featured article
Halloween is a
1978 American independent slasher film set in the fictional
suburban midwestern town of Haddonfield,
Illinois,
USA on
Halloween. The original draft of the screenplay was titled
The Babysitter Murders.
John Carpenter directed the film, which stars
Donald Pleasence as
Dr. Sam Loomis,
Jamie Lee Curtis as
Laurie Strode, and
Nick Castle, Tony Moran and Tommy Lee Wallace sharing the role of
Michael Myers (listed in the credits as "The Shape"). The central theme of the film is Myers' escape from a
psychiatric hospital and his subsequent murder of a number of teenagers, whilst Dr. Loomis' attempts to track and stop him.
Halloween is widely regarded as a classic among horror films, and as one of the most influential horror films of its era. In 2006 it was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Halloween was produced on a budget of $320,000
[Mason, Avery. "Yabaln's 'Halloween' May Be Biggest Indie", Boxoffice, April 9, 1979. p. 7. Irwin Yablans: "Halloween was brought in for a cost of only $320,000 and was shot in four weeks".] and grossed $47 million at the
box office in the United States, equivalent to over $150 million as of 2008, becoming one of the most profitable independent films.
[Halloween at Box Office Mojo; last accessed April 19, 2006.] Many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of
slasher films inspired by
Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho (1960). The movie originated many clichés found in low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s. However, the film contains little graphic violence and gore.
[James Berardinelli, review of Halloween, at ReelViews.com; last accessed April 19, 2006.][Adam Rockoff, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978 – 1986 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2002), chap. 3, ISBN 0-7864-1227-5.]
