Halloween 1978

 

Written and Directed by: John Carpenter
Produced by: Mustapha Akkad
Written by: Debra Hill
Featuring:  
            Jamie Lee Curtis (Film Debut) as Laurie Strode
            Donald Pleasance as Dr. Samuel Loomis
            P.J. Soles as Lynda Van Der Klok
            Nick Castle as The Shape (Michael Myers)
Rating: R
Runtime: 91 mins
Release Date: October 25, 1978

 

John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978)

In the late 70’s, John Carpenter and Debra Hill set out to make a horror film based on the murdering of babysitters. With nothing more than an idea and some loose pocket change, the duo made one of the largest impacts in moviemaking history.  This phenom of a film shows how hard work and dedication are what truly achieves goals. It also breathed life into the careers of many people still in Hollywood today, as well as kick-starting a whole new era in motion pictures…the “slasher” show. Love it or hate it, you have to give this devil its due.

This review may get a little lengthy due to the fact that it is such a huge success, and it is the blueprint for up and coming movie makers that would like to make a good classic horror film without all the fancy digital effects that everyone seems to rely on these days. There are many versions of this film, but the 25^th Anniversary Edition DVD and Blu-ray versions have a documentary called, “Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest” which delves deep into the history of this film, and what made it work. It is very informative and even if you’re not a film maker but just a fan of the arts, I would strongly suggest you check it out.

Halloween starts out with a first person view of someone watching, through a window, a horny young couple making out on the couch. Then they retreat to the bedroom for, what I would say is, the shortest most unfulfilling romp of sex ever implied on film. The boy then comes downstairs and leaves, as the person watching finds a clown mask and grabs a butcher knife. The peeping pervert makes their way to the teen girl’s bedroom and watches her brush her hair in the nude. She looks up and yells out “Michael!” in disgust. Then she is stabbed repeatedly by “Michael”.  

 

Making his way downstairs and out the front door, Michael is greeted by his parents. They take off his clown mask and reveal a small 6 year old boy... Flash forward 17 years to the same old quiet town of Haddonfield Illinois. Michael has escaped the asylum he was filed away in and has headed home for another murderous rampage, or is he there with an agenda? It turns out the 17 year old girl he murdered as a child was his older sister, Judith Myers.

 

Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasance – You Only Live Twice, Escape to Witch Mountain, and many of the Halloween movies) is riding up to the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium to transfer Michael to another facility. As he is pulling into the hospital, it is pouring rain, and the nurse driving with him is inquiring about Michael’s condition. She is cut off when they find patients of the facility roaming around in the stormy darkness. Loomis exits the car to try and figure out what is happening, when Michael attacks the nurse and steals Loomis’s car. The nurse narrowly escapes death and Loomis tends to her before screaming about the Evil being gone from there.

 

The next day, three young girls are walking home from school, Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis, no relation to the fictional character Sam Loomis who is Michael Myers doctor), Lynda Van Der Klok (P.J. Soles – Carrie, The Devil’s Rejects, and the God awful Mirror Mirror IV: Reflection), and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis – Prom Night, The Fog, Several Halloween films, and Freaky Friday. This is her first full length movie). Annie and Laurie realize they will be babysitting across the street from each other later in the night and are talking about typical teenage girl stuff, i.e. prom, boys, sex, etc. They are being followed. Laurie had noticed a man watching her outside the school; a station wagon that has been following them; and a man standing in her backyard.  Annie comes and picks Laurie up to go babysit, and they begin talking about Bennett Tramer, the boy Laurie has a crush on and comes into play in one of the sequels.

 

The girls run into Annie’s dad, the sheriff in town, as he is finishing up investigating a burglary in a local General Store. He is certain that kids did it since they just stole a mask a knife and some rope; I would be more worried about a psycho trying to make a rape kit, but hey, that’s why I’m not a sheriff in Illinois. Anyway, the girls take off to work glad that Mr. Brackett didn’t smell the weed they were smoking in the car. They arrive to the neighborhood as the sun is going down; the evil continues to creep in with the darkness, and sparks one of horror’s most famous film franchises.

 

Michael Myers has become a household name. It’s rare to meet someone that doesn’t know the chalky faced unstoppable force that has chilled horror fans for over 30 years.  In this first installment of the franchise there is a lot left to the imagination. Who is Michael Myers? What makes him want to kill? Where does he get his superhuman power? Most times this would be perceived as loop holes in the plot or poor writing; however, I believe this stigma is the exact reason for the film’s success.  It was a completely believable story that left the audience in the dark and craving answers.

 

John Carpenter didn’t want to use a lot of blood and gore to portray his vision, and that also played into the mystery of the film. In an age where films were beginning to show more vulgarities, more bloodshed and more mayhem, why would this film be so appealing to audiences? It flipped the script. Audiences would come in expecting one thing and get caught completely off guard. Now this sounds like a fairly simple concept, but it took a lot of hard work and the backing of a foreign film producer (Moustapha Akkad 1930-2005), that didn’t exactly like the idea of the film, but was convinced to help by one of the film’s Executive Producers, Irwin Yablans.  

John Carpenter’s masterpiece was highly inspired by his love for Hitchcock films. He believed Psycho to be the film that modernized horror and brought it out of the castles and medieval times and brought them up to speed. Well, Mr. Carpenter, I believe you have brought the horror genre right to neighborhoods almost anyone can relate to, suburban America.  He was lucky to find a great cast that would work for little pay and double as the crew; a crew that would go above and beyond to make this film happen; and just over $325,000.  The benefits to come out of this little low budget film are practically endless. The worldwide return on this film was around $55 million; It sparked a film franchise that has birthed 6 sequels and a 2 part remake; and a horror icon that has more drive and spark than anything of this earth.

 

Most everyone has seen this film, or at least knows of it. I would say, going into the Halloween season and with the recent release of the films on Blu-ray, now is the perfect time to take another look at these classics and fulfill a guilty pleasure that has been around for over 30 years and will be remembered forever.

 

Body Count: 4 “and surprisingly, the life of a German Shepard.”
Nude Points: 4

 

 

My rating of this film: 5 out of 5

Honorable Mentions:

1.      Donald Pleasance for taking a role for such little money, for the simple fact that his daughter liked John Carpenter’s musical score on his previous film, Assault on Precinct 13.

2.      Moustapha Akkad for giving this film a chance, and later becoming the Godfather of Michael Myers’ films.

3.      Jamie Lee Curtis! I have never found her attractive; I have never found her as a good actor; and I have never enjoyed any of her movies outside of the horror realm, but I could never see anyone playing a better Laurie Strode.

4.      Michael Myers for being such a quiet and unemotional man, but still managing to throw a little comedy in his routine…