Halloween 1 (1978)

"Carpenter's brutally efficient exercise in tension and release.  Bruce Fretts, Entertainment Weekly
"Turn off the lights...Crank up the sound, and be scared witless by horror's greatest director.  Chris Hewitt, Empire
"...almost perfect...[Carpenter's] style draws equally (and intelligently) from both Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock.  Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
"Well made, with lots of scares...  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"...remains an original that continues to inspire a genre and probe middle America's fears...  Mike Emery, Austin Chronicle
"...an absolutely merciless thriller...I would compare it to Psycho.  Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"...nary a drop of blood on screen...but there is enough sheer cinematic ingenuity on display to coax screams out of the most jaded gorehound.  TV Guide

Editor's Note Perhaps the most influential and successful independent film ever made, HALLOWEEN is the movie that put director John Carpenter on the map as a viable filmmaker. An exercise in simple, pure horror, HALLOWEEN takes us into the world of a mad killer, Michael Myers, who at a very young age stabbed his older sister to death. Locked away for many years in a mental hospital Michael escapes one night and returns to his hometown to continue his killing spree. Jamie Lee Curtis, in her first role, plays the resourceful babysitter who is chased by the killer on Halloween night. Produced for very little money and a tight shooting schedule, HALLOWEEN was a stunning success when it was released. Written by John Carpenter and his longtime producer Debra Hill, the film set their careers on fire, with both of them working together many times over the next 25 years. The film also made a star out of Jamie Lee Curtis and turned the slasher movie into a viable, successful genre. HALLOWEEN has been copied, parodied and even turned into a franchise of its own, but the original is still considered the best of the bunch. HALLOWEEN was John Carpenter's first foray into horror, and remains the standard to which all other modern horror films are measured.

	Donald Pleasence
	Jamie Lee Curtis
	Nancy Kyes
	P.J. Soles
	Charles Bornstein - Editor
	Dean Cundey - Cinematographer
	Debra Hill - Producer
	Debra Hill - Writer
	Irwin Yablans - Executive Producer
	John Carpenter - Director
	John Carpenter - Writer
	John Carpenter - Original Music By
	Tommy Lee Wallace - Editor
	Tommy Lee Wallace - Production Designer

The film which ushered in the modern age of horror stands well above its many sequels and clones because John Carpenter's taut direction makes it truly scary. Jamie Lee Curtis, in her debut role, plays a babysitter who must protect herself from the deadly Michael Myers, a mental institution escapee who killed his sister on Halloween fifteen years earlier. Called "the most successful independent motion picture of all time," HALLOWEEN is also one of most frightening films ever made.

"Was that the bogeyman?"----Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), after Michael is shot off a balcony |"As a matter of fact...it was."----Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence)

Sight and Sound
"...Rarely have the remoter corners of the Panavision frame been used to such good effect, as shifting volumes of darkness and light reveal the ineluctable presence of a sinister something..." 03/01/1979 p.128

Variety
"...Carpenter has a good feel for timing the thrills and occasionally adds an offbeat, almost perverse sense of humor, which works..." 10/25/1978

Entertainment Weekly
"...Carpenter's slasher is the original teen-scream flick..." 01/11/2002 p.37

Total Film
"...A seminal slasher that gets better with age....Terrifying..." 12/01/2003 p.126

Premiere
"John Carpenter's perfectly faceted gem of a horror movie..." 12/01/2003 p.12

ReelViews 10 of 10
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. Halloween starts out in a creepy fashion with a brutal murder, and never lets up from there. Every frame drips with atmosphere...Halloween was the film that earned Jamie Lee Curtis the infamous title of "Scream Queen"...Curtis' capable interpretation of the gawky, awkward Laurie is frequently overlooked in analyses of the movie and its genre, but she effectively conveys the feelings and aspirations of a shy, insecure teenager...Despite being relatively simple and unsophisticated, Halloween's music is one of its strongest assets. Carpenter's dissonant, jarring themes provide the perfect backdrop for Michael's activity, proving that a film doesn't need a symphonic score by an A-line composer to be effective. - James Berardinelli

FilmCritic.com 8 of 10
Considered by many to be a modern horror classic, Halloween succeeds through simplicity. This thriller -- a veritable kickoff for 25-plus years of slasher films -- works because director John Carpenter keeps the story neat and the presentation basic. It's an approach that gives Halloween an easy, no-frills realism, and a likable indie style that shines through even today...The experts and fans that name the same films over and over when listing fine 1970s independent movies should include Halloween. It's an inexpensive, efficient non-studio thriller made by a hungry group of young filmmakers. Many sequels, all terribly inferior, would follow, as would Jason, Freddy, and other unstoppable -- and often lazy -- mad slashers. Future horror filmmakers trashed story, going for extensive body counts and increasingly "creative" styles of murder. So many forgot to take a lesson from John Carpenter and his "psycho," Michael Myers -- keep it simple, stupid. - Norm Schrager