For many, many years this was my number one movie it had a big influence on me including some of the reason behind my nickname and the name of this whole blog. Well, if that hasn’t already told you then this movie is called ‘Halloween’ and it wasn’t released in the 80’s and neither was the number one movie. Both being from the 70’s which should tell you all you need to know. Halloween was released in 1978 this movies success set up the sequels called – Halloween II, Halloween III – Season of the Witch, Halloween 4 – Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5 – Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20:20 Years Later, Halloween: Resurrection, Halloween, Halloween 2, Halloween, Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends. For those not counting that is 12 sequels the last two listed haven’t been made yet. This was the original and one of the most successful independent movies. Made on a budget of $325k this went to recoup $70m from the box office it was filmed over 20 days over a four-week period in May. This is how low budget it was and seeing as they don’t have many leaves on the ground in May. So, they shipped leaves around when they were shooting empty bin bags of them onto the ground. Shoot the scene and round the leaves back up into the bag ready to move onto the next scene. I always believed this was based on a book called the Babysitter Killer, but I cannot back that up with it being written anywhere else just in my head. Screenplay was written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. It was produced by Debra Hill and directed by John Carpenter it was edited by Charles Bornstein and Tommy Lee Wallace a name that you would know from later sequels. The cast was a small one so I think I could list them all, Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles, Nancy Kyes, Charles Cypher, Kyle Richards, Brian Andrews, with three different Michael’s played by Nick Castle, Tony Moran, and Will Sandin. This was well received by critics at the time and currently has scores of 7.8 out of 10 from IMDb and an impressive 96% from Rotten Tomatoes. It also was credited with being inspired by Psycho and Black Christmas to begin a whole new genre of slasher movies. The plot is quite a simple one really.
It begins on Halloween night in 1963 and the audience is seeing through the eyes of a killer - pulling on a mask and then sneaking into the back of a house. Taking a large knife from a kitchen draw they head upstairs finding a girl in a bedroom they lift the knife and repeatedly stab her to death. Walking back downstairs they head out the front door to be revealed to be the girls younger brother aged around 6 years. The story jumps and we learn that the boy was Michael Myers, and he has been incarcerated at Smith’s Grove Sanatorium. His psychiatrist is Dr Samuel Loomis, and his colleague Marion Chambers arrive at the sanatorium to escort Michael to court. When they arrive or a stormy night, they find the inmates wandering around. Michael steals the car and drives off into the night. The next day Dr Loomis is trying to convince everyone that Michael is heading back to Haddonfield where he killed before with the aim to kill again. Meanwhile we join three girls as they go about their day. Planning their Halloween night with two babysitting and the third planning on using one of the houses they are sitting in to bring her boyfriend over to. Michael heads home and finds some feeding in a dog and plans his evenings killing. Targeting the three girls he follows them to the two houses almost opposite of each other. Then spends the rest of the night stalking or worst to anyone that he comes across. Meanwhile the Doctor is rounding up any support he can from the local constabulary and has then chasing shadows and fancy talk to get them on high alert.
That is enough of the plot as I know this film backwards and forwards to the point where I knew it so well, I could give you so much detail on each scene. Trust me I annoy anyone I watch this movie as I know it too well. I can quote pretty much the whole thing. It is simply a great film. There are so many little details that are so obvious that you may simply miss the first time you watch it. Michael is in so many scenes throughout the movie, he may not be prominent, but he’ll be there in the background stalking, or he may be in the car following or standing in a garden watching, might just be in the dark corner of the room ready to walk into the light. He is around so much that you may just miss him. There are little subtleties throughout and for a horror and a so call original slasher movie there is no blood. He racks up a body count and that is with stabbing people as well but no blood. He is a menacing shape in the darkness, and I assume everyone knows about the mask? No? Its just a mask of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) spray painted white. That’s it. What makes this movie more than anything else is the soundtrack and the shock music created by Carpenter himself. Played to test audiences this was underwhelming to say the list. One woman went back to see it with the soundtrack on and said it was a completely different film. The suspense for the audience of knowing that he is there, he wants to kill and the people you have started to become attached too are wandering around in front of him. This movie is full of don’t go in there and don’t go down there and the car was locked before don’t get in there this time, that’s not your boyfriend! Its simply fantastic, if you want me to quote Halloween to you I could for half the night. “I shot him six times!” well in fact we all heard seven shots from that six shooter, but you believe what you want doc. Myers was called the shape on set as he was just a shadow in the background lurking around at the back until he silently creeps forward and kills again. This is great, its old and dated but you know its old when you watch it and its very subtle which is why I love it so. If I thought this was suspense filled, you wait and see what the final movie is…
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