Halloween and Friday the 13th are overrated...

[countchocula]

Let me preface this by saying that I like Halloween. I do not like Friday the 13th. At all. It's profoundly boring. The pace is lethargic, Betsy Palmer is an overacting eyesore, and the stalk sequences drag on for an eternity. Halloween is mild fun, but it, too, suffers from paralytic pacing. Also, it was not as pioneering as some fans believe it to be. Masked slashers and POV kills existed before John Carpenter lensed his autumnal shocker. The film should only be credited with launching a litany of dumbed down "dead teenager" flicks.

Bring it on!

[shoe1985]

Calling these two movies overrated is wrong. I am not the biggest F13th fan, but I will admit it is a classic.

Halloween helped start the slasher genre. When it came out it was a phenomenon. People were actually scared when they saw this movie. Here is a guy you know nothing about, and he could be anyone. He could be the person next to you, in front, or behind you. All you know is his name is Michael Myers and he killed his sister on Halloween. Sure other movies came before it, but none as effective.

F13 started the quick kills, and if you have sex you will die horror movies.

If we are to call any movies overrated it would be most horror movies today. It is all cliches looking to make a quick buck.

[Elgyn]

True.....but go back and watch the first movies in any of the "big" franchises (F13, NOES, Halloween). They are very slow and dated. I honestly think in all three series the sequels were more fun (maybe not so much for Halloween...though I like Part 2 better).

[shoe1985]

True.....but go back and watch the first movies in any of the "big" franchises (F13, NOES, Halloween). They are very slow and dated. I honestly think in all three series the sequels were more fun (maybe not so much for Halloween...though I like Part 2 better).

Age plays a part in that assessment. I saw Halloween when I was younger, and fell in love with it, I was scared half to death of it too, not so much today. The original Halloween isn't that slow though, it was more about building up the kills rather than dice and slash. Today's horror is about quick kills with lots of gore. You never get that suspense feeling anymore.

[JJFlamingo]

Halloween is certainly NOT overrated...

Friday The 13th isn't as good as its reputation, though several sequels (particularly Jason Lives) are much better...:D

[Der Todesking88]

Let me preface this by saying that I like Halloween. I do not like Friday the 13th. At all. It's profoundly boring. The pace is lethargic, Betsy Palmer is an overacting eyesore, and the stalk sequences drag on for an eternity. Halloween is mild fun, but it, too, suffers from paralytic pacing. Also, it was not as pioneering as some fans believe it to be. Masked slashers and POV kills existed before John Carpenter lensed his autumnal shocker. The film should only be credited with launching a litany of dumbed down "dead teenager" flicks.

Bring it on!

Im not a fan of F13 Prt1, much myself. I do actually think Part2,3,4,6 and some what 7 are excellent.

I love Halloween one and Im not a big fan of F13 1 as I stated above.

[JackassFan]

Halloween is one of the best horror movies ever made.

Friday the 13th isn't so much overrated (there's no denying the movie has deserved it's classic status), but I can see where you're coming from. The original F13 is dated and doesn't hold up very well at all now, but you have to remember that back in the day it was original and pretty damn scary to the audiences who had no idea what to expect from a slasher flick. I think it's just the fact that it hasn't aged well that makes people dislike the movie now.

[poopontheshoes7]

Gotta disagree as well. Although I dont think Halloween is the perfect film its made out to be. Mainly due to Annie and Linda being annoying as shit. Not to mention their acting sucked. Thank god Pleasance and Jamie Lee were good.

I actually feel Friday doesnt get enough credit actually. Its a very effective slasher that gets overshadowed by its sequels. Dont get me wrong, I love me pretty much all the Friday films. The only one I straight up hate is part 9 and I find the highly regarded part 4 to be overrated but it has good qualities. But the first is a classic film imo.

[countchocula]

Age plays a part in that assessment. I saw Halloween when I was younger, and fell in love with it, I was scared half to death of it too, not so much today. The original Halloween isn't that slow though, it was more about building up the kills rather than dice and slash. Today's horror is about quick kills with lots of gore. You never get that suspense feeling anymore.

I saw Halloween as a child. It bored me to tears. It's still far superior to Rob Zombie's needlessly exploitative remake, though.

[Dignan]

So it has come to this. This cheap, desperate ploy to raise the credibility of this board? Oh, Dom. Rebel rousing always was your art.

I love both movies and consider them classics. True, they're both derivative as hell, but it isn't like this genre is necessarily known for pure originality (there's an academic paper waiting to happen-- "Creative Bankruptcy in the History of Popular Horror.")

