Halloween (1978)
Review by Peter Syslo

It is a crisp afternoon in October, leaves are scattered along the sidewalks. On a suburban street, a car drives by a group of teenagers and then it accelerates. One of the teenagers yells, “Hey jerk, speed kills” and the car slams on the brakes, pauses for a second, and then slowly drives off. This is how my friends and I would recreate that scene, after one of us was finally able to take the family car for the evening. However, I don’t recreate that scene anymore and it’s not because I’m too old; it’s because I’m the one that has to pay for tires and brakes now. That’s one way that you could tell that a movie is great – if it gives you the desire to mimic the dialogue or the scenes within it. That is the feeling that HALLOWEEN (1978) instil led in me and it gives me great joy to be talking about it, nearly 30 years after I first saw it.

A masterpiece – that’s the best way that I can sum up HALLOWEEN (1978). It is my favorite horror movie and it might even be my favorite movie, of all time. I tell you, no other horror movie has had such an impact on me; I first saw this movie when I was about 6 or 7 years old and it scared the hell out of me. I was strangely drawn to it and fascinated by the movie, as a whole; it terrified me but I wanted to watch it and experience that feeling again. Since that time period (in the late 70s/early 80s), I have become one of those “Star Wars” people – I have probably watched this movie hundreds of times. However, it never fails me; it never seems “tired” or outdated. It is a timeless movie like Casablanca (Cara bl anca? – “white face” in Spanish/Berber) and I know that I will always enjoy sitting down and taking it all in again. It is the quintessential example of “lightning in a bottle” – the director, writing, cast, sets, and mask were all a perfect balance and, to me, this is the film by which to measure all other horror films. This one gets the highest honors and sits on the shelf alongside the original PSYCHO and JAWS.

Most people know the basics of the movie, but I will give a rundown of it for any new, young fans out there. HALLOWEEN (1978) is directed by the legendary John Carpenter and is written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill (with whom he would collaborate on other films). It stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, P J Soles, Nancy Loomis, Charles Cyphers, Nancy Stephens, Tony Moran, and Nick Castle as “the shape” (aka Michael Myers hiding, etc.).

The movie opens with the classic scene, from the viewpoint of 6-year-old Michael Myers, as he walks towards his home. Michael sees his sister, Judith, fooling around with her boyfriend and moving the festivities to her bedroom, upstairs. Michael walks into the kitchen and grabs a large knife from a drawer. We see the boyfriend leave and then Michael takes that slow, plodding - yet determined - walk upstairs. He picks up a clown mask that the boyfriend was wearing and puts it on (you see the action through the eye holes of the mask). Michael then walks into Judith’s bedroom and proceeds to stab her numerous times, killing her. He then walks downstairs as his parents pull up in the car, (while Carpenter’s brilliant and unbelievably creepy piano work is playing in the background) he walks outside, the father questions, “Michael?” and the camera zooms out on the picture of a dazed 6-year-old Michael holding a bloody but cher knife that is almost half as big as he is.

After one of the best opening scenes – ever - in a movie, the clock fast forwards 15 years as Dr. Samuel Loomis (played to perfection by Donald Pleasance) and Nurse Chambers (Stephens) are driving to Smith’s Grove Mental Hospital to transfer 21 year-old Michael. They pull up and see patients wandering around outside, and after Dr. Loomis gets out of the car to check on things, Michael steals the station wagon that the duo arrived in, and heads for the highway. Thus, the conflict between Loomis and Myers begins and we see the birth of the “Ahab” character in horror movies – Dr. Loomis may actually be the first.

Next, we meet Laurie Strode (Lee Curtis), the heroin, as she walks to school with little Tommy Doyle, whom she is babysitting - and yes, it is Halloween (again, you hear parts of Carpenter’s haunting score). You get the first in a series of scares as Laurie drops off a key to the Myers’ house (it is now abandoned and her real-estate-agent father is selling it); Michael’s shadowed head appears by the door as she walks away. He then steps outside and watches her walk down the street; you just see his shoulder from behind and hear that iconic, heavy breathing - these scenes are genuinely chilling, and the whole time you don’t know why Michael is doing all of this. You have some more thrills as Laurie is in school and as she is walking home with her friends after school. You have the famous “Hey jerk speed kills” scene, the “hedge” scen e, and one of the scariest moments in the film: (mind you, it is still daylight) the “clothesline” scene. Laurie looks out her bedroom window and sees the white-masked Michael standing in between line-dried linens, staring up at her and yes, when she looks again… he is gone – it’s chilling to-the-bone.

