by Scott Kolecki

Created on: September 13, 2008

When John Carpenter's "Halloween" hit theaters in 1977, it unknowingly set the standard for a genre of slasher/monster movies that would span more than two decades. Its premise was exceedingly simple. A psychologically upset boy gets incarcerated in a mental institution after murdering his older sister on Halloween night. As an adult about to stand trial, Michael Myers escapes his confinement and returns to Haddonfield to continue his murderous ways. While there he crosses paths with Laurie Strode and two of her closest friends, terrorizing them each in turn before killing them. Laurie Strode alone survives and, in a final confrontation with Michael, watches as he is gunned down by Dr. Samuel Loomis, Michael's former psychiatrist, only to disappear moments later into the darkness of Halloween night.

Carpenter's film was an instant hit, terrifying theatergoers and creating a sensation in the box office that would open the doors for horror franchises such as "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street". It introduced theatergoers to the contemporary "movie monster" in much the same way that Alfred Hitchcock's film "Psycho" did 17 years before it.

One of the things that make John Carpenter's film so effective was the minimal amount of actual screen time that Michael Myers, wearing a white William Shatner mask and blue coveralls, actually spends on screen. The killer is often seen in the first person, concealing the visual appearance of a monster who is far more terrifying in our imagination than he could ever be when exposed for what he is-a man in a mask. In addition, Michael Myers is almost never shown without his mask on, alienating his character to a point where the mask becomes his face.

The other part of Carpenter's film that was so incredibly effective, aside from the first rate performances of (then) unknown actress Jamie Lee Curtis, is the incredible soundtrack that Carpenter wrote for the film. It has been said of early screenings of the original Halloween film that "before the soundtrack was added, the movie just wasn't scary."

Carpenter's film focused on the victims, using Myers as a catalyst to put them into vulnerable situations. When Michael finally committed the act of murdering his victims, the scenes were filmed in such a way that the murders themselves were almost innuendos or afterthoughts to the tension that preceded the physical act. You rarely saw blood or any sort of graphic dismemberment. It is the psychological tension of the film

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