"...As a matter of fact...it was..."

Rating: Null/10 (3 September 2004)

What is it about Halloween? What makes it the unique and haunting scare film that it is? No other modern horror film comes close to its power, its simplicity and its ability to walk into your dreams and go, "Boogah-Boogah!" Other flicks have more shocks, more blood, more carnage, more disturbing imagery- - -what is it about Halloween?
Halloween is about Halloween. It is the only movie that's ever captured Halloween. It is a story about the night the bogeyman comes. It is set in a world of cool night breezes, autumn leaves, costumes and masks, popcorn and candy, old scary movies on TV, carved and candle-lit jack o'lanterns, old haunted houses in your neighborhood, footsteps in the dark, night-terrors, of dressing up like a ghost in an old bed sheet, of the clown at midnight, of the tombstone that becomes your pillow...It defies rational explanations- -- there is only the Shape, coming for you...coming for your friends...
By the end of the film, you understand how protagonist Laurie's (Jamie Lee Curtis') perceptions have changed so much in the course of the night that she can ask Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) in tearful earnest, "W..was it the bogeyman..?" and you can only swallow and nod in silent agreement as he replies..."As a matter of fact...it was..."
One of the great ones. Not for kids. For people who remember their own Halloweens...