"Jaws" is a boring story about watching guys fish.
What was so good about Halloween (1978)?
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
Modern-day horror movies suck. None of them seem to understand that pure gore on its own isn't scary. Those directors wouldn't understand dramatic tension if it walked up and bit them in the pancreas.
This reminds me, I need to rewatch Nightmare on Elm Street 3. I remember that being a pretty damned cool film.
This reminds me, I need to rewatch Nightmare on Elm Street 3. I remember that being a pretty damned cool film.
From a classic Reddit post: "If you watch the movie `Jaws' backwards, it's a movie about a shark that keeps throwing up people until they have to open a beach."
Damn, I hated the remake. HATED it. No pacing, no suspense -- no storytelling, for fuck's sake.
Rob Zombie is such a bad, dull director. He has no idea where to place a camera or how to construct a sequence of shots. I can't stand watching his films. They're excruciating in their lack of technique.
Genius.
Disagree.
My favorite thing is when people don't read a thread to follow the ongoing joke, and instead take an ironic post seriously.
Now THAT'S comedy gold.
Damn, I hated the remake. HATED it. No pacing, no suspense -- no storytelling, for fuck's sake.
Rob Zombie is such a bad, dull director. He has no idea where to place a camera or how to construct a sequence of shots. I can't stand watching his films. They're excruciating in their lack of technique.
Don't be pretentious.
But he's right. The remake was clumsy and boring. There was a complete lack of tension and storytelling. Even on it's own (if the original had never existed) it would still be a wholly unremarkable film.
I agree it was well made, and when those scares came, they were good. But I there is still that 60 minutes of teenage character underdevelopment. But teenagers are not very profound as it was said before. Alcove said that they use teenagers cause the slasher genre is aimed at teens. But teens see several movies, with adult characters.
James Bond and Indiana Jones are aimed very much at teens, but hardly any teens in those films. In fact Bond aims directly to teens by keeping it at a PG-13 all the time, where as the slasher genre goes for the gory R ratings, most of the time. So I don't think they are necessarily aimed at adolescents when they can't even get in to see the movie without a guardian. So why do slasher movies feel they need lack of profound, teen characters, when other teen genres are full of adults?
SPOILERS
I think I need to watch Halloween again cause I must have missed something. I mentioned how I thought the development of the most interesting character (the villain), is left in the background. My friend told me that the Laurie character was revealed to be the villains sister. I totally missed that on the first viewing and my friend said she does not remember where in the movie it is explained but it is somewhere. I thought the villain just went after them, with very little explanation and it was mostly contrived.
You didn't miss anything. That doesn't happen in Halloween. Laurie's relationship with Michael isn't revealed until the sequel.
First off, I think it's good to ask these kind of questions. Don't take for granted that anything is good because it's well known, reviewed or respected. And if it is, learning WHY is absolutely a good way to learn about a genre. No film (book, music, etc) should be above scrutiny, and you can learn something from everything. So good on you, Harm, and if you don't understand, asking is a good way to learn!
Second, just because you like something doesn't mean it's good, and vice versa. You can dislike the Mona Lisa while still recognizing that it is good. Tastes and preference are different than objective quality. This is important because I feel that Halloween is good. I don't like it though. I love horror movies, but slasher films, even the best of them, tend to leave me a little cold.
You do seem to be missing the point of horror movies in your original post. You want them to explain the villain, rather than the victims. Horror movies are often about the unknown. In this genre, explaining things is often a very bad thing. Simple reasoning: what you imagine about the killer/monster/zombie/fluffy bunny is scary. You think it's scary because you are told it's scary, so your mind gets churning as to WHY. Horror movies are all about imagination, and those that spell everything out, well, that's the bottom of the barrel. So that's part of why this film is a classic.
