by Jason Daniel Baker

Created on: March 04, 2009

Halloween (1978) Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, Charles Cyphers, P.J.Soles, Nancy Kyes, Mickey Yablans, Brian Andrews, Kyle Richards, John Michael Graham, Arthur Malet, Tony Moran, Sandy Johnson, Nick Castle, Barry Bernardi, Darla Rae, George O'Hanlon Jr.

Directed by John Carpenter.

Running Time: 91 minutes

Rating: R (Violence, Coarse Language, Nudity and Sexuality)

"You can't kill the Boogeyman!"

Insane murderer Michael Myers' escapes a sanitarium in Smith's Grove, Illinois where he has been confined for fifteen years and heads back to his nearby hometown of Haddonfield. He knifed his babysitter there when he was only six years old and hasn't said a word since.

Psychiatrist Dr.Loomis (Pleasance) follows Myers, a violentally psychotic patient whom he normally keeps hopped up on enough thorazine to make an elephant dizzy, in hopes of stopping him. The local police who have never been particularly helpful in slasher movies are of little consequence here too.

That is not to say that Myers, though soft spoken in the extreme, is a particularly easy to subdue criminal. His internal rage is so powerful and focused that it has rendered him almost superhuman. Stab him, plunge a knitting needle into his neck, hit him with five bullets, watch him fall out of a second story window and he just pops right back up again after enough time has elapsed for you to right him off as dead. Lay him down to bleed awhile and he'll rise to kill again.

You can't kill that which is repressed is the message if one is looking for deeper meaning. If one is searching for a more down to earth reason look at it this way: if the monster died that would hinder the ability to launch lucrative sequels. Yet as we've seen in other horror series like Elm Street and Friday 13th even killing the monster off doesn't mean he will stay dead if money can talk a sequel out of the owners of the franchise.

All-American girl next door Laurie Strode (Curtis) and her friends are babysitting on Halloween night in Haddonfield just in time for when Myers arrives and goes on his bloody rampage. What little we know about Myers suggests that he doesn't like babysitters and particularly those that fool around. What little we know about Myers suggests that he DOES like to express his disapproval via the use of a big kitchen knife.

What is captured here is the immaculate moment of coming of age, awakening sense of self and the unlimited possibilities presented. It is juxtaposed with the possibility of a horrific end.

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