Halloween (1978)

by Cheeto

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Posted on 10 April 2021

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Rating -

Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with producer Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. The plot tells about a mental patient who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his babysitting teenage sister on Halloween night when he was six years old. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns to his hometown, where he stalks a female babysitter and her friends, while under pursuit by his psychiatrist.

Filming took place in Southern California in May 1978, before premiering in October, where it grossed $70 million, becoming one of the most profitable independent films of all time. Primarily praised for Carpenter’s direction and score, many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974).

What can I say? Halloween is an absolute masterpiece, a marvel of film making. How John Carpenter took a script with a budget of just over $300.000 and made essentially, one of the greatest films of all time, forget the Library of Alexandria, that is the worlds greatest mystery.

The funny thing is it’s probably the most simple film of all time, a crazed man goes around a neighborhood killing people. Doesn’t sound so great does it? The thing is, John Carpenter gets everything right with what he was trying to go for. This film is the most atmospheric, suspense filled film ever made.

We get Michael Myers, the embodiment of evil, The Shape, the blackest eyes, the devils eyes. He is almost more supernatural than human, this adds to the already festering tension. In the scenes where our characters are in a house, you (the viewer) cringe every time they go past a piece of furniture, go into a different room etc. This is because Michael could simply be everywhere and know-where at the same time.

Laurie Strode is our ‘final girl’ (played by Jamie Lee-Curtis in her first role). She really grows as a character as the film goes on. She goes from a stereotypical nerd, who is pissed that she forgot her chemistry book, and who is scared of basically everything, to a strong, competent character. Dr. Sam Loomis (played by veteran actor Donald Pleasance) is Michael’s doctor. He follows Michael to Haddonfield, Illinois, with the main aim of stopping him. He is charismatic, courageous and hell bent on doing whatever it takes to bring down Michael.

Overall, I don’t know what you have been doing if you haven’t watched this film already. Summer, winter, Halloween and even Christmas. Even though this film is called Halloween, it deserves to be watched more than once a year.

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