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if the original Halloween came out today................

dont know why i was thinking about this today but................

the original Halloween had very little blood, no over the top nudity, hardly any swearing and its not very violent at all and it was rated R.

compare it to movies nowadays and its VERY tame

if it were to come out today would it be a PG-13 movie?

and would it do as well as it did in 78?

i think it could pass as a PG-13 movie but would flop in the box office because a lot of kids under the age of 30 would conder it a boring piece of shit

what do you guys think????
Johnny Bisco Thursday 7/30/2009 at 07:44 PM | 51192
thats an interesting question. i vote that it wouldn't be near the same. it was lighting in a bottle in the first place. and to give audiences that now a days it just wouldnt work.
oldskool Thursday 7/30/2009 at 09:34 PM | 51208
I agree.

Fortunately, I would say Halloween is a big reason I love older horror movies and I am not some mindless teenager like most of my generation who need gore, vulgarity, and sex.
DrenTheLiar Thursday 7/30/2009 at 09:36 PM | 51209
Well...the selling point if it were released today would be Jamie Lee Curtis or whoever her equivalent would be. The daughter of two huge Hollywood stars; and also the aging clasc actor Pleasance or whoever his equivalent would be. I think the adverting would be strong there.

As for the story? it does not have the formula ingredients to contend with the likes of SAW and other crap films. The SAW films were the first horror films to break the standard demographics of

a horror film. HALLOWEEN would draw the more traditional and true horror fan base. But then again it would all come down to adverting. I think it would see a small theatre run and be a mild surprise hit.

Also Dren.....you talk about today's generation....it doesnt sound too different than mine when we were kids running out to rent movies like MANIAC; WIZARD OF GORE; THE HATCHET MURDERS and so on and so on. Don't blame it on blood and gore. Blood; gore; sex; depravity were essential parts of hundreds of good films in the 70's and 80's. For every SHINING or THE THING there were 20 gore soaked gems.

The difference I think is the fact that films like MANIAC; REANIMATOR; etc was that they were well written and well crafted. SAW and the gaggle of crap horrors are churned out to make $ regardless of their quality.
ny ghoul Friday 7/31/2009 at 06:23 PM | 51281


The difference I think is the fact that films like MANIAC; REANIMATOR; etc was that they were well written and well crafted. SAW and the gaggle of crap horrors are churned out to make $ regardless of their quality.

A very good point and that is really what I mean. There's no innovation in modern movies.
DrenTheLiar Friday 7/31/2009 at 09:04 PM | 51294
I think it would be a huge bomb in the theaters. It wouldn't have enough blood and guts for people these days and certainly not enough nudity.

I really don't think many of the movies from the 80's and 70's would do well for that mple fact.
cropsy Saturday 8/01/2009 at 01:01 AM | 51308
It's really hard to say.... I think it would do ok... the fans of true horror, those who want to see innovation and a strong story would love it.

But the fans who want over the top gore and violence, lots of sex, etc... they would be bored to tears.Even my Wife, who never saw Halloween as a kid... she saw later ones but not the original... when I sat her down to watch it the first time, she damn near fell asleep.

She said it was too slow and didn't scare her at all.

She loves horror movies, but can't get into the older ones that I love so much.I think that if Halloween came out today it would not make that much money in it's theater run.

But it would garner a strong cult following on DVD and Blu Ray, and would still be condered somewhat of a clasc to the true horror fans out there.

It wouldn't be the mega franchise it is today though, it probably wouldn't have had a sequel.

DarkArtist81 Saturday 8/01/2009 at 07:43 PM | 51375
It's really hard to say.... I think it would do ok... the fans of true horror, those who want to see innovation and a strong story would love it.

But the fans who want over the top gore and violence, lots of sex, etc... they would be bored to tears. ^^ Agreed....damn now I wanna go watch it but I got work soon
kweandee Sunday 8/02/2009 at 01:55 PM | 51423
That's why I love Halloween, it's more subtle and almost cerebral.

It has a very bac mple story, with a little cheese, some mystery, and a bunch of great characters.

Top that off with Pleasence as Loomis and Carpenter's fantastic score and you have a winning combo.I remember being a kid and watching this movie, it really scared me on a deep level.

We all fear the unknown, and Michael Myers is the perfect example of the unknown made flesh.

The scene when Tommy looks outde to see the shape standing off in the distance, just looking in...

It's scary on a psychological level.

I used to damn near pee my pants when I heard the muc after that, it just freaked me out hard.

Only later, once I was a teen did I face the fear and watch the films over and over again.

The fear left, but was replaced with deep fascination.

The original worked completely because it followed a few bac rules.1: Have compelling victims as characters, not cookie cutter tweens that nobody will care about.

2: Hide the monster in shadow as much as posble and don't show him too much.3: Use muc and camera tricks to illicit a fear response from the audience

4: Leave the audience in suspense at the end

Rule number 2 is especially important, as we see in the clasc film Jaws.

Spielberg brilliantly used this to his advantage when making his movie, making the reveal of the shark more terrifying and intense than it would have been if it would have been shown for the entire film.

Some could say it was merely because the shark didn't work all that well for most of the shoot, but either way... it WORKED.

The biggest and most important thing to remember for a good slasher film, IMO, is to keep the killer mysterious.

If you give him motive or too much backstory, the killer is bacally neutered.

At least that is how I feel anyway.
DarkArtist81 Friday 8/07/2009 at 03:56 AM | 51696
I love the original but if it were released today I would have to think it would tank in the boxoffice and last a month in theaters (if it was lucky).Remember, it was a little indy film shot by kids bacally.

The majority of their budget went to paying Pleasence who shot all his scenes in about a week. (and he got top billing for that).

The rest of the money went to panavion cameras (which in my opinion was the ngle smartest thing they ever did for that movie).

Also, they are credited for the invention of the steady cam.

When I was taking film classes at Indiana Univerty, one of the scenes that was shown was the opening from Halloween.

I was SHOCKED that this was being used in a more yuppie film class.

Still, they gave total credit to the birth of the steady cam to Carpenter and his team.

My opinion (yes opinion) is the original Halloween could have ealy failed but the stars were just in the right alignment . . . lightening in a bottle so to speak.

Having Pleasence, ung Panavion cameras, creating a new style of shooting, calling the film Halloween instead of the Babytter Murders (so that it appealed to a larger audience who can identify with that title), and the random chance of converting a Shatner mask to the icon white mask (instead of ung the Kelly clown) are all random things that standing alone would do nothing for the film but together they made cinematic history.

Oh and I think it would still warrent a R rating even if released today because of P.J. showing off the goods.

The MPAA isn't that relaxed (not yet).

p.s. I still think that if it weren't for Star Trek the myers mask community wouldn't even exist so a big thanks to Gene Roddenberry on that note for recasting that guy who played Pike (the original captain) and replacing him with Shatner.
DaShape Friday 8/07/2009 at 02:43 PM | 51705
I agree.

Fortunately, I would say Halloween is a big reason I love older horror movies and I am not some mindless teenager like most of my generation who need gore, vulgarity, and sex.

I agree. I lvoe seeing a lot of blood in movies but Halloween was so aweosme! I don't think it's boring or anything. It's one of my favorite movies!
HorrorFreak Friday 8/21/2009 at 01:58 AM | 52924
It would bomb. No doubt at all.
thatdoomguy666 Friday 9/04/2009 at 03:08 PM | 53911
Yeah it would probably not do well. Due to the fact the majority of the horror going audience would be satisfied with a movie about naked women being led into a room where they're butchered one by one for 2 hours
Bob Cummings Monday 9/07/2009 at 07:23 AM | 54120