Timeless and a model for Hollywood

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2006)

I watched this movie in the theater when it was released back in 1978. Today, 28 years later it still remains a classic with an edge.
The story is primitive, but is all the more effective for it: A six year old boy named Michael Myers murders his sister. He spends the next 15 years locked away. In that time, his doctor, Sam Loomis, comes to the conclusion that this seemingly catatonic child is evil in it's purest. To Dr. Lommis, he's "waiting" but doesn't know what for. Sure enough, a now 21 year old Myers escapes only to return to the town he once called home.
Film critic Roger Ebert once wrote that Director John Carpenter played his audience like a piano with this film. That is probably the best description by a film critic yet. The music score in unforgettable and there has never been a movie made that has relied so beautifully on the art of suspense rather than the simple cliché of straight bloodletting, as we saw with so many knock offs after Halloween's release.
For a movie that was filmed on a shoe string budget to be this effective should be a lesson to Hollywood (and film schools) that some of the best ideas are completed with heart and realistic dedication, not just with dollars, slick sets, and big name actors.
My only regret concerning this film was that it it inspired sequel after clunker sequel, which took away some luster to the average film-goer. This was the kind of film that should have been left alone as a classic to itself: The story of Halloween, a Boogeyman and viewers with questions at the end which they should have had to answer for themselves.