Halloween (1978 film)

Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with producer Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. The film was the first installment in what has become the Halloween franchise. The plot is set in the fictional Midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois. On Halloween night in 1963, a six-year-old Michael Myers dressed in a clown costume murders his older sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Fifteen years later, Michael Myers, age 21, escapes from a psychiatric hospital, returns home, and stalks Laurie Strode and her friends. Michael's psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis suspects Michael's intentions, and follows him to Haddonfield to try to prevent him from killing. Halloween was produced on a budget of $300,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the United States, and $70 million worldwide, equivalent to $250 million as of 2014, becoming one of the most profitable independent films. Many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Halloween had many imitators and originated several clichés found in low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike many of its imitators, Halloween contains little graphic violence and gore. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Some critics have suggested that Halloween may encourage sadism and misogyny by audiences identifying with its villain. Other critics have suggested the film is a social critique of the immorality of youth and teenagers in 1970s America, with many of Myers' victims being sexually promiscuous substance abusers, while the lone heroine is depicted as innocent and pure, hence her survival. Nevertheless, Carpenter dismisses such analyses. Several of Halloween‍ '​s techniques and plot elements, although not founded in this film, have nonetheless become standard slasher movie tropes. Halloween spawned seven sequels and was rebooted by Rob Zombie in 2007. The first sequel to the original movie, Halloween II was released in 1981, three years after its predecessor. Plot: On the night of October 31, 1963, in Haddonfield, Illinois, 6-year-old Michael Myers (Will Sandin) while dressed in a clown costume murders his older sister Judith Myers (Sandy Johnson) by stabbing her with a large kitchen knife. Fifteen years later, on October 30, 1978, Michael escapes Warren County Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where he had been committed since the murder. He steals the car that was to take him to a court hearing, the intention of which was for him to never be released. The following day, Halloween, 21-year-old Michael (Nick Castle), now dressed in a blue jumpsuit and a white mask, returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, and begins stalking high school student Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Laurie informs her friends, Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis) and Lynda van der Klok (P. J. Soles), that she believes someone is following her, but they dismiss her concerns. Later at her house, Laurie is startled to see Michael outside in the yard staring into her room. Michael's psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), having anticipated Michael's return home, goes to the local cemetery only to discover that Judith Myers' headstone is missing. Loomis meets with Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers), and the two search for Michael. That night, Laurie babysits Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews), while Annie babysits Lindsay Wallace (Kyle Richards) across the street from the Doyle house. When Annie gets a call from her boyfriend Paul asking her to pick him up, she drops Lindsay off at the Doyle house. Annie gets in her car to pick up Paul but Michael, who was hiding in the backseat of her car, strangles her before slitting her throat, killing her. At the Doyle house, while he plays hide-and-seek with Lindsay, Tommy spots Michael carrying Annie's corpse and tries to tell Laurie, who doesn't believe in any "boogeyman" that Tommy says he saw. Later that evening, Lynda and her boyfriend Bob enter the Wallace house and have sex in the upstairs bedroom. While downstairs to get a beer for Lynda, Bob is attacked by Michael, who kills him by pinning him to the wall with his knife. Michael then appears in the bedroom doorway, pretending to be Bob in a ghost costume. Gaining no response from him, Lynda becomes annoyed and calls Laurie, just as Michael kills her by strangling her with the telephone cord. Feeling unsettled, Laurie puts Tommy and Lindsay to bed and goes to the Wallace house, where she discovers the corpses of Annie, Bob, and Lynda. She is suddenly attacked by Michael. She falls down the staircase, but she quickly recovers. Fleeing the house, she screams for help, but to no avail. Running back to the Doyle house, she realizes she lost the keys and the door is locked, as she sees Michael approaching in the distance. Laurie panics and screams for Tommy to wake up and open the door quickly. Luckily, Tommy opens the door in time and lets Laurie inside. Laurie instructs Tommy and Lindsay to hide and then finds the phone line is dead and that Michael has gotten into the house through a window. As she sits down in horror next to the couch, Michael appears and tries to stab her, but she stabs him in the side of his neck with a knitting needle. Laurie goes upstairs telling Tommy and Lindsay she killed the "boogeyman", but Michael reappears in pursuit of her. Telling the kids to hide and lock themselves in the bathroom, Laurie opens the French windows to feign escape and hides in a bedroom closet. Michael punches a hole in the closet door to get to her. However, Laurie frantically undoes a metal clothes hanger to stick Michael in the eye, and she then stabs Michael with his own knife. Michael collapses and Laurie exits the closet, then tells the children to go find help. Dr. Loomis sees Tommy and Lindsay running away from the house screaming and suspects Michael could be inside. Back inside, Michael gets up and tries to strangle Laurie, but Loomis arrives in time to save her. Loomis shoots Michael who then falls from the second-story patio onto the lawn below. Laurie asks Loomis if that was the "boogeyman", which Loomis confirms. However, when Loomis looks over the balcony, he finds Michael's body is missing.