"Death has come to your little town, sheriff" 

Review: Halloween (1978)

An Augustus Rating of 8.5/10

Today I explore the wonderful and family oriented movie, Halloween. Full of laughs, fun and a memorable character, Michael Myers. 

I'm not a sociopath, I swear. 

Halloween  was directed in 1978 by John Carpenter and was Jamie Lee Curtis' debut movie. This movie is set in fictional Haddonfield, Illinois starring the killer psychopath, Michael Myers.

(Now that sounds much more believable.) 

The movie starts on a night of 1963 where Michael Myers is a young child. After witnessing his 15 year old sister have sex with her boyfriend, Myers proceeds to murdering his sister with a butcher's knife. He was admitted to a mental institution for 15 years until he managed to escape one faithful night, October 30th, 1978. 

 The next day, high school student Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) continually sees Myers wearing blue overalls and wearing a white mask. When she tries to tell her friends that a strange man keeps appearing, her friends dismiss her claims. Myers' psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasance), anticipated Myers' return and went to visit the grave of Myers' sister. He notices that the headstone is gone and quickly goes back into town. 

Due to low budget, the trademark mask

was purchased for $1.98

 That night, Laurie babysits a neighbour's child while her friend, Annie, is also babysitting across the street. Annie gets a phone call from her boyfriend to come pick him up. When Annie drops off the girl she was babysitting at Laurie's, she is killed by Myers in her car. 

The children witness Myers carrying Annie's dead body across the street and begin to panic. They tell Laurie that the Boogeyman is outside. Laurie, believing it is just a prank, tells them to simmer down. Laurie's other friend, Lynda, comes home with her boyfriend, unaware of Myers, who is patiently waiting for them in her empty house.

This was one of Carpenter's first big movies. He was requited by an independent film producer, Irwin Yablas, to write and direct a movie about a serial killer. With only a max budget of $300K and 4 weeks to film, Yablas had his doubts about this new director. 

Halloween ended up grossing $70 million in the box office. It was nominated for The Saturn Award for Best Horror Movie and was ranked 3rd scariest movie of all time by the Chicago Film Critics Association.

So for a really low budget and only a month to film, John Carpenter killed it.

- Augustus  

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_(1978_film)