REVIEW: JOHN CARPENTER'S "HALLOWEEN (1978)"

By Stephen Pytak

The cinematic experience with the tagline "The Night HE Came Home" has always been my favorite John Carpenter film.

"Halloween (1978)" is a taut thriller with well-timed scares, one of the most effective musical scores ever composed and one of the greatest villains of all time.

While it has spawned numerous sequels, a remake and a requel (or two) and countless imitators, I consider this 1-hour-and-31-minute shocker a one-shot, a stand-alone film, a work of art. 

It delivers the goods and gives the audience something to think about just before the credits start to roll, leaving both the proletariat and the aristocrats with the sense that what they saw was something more than your average Saturday afternoon matinee. 

If you saw it in a theater when it was released in 1978, you know what I'm taking about.

Like "Black Christmas (1974)" the ending wasn't an ending necessarily. The story wasn't neatly wrapped up. 

The threat was still very real. And the chill stuck with you. 

"Halloween" is about the very real threat of home invasion in the age of rotary-dial phones, the very real possibility that the Boogeyman is out there...somewhere.

No doubt it made some folks want to double-check the locks on their doors before they went to bed.

Maybe it still has that affect on people.

Not sure.

I remember it scared me when I first saw it on cable back in the day (I think I saw it in 1981).

I sat up in bed thinking about it, how shadows filled the mis en scene, especially in the last act. And how the antagonist used the cover of darkness to his advantage. 

He could be anywhere. 

Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Loomis in John Carpenter's "Halloween (1978)."

I take it anyone reading this has seen John Carpenter's "Halloween (1978)."

And if you haven't, well, you don't have to wait until the Season of the Witch to pop it in.

Tonight, a 35mm print of the film will be screened at GAP Theatre at 47 S. Broadway in Wind Gap, Pa. And this is a great place to experience it.

The venue opened in 1947, and for decades it was a first-run theater, according to a recent article by 69 News published on wfmz.com .

It closed in 2020. Then in October 2024, 69 News reported that Harry Guerro of New Jersey had leased it from longtime owner Joseph Farruggio.

Guerro is a founding member and a programmer for Exhumed Films, owner of Garagehouse Pictures and a 35mm and 16mm film collector. 

He made numerous improvements to the 275-seat theater. That included installing a new HVAC system. 

On Friday, March 7, 2025, he and his staff reopened the GAP with a plan to screen numerous films throughout the month. 

I went to a triple feature on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Three of John Carpenter's films were shown, "Escape from New York (1981)," "Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)" and "Dark Star (1974)." 

I had never been to the GAP. I found out about it via posts on Facebook. I knew Harry from the numerous Exhumed Films screenings I attended over the years. The guy knows his stuff. And I was really curious about this, his latest project.

And honestly, I was truly impressed. Walking into the GAP took me back in time, back to when small communities still had their own movie houses, back about 30 or 40 years.

On Saturday I sat in the sixth row from the front, dead center. It's a perfect seat. 

I enjoyed the presentations, checked the schedule and made plans to return today, Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

The GAP's John Carpenter retrospective is going to continue tonight with "Halloween (1978)." 

I've seen this film in a few movie houses over the years, and I am really looking forward to seeing it here, a place geared up for the 35mm experience.

I've seen this film numerous times. I read the Curtis Richards novelization. And I enjoy reading many behind the scenes accounts. It's just one of those flicks I enjoy discussing.

And like "The Thing (1982)," another of Carpenter's classics,  "Halloween (1978)" can be viewed in a few ways. 

With "The Thing (1982)," you might wonder who in the cast is infected by this entity from outer space.

With "Halloween (1978)," you might wonder what the villain is thinking at any given time.

What is his motivation anyway?

The nice thing about Carpenter's film is he doesn't give us too much insight into that. So it's open to interpretation.

The only character who offers us any perspective is his psychiatrist, the gun-toting "Dr. Samuel Loomis (played by Donald Pleasence)."

