starring : jamie lee curtis ( lauris strode ) , donald pleasance ( dr . sam loomis ) directed by : john carpenter , written by : john carpenter and debra hillrated r by the mpaa for blood , violence , nudity , sexual situations , strong language , drug usage , oh hell you name it . why , you ask , is this labeled as a review and not a retrospective ? and why , you ask , are you reviewing this in febuary ? alright , here's the deal . back in october of 1997 , a nice little theater here in the st . louis area , the " mid rivers 6 " ( one of those little mall theaters ) decided to show the original halloween film on one of its big screens - you know , like they say all the time , " the way it was meant to be seen . " anyway , since i didn't see halloween for the first time until october of '97 ( yes , sad isn't it ? ) , and it was playing in a theater , it's a review . as for why i'm writing it now . . . well i just got around to it , that's all . sorry i couldn't have a better story for all this . anyway , this , the first of what is about to become seven halloween films , is quite the damn good show . you have to keep in mind , this movie was made for less than 1 million dollars , is scored via john carpenter's keyboard , and is the film that spawned oh , say . . . all the slasher flicks of the 80s . so in other words , the plot here has become the stuff of legend and the stuff of so many imitators that it's predictable on a level that most people don't even know existed . and so what ? it's still effectively spooky , and a good time . okay . here's the story . this guy , michael myers , killed his sister in haddonfield , illinois , when he was six . and then he got shipped off to the mental hospital and all that kinda stuff . with me ? good . so this doc , dr . loomis , is studying the freak , and realizes that he's is " pure evil " ( a dr . loomis catch-phrase ) . and that means he's one of the most wigged people when mikey escapes over a decade after his original crime and heads home . . . on halloween . hence the title . and hence the line from the ads : " the night he came home . " get it ? good . oh yeah , and this girl , laurie strode , happens to be babysitting this night , and so are her friends , and they're all doing this in the same area , and , well , you can figure out the rest . it's suspenseful , that's what this comes down to . the music , cheesy though it may seem at first , works . the acting , particularly from our two leads , works . it's a classic , and it deserves to be , it's damn fun . sure it's predictable . but so ? a lot of movies are - you knew that john mcclane was going to kick terrorist ass in every die hard movie right ? it's all of matter of how you get to that point . so yeah , it lives up to the test of time . it has the feel of a classic , and that goes a long way towards the fun - even at the hokey times , you know it only seems hokey because of the time period it was made in . anyway , that's enough from me . all i really have to say is , you've heard it's a classic film , and i'm agreeing that it deserves the mantle . not many horror/suspense do , after all . all that without the kwc . and you know , nothing's scarier than a william shatner mask , either . 
