{"id":1746,"date":"2020-10-10T02:05:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-10T07:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2020-10-10T02:05:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T07:05:40","slug":"halloween-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/?p=1746","title":{"rendered":"Halloween (1978)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halloween
\n(1978) 91 Min.
\nRated: R (gore, nudity, sex)
\nCountry: USA
\nDirector: John Carpenter
\nStarring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle, Nancy Kyes, P.J. Soles
\nLinks: IMDB<\/a> | Wikipedia<\/a>
\nRating: \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Halloween<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An escaped mental patient murders teens and stalks Laurie Strode while being pursued by his psychiatrist on Halloween night.<\/p>\n


\n

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Halloween<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Synopsis:
\nOn Halloween night of 1963 in Haddonfield, Illinois, a young boy takes a kitchen knife, puts his clown mask on and stabs his older sister to death. He walks outside the house to be found by his parents while holding the bloody knife. His name is Michael Myers (Castle).<\/p>\n

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Budding young psychopath Mikey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is now October 30th, 1978. Michael\u2019s child psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (Pleasence), and a colleague, Marion Chambers are driving to Warren County Smith\u2019s Grove Sanitarium where Michael is held. As they pull up to the Sanitarium they notice patients walking around in the rain at night. Loomis exits the car to check the gate, but Michael climbs onto the car and attacks Chambers. She leaves the car and Michael gets inside and drives off into the night.<\/p>\n

The next day in Haddonfield.
\nLaurie Strode (Curtis) is told by her realtor father to drop a house key off at the Myer\u2019s house. As she drops off the key, Michael Myers watches her from a distance menacingly. He\u2019s wearing a mechanics uniform and a white mask. Laurie seems to notice him, but her friends Annie (Kyes) and Lynda (Soles) don\u2019t see him or think nothing of it.<\/p>\n

Loomis, meanwhile, is trying to retrace Michael\u2019s steps in order to hunt him down. Loomis does not see Michael as a person, rather as a being of evil personified. Loomis finds Michael\u2019s Sanitarium clothes tossed by a truck on the road to Haddonfield.<\/p>\n

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Loomis investigating a scene.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Laurie goes home and while in her upstairs room glances outside to see Michael\u2019s figure standing out by the laundry. As soon as she looks again he vanishes. She gets a phone call from her friend Annie who plans to give her a ride to their babysitting jobs for that evening which are across the street from one another.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
He watches her from the laundry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Loomis finds that Judith Myers headstone is missing from her grave. He goes into Haddonfield to talk to Sheriff Brackett. The pair visit Michael Myers\u2019 childhood home. They find a dead dog, which Loomis believes Michael fed on. The Sheriff decides to warn his men to keep their eyes open and Loomis decides to stay at the house waiting to see if Michael returns.<\/p>\n

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Sheriff and Loomis discuss things while Michael drives a car.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Night falls and Annie and Laurie are across the street from one another. Michael turns his attention to the house where Annie is. Annie is babysitting a girl named Lindsey. While talking to Laurie on the phone she notices the family\u2019s German Shepard,Lester, won\u2019t stop barking.<\/p>\n

Laurie, meanwhile, is watching a boy named Tommy and he tells Laurie that he sees the boogeyman outside. Laurie dismisses the boy.<\/p>\n

Lester goes outside and gets killed by Michael. Annie, meanwhile, spills popcorn butter on her clothes and goes outside to wash them in a small shed outside that holds the washer and dryer. She gets locked inside but then rescued by Lindsey. Annie\u2019s boyfriend Paul calls and asks her to give him a ride in her car. She leaves Lindsey with Laurie and Tommy.<\/p>\n

Annie gets into her car and Michael Myers is hiding in the back seat. He strangles her at first and then cuts her throat, killing her.<\/p>\n

