Movies - Halloween

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John Carpenter's Halloween is a popular horror film. It is considered one of the most important and influential of the genre. As of 2006, it has spawned seven sequels.

Halloween was released in 1978. It was written by John Carpenter (who also directed) and Debra Hill, and was executive produced by Moustapha Akkad. It starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. Shot on a budget of $300,000, it became one of the most successful independent films ever.

Telling the story of an unstoppable psycho-killer wearing a white-painted William Shatner mask (from the film The Devil's Rain
), Halloween is generally considered the first of a long line of modern-day "slasher" movies descending from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
(1960). The movie originated a great many of the clichés seen in countless low-budget slashers of the 1980s and 1990s, although first-time viewers of Halloween may be surprised by the fact that compared to its many imitators, the original film has very few explicitly violent scenes.

Some slasher buffs note that the lesser-known 1974 horror film Black Christmas
, directed by Bob Clark, actually features many of the same motifs that Halloween is credited with establishing. For example, the film is a holiday-themed slasher that has shots from the killer's perspective replete with muffled breathing noises, much like those in Halloween. This does not detract from Halloween however, as it is certainly the film that popularized such motifs, even if it did not officially "invent" them.

Deeper meaning has been read into this movie by some film critics, including the idea that everyone who dies in the film is sexually promiscuous, while the "innocent" (chaste) heroine survives. Carpenter has been quoted as saying that inclusion of this sort of morality into the story was entirely unintentional, and he did not mean for the movie to be seen as a form of "punishment" for those who indulge in sex and drug use (the film's "innocent" lead is in fact shown smoking marijuana in the film). Nevertheless the parallel between a character's moral strengths and their likelihood of not getting killed has become a standard slasher movie trope.

The name of the city where the film takes place, Haddonfield, Illinois, is taken from screenwriter Debra Hill's hometown, Haddonfield, New Jersey. Carpenter, too, pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock via character names: e.g., Tommy Doyle (a Detective in Rear Window
) and Sam Loomis (a key player in Psycho
).

Tagline

The Night HE Came Home!

Plot

Six-year-old Michael Myers brutally kills his older sister on Halloween night, 1963, and is locked in a mental institution. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to repeat his rampage. Pursued by his psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Pleasance), Myers sets his murderous intentions on babysitter Laurie Strode (Curtis) (after already killing two of her friends). Eventually, Loomis catches up with Myers in the upstairs hallway of a house, and shoots the murderer six times. Myers falls from a second story balcony and Loomis rescues Laurie. But looking out of the upstairs window, Loomis discovers that Myers is gone... Myers has "come home".

Full Cast

Donald Pleasence
— Dr. Sam Loomis
Jamie Lee Curtis
— Laurie Strode
Nancy Kyes
— Annie Brackett (credited as Nancy Loomis)
P.J. Soles
— Lynda van der Klok
Charles Cyphers
— Sheriff Leigh Brackett
Kyle Richards
— Lindsey Wallace
Brian Andrews
— Thomas "Tommy" Doyle
John Michael Graham
— Bob Simms
Nancy Stephens
— Marion Chambers
Arthur Malet — Taylor, the Graveyard Keeper
Mickey Yablans — Richie
Brent Le Page — Lonnie Elamb
Adam Hollander — Keith
Robert Phalen
— Dr. Terence Wynn
Tony Moran — Michael Audrey Myers (age 21)
Will Sandin — Michael Audrey Myers (age 06)
Sandy Johnson — Judith Margaret Myers
David Kyle — Peter Greene, Judith's boyfriend
Peter Griffith — Morgan Strode
Nick Castle
— The Shape
John Carpenter
— Paul Freedman, Annie's boyfriend (voice)
George O'Hanlon, Jr. — Don Myers, Michael's father

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Halloween (film) ]

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Movies - Halloween

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