Daily Archives: September 2, 2021

Halloween (1978)

Halloween
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill
1978/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Tommy: Laurie, what’s the Boogeyman?

A classic of horror cinema.

The setting is Haddonfield, Illinois, a small town mid-America. High-schooler Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis)  spends most of her evenings babysitting. She doesn’t date much because the boys think she is “too smart”.  She is best friends with obnoxious and mean Annie and Lynda. Her friends both have horny boyfriends.  On Halloween night Laurie and Annie are both babysitting and Laurie plays musical houses with her friends so they can fool around with their boyfriends.

In the meantime, Michael Meyers escapes from a mental institution.  Meyers had murdered his sister when he was six years old.  He has been diagnosed as a soulless killing machine. He heads straight to Haddonfield where he terrorizes the girls and their boyfrienfds.

I waited a long time to see this because I am a wimp.  I needn’t have worried since there is very, very little gore involved.  There are a ton of jump scares however.  Well done on the part of Carpenter, who also wrote the creepily effective score. Recommended.