Halloween (1978) part 1

October 31, 2017

Halloween (1978)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/?ref_=nv_sr_1

On Halloween 1963, the small town of Haddonfield is shocked when six-year-old Michael Myers returns from trick-or-treating and for some unknown reason stabs his older sister to death with a big kitchen knife and is found by his parents staring into space with the bloody knife in his hand. Sent to a mental institution, Michael spends the next 15 years just sitting, still staring into space despite the best efforts of his Doctor, Dr. Samuel Loomis. Now, on October 30th 1978, something triggers Michael off and during a storm manages to steal a car from Dr. Loomis and Nurse Marion (who was coming to take Michael to court to keep him locked up) and goes back to Haddonfield where he steals a white mask. There, Laurie Stode, Michael’s younger sister, finds that Michael is stalking her during the day (at school, at her home etc - but she doesn't know who he is.) As Dr. Loomis arrives and with the sheriff frantically looks for Michael, he doesn't know that Laurie is baby-sitting Lindsey and Tommy and that Laurie's friends Annie, Lynda and Bob are disappearing one by one.

—Lee Horton

Personal Review: Halloween and Friday the 13^th, the ones that revived and set the bar higher for “slasher” films. Halloween wasn’t a huge success at first but word of mouth spread and it became a huge hit, one of the highest grossing films for an independent and set John Carpenter and Debra Hill on a long ride in film.

A young Jamie Lee Curtis in the lead gives us the perfect heroine, scared but resourceful and determined to live (she also doesn’t have sex – leading to one of the “rules” of the genre). Donald Pleasence as Michael Myer’s psych is amazing. A restrained but strong performance, someone also terrified but determined to stop his escaped patient.

Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles and John Michael Graham as Laurie’s (Curtis) friends are great as average mid-west teens. The rest of the cast, Charlie Cyphers (to be seen again in The Fog along with Loomis), Kyle Richards, Brian Andrews, Arthur Malet are great in their roles. How many people in the audience were yelling for a sleepy Tommy to hurry up and open the door?

Tight direction and filming, iconic music, great acting and a tight budget make the film great. Because of the lower end budget everyone in the crew pitched in, actor’s rushing around to gather fall leaves to do another take of a scene, the light and sound department fit into a van (Dean Cundy would do more and more fantastic work and caught the eye of Steven Spielberg), almost everyone being “the shape” at one point in the film – it shows what dedication, excitement and innovative filming can be.