Halloween

The Wallace house has its living room on the left side of the house and yet when anybody enters the house, they go to the right of the door to enter the living room.

The movie is set in Illinois, but when Tommy and Laurie are going to school, the trees in the background are California palms.

When Michael is stalking Tommy at the school there are a few cars parked across the street from where he's headed.

Once Michael gets into his car, all of those cars are gone.

The front door knob of the house where Laurie is babysitting is on the right when seen from both sides of the door.

Although the story takes place in Illinois, all the cars have California license plates.

When Laurie sees the shape near the bush, cigarette smoke from director 'John Carpenter (I)' (qv)'s cigarette can be seen floating into view.

While Bob and Lynda are heading up to the bedroom from the living room, Lynda trips on a dolly track and tries to ignore it.

[widescreen only] When Michael Myers, as a child, walks through the living room with the knife, the clock above the stove shows 9:25 and the clock on the wall reads 9:40, but just 5-7 seconds later, the clock chimes 10 times.

In a close up on the phone before Lindsay answers it, someone's shadow moves into the light.

When Laurie is trapped in the kitchen, she breaks away glass to move the rake.

The shards of fake glass are clearly visible.

However, when it cuts back to the shot, the shards of glass are gone.

When Annie drops off Laurie at the Doyle house, Laurie walks towards the front door which is a French door in this scene; throughout the rest of the movie the door is solid.

The narrow windows on either side of the front door of the Wallace house are not the same pattern on the inside as they are on the outside.

When Michael breaks the car window behind the nurse's head you can see a wrench tied to his hand.

When Laurie jabs the needle in Michael's neck, he sticks the butcher knife in the couch.

After Michael falls, Laurie picks the knife up, looks at it, and then throws it on the floor next to the couch.

Later, Michael comes upstairs holding the knife.

Before the end credits, when we hear Michael breathing and it shows all the shots of the house, the knife is still on the floor next to the couch.

When Laurie walks to the Myers house to drop off the key, she only has a few blocks to walk.

However, when she and Annie drive clear across town to reach the Doyle house, the Myers house is conveniently close by.

When Michael goes to the school and gets in the car to follow Tommy, the passenger side window is no longer smashed from the previous night's attack on the nurse.

When Bob and Lynda get out of the van and go into the house, they clearly leave the passenger's side door open.

The next time we see the van, the door is closed.

After Michael has killed Annie, he carries her body around the side of the house.

In the first shot, notice her head is to the left side of Michael's body and her feet are on the right side.

It then cuts to Tommy who is watching from the window across the street.

When it cuts back to Michael carrying Annie up the front steps of the house, her body has switched positions.

Her head is now on the right side of Michael and her feet on the left.

When Annie comes back after dropping Lindsey off at Tommy Doyle's house, the TV is turned off, although it was left on when Annie and Lindsey went across the street.

After Michael has stabbed Judith, his sister, he leaves the house and when the camera pans upward, all the lights in the house are on.

But, they were never on when Michael was inside and he never turned them all on when he was exiting the house.

In the beginning of the movie Michael is six years old.

The rest of the movie is enacted 15 years later, so Michael must be 21 years old.

In the end credits however, there's a Michael of age six and a Michael of age 23.

When Laurie is trapped in the kitchen, you can clearly see which pane of glass in the door is fake glass.

When Laurie runs back into the Doyle house after being chased by Michael, she notices the living room window is open.

When you look closely you can see a fan that is being used to blow the curtain.

When Laurie goes into the living room of the Wallace house, you can see the arm of a crew member protruding from the left wall.

When Laurie and Annie are walking down the sidewalk and Laurie sees Michael standing next to a bush, from Laurie's point of view the bush is trimmed and neat, but when Annie walks up to the bush, it's all bushy with leaves sticking out everywhere.

Shadow of crew member when Lindsey is watching television.

The writing on the side of the car that Michael steals disappears.

Whenever Laurie, Tommy or Lindsey looks out the window at the Wallace House, there is a pumpkin visible with a candle burning.

In all of the shots except two, the jack-o-lantern is a flat-looking thing.

The two exception shots show a tall and more narrow/skinny pumpkin.

When Annie is first shown spilling something on her clothes and takes them off to wash them, her panties are a solid color.

Later when she is in the laundry room her panties have flower prints on them.

When Michael stabs Bob with the butcher knife, the knife goes all of the way through Bob and into the wall.

However, the knife is barely even long enough to go entirely through Bob's body (if at all), much less the additional length required for it to be deep enough in the wall to hold up his weight.

When Michael lunges for Laurie with the knife, and she stabs him with the knitting needle, she clearly hits him around the temple, but in the next scene, it is lodged in his neck.

