It's the "Psycho" of the '70s -- a low-budget, horror classic

Rating: Null/10 (15 May 2003)

(***** out of *****)
Maybe not technically the first, but nonetheless, the granddaddy of all slasher films. This is short on plot (a kid who murdered his sister on Halloween night breaks out of the asylum seven years later and returns to his hometown to kill some more -- that's it), but long on style. Carpenter knows just how to create an atmosphere of fear and tension by mere suggestion, mainly through excellent use of shadows and lighting, widescreen framing, and that infamously creepy keyboard music (created by Carpenter, himself). This isn't so much your typical movie with an intricate plot and well-developed characters as it is a full-sensory experience that should be studied as a text book on how to make horror films. Indestructible `boogeyman' Michael Myers still reigns supreme over all imitators, and Jamie Lee Curtis is the definitive 70s/early-'80s scream queen. Donald Pleasance plays the not-entirely-sane-himself doctor in pursuit of Michael, and Nancy Loomis ("The Fog") and P. J. Soles ("Rock n' Roll High School") -- whatever happened to them? -- also star in this monumental indie classic. The first sequel's not bad, but avoid the rest.
HIGHLIGHT (AND Possible Spoiler): `It was the boogeyman, wasn't it?' `As a matter of fact, it was.' Cue the missing body, riddled only seconds ago with bullets and left for dead on the front lawn, and the creepy music, and you have the perfect shocker ending.