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Halloween (1978)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for Halloween
To call Halloween merely brilliant isn't giving it enough credit. As a horror film and as a historical milestone that single-handedly shaped and altered the future of an entire genre, it's downright transcendent.
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?
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.
John Carpenter and Debra Hill's film is a genuine landmark in the horror-thriller genre.
The movie itself is repressed; Hitchcock would have admired the way Carpenter artfully avoids explicit bloodshed.
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.
After a promising opening, Halloween becomes just another maniac-on-the-loose suspenser.
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.
John Carpenter's 1978 tour de force, perhaps the most widely imitated film of the 70s.
...the kind of fright flick in which the plodding monster has his victim in his grasp and then inexplicably stabs the couch five feet to the right of her.
Perhaps not quite so resonant as Psycho to which it pays due homage, but it breathes the same air.
If Donald Pleasance tells you something is important, you should listen to him.
One of the best horror films ever made. John Carpenter deserves a medal for his effective build-up of suspense, his knack for casting and his sensationally-scary Michael Myers!
Halloween brilliantly uses its widescreen frame, a lot of hand-held camerawork, and scary foreground and background action.
Halloween is an absolutely merciless thriller, a movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would compare it to Psycho.
Latest News for Halloween
October 24, 2008:
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August 30, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: Halloween Strikes on the 31st
The four-billion-dollar-plus summer comes to a close over the long Labor Day holiday weekend with three new wide releases all targeting male moviegoers. Slasher fans get to... More...
August 29, 2007:
Total Recall: Halloween Director Rob Zombie's Favorites
Under the "Hellbilly Deluxe" trappings, Rob Zombie is a true cinephile at heart: he's as likely to find inspiration in the works of Martin Scorsese and Sam Peckinpah as he is in... More...
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