When Laurie is trying to escape the kitchen during the initial Myers attack, a small light with blue gel to simulate moonlight is seen in the left side of the frame.

(widescreen only) When the nurse struggles in the car while Michael is on the roof of the car, we hear the sound of tires screeching.

However, it is raining and the road is wet.

After Doctor Loomis has talked to the Sheriff from a phone on the highway and warned him about Michael, he notices a red pick-up truck and walks towards it to inspect it.

We can hear the noise from the train that is coming towards the camera on the left side, shows up and starts to pass.

The next shot, is from the opposite side, showing the Doctor and the truck from the front.

We still can hear the train passing but there is no train in the background.

Toward the beginning of the movie when Michael is attacking the woman in the car, she steps on the gas turning the car toward some trees.

In the next scene when she jumps out of the car, Michael jumps in and drives off.

The trees aren't there anymore and he's driving straight on a road.

Laurie's hair changes from curly to straight in almost every scene.

When Michael is watching Annie in the kitchen he knocks down and breaks the plant hanging in front of the door.

Later when Laurie approaches the same door there is a plant hanging in front of the door.

When Dr.

Loomis is talking in a phone booth after Myers escapes ("It's your funeral!"), when he exits the booth and notices the abandoned truck, a crew member is reflected in the glass of the phone booth.

You can clearly see the mountains in the background, when Dr.

Loomis is on the phone and sees the Red Rabbit matchbook.

Since this movie takes place in Illinois that would be impossible.

As Laurie is walking home from school, a leaf (or some other debris) is briefly seen stuck in her hair.

When she turns back, looking towards where Michael was after she bumps into the Sheriff and is startled, the leaf is gone.

After Laurie stabs Michael there is no blood on the knife she has used.

In the scene when Laurie scolds Tommy for "scaring Lindsay", he accidentally says Laurie's line, "there's nobody out there", right before she does.

A boom mic is visible at the top of the screen during the scene where Michael stabs Bob.

It shines light off and is clearly visible, killing some tension in the moment.

Walking home from school, the girls are seen to be traveling along a very dry street, however, when Laurie is left alone, the streets are obviously now wet.

The scene that shows Laurie, Annie and Lynda walking home from school starts with them walking from a school with outside lockers, schools with inclement weather, such as Illinois, do not have outside lockers.

Annie tells Laurie that she will pick her up at 6:30.

When she does, it is full daylight, which is not the case anywhere in Illinois on October 31.

And even though it is a small town, it's full dark when the girls arrive at their destination.

At the beginning of the movie Michael is supposed to be 6 years old.

However, when he is walking around the house you can clearly see that the scene is being shot by an adult.

The camera is well above the door knob and when he goes outside he is as tall as his parents.

Then they take the mask off and the view switches to the long scene, notice how much shorter than the adults he is.

The date on the tombstone above Annie says that Judith Myers was born November 10, 1947, and died October 31, 1963.

That would make her 15 (almost 16) when she died, yet everyone says that she was 17 years old.

This movie takes place in late October.

Though if you look at the neighborhood around the characters, it is not an Illinois October.

Filmed in the spring in California, pumpkins were not in season and the low budget of the movie ruled out creating artificial varieties.

Most of the pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns seen are squashes painted orange.

As a result they often look somewhat flat or misshapen with the wrong textured skin.

Tommy meets up with Laurie at the corner to walk to school, yet to get to Tommy's house requires a car ride across town.

When Annie brings Lindsey Wallace over to the Doyle house, she tells Laurie that she will just have to call Ben Tramer "tomorrow.

" In actuality, Laurie could just talk to Ben at school, as November 1, 1978 was on a Wednesday.

After Lynda says goodbye, Laurie and Annie continue to walk home from classes together and the following scenes show that the takes were combined from different periods of the day.

When Laurie sees the Shape peering at them behind the bushes, the Sun is setting behind the houses to their left.

In the very next scene when she tries get Annie's attention, the Sun is shining on them from directly above.

When Annie rushes to confront the Shape the Sun is still setting but once Annie departs, it shines completely overhead again as Laurie is frightened by Sheriff Brackett.

(Extended version) Dr.

Loomis and a nurse from the Smith's Grove Sanitarium walk down the hall and discuss who was supposed to be watching Michael Myers when he escaped and the camera pans down to Dr.

Loomis' loafers as they enter the destroyed room.

In the next scene, walking to his car with Dr.

Wynn, Dr.

Loomis is clearly wearing brown dress shoes that click as he walk - something the loafers did not do in the previous scene.

After Linda and Bob calls Laurie from the Wallaces' house they go to the upstairs bedroom to make love.

There is daylight peering through the blinds behind them, although it is supposed to be night.