And yeah, both films are totally overrated, on the whole. But the legacy that they left behind is unfathamable and undisputable.

[Frank the Tank]

I love Halloween, as I find it near perfect (The only flaw for me is the charcter of Lynda being annoying as hell). Halloween just has this atmosphere about it that makes the slow build interesting to me. The slow build in Friday The 13th was boring too me though as I didn't care about the characters nearly as much as Halloween and the characters just weren't as goofy and fun as they were in some of the sequels. Still, the first Friday The 13th is watchable despite having some boring moments, I prefer it to Part 8 and Jason X at least. I actually like all of the rest more than the original Friday The 13th. Sure, some of them technically aren't better and do not have the great mystery the original has, but ones like Parts 2, 5, and Goes To Hell (Which are definately not great movies, but have enough cheese and gore that they entertain me.) are just more interesting.

Part 3 gets a lot of hate, but the cheese factor makes it one of my favorites as far as cheesy horror films go as it is constantly entertaining and the obvious 3-D stuff makes it greater. I think Parts 4, 6, and 7 are really good movies.

[The Claw]

I like the original Friday the 13th, it's totally not the best in the series though, but it's still enjoyable to see Kevin Bacon get his. Damn that jerk and his six degrees.

I don't really like the original Halloween, I should watch it again. However I really like Halloween 2, 3 and 4.

[poguesfan]

Let me preface this by saying that I like Halloween. I do not like Friday the 13th. At all. It's profoundly boring. The pace is lethargic, Betsy Palmer is an overacting eyesore, and the stalk sequences drag on for an eternity. Halloween is mild fun, but it, too, suffers from paralytic pacing. Also, it was not as pioneering as some fans believe it to be. Masked slashers and POV kills existed before John Carpenter lensed his autumnal shocker. The film should only be credited with launching a litany of dumbed down "dead teenager" flicks.

Bring it on!

While I agree that the original Friday the 13th is a tad overrated, I have always preferred the sequels over the original, however, calling Halloween overrated is just plain blasphemy good sir. This is one of the most pioneering horror films ever produced. Just think of how many horror films would not exist if it wasn't for Halloween.

[countchocula]

I mentioned that it influenced plenty of films, but I still don't find it to be as riveting as other genre gems from the same period.

[JohnTravoltage]

Meh. Friday the 13th is definitely over rated, most people actually don't even realize that Jason isn't even in that movie, sometimes when people talk about the Friday the 13th series, I feel like they haven't seen them, or they are confusing different movies for those movies. That OR they jumble all the movies up when they are talking about the movie "JASON".... because they don't even know the title is Friday the 13th. of course that doesn't happen here, but with common people, it does... a lot.

Besides that, the first has some REALLY good gore.

However I don't see HALLOWEEN as being over-rated at all.

[athf1980]

Halloween is one of the best horrors of all time. There will be no Friday the 13th without Halloween.

Friday the 13th 1-overated because it's so boring. I do like the score/deaths of this movie. I perfer parts 4 & 6 of the series.

[zombievictim]

As much as I love Halloween I can definitely see how people could not like it. It moves at a very slow pace and not much happens during the first half. For some reason that just doesn't bother me and I find myself being entertained throughout.

I will agree with you however on Friday the 13th. It's an extremely boring and convoluted film. The stalking scenes seem to go on for ages. There's a one taker in there with Alice and she doesn't practically nothing the entire time. She's mainly at the stove cooking (irony). And even the gore isn't anything to write home about (which Savini more than makes up for with part 4). The acting is pretty dreadful as well. And yet for some reason, even with all those negatives I still find some sort of enjoyment out of it.

Now if you had said Nightmare on Elm Street was overrated then it would be a different story...

[g1ng3rsnap9ed]

Hmm...interesting...

I find F13 to be underrated these days,given it's not anything spectacular,but it's still good times.

Halloween,well the only thing overrated in that is Jamie Lee Curtis.

[SchizoidManiac]

After reading all of those comments I've found myself questioning my ability to make a comment on whether Friday the 13th or Halloween are overrated, I'm definitely going to go and watch them both again, but the way that some of you describe them as having prolonged moments of suspense that you find to be too long made me think, depending on your taste, makes the movies good. Builds up your senses makes the 'Boo' effect more critical, and thats what some movies are lacking. They seem to desensitize you before you get to the 'big finale'. And most movies are just rip offs that lack originality that some people seek, such as myself, and the only thing that I find left for them to do is to create that suspense factor, to build up the How or the When. Maybe, anyways I could be wrong.

