We’ve come to the last entry in my little Late to the Party series. This is easily the best-made out of the three slasher movies I’ve watched in terms of cinematography and editing. The way Myers appears barely visible in the background or at the edge of many shots is really effective. I can see its influence on later horror movies I’ve enjoyed, especially It Follows, where the couple of moments we see the monster walking toward its target without any of the characters being aware were the scariest parts for me. Myers moves at that same steady but unhurried pace when he’s after Laurie at the end.

The music also adds a lot. As a kid I heard the iconic Halloween theme used in other contexts and came to think of it as just “horror” music, and honestly I find it almost comforting rather than scary. But the variations and little stings used at key points did work on me.

I found the plotting a little slow. For some contrived reason Dr. Loomis and the cops agree not to put out an alert that Myers has escaped, and so the movie suffers from the same problem Raven Wilder pointed out in the comments about Friday the 13th: none of the victims know there’s a killer on the loose, so they’re just going about their evening until they get picked off one by one.

The device of Laurie being responsible for babysitting charges adds some extra drama to her situation, and I’m reasonably satisfied with her performance as final girl, because she does some decent barricading and fighting back. She neglects to finish Myers off with his own knife after stabbing him with the knitting needle, but learns her lesson for the second time. Unfortunately Myers appears to be unkillable.

So to conclude my Late to the Party series, I’d say A Nightmare on Elm Street is my favorite of the three, followed by Halloween, with Friday the 13th a distant third. Nightmare just has the most charm and personality, and Nancy is still my favorite final girl.

Stray observations:

• The height of the point of view as Judith is murdered at the beginning in no way tracks with the killer being a six-year-old.

• Myers tilting his head at the hanging body of Bob pinned to the wall is almost… adorable?