GENRE: Horror
YEAR: 1978
RATED: R

      On Halloween night, 1963, in the little town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a young boy named Michael Myers killed his older sister, Judith. After being institutionalized for 15 years, the psychotic Myers has escaped and returning to Haddonfield to continue where he left off. Coming after Michael is his doctor, Sam Loomis, who is wonderfully portrayed by the late Donald Pleasance. And starring as one of Michael’s prey is Jamie Lee Curtis. Interestingly enough, this was her first movie and a little known fact is that she was cast because she was such a good screamer. I believe the term “Scream Queen” was invented for her.

      This film is still one of John Carpenter’s best. His direction is perfect, especially for such a low-budget movie. The suspense is wonderful and still very capable of generating chills in today’s audiences. The soundtrack, also composed by Carpenter, beautifully adds to this effect and is probably one of the scariest ever. This was the original “slasher” flick that spawned too many copies to mention. While some of you may watch HALLOWEEN today and say, “Oh, we’ve seen that a million times.” You have to remember that this was the first movie to do all those things and really shouldn’t be held to the same scrutiny. By the way, another little unknown fact is that Michael Myers’ mask is actually a modified version of an old William Shatner Halloween mask from STAR TREK. I never thought Shatner could be that scary, although some might disagree.