Halloween-Inspired Movies: Halloween

The original Halloween, released in 1978, features Michael Myers (played by Will Sandin) who was committed to a sanitarium after having killed his sister as a six-year-old. The murder, naturally, occurred on Halloween. Fifteen years later Michael manages to escape from the mental hospital and on the night of his escape steals the famous mask from a hardware store.

He then returns to his home town where he starts stalking student Laurie featured by Jamie Lee Curtis, along with her friends Annie and Lynda. Annie is the first to be attacked as she enters her car and Michael, hiding in the back seat, strangles her and slashes her throat. Lynda’s boyfriend Bob is the next to follow, getting stabbed with a knife, after which Michael strangles Lynda with the telephone cord.

Having found the bodies of her friends, Laurie barely escapes. At the end of the film Michael gets shot six times by his psychiatrist, but if you though this is where story ends, you’re wrong. Michael in fact survives to create havoc in the following 7 sequels.

What significantly contributed to the scariness of this movie is the famous bluish-white mask with wide eyeholes, creating an impression of a blank, expressionless face. But did you know that the mask was actually created out of William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk mask? Impressive what a pair of scissors and a bit of paint can do, right? Want some more interesting facts about this classic? Initially the movie was to be called The Babysitter Murders, but the producer thought it would be better to link it to a specific holiday. The shooting took only 20 days, commencing in the spring and the film being released in October the same year. The budget was so low that many of the cast provided their own wardrobe. Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael’s psychiatrist, was named after the character from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.