Halloween (1978 Film)

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For other uses, see Halloween (disambiguation).

Halloween is a 1978 American 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 plot tells about a mental patient who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his teenage sister on Halloween night when he was six years old. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns to his hometown, where he stalks a female babysitter and her friends, while under pursuit by his psychiatrist.

Filming took place in Southern California in May 1978, before premiering in October, where it grossed $70 million, becoming one of the most profitable independent films. Primarily praised for Carpenter's direction and score, many credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974). Some critics have suggested that Halloween may encourage sadism and misogyny by audiences identifying with its villain. Others have suggested that 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, and the lone heroine is depicted as innocent and pure, hence her survival.

Halloween spawned a film franchise comprising eleven films which helped construct an extensive backstory for its antagonist Michael Myers, sometimes narratively diverging entirely from previous installments. A remake was released in 2007, which was followed by a sequel in 2009. An eleventh installment, which serves as a direct sequel to the original film that retcons all previous sequels, was released in 2018. Another sequel to that installment, Halloween Kills, is scheduled for release on October 15, 2021. Additionally, a novelization, a video game and comic book series have been based on the film. In 2006, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

[edit] Plot

[edit] Cast

Main article: List of Halloween characters

[edit] Production

[edit] Concept

[edit] Screenplay

[edit] Casting

[edit] Filming

[edit] Musical score

Main article: Halloween (soundtrack)

[edit] Release

[[File:Halloween-Ad-Village-Voice-1978.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ad, The Village Voice, November 6, 1978: only known, published window for date of film's New York City premiere ("Held over ... 2nd week")^[a]

[edit] Theatrical distribution

[edit] Television rights

[edit] Critical response

[edit] Contemporaneous

[edit] Retrospective

[edit] Home media

[edit] Accolades

[edit] Analysis

[edit] Themes

[edit] Aesthetic elements

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Related works

[edit] Novelization and video game

[edit] Sequels and remake

Main article: Halloween (franchise)

[edit] See also

• Coulrophobia
• Evil clowns
• Bogeyman

[edit] Notes

a. ^ While the review gives no New York City premiere date or specific theater, a display advertisement on page 72 reads: "Held over! 2nd week of horror! At a Flagship Theatre near you". Per the movie listings on pages 82, 84 and 85, respectively, it played at four since-defunct theaters: the Essex, located at 375 Grand Street in Chinatown, per Cinema Treasures: Essex Theatre; the RKO 86th Street Twin, on East 86th Street near Lexington Avenue; the Rivoli, located at 1620 Broadway, in the Times Square area, per Cinema Treasures: Rivoli Theatre; and the Times Square Theater, located at 217 West 42nd Street, per Cinema Treasures:Times Square Theater.

[edit] References

[edit] Works cited

[edit] External links

Template:Halloween Series Template:John Carpenter