Halloween
Halloween 1978 was one of the most influential horror movies for me. The first time I saw this movie, it was over for me. Done. Finished. I liked horror movies before but after I watched Halloween 1978, it just cemented it. I was hooked for life. Between the long camera shots, great build up of tension, and that soundtrack. My god it was the perfect combination!
Photo Credit: Compass International Pictures
Released: Oct 27, 1978
Runtime: 91 mins
Director: John Carpenter
Writer: John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Actors: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran
PLOT
Was that the boogeyman?—Laurie
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again. This time he terrorizes a teenage girl and her friends.
MY THOUGHTS
It's Halloween. Everyone's entitled to one good scare.—Brackett
For being the most well known slasher movie, Halloween 1978 has only five deaths. Though, I must warn the animal lovers out there that there are a couple of dog deaths. One dog was strangled and the other was possibly eaten. I don’t have a favorite or most outstanding kill. But I do find Lynda (P.J. Soles) and Bob’s (John Michael Graham) deaths are entertaining and memorable. Bob is stabbed with a butcher knife and Lynda (who is half naked and thinks Michael is Bob dressed as a ghost.) who is strangled with the phone cord.
The acting is great. Obviously Donald Pleasence (who plays Dr. Loomis) is the most famous actor in the movie. He was already an established actor before taking the role of Dr. Loomis. And he just ran with it, playing Dr. Loomis until he died.
Nancy Kyes who played Annie held her own even though this was only her second movie. She had a role in Assault on Precinct 13. She went on to play in Halloween III and The Fog. P.J. Soles, who played Lynda and even though she kind of played the air headed type blonde, I thought she brought the comic relief to the movie. She was in Carrie and later on played in The Devil’s Rejects.
And the queen herself: Jamie Lee Curtis. This was her first movie and cemented her scream queen and final girl status. She is definitely in my top three (most likely number one) final girls, but I need to break down the numbers. (I probably should do my top ten final girls list…maybe?). She plays the great nice and shy girl who has to deal with the Shape (i.e. Michael Myers).
============================================================
I wanted to take a quick break to let you know I found these great deals on Amazon for Halloween merchandise. I’ve applied to Amazon’s affiliate program and if I can get three purchases I will be accepted into the program. This will be of tremendous help with starting my small business.
============================================================
Overall one of my favorite slasher movies. We get nice kills, an original final girl, and a killer who is silent but deadly. I also need to mention the tension and scariness of Halloween. Very scary. If you’ve never seen this movie, drop everything and watch it NOW! A must see!
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
Of the female leads (all the girls are supposed to be in high school), only Jamie Lee Curtis was actually a teenager at the time of shooting.
In the documentary short, 'Halloween' Unmasked 2000 (1999), it was revealed that the crew had chosen two masks for Michael Myers to decide on. The first was a Don Post Emmett Kelly smiling clown mask that they put frizzy red hair on. This was an homage to how he killed his sister, Judith, in a clown costume. They tested it out and it appeared very demented and creepy. The other mask was a 1975 Captain James T. Kirk mask that was purchased for around a dollar. It had the eyebrows and sideburns ripped off, the face was painted fish belly white, and the hair was spray painted brown, and the eyes were opened up more. They tested out the Kirk mask and the crew decided that it was much more creepy because it was emotionless. This became the Michael Myers mask.
John Carpenter's intent with the character of Michael Myers was that the audience should never be able to relate to him.
John Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the role of Dr. Sam Loomis (that was eventually played by Donald Pleasence), but both turned him down due to the low pay. Lee later said it was the biggest mistake he had ever made in his career.
John Carpenter considered the hiring of Jamie Lee Curtis as the ultimate tribute to Alfred Hitchcock who had given her mother, Janet Leigh, legendary status in Psycho (1960). During the same period, Universal studio producers and director Richard Franklin were trying to enroll Jamie Lee in the new production of Psycho II (1983).
John Carpenter wrote the role of Lynda for P.J. Soles after seeing her performance in Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976).
Debra Hill wrote most of the dialog for the female characters, while John Carpenter concentrated on Dr. Loomis' speeches.
All of the actors wore their own clothes, since there was no money for a costume department. Jamie Lee Curtis went to J.C. Penney for Laurie Strode's wardrobe. She spent less than $100 for the entire set. She shot the film while on hiatus from the sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977).
