So here we are one of the classic horror films of all time, was considered to be one of John Carpenter’s best films and has made Jamie Lee Curtis one the most recognizable Scream Queens of all time.
We open in Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night 1963; the next few minutes are a POV shot of someone walking among a house watching over a teen couple inside as they head upstairs. The POV enters the house through the back door and into the kitchen; there we see a hand opening a drawer and pulls out a kitchen knife. The POV continues through the house as we see the teen boy leaves the house and POV goes upstairs. We see the POV picking up a clown mask and put it on. The POV enters the teen girl’s room as she’s brushing her while naked. The teen girl sees this person, shouts out the name Michael and the POV stabs her to death. The POV quickly heads downstairs and out the door; the POV is stopped by two people one of whom removes the mask to reveal in normal view that it’s a young boy Michael Myers. Cut to fifteen years later in Smith’s Grove, Illinois we’re introduced to Dr. Samuel Loomis (played by Donald Pleasence) accompanied by an assisting nurse heading to a mental institution in a dark and stormy night. ……….What it is. They’re gonna pick up Michael Myers to be put in front of a county judge but Loomis doesn’t want Michael to be let out. As they arrived at the mental institution they see institution patients roaming the grounds. Loomis tells the nurse to stop at the main gate; he makes a call to the institution as the nurse is being attacked by the now adult Michael Myers. The nurse gets out of the car unknowingly allowed Michael to get in the car and drives off. Cut to Haddonfield and its Halloween where we’re introduced to Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) who’s off to drop a key off at the Myers house. She’s accompanied by young boy Tommy Doyle (played by Brian Andrews) asking Laurie if she’s coming over to babysit tonight; she says yes. As she drops off the key on the porch a figure is watching her as she heads to school. Later at the school Laurie is in class listening to a lecture until she looks out window and spots a car across the street. The same car that Michael escape from the mental institution last night; Laurie is distracted by her teacher to answer a question. As she looks back out the window the car is already gone. Cut to an elementary school where Tommy is leaving the school carrying a pumpkin but is confronted by bullies and ends up losing his pumpkin. As Tommy leaves the school grounds, he’s being stalked by Michael for a while until before driving off. Miles outside of Haddonfield Loomis makes a call from a payphone to the Haddonfield police station; warning the sheriff that Michael Myers is coming. Afterwards he comes across an abandon pickup truck and finds a patient gown. As he leaves the camera pans off to a dead body of the truck driver. Cut to Laurie leaving school with her friends Annie Brackett (played by Nancy Kyes) and Lynda van der Klok (played by P.J. Soles); they walk along home until Laurie spots the same car from earlier. The car starts to speed away but suddenly stops when Annie makes a sly remark; the car then slowly drives away. Lynda goes home while Laurie and Annie are walking along when suddenly Laurie spots Michael standing in the distance then hides behind some brushes. Gees this guy sure gets around now does he? Annie goes over to check behind the brushes but sees no one at all. OK now I believe that Michael Myers is a freaking ninja. Hang on let me see if I got Pierre Kirby on speed dial? Annie tries to mess with Laurie that it’s some guy who wants to talk to her and she falls for it. Laurie has enough of her shenanigans and heads on home.
