Halloween (1978) rated R for brief nudity/sexuality, drug use, violence, slight profanity, and frightening/disturbing imagery *contains spoilers*

On Halloween night in 1978, a masked killer named Michael Myers (played by Nick Castle although he is listed as "The Shape") returns to his hometown of Haddonfield.  For the last 15 years, Michael Myers had been locked up in a sanitarium for the murder of his sister Judith whom he brutally killed when he was only six years old.  His psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (played by Donald Pleasence) is doing his best to try to stop Michael with law enforcement help.  Unfortunately a combination of law enforcement's skepticism and Dr. Loomis not knowing what Michael's plans are lead to the unfortunate murders of three teenagers and one adult man (at least in this picture).  During the course of his killing spree, The Shape/Michael Myers crosses paths with babysitter Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) who is working across the street from the house that most of Michael's victims meet their unfortunate ends.













This is one of my favorite horror movies.  I can and have watched this over and over and it never loses its magic for me.  I love everything about this movie.  One of my favorite aspects of this movie is that there was initially no explanation for why Michael Myers is killing anyone.  I also liked that Michael Myers himself starts out as

This movie was probably the first to have situations where teenagers having sex/about to have sex get killed while the "virgin" teenager survives.  According to John Carpenter himself, there was never an intention to say "Don't have sex." His intention was to show that distractions are what will get a person killed whether it's sex, drugs, or simply not paying attention to what's going on around you.  The only reason that Laurie survives is because she is paying attention to what's happening.  So for anyone who had the misconception that horror movies are anti-sex now you know the real intention.

While watching this film with a friend recently, she pointed out that there appears to be no one in the neighborhood while Michael Myers/The Shape is killing and Laurie is fleeing.  One house turns on the outside light when Laurie is pleading for help but they quickly turn the light off and close the curtains.  On the one hand I would say that this is just because this is a horror movie and most things that can go wrong will go wrong.  I would also argue that this is an atmospheric factor to convey that Laurie feels alone in her horror as she is trying to survive.

Also, fun fact, this movie was the highest grossing independent film until The Blair Witch Project.  That means this movie was top from 1978 until 1999.  I personally think that that is impressive.