Now, Dr. Loomis has pursued Michael to Haddonfield and is investigating a break-in at a hardware store, with Sheriff Brackett (Cyphers). You eerily see Michael drive right behind Dr. Loomis and Michael continues to drive, following Laurie and Annie (Loomis) to their babysitting jobs. This is the point where the “hunt” really picks up speed and even though no blood has been shed since the opening scene, you are still enthralled and on edge, just waiting for it to happen (lesson to all, this is how you create tension and suspense!). We have some more scares, some great Halloween atmosphere, and then the killing begins. Annie gets stabbed, in a scene that I think has always made me check the back seat of my car, before I got in. Next, Linda (Soles) and Paul get it; Michael stabs a post-coital Paul, raising him up on a kitchen door - th e capper to this scene is the way that Michael looks at his kill, cocking his head from side to side, like an animal – very scary stuff. Next, we have the “see anything you like?” scene, which made all of us guys go “ga-ga” over PJ Soles; Linda is killed in a classic, audience-shout-out-loud scene where Michael is wearing a sheet and she thinks it is her boyfriend Paul.

Now it’s time for Laurie. After not hearing from her friends, she goes over to the Wallace house (where Annie, Linda, & Paul were killed) to check up on things. There she finds a house of horrors, as she discovers all of her dead friends (Annie laid out on the bed with Judith Myers’ grave stone – brilliant visuals) and Michael emerges from the shadows to strike. Laurie falls and escapes the house, while Michael pursues her in his signature “walking” fashion. She makes it into the Doyle house (where she was babysitting), with seconds to spare and then there is that horrible realization that Michael is in the house (an open window) with her; she then stabs him with a crochet needle. Michael again appears (this is where we first get the hint that he is very hard to kill) and there is a closet attack, where Laurie stabs him with a c lothes hanger and his knife, and he falls once more. She then instructs Tommy and Lindsey to go to the neighbor’s house and Dr. Loomis arrives to see the kids running away and screaming. He makes it upstairs, just in time to shoot Michael as he is choking Laurie – and yes, you momentarily see him without the mask (Moran). Loomis shoots Myers again and he falls off of the balcony. You now have the famous “boogeyman” line and as Loomis looks outside to check on Michael, he is gone; Loomis just has that look like, “I am not surprised, I knew that would happen”. The film ends with different camera shots of the houses involved, and as it shows the Myers’ house, the infamous breathing gets louder and more intense.

This is just a perfect film; there are no complaints or questions regarding it, and there would be no need to change anything. Again, it’s that rare happening of “lightning in a bottle” - Carpenter created a monumental film, which is funny because it was pretty much an assignment, from what I understand. The writing is absolutely terrific – Debra Hill mainly wrote for the teens and Carpenter wrote the exchanges involving Dr. Loomis; I feel that the scares are dead on and still remain scary, to this day (I don’t agree with what any “re-imaginer” thinks). The music is brilliant in and of itself and it is one of the most perfect examples of a merger of film and music – both work together in a synergistic fashion, enhancing one another; the score is as timeless as Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d minor and it fits perfectly with the movie.

The acting is great all around; this is back when teenagers weren’t so annoying to watch on-screen, especially in horror films (that stems from good, realistic character writing, as well). The biggest star, Michael Myers, is the classic iconic horror figure, in a way - but on the other hand, he represents a new breed of killer. Myers has that larger than life, supernatural persona, but at the same time he is a ruthless killer – a human with no remorse and no apparent want for anything, other than to kill. In the old, classic monster movies, we found out that all monsters just wanted to be loved… not so in this case. It was a different era and it was a scary truth that some monsters are just monsters, nothing more – there is no compassion or remorse within them. That white, Shatner-based mask said it all and it is an ev en scarier suggestion that Myers represented the dark side that could be within anyone – it is that lack of identity and emotion that speaks volumes (the only real way you recognize that he is human is through that heavy breathing). That “blankness” is what makes Michael Myers really scary and the “mystery” of his behavior can be summed up in three facts:

1. You don’t know why he is after you.
2. He can appear at any time.
3. You don’t know what he is going to do when he catches you.

In conclusion, the whole film captures the spirit of Halloween and it is really a great, nostalgic time – and it is truly frightening. Taking the lead from PSYCHO, this is where the modern horror film made a great stride and the bar was raised for the quality and depth of filmmaking. That’s right, good-old solid filmmaking and storytelling made this movie really outstanding – there is really not a lot of blood or gore, yet the film is intensely creepy. I’m usually not this forward about my recommendations, but everyone needs to have a copy of HALLOWEEN (1978) in their DVD collection. It is a film you must see and please, feel free to bask in the glory of it all. This is the cream of the crop my friends – enjoy it, study it, and share it . I’m actually getting excited about it; writing this review makes me want to watch it again – and I will be watching it again, very soon. Happy Halloween!