asking Laurie about the boogeyman and I thought it was a great scene but him constantly seeing the boogeyman at every turn and scaring the Wallace girl, I just felt that it was too much.
What else can you say that hasn't been said?
Halloween is a clasc and is my all time favorite horror movie by my all time favorite horror director.
It will never be topped.
Oh, one last thing.
Anyone else catch that when Annie's boyfriend calls her on the phone his voice is actually that of director John Carpenter?
So for my final verdict Halloween gets ***** out of *****.
John Carpenter's Halloween is the greatest horror film ever made.
Don't believe me?
John Carpenter did what few others were able to do: Take an over done premise of a lunatic escaping from the nut ward, give him a knife, mask, innocent victims, and a holiday and make a successful horror film that actually is scary.
This is not a splatter film, there is hardly any bloodshed at all.
The film takes it's time telling it's story and builds suspense along the way.
Jamie Lee Curtis is outstanding in her film debut but she isn't alone.
P.J. Soles also delivers a very strong performance as does the great Donald Pleasence.
Now I have heard that in the Halloween franchise Dr. Loomis knows way too much for the given tuation and I think I can answer that.
He spent more time with Michael than anyone else so he was able to get into Michael's head and learn his patterns and behavior.
True having him turn around and see the car towards the end is a little huh but c'mon, the film was ending and we needed to wrap things up.
As far as muc goes it is unbeaten.
The main score is still a timeless clasc and I wish the John Carpenter would continue to score his own films but unfortunately he says on the commentary track for The Ward that he is far too old to be doing that any more.
A shame.
Now for the comparison.
I liked both verons of this film.
I can understand that the theatrical release needed to be wound tighter for suspense but I feel that by long scenes of Michael watching Laurie from the yard, Loomis at the hearing, and even the scene where P.J. tells Jamie that she thinks someone was watching her, I feel that you lose the impact that some of the later scenes have, such as P.J. chewing her boyfriend out for spilling beer on her shirt (which in the extended cut we find out is actually Laurie's shirt).Halloween is a film that launched the American slasher franchise.
In a behind the scenes extra on Friday the 13th the Killer Cut Sean Cunningham even said that the head of the film company he worked for told him to go see John Carpenter's Halloween and rip it off.What worked:
Everything about this movie is a clasc moment.
The opening POV shot, the main titles, Michael killing his ster, the escape from the institute, stalking Laurie, the constant conversations about the Boogeyman, the clasc horror films on the televions, the murders, the closet scene with Michael coming after Laurie, Sam Loomis saving Laurie from Michael, and the final shot of the film.
Evil is out there.
What didn't work:
Very little of this film didn't work.
A few of things that didn't work for me though.
Oddly enough I didn't like the fact that Sam showed up in the end and shot Michael.
I thought that took away from Laurie's struggle to overcome this evil that presented itself.
She goes through seeing her friends dead, escaping Michael in the house, fighting back against the monster, and for what?
To have Sam Loomis save her.
I would have preferred that she stood up to the monster and slayed him herself.
I thought the two children were really pushing it with the constant boogeyman scares.
I understand the scene with Tommy asking Laurie about the boogeyman and I thought it was a great scene but him constantly seeing the boogeyman at every turn and scaring the Wallace girl, I just felt that it was too much.
What else can you say that hasn't been said?
Halloween is a clasc and is my all time favorite horror movie by my all time favorite horror director.
It will never be topped.
Oh, one last thing.
Anyone else catch that when Annie's boyfriend calls her on the phone his voice is actually that of director John Carpenter?
So for my final verdict Halloween gets ***** out of *****.
JohnCarpenterfan
Friday 12/09/2011 at 10:14 PM | 88118
The original HalloweeN is a perfect film, as far as I'm concerned. It's right up there with PSYCHO & THE EXORCIST. The sequel's don't even exist for me.
Dimiter
Saturday 12/10/2011 at 11:15 PM | 88151
I think there was definetly a difference in the sequels to those three movies. They meaning Psycho and the Exorcist dont even compare to Halloweenand im not saying Halloween 2 was better then 1 but come on it was 50x better then the other 2 movies cause it made sense and led right off from the the first one...Im sorry it might not have been the best but it was still pretty damn good! **** out of *****
mmyers911
Sunday 12/11/2011 at 12:49 AM | 88154
Halloween is a damn fine film. But the Extended edition was created for televion. The scenes that appear in the extended edition are not pieces of the original veron that were cut out, or 'lost'. They were filmed during the filming of Halloween 2 to compensate for run time lost when parts of the original film were edited out to make it 'televion appropriate'. The scenes were written just to give extra screen time. Had it not been necessary for extra scenes, I believe that the 'Laurie's Shirt' scene would have never existed (Just my opinion). The veron seen on the extended edition dvd is not the veron that was originally presented with that footage. The original presentation, for tv, would have been near the same length of the original veron, with the alternate scenes replacing certain segments of the film. The 'extended edition' dvd is really just a sales gimmick. But all in all, they are both good verons of the film.
creephouse
Sunday 12/11/2011 at 01:13 AM | 88157
I think there was definetly a difference in the sequels to those three movies. They meaning Psycho and the Exorcist dont even compare to Halloweenand im not saying Halloween 2 was better then 1 but come on it was 50x better then the other 2 movies cause it made sense and led right off from the the first one...Im sorry it might not have been the best but it was still pretty damn good! **** out of *****
No, I meant the Halloween sequels mean nothing to me.
No, I meant the Halloween sequels mean nothing to me.
Dimiter
Sunday 12/11/2011 at 07:34 AM | 88165
Very interesting bit about Laurie overcoming the boogeyman at the end because she gets saved again in part 2. Can't believe I never thought of this before but it would be interesting to see how it would have played out with her being able to push Michael off of the balcony herself or something. Then again maybe that's why Rob Zombie made his ending slightly different and allowed Laurie to take on the boogeyman for herself.
Although I love Halloween, I think some credit should be given to Bob Clark for influencing Carpenter to make a filme about a killer stalking babytters.
Although I love Halloween, I think some credit should be given to Bob Clark for influencing Carpenter to make a filme about a killer stalking babytters.
Sephit
Monday 12/12/2011 at 09:00 AM | 88195
