10 Things You Learn Rewatching Halloween (1978)
You Can't Kill the Boogeyman...
As October grows increasingly closer, horror fans have a lot to be excited about. There are all the regular annual reasons for the season and Halloween festivities, but there's also something much bigger on the horizon: the release of a new Halloween film.
Started 40 years ago to the month, Halloween is one of the longest-running horror franchises in film history. In total, there are ten films - with the eleventh one being released this year - Of those ten films, at least four of them could be considered reboots. It's a horror franchise unlike any other, with a mythology that is either densely complex or bare-bones simple depending on which film you're watching.
But as writers of the new film, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, have confirmed, the upcoming sequel will feature hat-tips and references to each and every prior film in the franchise. And so, as we count the days until the new film's release, let's dive in.
This week's film is John Carpenter's Halloween. The original, the one that started it all. Released all the way back in 1978 and made on a shoe-string budget, does it still hold up? Is it every bit the masterpiece that it once was? And what does it tell us about the future of the franchise?
10. The Opening Credits
The film opens on an elongated opening credits sequence that clocks in at just over two-and-half-minutes.
The credits are accompanied by one long-take, that lasts for the entirety of the sequence. The camera slowly pushes in on a lit jack-o'-lantern amidst a pitch black backdrop. The shot closes in on the jack-o'-lantern's eye, leaving only the flicker orange hue of the candle within amongst the darkness.
This sequence serves to introduce us to the aesthetics of the film. The flickering light amongst the darkness combined with the use of the orange ITC Serif Gothic font spells out the film's color palette, as well as establishing Carpenter's affinity for playing with sparse lighting amongst the darkness. Not to mention that it gives audiences a full two-and-half-minutes to grow accustomed to Carpenter's preferred aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
And of course, it is all backed by the use of Carpenter's iconic Halloween Theme.
This sequence is the first thing audiences see from the film, and it is a perfect set-up. It establishes the visual and sonic landscapes of the film and cements Carpenter's style, all within one shot.