Plot
In 1963, in the small town of Haddonfield Illinois, six year old Michael Myres killed his sister and her boyfriend.
Locked in an asylum, under the care of Dr Loomis, he escapes fifteen years later.
Now he’s back in his old home town, and he wants to finish the kill spree he started all the way back then, and Loomis – hot on his tail is the only one who can stop him!
Direction
Directed by John Carpenter, his first foray into the horror genre. Like his previous film Assault on Precict 13, it has a low budget/Independent feel to it.
Fairly tame by ‘today’s standards’ which isn’t surprising due to it being almost 50 years old. I quite liked how it had portions of the film from Michael’s POV – through the mask and all.
Cast
Jamie Lee Curtis plays Laurie Strode, one of the teenagers in Haddonfield. She is babysitting on Halloween night when Michael returns.
Donald Pleasence plays Dr Sam Loomis, who is haunted by the evil that is within Michael.
Other cast include Charles Cyphers, Nancy Loomis (both from AoP13) among others.
Breakdown
This was one of the many movie franchises within this era, that really made the horror genre what it is. Starting ith the creepy and now prolific score (once again by Carpenter himself) – the narrative situation occurs quickly – with the murder of a girl and boy (from the killers Point of View) on Halloween night 1963.
Cutting to fifteen years later, it is Halloween again, and Dr Sam loomis is on his way to make sure Myres stays locked up in the insane asylum, when he discovers the killer has escaped. We then see himself and his nurse attacked by Myres, andd their car stolen – so Loomis goes on a mission to try and stop him.
Despite being the top billed (due to his own star power at the time) Loomis does spend a portion of the film off screen, and when he does appear it is his trying to get the towns sherrif to believe his story (oh if only they listen…) He doesn’t really appear again until the final when he saves the day and “kills” Michael as he is attacking the scream queen Curtis.
This is very much an ‘era adjacent ‘ film, and most of what occurs is fairly tame by todays standards, but this is also possibly due to the limited budget (around $1.5m in todays money)
I really liked how Carpenter ‘toys’ with the audience so “The Shape” (the nickname for Michael Myres) is hidden from the characers. It conveys tension really well, and it feels less ‘horror’ and more thriller. It also has a good slow burn in the way it brings Michael out and the first kill doesn’t even occur until an hour into proceedings.
The open ending, left the possibility for a sequel… and boy did they take advantage of that possibility
Overall
Whether or not this is the film that started the ‘slasher’ film craze is up for debate, what is presented is a solid “invention” of the masked killer.
While it has some flaws (the ‘relationship’ between Loomis and Myres) and the not yet developed ‘strong’ final girl – it is still very good at building suspense.
Almost perfect.
4.5/5
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