Halloween (1978)

The Night He Came Home

+4770

-201

Please wait...

Thanks for your vote!

Please wait...

Thanks for your vote!

Release Date: Oct 24, 1978
Rated: R | Runtime: 91 Mins | Language: English
Director: John Carpenter
Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles, Nancy Kyes, Nick Castle, Tony Moran, Will Sandin

Summary

In John Carpenter's horror classic, a psychotic murderer, institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets.

Report missing or broken trailer

Halloween (1978) - Trailer

What to Expect

Halloween, for those of you born under a rock somewhere, is one of the classic horror greats. It's up there with all the iconic slashers like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. F13 gave us Jason, NoES gave us Freddy, TCM gave us Leatherface and Halloween gave us Michael Myers, the dude in the auto mechanic uniform and William Shatner mask.

Jason was a kid who got drowned in a lake, but came back from the dead. Freddy was a killer who got burned to death, and came back. Michael Myers was just a guy who liked to kill. No special powers, no supernatural gifts, no deals with the devil. Just a crazy guy. But it works because there's crazy guys in real life, in every city. In your own city, right now.

Halloween is legendary for its use of suspense, dread, effective jump scares, pacing, characters, it's catchy score, everything. Halloween is super cool and works on so many levels. Every horror fan probably has Read more...

Read less...

Genres
Subgenres
Style
Streaming
People

Featured on:
My Favourite Horror Films of All Time

Movie Review: Halloween (1978) ReviewHorror Lists: 31 Horror Movies to Watch for Halloween The Halloween Franchise Ranked Worst to First

Critic Reviews:

Halloween stands apart from its followers by the simplicity of its execution and the naturalism of its characters. The methodology to Carpenter’s scares in Halloween is similar to that of Alfred Hitchcock, who famously described suspense as something the audience is aware of but the film’s characters are not.

– Deep Focus Review

To my unfannish mind, Halloween is simplistic; fans may argue that it’s archetypal (same as I’d do for Star Wars). Well, fine. I can even see that, maybe. But I don’t feel it.

– Flickfilosopher

“You can’t kill the bogeyman.” And why is that? Because the bogeyman is a mask in our collective imagination that can be pulled over the head of anyone and anything physical or metaphysical that frightens us.

– Morbidly Beautiful