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Movies / Upcoming / Halloween
Halloween

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Halloween (1978)

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Reviews Counted:42

Fresh:39

Rotten:3

Average Rating:8.4/10

Consensus: Scary, suspenseful, and viscerally thrilling, Halloween set the standard for modern horror films.

Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

US Box Office: $0

Synopsis: Perhaps the most influential and successful independent film ever made, HALLOWEEN is the movie that put director John Carpenter on the map as a viable filmmaker. An exercise in simple, pure horror,... Perhaps the most influential and successful independent film ever made, HALLOWEEN is the movie that put director John Carpenter on the map as a viable filmmaker. An exercise in simple, pure horror, HALLOWEEN takes us into the world of a mad killer, Michael Myers, who at a very young age stabbed his older sister to death. Locked away for many years in a mental hospital Michael escapes one night and returns to his hometown to continue his killing spree. Jamie Lee Curtis, in her first role, plays the resourceful babysitter who is chased by the killer on Halloween night. Produced for very little money and a tight shooting schedule, HALLOWEEN was a stunning success when it was released. Written by John Carpenter and his longtime producer Debra Hill, the film set their careers on fire, with both of them working together many times over the next 25 years. The film also made a star out of Jamie Lee Curtis and turned the slasher movie into a viable, successful genre. HALLOWEEN has been copied, parodied and even turned into a franchise of its own, but the original is still considered the best of the bunch. HALLOWEEN was John Carpenter's first foray into horror, and remains the standard to which all other modern horror films are measured. [More]

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles, Nancy Loomis

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles, Nancy Loomis, Charles Cyphers, Kyle Richards, Arthur Malet, David Kyle, Nick Castle, Peter Griffith

Director: John Carpenter

Director: John Carpenter
Screenwriter: John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Producer: Debra Hill
Composer: John Carpenter

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Halloween

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/18/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Perhaps not quite so resonant as Psycho to which it pays due homage, but it breathes the same air.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out

Halloween brilliantly uses its widescreen frame, a lot of hand-held camerawork, and scary foreground and background action.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
12/06/05
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

They should have broken the mold when they released Halloween, for when it comes to escaped-maniacs-on-the-loose films this one’s the real deal.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/03
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

Halloween remains untouched -- a modern classic of the most horrific kind.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
06/18/02
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Twenty-one years after it exploded onto the horror scene, John Carpenter's seminal slasher flick, Halloween, still stands as one of the most vital and terrifying films ever made.

Full Review Source: Mike Bracken's Horror Films | comment Comment
02/13/01
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken's Horror Films

Virtually perfect. It is the one horror film that I would beg each and every lover of movies to watch, if I could pick only one.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment 2 Comments
07/13/08
Tim Brayton
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

Perfect entertainment for the night of October 31st in any year.

Full Review Source: Edinburgh U Film Society | comment Comment
01/01/00
Keith H. Brown
Keith H. Brown
Edinburgh U Film Society

very possibly no other seminal seventies film--not The Godfather, not Star Wars, perhaps not even Jaws--has had a greater influence on popular culture.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
06/18/03
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

Halloween (1978) is a genuinely scary, stylistic and tasteful, extremely well-crafted slasher/horror classic from young film director John Carpenter

Full Review Source: Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films | comment Comment
01/01/00
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films

Halloween is an absolutely merciless thriller, a movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would compare it to Psycho.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 2 Comments
10/23/04
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Who could have predicted that the low-budget pic Halloween would have a profound influence on an industry, not to mention on the concept of Halloween itself?

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
10/07/08
Mike Emery
Mike Emery
Austin Chronicle

Responsible for jump-starting Jamie Lee Curtis’s career, this one so thoroughly and thoughtfully exploited American angst that it’s no wonder we had to sit through a slew of derivative slasher flicks for the better part of the next decade.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

If Donald Pleasance tells you something is important, you should listen to him.

Full Review Source: Not Coming to a Theater Near You | comment Comment
03/24/06
Leo Goldsmith
Leo Goldsmith
Not Coming to a Theater Near You

The movie itself is repressed; Hitchcock would have admired the way Carpenter artfully avoids explicit bloodshed.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
09/17/07
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

The film hits us at a level deeper than most slasher films, and even as we are entertained by it, we are drawn in by its powerful suspense and implications.

Full Review Source: DVD Review | comment Comment
09/05/07
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
DVD Review

Arguably, the greatest horror film of the past thirty years.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/08/02
David Grove
David Grove
Film Threat

Regardless of how silly you think it all is, this will have you scared witless by the time the end credits roll; low budget horror hog heaven.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
08/27/07
Chris Hewitt (UK)
Chris Hewitt (UK)
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's boring. It's not scary. There. I said it.

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment 23 Comments
11/02/01
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

John Carpenter's 1978 tour de force, perhaps the most widely imitated film of the 70s.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
08/27/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
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