This is perhaps the best of all the suspense Halloween horror/slasher films one could hope to see. Although there were many more made, 12 movies altogether following 4 timelines…but IMHO I think the only one to see after this is the 2018 movie which is a direct sequel, starring again Jamie Lee Curtis, 40 years after the traumatic first movie. And new to theaters this year…Halloween Kills.
The film establishes our masked killer in the opening sequence, then just a child of 6 years, Micheal brutally stabs his older teen-aged sister to death with a butcher’s knife on Halloween, when instead of babysitting him, she was having sex with her boyfriend. He never speaks, and from that moment is devoid of emotion, accept for heavy breathing when he attacks someone. 15 years later, on the eve of Halloween, Micheal Myers escapes the lunatic asylum, steals a car and goes home. (how he learned to drive, read a map, etc is never explained…apparently he is driven like a supernatural homing pigeon). Instead of detailing the killing sequence, I will allow you to watch for yourself and enjoy the movie.
Jamie Lee Curtis began her career with this film, establishing herself as the “last girl” or good girl in various horror films thereafter giving her the title “scream queen.”
The mask worn by the adult Micheal Myers is a distorted mask of William Shatner (Captain Kurt).
Dr. Sam Loomis – played by Donald Pleasence, was named after Sam Loomis from Psycho in homage to Alfred Hitchcock. The Sam Loomis character in Psycho was the boyfriend to Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis’ real life mom).
