Halloween (1978) Movie Review NO SPOILERS: Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes, Donald Pleasance, Nick Castle, Kyle Richards

Jays Geronca
2 min readJan 8, 2025

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Before we give this horror classic all the compliments in the world, let’s give praise to the guy who composed that chilling musical score, John Carpenter.

Wait.

What?

John Carpenter directed Halloween and composed the music. Wow! Props to you, Sir. What a genius.

In the trailer, you see a house in a small town on Halloween night. It’s a POV shot of someone wearing a mask slashing and murdering people. When the killer leaves the house, it is a very young boy (7 or 8 years old) in a clown costume holding a large kitchen knife. The boy’s name is Michael Myers. Actor Will Sandin, who was 6, played the boy. Nick Castle played the adult Michael Myers. You then see Psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasance), who said that he tried to keep the boy locked for 15 years because the eyes behind that boy were pure evil. But Michael escaped and he is back.

In the 60s and 70s, horror was not kind to women. They are damsels in distress waiting to be attacked by the monster or the men. In Halloween, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is intelligent, driven, and interesting. You are not worried about Laurie, you are with her, thinking how she would escape the killer in the house. The movie makes you feel up and jumpy rather than making you feel dreadful and distressed. It did not pioneer the “final girl” trope in horror, but it made it popular.

Halloween is a well-acted and well-directed movie, impressive given its modest budget. And the fans voted with their wallets. Halloween made $70 million from a budget of $300k. It also made a bunch of sequels. I think we have 13 Halloween movies in total as of writing.

  • Jays Ratings — 80%
  • Rotten Tomatoes — 97%
  • IMDB — 7.7 of 10
  • Letterboxd — 3.8 of 5
  • Metacritic — 90
  • Roger Ebert — 4 Stars of 4

Watch Halloween Tonight or get some Halloween 1978 T-shirts.

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Jays Geronca
Jays Geronca

Written by Jays Geronca

E-commerce Entrepreneur. Writer. Dancer. Psychology Graduate. Former Luxury Real Estate Agent. Affiliate Marketer. Coffee Lover. Movie Lover. Pro Wrestling Fan.

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