The tropes are the same - HALLOWEEN solidified them - but Carpenter's focus is almost entirely different from the movies it spawned. The appeal of most slashers is the murder scenes, the gory pay offs, so much so that the otherwise bored audience usually wants the characters offed as soon as possible. Carpenter likes…

Agreed. It's a shame the characters don't get to interact more once they're thrown together. But I still love those scenes in the church, the mossy hands pushing through the stained glass, the red-eyed specters looming over the pews…Fantastic imagery, even if dramatically it does kind of peter out.

Not a masterpiece, maybe, and nowhere near the technical achievement of THE THING - but THE FOG is my second fave Carpenter flick, right after HALLOWEEN.

I'd allow him 3, maybe even 4.

She had the moxie of a low-budget Bacall, who I'm sure Carpenter had in mind. A gem of a performance. Tony Burton, too.

Funny how, now that THE THING has the respect it always deserved, HALLOWEEN seems to be losing cachet amongst certain cinephiles. Weird, especially considering how tonally different the films are, how one was made for peanuts, the other for millions, and the fact that HALLOWEEN remains a moody, atmospheric masterpiece.

Great article. These comics are essential reading for anyone who loves HALLOWEEN.

Love Wakefield. His work is extremely uneven, the later stuff in particular could be dull. But he really piled on the ghastly when he wanted to.