Cut to a cemetery where Loomis is investigating Judith Myers’ grave only to find her tombstone missing. A little later Laurie is picked up by Annie to heads off to Tommy’s place. On the way over Laurie and Annie decide to smoke a good joint but Annie spots her sheriff dad at a hardware store and quickly gets rid of the joint. They stop in front of the store and asked Sheriff Leigh Brackett (played by Charles Cyphers) what happened. He answered that some kids may have broken in and stole some rope, a mask and a couple of knives. The girls go ahead and drive off as Loomis shows up about to talk to Sheriff Brackett. While this is going on Michael is stalking the girls in his car until Annie drops Laurie off at Tommy’s house then she pulls over at a house across the street. Michael gets out of the car and proceeds to watch over Annie as enters a house to babysit Lindsey Wallace (played by Kyle Richards). We cut to Loomis and Sheriff Brackett investigating the Myers’ house; apparently Michael has been dwelling here for some time. Sheriff Brackett asked Loomis about Michael and he responds that he was Michael’s doctor for fifteen years. When he first met Michael Loomis was told that there was nothing left of him; no reason, no conscious, no understanding. Eight years he tried to reach Michael and another seven to keep him locked up realizing that what’s inside of Michael is simply evil. Sheriff Brackett wants to notify the radio and TV stations but Loomis wants to this quiet just have the sheriff’s men keep an eye out for Michael. Cut to Tommy’s house Laurie reads a story to Tommy until she gets a call from Annie. As she’s talking to Annie Tommy goes looking out the window and sees a dark figure standing across the street (Michael). Thinking that it’s the “Boogeyman” Tommy gets scare and tells Laurie to look outside; she complies but sees nothing out the window. Back at Lindsey’s house Annie makes a mess on her clothes in the kitchen, starts stripping and puts on a button shirt. While that’s going on Michael is stalking around outside the house; watching Annie through the window. Annie goes to a small laundry house in the backyard; she gets locked in as she puts her clothes in the washer. Annie tries to get out via small window but gets stuck; Lindsey gets a call from Annie’s boyfriend Paul asking for Annie. She goes to looking for Annie at the laundry house; she gets Annie unstuck and the two head back to the house. Annie gets on the phone and talks to Paul; he tells her that his parents are out of town having the house to himself. He asked Annie to come pick him up but she’s babysitting Lindsey; so Annie decides to drop off Lindsey with Laurie. Anne gets to her car but forgot her keys; she goes to get the keys and heads back to the car. As she’s about start her car Michael pops out from the backseat and strangles Annie to death. Back at Tommy’s place he tries to pull a prank on Lindsey by hiding behind the window curtain but backfires when Tommy sees Michael carrying Annie’s body into Lindsey’s house. Tommy panics and Laurie comes running; he keeps saying that the Boogeyman’s outside but Laurie sees nothing. Later Lynda and her boyfriend Bob arrived at Lindsey’s house about to have sex not even noticing Michael Myers standing right there watching them. Pervert. After Lynda calls Laurie wondering where Annie, she and Bob head up stairs and have sex. Afterwards Lynda asked Bob to get some beer and he complies. Down in the kitchen Bob managed to grab some beers but gets attacked by Michael. He has Bob slammed to some closet doors by throat then stabs him in the gut with a kitchen knife having Bob pinned to the doors. Eh it’s better than thumb tacks. A little bit later Lynda is waiting on her until “Bob” shows up in a bed sheet with eye holes cut in (a cheap way at a ghost costume as it were). Lynda asked her beer but “Bob” doesn’t respond; she gets pissed off and goes to call Laurie. As she’s waiting for Laurie to answer the phone, Michael slowly walks towards Lynda. As Laurie answers the phone Michael strangles Lynda from behind with the phone cord. Laurie listens to the noise and thinks that it’s Annie messing around on the phone. Michael continues strangling Lynda until she’s stops moving and is now dead. All goes quiet on Laurie’s end trying to get a response but no one is answering. At the Myers’ home Loomis still waits for Michael; he soon spots the stolen car and is for certain that Michael Myers is close by and goes searching for him.
