Halloween (1978)
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- The incredible score for Halloween was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- Before Donald Pleasence was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
Halloween is a 1978 American slasher film directed by John Carpenter, the film that essentially created the slasher genre and one of the most influential horror films ever made. The film follows Michael Myers, who as a six-year-old boy murdered his older sister on Halloween night 1963 and was committed to a psychiatric hospital for 15 years. On October 30, 1978, the adult Michael, now a silent, masked figure of seemingly supernatural endurance, escapes and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, stalking teenager Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut, and her friends on Halloween night.
John Carpenter's direction was a masterclass in sustained, almost unbearable tension built through the simplest filmmaking techniques โ slow tracking shots from Michael's point of view, the masked shape appearing and disappearing in the background of ordinary suburban scenes, and the relentless, iconic synthesizer theme that Carpenter composed himself. Halloween was made for approximately $325,000 and earned $70 million worldwide, one of the most profitable independent films in history. The film launched Jamie Lee Curtis as a star, created the "final girl" archetype, and established the template that Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and decades of slasher films would follow.
