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Halloween (1978) Review | Scariest Horror Movies Ever Dissected


Halloween (1978) Scariest Horror Movies Ever Dissected
Halloween (1978) Scariest Horror Movies Ever Dissected

Thanks to some slick directorial craftermanship, Carpenter has somehow summoned to life one of horror's most imposing monsters, delivering a menacingly suspenseful slasher from a premise that would otherwise resemble routine thriller filler.



Meticulously crafted and saturated in ominous suspense, Halloween (1978) presents an unrelenting rollercoaster ride of atmospheric dread that keeps the audience screaming in frightful anticipation of the next deadly thrill right up until its climactic curtain call.



From the minute Myers is unleashed on our screens, John William's horror-evoking music motif secretes a darkly sinister tone. Using this chilling chord sequence as an instrument of terror, we witness young Myer's brutally murdering an innocent girl, at which point the perspective insideously displays a voyeristic viewpoint as fountains of blood luridly squirt across the room with each stabbing thrust of the knife.



Halloween (1978) Review | Scariest Horror Movies Ever Dissected | Screenshot from opening scene cropped with reduced resolution, used in accordance with fair dealing to reflect subject. Image rights retained by their respective rights holders.
Halloween (1978) Review | Scariest Horror Movies Ever Dissected | Screenshot from opening scene cropped with reduced resolution, used in accordance with fair dealing to reflect subject. Image rights retained by their respective holders.


In essence, it's a shockingly menacing intro, made all the more terrifying by Myer's ice cold demeanor. But that opening scene merely sets in motion a merciless sequence of bloodthrirsty killings, gruesomely executed and smothered in nerve-severing suspense.



Sinisterly shot from start to end, you can tell Carpenter has placed painstaking effort and meticulous planning into the visual elements of every scene, evoking tension and suspense via lingering wide-angle shots, while placing Myer's imposing posture front and centre.



Halloween (1978) Review | Scariest Horror Movies Ever Dissected | Screenshot from opening scene cropped with reduced resolution, used in accordance with fair dealing to reflect subject. Image rights retained by their respective holders.
Halloween (1978) Review | Scariest Horror Movies Ever Dissected | Screenshot from opening scene cropped with reduced resolution, used in accordance with fair dealing to reflect subject. Image rights retained by their respective holders.



With its tension-building musical score, suspensefully orchestrated scares and grizzly death scenes, Halloween 1978 set a chilling standard for slasher films at the time, and remains situated at the pinnacle of the genre today.


Want to feast on more classic horror movies and the scariest horror movies ever? Why not dissect Roman Polanski's psychologically scarring Repulsion (1965)


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