solongsuckers

This movie is kind of dull. Firday part 2 starts off incoherently with deformed Jason showing up in anytown USA to kill the lead character. A kid even skate boards by him with no reaction, missing out on an opportunity that is taken advantage of in Halloween. Jason also seemingly goes through several costume shifts and at one point looks like he's got the sleeve of a blue business shirt. The killings are not as grotesque and disturbing as in part 1, which is somewhat welcome. The squeaky sound track is really creepy.

The first in the Friday the 13th series is, in a word, uncomfortable. I saw the movie uncut for the first time yesterday and I was unprepared for the really graphic stuff that had been cut out of other versions I had seen. The deaths are all the more shocking because the pace is a dead fish. The movie pretty much expires about an hour in but drags on until the conclusion. Betsy Palmer is priceless in a frighteningly real performance that will leave you smacking yourself in the head and screaming for the exits (if it was still in the theater.) The kids who get creamed range from really annoying to really sexy to Kevin Bacon level. This movie is incredibly subtle in it's brutality and uses great use of paralyzing music like in Halloween. In it's own way, a great flick because it's graphic stuff is really disturbing and actually very original in the genre.

Halloween is a movie that is not aging well with me but it is a great movie and a classic because it mixes deeply disturbing elements in a great technical package. The style is tremendous, with Michael Myers sandblasting an imprint in the heads of many viewers (including me.) The pace seems dead but the ominous presence of Myers, mixed with the moody music, fills the screen even when he is not in it. Jaime Lee stumbles around and the supporting victims include people like PJ Soles. The killings are brutal but not gory, thus increasing the appreciation and they are tremendously well spaced. The elements of the chase are also manipulated brilliantly. Donald Pleasance acts like Myer's alter ego, a boogeyman who stalks the object of his obsession. Stalk, slash and kill? Yes. But with a heart.