Halloween (1978) Review: The Grandaddy of All Slashers

John Carpenter’s original Halloween (1978) still works as a scary and disturbing piece of work.

It’s the movie that most people relate to the genre and the one that introduced us to one of the most popular and enduring horror icons of all time: insane killer Michael Myers (not to be confused with comedian Mike Myers, unless you’re Edgar Wright and want to make a brilliant joke for Baby Driver).

Halloween might seem tame in comparison to later offerings of the genre, but that doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t work anymore. In fact, compared to other productions of the time, such as the first Friday the 13th film, it’s the one that’s aged the best. It doesn’t need excessive gore or multiple sadistic killings in order to cause terror in the audience. All the film does is tell a sufficiently interesting story centred on a relatable young protagonist, and turn its main antagonist into a chilling force of nature. The result is, of course, the grandaddy of all slashers, but also a horror picture that should manage to scare even the bravest audience member..

Halloween’s protagonist is young Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), who, alongside her friends Annie (Nancy Loomis) and Lynda (P.J. Soles), is being accosted by the aforementioned Michael Myers. As we learn during the movie’s prologue, Myers did his first killing when he was extremely young, which resulted in the small lad being sent to a sanitarium for most of his life. Back in the “present”, though, he has managed to escape, which has forced his doctor, Sam Loomis (the great Donald Pleasance), to follow him back to his home town of Haddonfield where Laurie and her friends live. The good doctor wants to stop him before he kills anyone, but this being a slasher film, we all know that won’t be possible.

Predictably, the plot isn’t one of Halloween’s strong suits. Since it was one of the first of its genre, many movies have been made afterwards that have tried to copy its narrative. Thus, a bunch of its plot points might feel tired by today’s standards, even clichéd. For example Laurie is a virginal and well-meaning girl and therefore ends up being the “final girl” instead of her hornier friends. And Michael is presented pretty much as an unstoppable killing machine; he’s bumbling and slow, but he’s definitely intimidating. It all works in the context of this film, of course, but after more than forty years of slashers, it can feel a tad predictable.

What differentiates Halloween from its worst copycats, though, is that its narrative decisions were made because they made sense for its characters, and not because they were considered staples of the genre. Michael is slow because he’s an asylum patient who hasn’t been in the outside world for years. And Laurie survives because she’s the smartest character, and not only because she’s a virgin. In fact, Carpenter has said on more than one occasion that he didn’t make the virgin character a survivor of Myers’ antics on purpose, meaning that Halloween’s potentially conservative subtext is more viewer-dependent than part of Carpenter’s intention with the story.

Apart from all that, though, if Halloween works as well as it does, it’s because it’s an incredibly tense and harrowing experience. It doesn’t rely on gore to be scary and actually manages to generate tension through very well-made scenes of suspense. Michael is scary and powerful but not improbably so, and we relate to Laurie because we know she’s a vulnerable girl. Intelligent, yes, and self-sufficient, but still vulnerable to Myers’ violent attacks, especially whenever he carries his big knife.

And that’s all Halloween needs, pretty much: a relatable protagonist and a scary killer with a knife. Later movies – even the sequels to this one – rely more on gimmicks, or even supernatural elements and, of course, more gore. But the original Halloween remains king because it isn’t too far-fetched, and because it treats its characters with respect, both Laurie and its bloodthirsty antagonist. Moreover, even though the movie didn’t need amazing performances, it still has them. Young Jamie Lee Curtis shines as Laurie and became so iconic she even reprised her role in a bunch of sequels throughout the years (including the latest trilogy directed by David Gordon Green). And legendary thespian Donald Pleasance is great as Dr Loomis; he might not be a great psychiatrist (all his talk about evil doesn’t sound particularly professional), but he certainly is a memorable character.

It’s impossible to have an entire month dedicated to John Carpenter and not write about Halloween. This is a seminal piece of work; a movie that re-invented and re-popularised a genre, and that ended up being so amazing that entire franchises were born from its creation. It gave us Jamie Lee Curtis; it gave us the character of Michael Myers; it gave us Carpenter’s memorable score (with its disturbing and minimalistic main theme) and it endures to this day through sequels and video games and merchandise. Halloween may be more than forty years old, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a watch nowadays. On the contrary; it’s the perfect movie to watch if you want to be disturbed and scared and why not, even amazed.

Halloween (1978) is now available to watch on digital and on demand.

Loud and Clear Reviews has an affiliate partnership with Apple, so we receive a share of the revenue from your purchase or streaming of the films when you click on some links on this page. This won’t affect how much you pay for them and helps us keep the site free for everyone.