Premise: Michael Myers was locked away in an insane asylum when he was young for gruesomely stabbing his sister to death. Years later he escapes and heads back to the scene of his crime to unleash his brand of evil on innocent trick-or-treaters. It’s a classic slasher flick that stand apart from others before and after it.
What I LOVED: That score! The cinematography! It all works. First we/the audience views things from the eyes of a voyeur but we don’t see how far this voyeur takes their stalker until several misdirection later we find out that it a young Michael Myers, a name so famous, it has been a classic boogeyman that’s has spanned many films and generations. What makes this slasher film so good is that a lot of the terror is built from the killer’s POV. All his heavy hungry panting as if aroused and hiding in the shadows. It’s the fear of a stalker but you don’t know where he is.
And I can’t take anything aware from Jamie Lee Curtis. In her youth, she really captures the bright intelligent screen queen (Before such a phrase existed consciously). She captured love, innocent, fear, and the fight, every screen queen needs.
Every scene hearkens back to the stalker POV. The scores evokes chills because we know he’s out there. We’re prepared for disaster at every turn.
There’s absolutely nothing to not like about this classic.
Verdict: For a film so minimal in actually blood and gore, it did great capturing terror. Something few films can actually do. This Halloween season you must watch the original. Blumhouse is planning to release a a plan sequel to their planned trilogy remake. Check out my review of the re-imagined sequel Halloween (2018). You can watch both streaming online. Halloween (1978) is streaming on Prime Video.