He claims Myers is "purely and simply evil."  He'll also tell you "this isn't a man."

And I'm on board with that, for the most part.

So, what is he?

Dunno.

I'm reminded of a conversation from the film "The Mothman Prophecies (2002)."

John Klein: "I think we can assume that these entities are more advanced that us. Why don't they just come right out and tell us what's on their minds?"

Alexander Leek: "You're more advanced than a cockroach. Have you ever tried explaining yourself to one of them?"

Despite all that, every time I sit down to watch the film I try to wrap my head around the villain's point of view.

I know it's just a movie. And I'm sure Carpenter and his crew weren't thinking too deeply about the psychology and motivations of this phantom they created.

But I like to think that somewhere behind that rubber mask wheels are turning. Whatever he is, he's has a plan, and a rough idea of how his big night in Haddonfield is going to go.

I think that makes him a more interesting character. I think he has to be someone who had some expectations.

As soon as he gets his costume and has someone's dog for breakfast, he starts combing the neighborhood for teenage girls. And he finds a trio of them.

We're never quite sure how he feels about any of them.

But I never thought he was all that fascinated by "Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis)," or "Lynda van der Klok (P.J. Soles)."

I always thought he was more interested in the brunette, "Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis)."

Why?

Dunno.

But as soon as he parks his car down the street from the Wallace house, he immediately sets his sights on her.

And he has a plan. He wants to stage an elaborate scare.

He brought along some props, stuff he picked up during the day. They include the tombstone from his sister's grave and a jack o'lantern he no doubt stole from someone's porch.

And to complete his vision, he needed a dead girl to represent his sister (I suppose). And he decided to cast "Annie" in that role.

But this maniac's night of trickery was not all smooth sailing. He experienced ups and downs. And sometimes there were some unexpected twists. 

I like to think he didn't see them coming. I think Myers is a bit more interesting if, like us, he's somewhat human and had no choice but to deal with problems as they arise.

I mean, if he can recoil after he gets poked in the eye with a weaponized coat hanger, I think he can lose his patience when things don't go his way, or when people show up uninvited to one of his parties.

Soon after he kills "Annie," he carries her body to the second floor of the Wallace house. And I'm sure as soon as he got her up there he started laying out his props.

By the way, I think that's how the illuminated jack o'lantern got in there. 

Then he hears a noise downstairs. Someone has come through the front door, two people, "Lynda" and her boyfriend.

No doubt that made his twisted mind skip a beat.

I don't think they were at all part of his plans for the evening. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And since they interrupted him while he was redecorating the master bedroom, he decided that somehow he had to deal with them.

So, what was he supposed to do with these two?

If you've seen the film, you know he made the most of that bad situation. He got creative and decided to improvise. And he made some cinema history in the process. The deaths of "Lynda" and her boyfriend are iconic.

On top of that, you'll notice Myers had to clean up after them. 

"Lynda" and her boyfriend had beer cans on the bedroom floor and they completely undid the covers on the bed.

Later, when his display is revealed, you'll notice he took the time to make the bed. I think he cleaned up the garbage too.

So what about "Laurie?" What was her role in all this?

After he killed his sister back in 1963, Myers had the opportunity to give his folks what "Sheriff Leigh Brackett (actor Charles Cyphers)" would call "one good scare."

And I think when he returned to his hometown 15 years later, he was planning to frighten someone with this elaborate display of his. Perhaps another set of parents. Maybe the Wallaces.

But fate chose someone else.

"Laurie" had decided to leave the confines of the Doyle house to cross the street, hoping to find her friends "Annie" and "Lynda." 

Instead, she had a run in with the very thing her English teacher was discussing in class earlier that day.

Laurie: "Costaine wrote that fate was somehow related only to religion, where Samuels felt that fate was like a natural element like earth, air, fire and water."

Teacher: "That's right. Samuels definitely personified fate. In Samuels' writing fate is immovable, like a mountain. It stands where man passes away. Fate never changes."

RATING (On a scale of 1 to 5): 5