Son of Horror Movie Death Match #5

I viewed both of these movies in October. I'll start with the one I didn't vote for first. A Nightmare on Elm Street was director Wes Craven's crowning achievment as well as what I believe to be the pinnacle of his career. The idea that there was a boogeyman that could get you in your dreams was a fascinating concept and much scarier than many films before it because we all have to sleep sometime. Craven really should have stopped here. The more the series went along, the further it digressed into mediocrity. Instead of having a dream demon that tortured you with maddening sensation that you couldn't differentiate fantasy from reality before carving you up with his finger knives, we get a wise cracking moron who made you roll your eyes whenever he would crack another lame joke before acing another poor bastard who just happened to have the bad luck of their parents moving to a worse neighborhood than any found in South Central Los Angeles.

While Halloween also fell into mediocrity the further along it progressed, we didn't have to hear Myers talk us to death with jokes that aren't even mildly amusing. The first film which we are discusssing, he's everywhere. He emerges when you least expect to carve up sex starved teens like a Thanksgiving day turkey. John Carpenter captured all the nuances of horror with a shoestring budget and the killer never spoke but his presence was always felt from the first frame where Michael Myers killed his sister until the last frames where each shadowed room was thrown into full contrast.

Both are great films, but Carpenter's just outclasses Craven's overall.