Elijah Wood Discusses John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’

Entertainment Weekly just kicked off their annual round up of horror movie recommendations for Halloween time from well known celebrities who appreciate the genre, and as a horror fan behind and icon in front of the camera, Elijah Wood is quick to name John Carpenter‘s 1978 masterpiece Halloween as his favorite.

As EW points out, Wood is not only the former Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but also has plenty of horror movie experience from both sides of the camera – as an actor in Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty and the excellent 2012 remake of Maniac, and as a cofounder of indie-horror company SpectreVision, where he has helped a diverse array of projects to the screen, including A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and most recently The Greasy Strangler, which will be released in theaters and on demand this Friday, Oct. 7.

On Carpenter’s classic, Wood says, “I think I watch Halloween every Halloween. It’s one of my favorite films of all-time. It elicits a warm and fuzzy feeling for me, genuinely. It makes me feel happy. The innovation of the film still blows me away — and how simple it is. It was obviously among the films to start the slasher movement. We saw a lot of films copy it, and ultimately deviate, or water the genre down. That film uses empty space really well. The camera will pan, and you’ll see a glimpse of Michael Myers standing in the background, and that will be terrifying, rather than relying on jump scares, and things we’ve come to know within the genre. It had room to breathe. That opening sequence can’t be beat, that POV shot with the reveal of a child. It’s f—ing incredible.”

We would have to agree. How about you?

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