After Michael Myers kills Bob and watches him die as he hangs on the door, there is a nearby counter top with a flour can full of kitchen utensils and a cutting board.

Above it is a wooden cabinet with nothing beside it.

However, once Laurie enters the house to look for her friends there is a red container, a box of Quaker Oats, and something shiny and metallic next to the wooden cabinet.

After Judith's boyfriend leaves, young Michael ascends the steps to his sister's bedroom with a kitchen knife in hand.

Her clothes are balled up together in a pile on the floor at the top of the landing.

After he picks up the clown mask from the ground and puts it on, the pile of clothes are now trailing piece by piece towards Judith's bedroom door and one of the articles, a pink sweater, is now openly lying flat.

While Michael is breaking through the door to get to Laurie, he unlocks and opens the door, then it cuts to Laurie, and when it cuts back he opens the door again.

When Tommy is tripped and lands on the pumpkin, if played in slow motion, you can see that the pumpkin has been sliced open to aid it breaking apart upon impact.

Autumn leaves cascade down on Laurie and rustle to the ground as she exits her house in expectation of Annie to pick her up.

As she sits at the corner watching children trick-or-treat there are no leaves falling anywhere else in the neighborhood, not even to her immediate right side where the lawn and sidewalk are clean.

While in the company of Tommy Doyle, Laurie places the keys to the Myers' house under the mat at her father's request.

Tommy says goodbye until later that night and Laurie starts singing to herself walking down the street.

Michael Myers then watches her, breathing heavily but the motions of his chest and shoulders rising and falling do not match the sound.

Annie moans about having to babysit at the Wallace's house, and Laurie says she's babysitting at the Doyle's home which is three houses down.

Later in the movie the Wallace's house is shown to be across the street from the Doyle's.

After Michael goes upstairs to kill Laurie and the children, Laurie tells the kids to lock themselves in the bathroom in the bedroom, and she herself goes into the closet.

Before Michael comes up, she knocked on the door of the bedroom to let the kids know she was okay, so why didn't she lock the bedroom door when she and the kids hid? Michael left them enough time for her to barricade herself and the children in the room, and she could have easily closed the door and locked it.

When Laurie first arrives home from school, she glances out the window and sees Michael standing in her neighbor's yard.

It is very windy.

But in the next moment, she slams the window shut and the trees are perfectly still.

When The Shape attacks Laurie while she is hiding in the closet, the position of the clothes, as well as the types of clothing hanging in there, change frequently, and in every shot of the closet afterwards.

The window in the Doyles' living room is twice as large on the outside as it is inside.

In one scene, Lindsay is alone watching television.

The sounds coming from the movie indicate that she's watching a later scene from Howard Hawk's "The Thing.

" Several scenes later, just before Lindsay is dropped off to Laurie Strode's house by Annie, Laurie and Tommy are watching television and "The Thing" is just coming on.

When Annie and Laurie are driving in the burgundy 1977 Monte Carlo, the rear view mirror changes from being perfectly straight to being crooked.

Almost every other scene the mirror is the opposite of the scene prior.

A babysitter minding a strange house is suddenly attacked by a monster. It's possibly one of the oldest horror movie clichés there is.

I have recently got hold of the complete box set of Halloween, including the documentary "Halloween: 25 Years of Terror". I am a die-hard fan of the 80s horror movies and I must say that Halloween is The King of this genre, which holds its crown even today, when special effects and gore and blood contenders are walking its kingdom.

Rob Zombie is among the most popular newcomer Horror Directors of the millennium because of his innovative directing style based on surreal/nightmarish images, extreme gore, plenty of colors, and best of all, distinctive character development.Zombie didn't have a lot to do in order to create the proper atmosphere for a Halloween movie.

When John Carpenter first came up with the idea for Halloween, he probably didn't have a clue he was creating one of cinema's most indelible genre memories - he just thought it would be fun to make a movie about a serial killer striking on October 31. Then again, he had already made a name for himself with Assault on Precinct 13, and thanks to brilliant editing and camera work, great performances and that unforgettable score (which he wrote himself), even its tainted legacy of seven sequels can't tarnish Halloween's iconic status.

I hadn't seen this film in over twenty-five years, so I decided to give it another look. I remember going to the movies as a teenager to see this film and being scared to death, so I was looking forward to seeing it again.

Halloween, is one slasher I never grow tired of. A slasher film is thought of as a film with endless blood and gore and violence and all kinds of slashing.

The backstory of young Michael Myers is entirely unnecessary, but it's also the most interesting part of this film which completely falls apart after that section is over and becomes a reheated version of John Carpenter's original. Unfortunately, by painting its three female leads in the most irritating way imaginable, there's little suspense and you'll find yourself checking your watch to see if it's almost over.