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Annie and Michael in a car.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lynda and her boyfriend Bob arrive on the scene and they look for Annie, but Laurie informs them that she\u2019s gone. The pair decide to have sex in the master bedroom of the house. Lynda asks Bob to get a beer. While he\u2019s in the kitchen, Michael Myers appears and shoves him against some cabinets, then drives a knife through him. Michael goes upstairs and wears a bedsheet over his body and wears Bob\u2019s glasses. Lynda mistakes him for Bob and is about to call Laurie, when Michael strangles her with the telephone cord. Laurie at first thinks it\u2019s a joke, but grows worried. She calls the house again but gets no response.<\/p>\n

Loomis is waiting outside the Myer house when he sees a car in the distance. He discovers the institutes car that Michael used.<\/p>\n

Laurie goes over to the house searching for Annie, Bob and Lynda but doesn\u2019t find them. She goes to the bedroom and finds the Judith Myers headstone on the bed with Annie\u2019s body. In a closet door Bob\u2019s lifeless body swings out and Lynda\u2019s body is stuffed into another closet. Horrified, Laurie slowly backs out, but Michael tries to stab her and misses. She falls down some stairs and runs out of the house with Michael in a slow but determined pursuit.<\/p>\n

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Annie on the bed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Laurie attempts to ask a neighbor for help but they ignore her screams. She bangs on the door at Tommy\u2019s house and wakes up and lets her inside. She tells him to go to bed as she notices a window is broken and the phone doesn\u2019t work. She grabs a knitting needle from her bag and waits. Michael stabs at her, missing and she stabs him in the neck with her needle. He goes down and she runs upstairs.<\/p>\n

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Laurie with her knitting needle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She warns Tommy and Lindsey to hide and lock the door. Michael approaches again and Laurie hides in a closet. He breaks through the door, but Laurie stabs him in the eye with a wire hanger piece. He falls down again. She tells the children to run out and get help.<\/p>\n

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Michael rises after Laurie\u2019s last attack.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Tommy and Lindsey run out screaming, Loomis notices them and approaches the house. Loomis races upstairs to find Michael choking Laurie. Laurie pulls up Michael\u2019s mask, which causes him to stumble so he can put his mask back on. At this moment, Loomis pulls out his gun and shoots Michael six times causing him to fall off a balcony. He lands on the ground, but when Loomis looks down Michael is gone. Loomis stares off into the night as Laurie sobs, traumatized.<\/p>\n

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Loomis gazing into the night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Review:
\nThis film is fairly influential in the horror genre and it\u2019s interesting to note how much time in this film is devoted to character background and set up. It\u2019s almost a slow burn as we see Michael stalk Laurie and then watch Loomis follow after Michael.<\/p>\n

The first on screen murder doesn\u2019t happen until about fifty-three minutes into the story. There\u2019s a lot of tension building with scenes of Michael lingering in the background. He really is an entity here more than a person.<\/p>\n

The acting in this film is fairly good for a horror film and most of the credit can be given to Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. Pleasence is, of course, a seasoned actor and he plays Loomis very distraught and concerned. Curtis, meanwhile, is the newcomer and it\u2019s no surprise that she was so good she transcended beyond a mere \u201cScream Queen\u201d. Her Laurie is believable and identifiable. She\u2019s a good girl and shy but she isn\u2019t so innocent that she won\u2019t smoke weed with her friends.<\/p>\n

The music in this film is very memorable and unmistakable. John Carpenter\u2019s score here is just enough to be unsettling when the mood calls for it.<\/p>\n

There are a few minor inconsistencies in the film. Things like the weather changes from one scene to the next as well as the walking portions in the early part of the film that could\u2019ve easily been trimmed down to be tighter. To be fair, I think that this film will probably seem tame when compared to other films, but it still seems to get a creepy tone right and that can be difficult to do.<\/p>\n

This is definitely a must-watch for anyone who is a fan of horror films. It helped pave the way for modern horror and had many imitators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halloween (1978) 91 Min. Rated: R (gore, nudity, sex) Country: USA Director: John Carpenter Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle, Nancy Kyes, P.J. Soles Links: IMDB | Wikipedia Rating: \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 An escaped mental patient murders teens and stalks Laurie Strode while being pursued by his psychiatrist on Halloween night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[82,29,15,36,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1759,"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions\/1759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midnightcult.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}