Halloween (1978) USA
Halloween Image Cover
Additional Images
Director:John Carpenter
Studio:Anchor Bay
Producer:John Carpenter, Debra Hill, Irwin Yablans, Kool Marder, Moustapha Akkad
Writer:John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Rating:4.5
Rated:R
Date Added:2007-03-06
Purchased On:2007-06-03
ASIN:6305546789
UPC:0013131089691
Price:$19.98
Awards:2 wins & 1 nomination
Genre:Slasher Flicks
Release:1999-09-27
IMDb:0077651
Duration:92
Picture Format:Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:2.35:1
Sound:Dolby
Languages:English, Dolby Digital 5.1
Features:Anamorphic
Full Screen
John Carpenter  ...  (Director)
John Carpenter, Debra Hill  ...  (Writer)
 
Brian Andrews  ...  Tommy Doyle
Jamie Lee Curtis  ...  Laurie Strode
Charles Cyphers  ...  Sheriff Leigh Brackett
John Michael Graham  ...  Bob Simms
Peter Griffith  ...  
Adam Hollander  ...  Keith
Sandy Johnson (II)  ...  
Nancy Kyes  ...  Annie Brackett
David Kyle  ...  
Brent Le Page  ...  Lonnie Elamb
Arthur Malet  ...  Graveyard Keeper
Tony Moran  ...  Michael Myers (age 23)
Robert Phalen  ...  Dr. Terence Wynn
Donald Pleasence  ...  Dr. Sam Loomis
Kyle Richards (II)  ...  
Will Sandin  ...  
P.J. Soles  ...  Lynda van der Klok
Nancy Stephens  ...  Marion Chambers
Mickey Yablans  ...  Richie
Kyle Richards  ...  Lindsey Wallace
Nick Castle  ...  The Shape
Comments: The Night HE Came Home!

Summary: Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie's freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin's character in Psycho. In the end, though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience--it's one of those movies that had audiences literally jumping out of their seats and shouting at the screen. ("No! Don't drop that knife!") Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original. Curtis returned for two more installments: 1981's dismal Halloween II, which picked up the story the day after the unfortunate events, and 1998's occasionally gripping Halloween H20, which proved the former baby sitter was still haunted after 20 years. --Robert Horton