A classic of the "slasher" genre

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2008)

"Halloween" is one of those horror/slasher movies that parents of young children don't like them to watch. Surprisingly, however, this movie is not a gore-fest and for that reason may disappoint hardcore slasher fans.
What it does have going for it is a scary central character, Michael Myers (no, not the guy from "Wayne's World"!) and a highly effective, creepy soundtrack composed by the director, John Carpenter. In fact, years ago, I had considered buying the soundtrack to this movie but thought it could wait as it would always be around...silly me! Hopefully the new Rob Zombie version will recycle the original score and be out on soundtrack too.
The plot is pretty simple-during Halloween, a young boy, wearing a mask, murders his sexually active sister. Years later, on the same day, that boy, Michael Myers (now an adult), has escaped a mental institution and returns home...with more of the same kind of mayhem in mind.
This movie was directed by John Carpenter and is perhaps his best movie. From memory, it's stated in media that this movie was once the most successful independent movie of all time (since surpassed by Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11", I think).
Jamie Lee Curtis has her first, at least major role, in this movie I think, as a would be victim of Myers. She is an effective screamer, as was her mother, Janet Leigh, in perhaps the first slasher movie, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".
Not sure, but Halloween may have been the inspiration for the subsequent spate of horror/slasher films that followed, many of them having an impossibly difficult to kill psycho at their centre, as in "Friday the 13th" (parts I to xy).
Anyway, despite the dark, gloomy, murky chills this movie provides, there are moments of fun, as when Myers dons a rather bad Halloween outfit, which creates an absurd look for him.
You might want to check out this movie's first sequel, which I really liked, as well as other Carpenter films, including: "The Thing" and, for fans of the PS 2 game "Metal Gear Solid", check out Carpenter's "Escape from New York" for influence.