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Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles, Charles Cyphers ... see more see more... , Kyle Richards , Brian Andrews , John Michael Graham , Nancy Stephens , Sandy Johnson , David Kyle , Arthur Malet , Tony Moran , Robert Phalen , Mickey Yablans , Adam Holender , Nancy Kyes , Nick Castle Jr.

It was "The Night HE Came Home," warned the posters for John Carpenter's career-making horror smash. In Haddonfield, IL, on Halloween night 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers inexplicably slaughters his... read more read more... teenage sister. His psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) can't penetrate Michael's psyche after years of institutionalization, but he knows that, when Myers escapes before Halloween in 1978, there is going to be hell to pay in Haddonfield. While Loomis heads to Haddonfield to alert police, Myers spots bookish teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and follows her, constantly appearing and vanishing as Laurie and her looser friends Lynda (P.J. Soles) and Annie (Nancy Loomis) make their Halloween plans. By nightfall, the responsible Laurie is doing her own and Annie's babysitting jobs, while Annie and Lynda frolic in the parent-free house across the street. But Annie and Lynda are not answering the phone, and suspicious Laurie heads across the street to the darkened house to see what is going on.... ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

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85% liked it

270,590 ratings

Critics

93% liked it

45 critics

R, 1 hr. 33 min.

Directed by: John Carpenter

Release Date: October 25, 1978

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DVD Release Date: October 27, 1997

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Stats: 17,137 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (17,137)

  • aquateen2
    April 29, 2012
    aquateen2
    [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img]

    Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho provided a lot of inspiration for Halloween and yet John Carpenter's film has been deemed even more inspiring to the slasher sub genre of horror film making and that's all ... read morea bit confusing. But it's definetely not a bad horror movie, it has some very good jumps, an absolutely spine tingling soundtrack and amazing direction from horror expert John Carpenter. However, despite a fine execution the film is very predictable and unambitious. The story has been done before, the acting is pretty terrible and the villian goes under developed because of an unfortuate half told back story. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street at least had some sense of personality. I dont want to give the impression I didn't enjoy watching it, I greatly admire elements of it such as the superb shooting and brilliant build up's. It works but it's not amazing.
  • fb100000040220993
    November 5, 2011
    fb100000040220993
    As far as I'm concerned, this was not only the original "slasher" film, but it is, and always will be, the greatest. John Carpenter can never receive enough praise for bringing the "boogie-man" to life, in the form of Michael Myers. Halloween was also my introduction to horror ... read moremovies. A testament to the film's greatness, is that after hundreds of viewings, and countless imitations, the film can still haunt me with the same creepy feeling that it did when I was 7. There is very little gore, the film relies on suspense. Jamie Lee-Curtis is the perfect damsel-in-distress, and her contribution to the film is priceless. Everything presented is iconic. I think the world of this movie. It will always be one of my favorites.
  • shawnewing92
    November 1, 2011
    shawnewing92
    A very suspenseful horror film perfect for the Halloween season. The psychotic killer always lurking and planning his strike will certainly give you a fright. This is a horror classic that will never be topped by any of it's many sequels.
  • fb100002384654145
    October 31, 2011
    fb100002384654145
    The first film and the best. Halloween is one of the finest slasher flicks ever made. The music, which was composed by John Carpenter himself, is chilling and iconically eerie. Jamie Lee Curtis does a great job in playing a strong female character that the audience can root fo... read morer. Michael Myers is a terrifyingly unstoppable and mysterious horror icon. The white laced William Shatner mask that Michael wears gives him a cold stare that freezes the heart with fear. This film is required viewing for any fan of the horror genre, Halloween single-handingly popularized the slasher flick sub-genre.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    October 31, 2011
    StarCrossedVoyager
    I imagine that this would have been the best horror around when it came out and I certainly agree that Carpenter managed to hold the interest of the viewer from start to finish with his brilliant tension building scenes. Is he in the house? Isn't he? This horror is purely from th... read moreose questions we are made to ask. There's no over the top slashing or gore, there's subtlety and grace. A must for all horror fans. And that soundtrack is amazing!
  • fb100002852335908
    October 27, 2011
    fb100002852335908
    "Halloween" is John Carpenter at his finest making the best horror movie since "Jaws" is a scary, suspenseful and thrilling story about three Haddonfield, Illinois babysitters being stalked by a killer who goes by the name, Michael Myers. The whole story of the movie is very spec... read moretacular with it's chilling atmosphere and well-written characters such as Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtius), Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) and Michael Myers (Nick Castle and several other people). The death scenes in the movie don't have any precent of blood which makes the movie work than just blood and guts flown across the room. The final chase scene is well done with Michael breaking into a closet, getting stabbed by his own knife by Jamie and still living and revealing his face as he than seconds later gets shot of the balcony of the house and then with the best cliffhanger in cinema history as we find out Michael escaped as Loomis went into the other room. The movie leaves you with the feeling that Michael could be anywhere and is still out there. Every halloween I suggest you watch this movie because it could happen anywhere....
  • fb1664868775
    October 23, 2011
    fb1664868775
    Perfect horror film, what else can I say.
  • spielberg00
    October 13, 2011
    spielberg00
    The thing that truly makes this one a classic is that it is certainly a slasher, but it also manages to maintain the actual "horror" part.

    HALLOWEEN is scary in a way that nearly every bit of violence and gore is left to the viewer's imagination, but the terror is still there, i... read moref not enhanced because of that aspect. Right after it was released, every filmmaker (including people as brilliant as Wes Craven) was raving, "I want to produce/direct something like that!" And they did, with films like FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and (to name a ridiculous "cult classic") CHILD'S PLAY. Except they all forgot one part: to imply the graphicness of the murder. If not forgotten, then flipped around: these rip-offs were, unlike HALLOWEEN, gushing organs.

    The concept, apparently not continued in any of the sequels or remakes, that HALLOWEEN brought up was resurrected in the late '90s with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, which spawned an entire horror sub-genre that has been used for implication with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, THE LAST EXORCISM, and (within the last month or so) APOLLO 18; allowing the implying to be filmed using amateur methods for footage capturing.

    So before I continue with this review, I'd like to add to my first statement by saying that another thing that truly makes HALLOWEEN a classic is that it spawned one of very largest legacies in all of horror movie history. Probably not as much as the original PSYCHO; a little more than NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

    Even with a budget lower than $1,000,000 and a barely-known company producing it, this has a very eerie mood. John Carpenter serves as director, producer, and composer, and he does a fantastic job with all three--cueing cutaways and blurs to leave all stranglings, slicings and dicings to our endless imaginations; whilst also accompanying the horror with two or three main themes that makes simply walking down a staircase seem like seeing dead people (that came 21 years later, though--thank you, Haley Joel Osment).

    Not sure why you must watch HALLOWEEN every time the final day of October comes around, starting now? Go back and read my review again until you get what I'm trying to say. This is a must-see--an over-and-over must-see that tells of the night HE came home!
  • DreamExtractor
    September 21, 2011
    DreamExtractor
    Halloween is the greatest horror film in the history of cinema. This film changed the slasher genre forever and every moment is creepy and classic. It's the classic story of a group of teenagers are killed one by one on Halloween night by a serial killer named Micheal Myers. T... read morehe plot is so intense, so great, and worked so well that its hard to imagine it being any different. The cast is perfect, whenever a movie makes fun of cliche horror films everyone is directly thinking of this film and its cast, espically the film that made Jamie Lee Curtis a star. The horror always scares the hell out of me, in my opinion Micheal Myers is the king of horror killers, he's emotionless, brutal, and insane in every way. Halloween is a amazing, scary, and all around perfect.
  • TheGame90
    September 18, 2011
    TheGame90
    The film that set the tone for the horror future

View All Halloween Reviews

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
August 27, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

After a promising opening, Halloween becomes just another maniac-on-the-loose suspenser. Full Review

Dave Kehr
August 27, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

John Carpenter's 1978 tour de force, perhaps the most widely imitated film of the 70s. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Halloween is an absolutely merciless thriller, a movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would compare it to Psycho. Full Review

James Berardinelli
June 18, 2002
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Halloween remains untouched -- a modern classic of the most horrific kind. Full Review

Sarah Boslaugh
October 27, 2011
Sarah Boslaugh, Playback:stl

... if there's one John Carpenter film which is a must-see, it's Halloween. Full Review

Charles Cassady
December 15, 2010
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media

First Michael Myers slasher fest isn't for kids. Full Review

October 22, 2010
Total Film

A seminal slasher that gets better with age. Full Review

Richard T. Jameson
September 18, 2010
Richard T. Jameson, Parallax View

... except for its shamelessly (and irresistibly) zingy music score (by the director), Halloween achieves its considerable power almost entirely through visual means. Full Review

Dustin Putman
October 27, 2008
Dustin Putman, DustinPutman.com

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 t... Full Review

Mike Emery
October 7, 2008
Mike Emery, Austin Chronicle

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? Full Review

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Facts

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    • Doctor Loomis: He came home.
    • Doctor Loomis: Sheriff, death has come to your little town.
    • Lynda: See something you like?
    • Laurie: It was the boogeyman.
    • Doctor Loomis: Two road blocks and an All Point Bulleten won't stop a 5 year old.
    • Bob: Don't get dressed...
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  • The story of which "Halloween" movie had virtually nothing to do with its infamous movie monster, Michael Myers?   Answer »
  • Josh Hartnett played Jamie Lee Curtis's son in which Halloween movie?  Answer »
  • In "Scream," the characters are watching "Halloween" on television. Which movie has its characters watching "Scream 2" on television?  Answer »
  • In what Halloween movie does Jamie Lee Curtis make her return.  Answer »
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