Halloween (1978)

Halloween (1978), directed by John Carpenter.

Tis the season.

What to say? The simple story is a building block of modern horror movies, endlessly sequeled, imitated, and mashed up for ironic treatment. Although violent, it's not very bloody by today's standards. Most of the time is spent in anticipation, which feature became a key ingredient of the dead teenager genre.

There is no "why" of the movie: a psycho-killer little boy comes back years later and picks out Jamie Lee Curtis and friends for special treatment. He's pure evil and unkillable. How can that be? Like how can zombies be both alive and dead? Sounds like draft beer in a bottle. There is no explanation, so we don't need to solve the puzzle.

Famously, the serious baby-sitter is the sole survivor but her wild gal pals don't make it. Carpenter claims this is not the magic power of virginity, just that the serious girl is more observant.

The dialogue between the girls is pretty dreadful, but maybe that's realistic. I love the classic SF movies everyone is watching on Halloween.

Up front score by John Carpenter. Brief nudity and passion. That's a Captain Kirk mask Michael Myers is wearing. First film for Curtis.

Available on Blu-ray. I recall complaints about color changes but I don't remember the film well enough to comment. The daylight scenes have pleasing detail; the nights less so but that's the nature of the beast.