A young Jamie Lee Curtis was so disappointed with her performance that she became convinced she would be fired after only the first day of filming. When her phone rang that night and it was John Carpenter on the phone, Curtis was certain it was the end of her movie career. Instead, Carpenter called to congratulate her and tell her he was very happy with the way things had gone.
According to screenwriter/producer Debra Hill, the character Laurie Strode was named after John Carpenter's first girlfriend.
Debra Hill and John Carpenter were a couple (not just business partners) when they were working on this movie. Jamie Lee Curtis has said in interviews: "they were my horror movie parents. They were the parents, I was the child. When they broke up (in 1979) I cried."
In July 2018 at the San Diego Comic Con, during a panel discussion with Jamie Lee Curtis, a fan named Joseph Scott told her that he was a victim of a similar home invasion himself. He said "I was scared out of my mind and out of nowhere this thought came inside of me, 'What would Jamie Lee Curtis do?'" and later added "I'm a victor today instead of a victim, just like those people that you were talking about". Yvette Nicole Brown, who hosted the panel, asked him to approach the stage. Curtis, who was moved to tears by Scott's story, stood up and went down the stage where she greeted him with a hug.
Jamie Lee Curtis' first feature film. She was paid a reported $8,000 for her efforts.
John Carpenter was only paid $10,000 to write, direct and score the film.
Debra Hill worked for no salary, but a percentage of the profits. As the film grossed in excess of $70 million, this proved to be highly lucrative.
Donald Pleasence did all of his scenes in only five days of shooting. The total duration of his scenes is just over 18 minutes.
P.J. Soles went to a screening of the movie after it was released, sitting in the fourth row of a regular audience. She was very amused when during her nude scene and line of "see anything you like?", a male audience member in front shouted out "Hell yes I do!", unaware she was right behind him. Dennis Quaid, who Soles was dating at the time, asked her if she wanted him to confront the man, but she declined, too amused from the experience.
Director cameo John Carpenter: the voice of Annie's boyfriend, Paul, whom we hear on the phone talking to Lindsey and, a minute later, to Annie.
In a 2010 documentary, it was revealed that five different people dressed as The Shape: Nick Castle (throughout the movie), Tony Moran (during the unmasking by Laurie Strode), stuntman James Winburn, production designer Tommy Lee Wallace (due to his knowledge of how much force would be needed to break props during action shots in a single take), and co-writer/co-producer Debra Hill (in the external wide shot when Tommy sees The Shape for the first time). Tony stated that no one told him until he arrived on set that he would be wearing a mask. Debra explained that she happened to bring the costume with her that day and no one else was available for the shot.
The stabbing sound effect is actually a knife stabbing a watermelon.
To ensure Michael Myers would break the window of the station wagon as Dr. Loomis approaches the insane asylum, a wrench was adhered to his forearm and hand. It was then painted flesh colored to hide from the camera, but is still clearly visible in the shot.
John Carpenter purposely took a more restrained, suggestive approach with the gore in this movie. He learned his lesson with his last movie Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) when he killed off Kim Richards' character and the audience wound up hating him. Because of this he purposely took a more discreet approach to the bloodshed, as opposed to an over-the-top gorefest.
As the movie was actually shot in early spring in southern California (as opposed to Illinois in late October), the crew had to buy paper leaves from a decorator 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. However, as Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter note on the DVD audio commentary, the trees are quite full and green and even some palm trees can be seen, despite that in Illinois in October, the leaves would probably be mostly gone and there would be no palm trees due to Illinois' cold climate - the state is mostly full of deciduous trees.
Robert Englund of the A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) film series revealed in an interview that John Carpenter had him throw bags of dead leaves on set for one day.
The audio of the bullies telling Tommy, "He's gonna get you! The Boogeyman is coming!" is sampled in the beginning of White Zombie's cover of "I'm Your Boogie Man" sung by Rob Zombie who would later go on to direct Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009).
Have you seen the other Halloween movies? Check out my other reviews here: Halloween Franchise.
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 3/5
Sex/Nudity: 3/5
Scare factor: 4/5
Enjoyment factor: 5/5
My Rank: 4/5
IMDB: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 9.6/10 audience: 8.9/10
Letterboxd: 3.9/5