Halloween

Name: Halloween
Director: John Carpenter
Released: 1978

John Carpenter

1978

4.00

Synopsis

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween Night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

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Cast

Donald PleasenceDr. Sam Loomis
Jamie Lee CurtisLaurie Strode
P.J. SolesLynda Van Der Klok
Nancy KyesAnnie Brackett
Charles CyphersSheriff Leigh Brackett
Kyle RichardsLindsey Wallace
Brian AndrewsTommy Doyle
John Michael GrahamBob Simms
Nancy StephensMarion Chambers
Nick CastleMichael Myers

Recommendations

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Halloween is an absolutely merciless thriller, a movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would compare it to “Psycho.”
100
ReelViews
From a shock-and-suspense point-of-view, Halloween is the rival of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." With only a few arguable exceptions (such as "The Exorcist"), there isn't another post-1970 release that comes close to it in terms of scaring the living hell out of a viewer... A modern classic of the most horrific kind.
90
Chicago Reader
Carpenter displays an almost perfect understanding of the mechanics of classical suspense; his style draws equally (and intelligently) from both Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock.
88
Chicago Tribune
Don't see Halloween in an empty theater on a weekday afternoon. See it on a weekend night in a packed house. Halloween is a film to be enjoyed with a boisterous crowd; it's an "audience picture," a film designed to get specific reactions from an audience at specific moments. With Halloween, the most often desired reaction is screaming. It's a beautifully made thriller -- more shocking than bloody -- that will have you screaming with regularity. Halloween was directed by John Carpenter, 30, a natural filmmaker and a name worth remembering. [22 Nov 1978]
80
TV Guide Magazine
There's nary a drop of blood on screen in this rollicking funhouse of a movie but there is enough sheer cinematic ingenuity on display to coax screams out of the most jaded gorehound.
80
The Hollywood Reporter
Carpenter creates excellent tension throughout and he avoids excessive blood and gore in the murder sequences. The violent actions are mostly implied more than graphically depicted, which serves to heighten the effect.
78
Austin Chronicle
Not entirely without some laughable or dated scenes, Halloween remains an original that continues to inspire a genre and probe middle America's fears about what's really lurking in the laundry room after midnight.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Carpenter's brutally efficient exercise in tension and release.

Halloween

Synopsis

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