[LordSimen]

Disagree completely. Halloween and the original Friday the 13th are prime examples of perfect horror film making as far as I'm concerned.

[hrdude]

I agree, I own both films, and over time I've found them more difficult to sit through. Ultimately I don't care about the characters and find the pacing very slow.

As for the hype that Halloween was the first slasher, that is absolute rubbish. Whilst I don't class Psycho as a slasher, Black Christmas certainly was and predated Halloween by 4 years.

[rilocay]

I found F13 a boring peice of deadshit. But Halloweeen creeped me the fuck out big time. Despite how i was affected by them though, they were definatly massive for their time, and we all know how strong their influences are. So i can't say they are overrated, i mean for horror movies let alone any film fan, they are must see's despite how they have or havn't aged.

Also i was thinking in terms of discussion to slasher's, they clearly must have inspiration from Giallo flick's (i'm thinking Argento).

[Evil Ed]

It's not about how "good" or "bad" they are. It's what they did for the genre. Major, major, milestones in horror.

And they are not pieces of shit by any means. That's just absurd.

[Yggdrasil_Mjötv]

It's not about how "good" or "bad" they are. It's what they did for the genre. Major, major, milestones in horror.

And they are not pieces of shit by any means. That's just absurd.

couldn't have been said better, they're both Classics for their own reasons and everyone has a favorite. Why bother trying to push ones own opinion to others just to be right on a subject that has no definite answer. They're both great and thank God one is not like the other, its their difference that makes them classic and the point of time they influenced.

[a7xfan]

halloween is the perfect horror film, it shows that blood and guts isn't needed to scare people, the suspense in tha movie was chilling, it also basically created franchise like ft13th, noes and scream, and every other slasher that was made afterwards.
its fair to say you think it isn't that great a film, maybe you mean the quality of the film is overrated, but sure as hell the idea and the influences are not.

i don't really like friday the 13th, but is was made not long after halloween, it is famous for being gory, it isn't as influencing as halloween though.

[countchocula]

I respect Halloween's place in the annals of horror history, but I feel that some of the braindead slashers that it spawned are more entertaining. Not to mention the fact that John Carpenter merely copped the stylistic flourishes of Black Christmas, Twitch of the Death Nerve, and Torso.

[Dolf]

Now I know who remakes are geared towards :P

[Xtian]

Halloween is one of the best horrors of all time. There will be no Friday the 13th without Halloween.

Friday the 13th 1-overated because it's so boring. I do like the score/deaths of this movie. I perfer parts 4 & 6 of the series.

And there will be no Halloween without Black Christmas, so there you have it.

I don't think they're overrated, they earned their status, deal with it if you don't like them.

[Dehydrator]

I know I`m coming relatively late on this but here´s my two cents anyway:

I used to feel the same way about Halloween not so long ago, I thought it´s classic status was merly an excuse for people who don´t give giallo thrillers credit or simply don´t know their facts in terms of what influenced what. My change of mind is rooted in three letters: DVD. I only saw Halloween on television before, in cropped full-screen. I dunno if that´s a specific german television problem but about half the movie is lost that way, especially in the stalk sequences where Micheal is chasing Laurie home from school. It´s terrific on widescreeen. It´s boring as fuck when cropped and full-screen. That presentation of the movie changed my perception on it bigtime. While I agree that it is influencial properbly because it was the first slasher film that was introduced to a relatively wide audience, being successful at that, it´s still a strong film on it´s own terms, while not flawless.

The only thing about Friday the 13th that really sticks out is the setting. I´ve last seen it about a year ago and it hasn´t aged well with me at all. I remember preferring it over Halloween but not anymore. The pacing is really bad, there is nothing at all happening when nobody gets killed and while the finale is tense, it´s impact is completely lost on a repeated viewing.

I agree with the count that both films are vastely overrated but at least one of them is really good and one of them is famous because it has a big enough fan-base to demand nine and a half sequels.

[DME]

It's not about how "good" or "bad" they are. It's what they did for the genre. Major, major, milestones in horror.


I actually think this is what hurts the genre. Too often movies are excused from being judged as "good" or "bad." I can think of no other major genre where such a statement could be made. Where the movies considered influential by many genre fans are given a free pass over whether or not they were actually any good.

For my brief two cents, I do think Halloween is a very well made film. I think the first Friday the 13th is pretty lousy and the best of its sequels decent at best...