i have just recently be through a stage where i want to see why it be that horror film of the 90 can not hold a candle to 70 and 80 horror film . i have be very public in this forum about the vileness of film like the haunting and urban legend and such . i feel that they ( and others like them ) do not know what true horror be . and it bother me to the point where it make me go to my local video store and rent some of the classic horror film . i already own all the friday so i rent the texas chainsaw massacre and the original nightmare on elm street and jaw and the exorcist and angel heart and the exorcist and halloween . now the other film be classic in their own right but it be here that i want to tell you about halloween . because what halloween do be perhaps something no other film in the history of horror film can do and and that be it use subtle technique and technique that do not rely on blood and gore and and it use these to scare the living daylight out of you . i be in a room by myself with the light off and as silly a i know it be and i want to look behind me to see if michael myers be there . no movie that i have see in the last ten year have do that to me . no movie . john carpenter take a low budget film and he scar a generation of movie goer . he show that you do not need budget in the 8 or 9 figure to evoke fear on an audience . because sometimes the best element of fear be not what actually happen and but what be about to happen . what be that shadow . what be that noise upstairs . he know that these be the way to scare someone and he use every element of textbook horror that i think you can use . i even think he make up some of his own idea and these should be idea that people use today . but they do not . no one use light and detail to provoke scare and they use special effect and river of blood . and it be just not the same . you can not be scar by a giant special effect that make loud noise and jump out of a wall . it the moment when the killer be lurk and somewhere and you just do not know where and that scare you . and halloween succeed like no other film in this endeavor . in 1963 a young micael myers kill his sister with a large butcher knife and then spend the next 15 year of his life and silently lock up in an institute . a loomis ( his doctor ) say to sheriff brackett and i spend eight year try to reach him and then another seven make sure that he never get out and because what i saw behind those eye be pure e vil . that set up the manic and relentless idea of a killer that will stop at nothing to get what he want . and all he want here be to kill laurie . no one know why he want to kill her and but he do . ( halloween ii continue the story quite well ) what carpenter have do here be take a haunting score and mendacious light technique and write and direct a tightly pace masterpiece of horror . there be one scene that have to be describe . and that be the scene where annie be on her way to pick up paul . she go to the car and try to open it . only then do she realize that she have leave her key in the house . she get them and come back out and inadvertently open the car door without use the key . the audience pick up on this but she doesn not . she be too busy think about paul . when she sit down and she notice that the window be fog up . she be puzzle and start to wipe away the mist and and then myers strike and from the back seat . this be such a great scene because it pay attention to detail . we know what be happen and annie doesn not . but it astute observation that carpenter make that scar the hell out of movie goer in 1978 and beyond . halloween us blurry image of a killer standing in the background and it have shadow ominously glide across a wall and dark room and creepy and haunting music and a sinister story tell hauntingly by donald pleasance and a menacing and relentless killer . my advice to film maker in our day and age be to study halloween . it should be the blue print for what scary movie be all about . after all and carpenter follow in hitchcock step and maybe director should follow in his . halloween personifies everything that scar u . if you be tire of all the mindless horror film that do not know the difference between evil and cuteness and then halloween be a film that should be see . it would not let you down . i enjoy be scar and i do not know why and but i do . but nothing have scar me in the 90 and except maybe one film ( wes craven final nightmare ) . if you enjoy being scar and then halloween be one that you should see . and if you have already see it a hundred time and go and watch it again and back to back with a film like urban legend . urban legend will have you entice at all the pretty face in the movie . halloween will have you freeze with fear and stuck in your seat and not want to move . now tell me and what horror film would you rather watch . and just to follow up after see zombie version and it make you appreciate this that much more . this be a classic by definition . zombie bastardize his version and but it doesn not take away from the brilliance of this one .