Ten Stars or Less

run time: 91 mins
rated: R
considered: Horror, Thriller
starring: Jaime Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Nancy Kyes, Brian Andrews, Kyle Richards, Charles Cyphers

movie summary: A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets. (www.imdb.com)

my thoughts: The Halloween saga begins in 1963, when Michael Myers was only six years old. He claims his first victim, older sister Judith Myers, with a butcher knife. Fifteen years later, Michael escapes from Smith’s Grove Sanatorium and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield. His only goal in life now is to kill his younger sister Laurie Strode (Jaime Lee Curtis), who was given away for adoption after Michael was committed. After breaking into a hardware store to grab his now famous white mask and a butcher knife, Michael stalks Laurie during school and proceeds to follow her home.

As night-time approaches, she leaves to go babysit Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews), while Michael goes house to house killing her friends until he finds her. The first brother and sister face to face encounter happens in a closet, where Laurie is hiding. (This famous scene is ranked as one of the scariest in film history) Michael tries as hard as he can to kill her, but is gunned down by overly anxious doctor, Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Loomis fires six bullets into Michael who falls from a second story balcony. The eerie Halloween theme song starts playing as Loomis runs downstairs to see Michael is gone.

The first Halloween is a perfect late 1970’s horror movie with creepy stalking, not so gory killing, and perfectly placed music and dialogue to scare audiences. This movie came out decades before today’s modern horror movies which allows it to appear real and possible. Halloween is the perfect babysitter slash movie that needs to be watched with the lights off.

my star rating: 9 out 10