A Classic, The Horror Film That Started It All

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2005)

In 1978, John Carpenter wrote, directed, produced, and wrote the score for Halloween. The movie didn't have any real famous actors in it during the time, and it only cost $325,000 to make. The critics looked at this film negatively, they didn't think anyone would like this new style of horror that we now call "slasher films." One critic looked at this movie and thought it was excellent, and soon the other critics re-reviewed it and also started to really like it. Soon, Halloween became a box office smash and for a while it was the most successful Independent film(it held this record until Pulp Fiction came out). Now, Halloween remains a horror classic that spawned many sequels and quickly started the "slasher" genre of horror.
(Spoilers) The movie starts in the 1960's, with a scene where we see through the eyes of 6 year old Michael Myers. He stabs his older sister to death, and ends up in a mental institution. The film picks up about twenty years later when Michael escapes from the mental institution and goes to his old town. In the town we see a group of high school students who are completely unaware that anything could go wrong in their peaceful town. However, everyone in the town knows the story of how Michael Myers killed his older sister and everyone thinks his now empty house is haunted by the "boogeyman." Michael's doctor(played by Donald Pleasance) tries to hunt down Michael Myers. Part of the scariness of the movie is when he is explaining how evil and dangerous Michael really is.
The elements in Halloween were new during it's time, but have been repeatedly used in other movies. Such as the villain targeting teenage girls, going into a car at night and having someone in the back seat waiting to kill you, or even going into a house, finding your friends corpses and then having the villain reach around the corner. These elements made a great and horrifying horror movie, but unfortunately today's generation won't be able to see this the same way because of rip off horror movies that make this seem like a cliché just as well.
Everyone who considers themselves to be a horror fan should see this to get the idea of where horror movies today got their inspiration from.