As for spending time with the girls, this is what is amusingly sometimes referred to as the "20 minutes with jerks" portion of the film. Obviously time varies, but you set up the characters that you are going to kill. It's done many different ways; sometimes to gain sympathy for the characters. Sometimes to annoy the hell out of you so you're glad they die (see any Friday the 13th film for that). Mostly, however, it's done for contrast. If everything was 100% full-out balls to the wall screaming terror, there'd be no impact. Take a piece of music, if it's loud and crashing all the way down, you turn your stereo down. However, if it starts off soft and quiet, you turn it up to hear it, then when the loud parts come in, they have IMPACT in a very literal sense. Dynamics. Horror movies are all about that...starting off with a slice-of-life piece of some teenagers sets the stage for what's to come. Shows them as people...just normal people. If you do watch it again, keep that in mind.
Now, all that said, from this and other posts you've made on films, you seem to lack a bit of patience/attention span. Keep in mind that stories are often not about what happens, but who it happens to. Soak things up; don't worry about what they're not, just see what they ARE. (non-horror example) take Bergman's "Cries and Whispers". Nothing happens in it. At all. And it's brilliant; I found it absolutely riveting.
Keep watching films. Keep thinking about them. And while we're on Carpenter, check out "In The Mouth of Madness"
Second, just because you like something doesn't mean it's good, and vice versa. You can dislike the Mona Lisa while still recognizing that it is good. Tastes and preference are different than objective quality. This is important because I feel that Halloween is good. I don't like it though. I love horror movies, but slasher films, even the best of them, tend to leave me a little cold.
You do seem to be missing the point of horror movies in your original post. You want them to explain the villain, rather than the victims. Horror movies are often about the unknown. In this genre, explaining things is often a very bad thing. Simple reasoning: what you imagine about the killer/monster/zombie/fluffy bunny is scary. You think it's scary because you are told it's scary, so your mind gets churning as to WHY. Horror movies are all about imagination, and those that spell everything out, well, that's the bottom of the barrel. So that's part of why this film is a classic.
As for spending time with the girls, this is what is amusingly sometimes referred to as the "20 minutes with jerks" portion of the film. Obviously time varies, but you set up the characters that you are going to kill. It's done many different ways; sometimes to gain sympathy for the characters. Sometimes to annoy the hell out of you so you're glad they die (see any Friday the 13th film for that). Mostly, however, it's done for contrast. If everything was 100% full-out balls to the wall screaming terror, there'd be no impact. Take a piece of music, if it's loud and crashing all the way down, you turn your stereo down. However, if it starts off soft and quiet, you turn it up to hear it, then when the loud parts come in, they have IMPACT in a very literal sense. Dynamics. Horror movies are all about that...starting off with a slice-of-life piece of some teenagers sets the stage for what's to come. Shows them as people...just normal people. If you do watch it again, keep that in mind.
Now, all that said, from this and other posts you've made on films, you seem to lack a bit of patience/attention span. Keep in mind that stories are often not about what happens, but who it happens to. Soak things up; don't worry about what they're not, just see what they ARE. (non-horror example) take Bergman's "Cries and Whispers". Nothing happens in it. At all. And it's brilliant; I found it absolutely riveting.
Keep watching films. Keep thinking about them. And while we're on Carpenter, check out "In The Mouth of Madness"
"stories are often not about what happens, but who it happens to."
Pretty much all good stories are.
Pretty much all good stories are.
Oh okay, well I'm going to have to judge the original as if the sequel hadn't been made yet. So in the original was their any REAL explained reason why he targeted those girls?
Oh man, this movie. It started out kinda okay and then just got awesome.
I think you should watch it again instead of asking for answers. I mean that seriously. You gave it some breathing room now watch it again and see if your opinion changes, if you answer your own questions, etc. It's always cool to watch flicks and catch new things, especially in the ones you thought were simple.
Heard Carpenter say it was heavily influenced by one of my favorite movies as a kid "West World" with Yul Brynner. It's a film about a wild west themed adult amusement park populated by androids. Yul Brynner is the "gun fighter" android and he goes haywire. Gave JC the idea for a villain you could not kill, who just kept coming back. This was of course also seen in the terminator movies later on.
It was made by Michael Crichton and is basically the precursor to Jurassic Park.
It was made by Michael Crichton and is basically the precursor to Jurassic Park.
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Been a long time since I've watched it but great film.
True I will have to watch it again. What about movies like Black Christmas and the Texas Chainsaw Maasacre? Those came before so what makes Halloween the original?
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