Halloween

1978 USA Color 93 Minutes

Review

This is not a man

In 1963 a young boy callously murders his sister after witnessing her in bed with her boyfriend. Now, it's Halloween 1978. Since the brutal incident, Michael has resided in a mental institution and has been watched over by Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence).  When Loomis comes to oversee Myers' transfer to another hospital, he's dismayed to learn that Myers has escaped. The Doctor knows Michael will return to the scene of his crime, but he cannot convince anyone of the danger so he sets out for Haddonfield, to catch Michael himself.

Nancy KyesHaddonfield is preparing for the traditional Halloween celebrations, little children are getting dressed up as ghosts, pumpkins are being prepared. For the teenagers of Haddonfield Halloween is a traditional babysitting night. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is babysitting for youngster Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) while Laurie's friend Annie (Nancy Loomis) babysits for girl directly across the street. Little do all of them know that Michael Myers has set his murderous sights on them, and that this could be their final Halloween night.

Cast

Directed by John Carpenter

Links and more

Listen to: Death has come to your town (Small mp3 file, 11kb) Death has come to your town
Listen to: Evil (Small mp3 file, 81kb) Evil
Listen to: Laurie screams (Small mp3 file, 50kb) Laurie screams
Fan site
Screenplay

 

Jamie Curtis

Trivia

Release date: October 25, 1978

Halloween is celebrated every October 31st

The performance of Halloween's musical score is credited to The Bowling Green Philharmonic. The orchestra is actually John Carpenter and assorted musical friends.

Due to the extreme low budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest mask that they could find in the costume store: a two dollar William Shatner mask, from the movie The Devil's Rain. They painted the face white, teased out the hair, and made the eyeholes bigger.

All of the actors wore their own clothes, since there was no money for a costume department.

Since the movie was actually shot in spring, the crew had to buy paper leaves and paint them in the desired autumn colors, then scatter them in the filming locations. To save money, after a scene was filmed, the leaves were collected and reused.

Halloween was shot in 21 days in 1978. Made on a budget of $300,000, it became the highest-grossing ($60 million) independent movie ever made at that time.

Jamie Lee Curtis´ mother, Janet Leigh, was murdered in Psycho. Jamie Lee was casted as Laurie because of the publicity

The sequels:
Halloween II (1981)
Halloween III (1982)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Halloween 5 (1989)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Halloween H20: 20 years later (1998)
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Halloween: 9 / Retribution (2006)

Encyclopedia:
Halloween is a holiday on the night of October 31 that is celebrated in much of the Western world. The eve is that before All Saints day.


Bio

John Carpenter

John Carpenter
We're a violent country.
We embrace our individuality and our violence.

Remarkable:

Carpenter professored a master class on director Howard Hughes at the British Film Institute.

Born:

January 16, 1948

Born as:

John Howard Carpenter

Born in Carthage, New York (USA) and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, John was educated at Western Kentucky university and then USC film school in Los Angeles. While there, he started Dark Star a short that was later expanded to feature length (released theatrically in 1974).

Influenced by Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks he achieved a stronger impact with his next films, Assault on precinct 13 (1976) and Halloween (1978) which was the most profitable independent movie of its day.

During the eighties Carpenters movies were higher-budgeted, higher-profiled and he directed successes like The Fog (1980), Escape From New York (1981), The Thing (1982).

In the nineties Carpenter decided to go smaller again to gain control. He directed some TV movies and low budget cinema features like In The Mouth Of Madness (1995). His last theatrical release was Ghosts of Mars (2001) which was savaged by many critics.

Selected Movies: