Halloween

1978
X
1h 31m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

322K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,743

Home Video Trailer from Anchor Bay Entertainment

Play trailer2:41

12 Videos

99+ Photos

B-Horror Slasher Horror Teen Horror Horror Thriller

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, to kill again.Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, to kill again.Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, to kill again.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

322K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,743

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 9 wins & 3 nominations total

Videos12

Trailer 2:41

Halloween

Clip 2:56

Jamie Lee Curtis Doesn't Give a **** About Michael Myers

Clip 2:56

Jamie Lee Curtis Doesn't Give a **** About Michael Myers

Clip 2:30

'Halloween' | Franchise Retrospective

Clip 1:20

How 'Halloween' Gave Jamie Lee Curtis Her Whole Life

Clip 2:59

Will 'Halloween Ends' End Halloween? Reboots, Sequels, & Easter Eggs Revealed

Clip 2:43

'Halloween Kills' Cast on Michael Myers' Most Shocking Moments

Photos403

+ 396

‘Snow White’ Stars Test Their Wits

Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, and director Marc Webb take our Ultimate Disney Quiz.

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9:57

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
From a budget of $300,000 over a 20 day shoot, the film went on to gross $47 million at the US box office. In 2008, takings that would be the equivalent of $150 million, making 'Halloween' one of the most successful independent films of all time.

Goofs
(at around 18 mins) When Michael goes to the school and gets in the car to follow Tommy, the passenger side window is no longer smashed from the previous night's attack on the nurse.

Quotes
Loomis: I met him, 15 years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this... six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and... the blackest eyes - the Devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

Crazy credits
The music for the film -- written and performed by John Carpenter -- is instead credited to "The Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra." Carpenter grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Alternate versions
For the 20th Anniversary restoration in 1998, new sounds were added to the film's audio track under John Carpenter's approval. New thunder sounds were added to the Loomis car scene. Wind sounds were added as well. The 1999 DVD release contains both the original unaltered mono sound and a Dolby Digital 5.1 option with the added sound effects.

Connections
Edited into Halloween II (1981)

Soundtracks
Don't Fear the Reaper
Written by Donald Roeser
Performed by Blue Öyster Cult
Courtesy of CBS Records

User reviews1.8K

Featured review

9/10

The Greatest of the Slasher Flicks

John Carpenter's Halloween is quite frankly a horror masterpiece. It tells the immortal story of escaped mental patient Michael Myers, who returns to his hometown on Halloween night to stalk and kill a group of babysitters.

This was the first and without doubt the best in the Halloween franchise. Carpenter shows great restraint in pacing the story very slowly and building likable characters; unusual for a horror picture.

Even more unusual is the non-existence of blood and gore, and yet it remains the scariest Halloween to date.

Halloween marked the film debut of Jamie Lee Curtis and a defining point in the late great Donald Pleasence's career. A true classic.