Halloween (1978)

Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Donald Pleasance, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis

Synopsis:
An escaped mental patient wreaks havoc on a small Illinois town on Halloween night.

Impressions:
Although this isn't the first slasher film, it's the trope codifier for a lot of the conventions of the subgenre and its DNA can be found in the overwhelming majority of such films to follow. If you're mostly used to slashers from the 80s and 90s, you'll be taken aback at how comparatively low-key and restrained this is. This, in turn, could leave you a bit bored until the last fifteen minutes. If you're looking for a slow burn that really serves to magnify the punch of those last fifteen minutes, this will probably do well by you. In her first film role, Jamie Lee Curtis does a good job of cementing her credentials as a scream queen and though Dr. Loomis is sorely lacking in the professionalism you'd hope to see in a psychologist, Donald Pleasance is quite good in the role. If nothing else, this is worth seeing for its place in cinema history, but I think most cinephiles will get enough value out of it to warrant a watch.

Rating:
Watch It