A Simple Tale, Simply Told and Simply Terrifying...

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2008)

Critics may pooh-pooh and look down their noses and conservative types might cluck their tongues and shake their heads in disapproval, but like every other movie genre, horror films have contributed valid classics that have stood the test of time and continue to do so, as they will when most of my generation is just a fading memory.
Case in point: this year, HALLOWEEN is THIRTY YEARS OLD! Think about that, peeps. The movie that made John Carpenter and so many of the people connected with the film into household names...we are still talking about it, debating it, admiring it, and many, many other people will do so after us. That's not just the mark of a great horror film, but a great film, PERIOD.
If you fancy yourself a horror fan, then you are definitely worth your weight in severed heads if you already know the back-history of this movie. And assuming you do, I won't bore you with the trivia and go right to the deceptively simple story.
It all takes place on October 31st, 1978 in Haddonfield, Illinois. Three best friends: Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), Lynda (P.J. Soles) and Annie (Nancy Loomis) will all be babysitting only a few doors away from each other. The usual tricks and treats including late night spook shows, boyfriends sneaking over, pumpkin-carving and popcorn will be expected.
What won't be expected is an uninvited guest to the festivities. Some years ago, on the very street where the girls live, a young boy named Michael Myers stabbed his sister Judith to death, only moments after she'd finished having sex with her boyfriend. He was taken away and placed in an asylum.
And now Michael has escaped...to come home and for some reason, is determined to finish what he started, killing his 'sister' over and over again. And guess who the replacements for poor Judith are? The girls' only hope for possibly surviving the night is Michael's former doctor, Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance), who knows exactly what his patient is capable of and what he really is, and that stopping him at any cost is the only priority he has in life.
Yes, it's a slasher film and the plot defines it as such. But no other film of its kind looked, sounded or played quite like what the creative team of John Carpenter and Debra Hill managed to capture on film, thanks to a game and enthusiastic crew and a talented cast of then-unknowns, all working more for the thrill of making a movie than for the money, (which there was very little of at first .)
So much has already been written about this movie, that there's very little of value that I can add. Except to say that everything that we horror hounds hold dear owes a debt of thanks to HALLOWEEN. If PSYCHO was the door to the future of horror films, this was the key that unlocked it, and thanks to Carpenter and company, Friday THE 13TH, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and everything else that followed got to 'come inside.'
This should be the cornerstone of your DVD or VHS horror collection. It certainly is in mine.