With Tommy and Lindsey already in bed, Laurie is growing concern of what’s going on and decide to head over Lindsey’s house. Laurie gets no answer as she knocks on the door; she goes to the back of the house and enters through the backdoor. Laurie calls out Annie and Lynda but doesn’t get a response; she then goes upstairs only to find Annie’s dead body and Judith Myers’ tombstone display on the bed. Laurie starts to panic at the site of it all until she comes across Bob’s body hanging upside down in the closet and Lynda stuffed in a cupboard. Laurie continues to panic, confused of what’s going on. Michael appears behind her only grazing her in the arm with a knife causing her to fall down the stairs spraining her leg. She manages to get up and make a run to the front door as Michael starts to chase her. Laurie has trouble with the front door…..for some reason and makes a dash to the back door. She makes it outside before Michael enters the kitchen; as fast as she could Laurie makes it to Tommy’s house. However, she left the house key at Lindsey’s house resorting to throw a flower pot near Tommy’s bedroom window which wakes him up. As Tommy heads downstairs to let Laurie in, Michael just takes his sweet time walking across the street. You know for a guy who can probably teleport in a blink of an eye he sure is a slow ass walker. Anyway Tommy lets Laurie in the house and she immediately locks the door; she then tells Tommy to go hide upstairs. Laurie tries to call the police but the phone line is dead; she noticed a window in the living room is open believe that Michael is in the house. Only armed with one of those long needlepoints, Laurie holds up at a couch when Michael pops out behind the couch to stab her but misses. Laurie quickly stabs him in on the side of the neck and Michael falls to the ground. Laurie heads upstairs to check up on Tommy and Lindsey believing that she killed the “Boogeyman”. Well guess again; Laurie tells the kids to hide when Michael arrives upstairs. Laurie hides in a closet and seals the door shut; but this doesn’t stop Michael Myers as he HULK SMASHS the closet door. Laurie arms herself with a wire hanger….insert your own Mommie Dearest joke here….and pokes Michael in the eye. Michael gets disoriented enough for Laurie to grab the knife and stabs him in the chest. All seems over as Laurie tells the kids to head to a neighbor’s house and have them call the police. The kids run off leaving Laurie behind….with a still alive Michael Myers. OK I can figure out that Jason Voorhees is some sort of zombie which is why he takes so much punishment in all his films. But with Michael Myers he must have the magical resilience of Wile E Coyote. Loomis sees the kids running and screaming out of the house deducing that Michael is inside. Back in the house Michael jumps Laurie from behind strangling her. Laurie tries to fight him off to where she grabs his mask off revealing his face when Loomis shows up. Soon after Michael puts his mask back on, Loomis armed with a gun open fires. Michael retreats to a room and Loomis follows; he open fires again causing Michael to fall out of the window. The film ends with Laurie now safe and Loomis looking out the window only to find no dead body outside; Michael Myers is long gone.
My Final Verdict: ………Seriously what can I possibly say of what’s already been said by many of how good this film is. I mean you’re reading this review so it’s obvious you’re gonna go watch it anyway so what’s the point of me telling you to go see it. Though I will add that I’m not fond of the sequels; well except for Halloween II and III yeah I said it I enjoy Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Hey at least it ain’t like Friday the 13th Part V where the film fools us with a FAKE Jason Voorhees yet for some reason it gets a free pass and Halloween III doesn’t. It’s not the filmmakers fault to try something different but no everyone else just lost their shit about a film with no Michael Myers which led up to some rather loopy sequels. Hell one sequel explains that Michael was controlled by some occult….that’s deeply stupid. And of course there’s Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later where it does carry on from the first two films, had Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role after 20 years and had a good closure to the franchise. That is until they decided to make another sequel that pissed all over that closure. Oh I’m supposed to believe that Michael Myers foreseen that he was gonna be killed by Laurie and magically switched places with a coroner…BULLSHIT! And worse of all Halloween Resurrection had absolutely nothing different or new to add; just a bunch of pointless characters being killed by Michael Myers on some reality TV shit. As for the 2007 remake I got a rather mixed feelings for it; one hand they try to add some mystery on Michael's past but misses the point at the same time. Jamie Lee Curtis up to this day is still in acting has done a few commercial here and there but has been making recurring appearances on NCIS as of late.
Well folks I hope it’s been a fun and scary ride for you all; so until next time have a safe and happy Halloween.
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