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Halloween (advertised as John Carpenter's Halloween) is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed, co-written, and scored by John Carpenter. Starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis (in her film debut), with P. J. Soles and Nancy Loomis in supporting roles, the film is set mostly in the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois. The plot centers on a mental patient, Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his teenage sister on Halloween night when he was a child. Fifteen years later, having escaped and returned to his hometown, he stalks teenage babysitter Laurie Strode and her friends while under pursuit by his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis. Filming took place in Southern California in May 1978. The film premiered in October and grossed $70 million, becoming one of the most profitable independent films of all time. Primarily praised for Carpenter's direction and score, many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974). It is considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films ever made. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Halloween spawned a film franchise comprising thirteen films which helped construct an extensive backstory for its antagonist Michael Myers, sometimes narratively diverging entirely from previous installments. Additionally, a novelization, a video game and comic book series have been based on the film. Plot On Halloween night 1963, in the suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally stabs his teenage sister Judith to death with a kitchen knife. Fifteen years later, his psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis, drives with a colleague, Nurse Marion Chambers, to the sanitarium where Michael is incarcerated to escort him to a court hearing. After Loomis exits their car to unlock the main gate, Michael jumps on the roof and attacks Marion. She runs from the vehicle, allowing Michael to steal the car and drive off. Michael makes his way back to Haddonfield, killing a mechanic for his coveralls on the way and stealing a white mask from a local hardware store. He begins stalking teenager Laurie Strode, whom he saw drop off a key at his long-abandoned childhood house that her father is trying to sell. Laurie notices Michael throughout the day, but her friends Annie Brackett and Lynda Van Der Klok dismiss her concerns. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and discovers that Michael has stolen Judith's tombstone from the local cemetery. He meets up with Annie's father, Sheriff Leigh Brackett, and they begin to search for Michael. While they investigate the old Myers house, Loomis describes how he came to realize that Michael is pure evil. That night, Michael follows Annie and Laurie to their babysitting jobs. Laurie watches Tommy Doyle, while Annie stays with Lindsey Wallace across the street. Michael spies on Annie and kills the Wallace family dog. Tommy spots Michael from the windows and thinks he is the boogeyman, but Laurie dismisses him. Later, Annie takes Lindsey to the Doyle house for the night so she can pick up her boyfriend. Michael hides in her car and kills Annie by slashing her throat. Lynda and her boyfriend Bob arrive at the Wallace house and find it empty. After having sex, Bob goes downstairs for a beer, where Michael pins him to the wall with a kitchen knife. Michael then poses as Bob in a ghost costume and confronts Lynda, who teases him to no effect. Annoyed, she calls Laurie to find out what happened to Annie, but Michael strangles her to death with the phone cord while Laurie listens on the other end. Meanwhile, Loomis discovers the stolen car and searches the streets. Worried by the phone call, Laurie goes to the Wallace house and finds her friends' bodies, as well as Judith's headstone, in the upstairs bedroom. She runs to the hallway where Michael slashes her arm, causing her to fall over the banister. Dazed and injured Laurie manages to escape the house with Michael in pursuit. Laurie makes it back to the Doyle house, but realizes she lost the keys to the front door. Tommy lets her in, and she orders him and Lindsey to hide. Laurie tries to call for help, only to find the phone is dead. Michael sneaks in through the window and attacks her again, but she stabs him in the neck with a knitting needle. Thinking Michael is dead, Laurie staggers upstairs to check on the children, then scream when they see Michael alive. While Tommy and Lindsey hide in the bathroom, Laurie hides in the bedroom closet. Laurie stabs him in the eye with a coat hanger and then in the chest with his own knife. After she sends Tommy and Lindsey to a neighbor's house to call the police, Michael rises again. Seeing the children running from the house, Loomis goes to investigate and sees Michael strangling Laurie. She breaks free by pulling his mask off, revealing his face. Loomis shoots Michael, knocking him off the balcony. When he goes to check on the body, Loomis sees that Michael has vanished. Unsurprised, he stares off into the night as Laurie sobs in terror. Cast Analysis Themes Scholar Carol J. Clover has argued that the film, and its genre at large, links sexuality with danger, saying that killers in slasher films are fueled by a "psychosexual fury" and that all the killings are sexual in nature. She reinforces this idea by saying that "guns have no place in slasher films" and when examining the film I Spit on Your Grave she notes that "a hands-on killing answers a hands-on rape in a way that a shooting, even a shooting preceded by a humiliation, does not." Equating sex with violence is important in Halloween and the slasher genre according to film scholar Pat Gill, who made a note of this in her essay "The Monstrous Years: Teens, Slasher Films, and the Family". She remarks that Laurie's friends "think of their babysitting jobs as opportunities to share drinks and beds with their boyfriends. One by one they are killed ... by Michael Myers an asylum escapee who years ago at the age of six murdered his sister for preferring sex to taking care of him." Carpenter has distanced himself from these interpretations, saying "It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I'm not. In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers." In another interview, Carpenter said that readings of the film as a morality play "completely missed the point," adding, "The one girl who is the most sexually uptight just keeps stabbing this guy with a long knife. She's the most sexually frustrated. She's the one that's killed him. Not because she's a virgin but because all that sexually repressed energy starts coming out. She uses all those phallic symbols on the guy." Debra Hill, who co-wrote and produced the film, al.... Discover the David Kyle Foster popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David Kyle Foster books.