The Ultimate Boogeyman!

Rating: 9/10 (31 October 2006)

"Halloween" has become a classic of sorts over the years. Independently produced for $300,000, it has spawned several imitations and a series of inferior sequels. Made by the team of Debra Hill and John Carpenter it provides all the thrills and scares one could hope for. Although it is thought of as a slasher movie, there is nary a drop of blood to be seen. The violence although graphic is handled for the most part in the viewers imagination. You see the thrust of a knife but do not see the actual stabbing.
The film opens on Halloween, 1963 with a 6 year old Michael Myers stabbing his older sister to death following a romantic encounter with her boyfriend. Fast forward 15 years where we meet Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) on his way to the asylum where Michael Myers has been kept. We learn that Myers has not spoken in all that time and that he is the embodiment of evil with "the eyes of the devil".
On arriving at the asylum Loomis learns that Myers has escaped. He steals the very car in which Loomis had been travelings and flees. Loomis believes that Myers will return to his home town and alerts authorities there.
Myers surely does return to the scene of the crime (on Halloween night, wouldn't you know) and there begins to stalk three young girls, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis) and Lynda van der Klok (P.J. Soles). Laurie and Annie are to baby sit that night with Lynda and her boyfriend to join Annie and her boyfriend later. Loomis meanwhile stakes out the old Myers house awaiting Michael.
Myers lurks about the house where Annie is babysitting. When she leaves to pick up her boyfriend, she becomes Myers first victim. Later Lynda and her boyfriend Bob Simms (John Michael Graham) arrive at the now empty house. After some "under cover" work, Lynda sends Bob down to the fridge for a couple of beers and....... Lynda awaits Bob but....... Then Myers turns his attention to Laurie and (gasp!)...the children.
Carpenter builds the suspense slowly. No murders takes place in the first two thirds of the film. He slowly introduces the Myers character (called "the Form" in the credits), by having him stalk the girls. Only Laurie actually sees him briefly before he disappears. And of course the others do not see the menace and think Laurie is imagining it. The fun starts after dark as "The Ultimate Boogeyman" goes to work.
A word about Carpenter's haunting theme. Almost a character itself it is played over the entire film and anyone has heard it will never forget it. A better horror theme has yet to be written.
The character of Michael Myers is portrayed by Nick Castle a friend and co-worker of Carpenter who would go on to be a successful director himself. For Curtis, this was her first film and type cast her for a time as a horror icon.
The mask worn by the Myers character was actually a mask of William Shatner as Captain Kirk of "Star Trek" fame, modified for the Myers character.