Halloween (1978)

A mental patient (Nick Castle) who murdered his sister (Sandy Johnson) at the age of  six escapes from the asylum where he has been locked up for 15 years. His psychiatrist (Donald Pleasence) pursues him to the small Illinois town where the murder occurred. Meanwhile, a teenage girl (Jamie Lee Curtis) prepares to babysit on Halloween night. Directed by John Carpenter, this low budget independent film made slasher films mainstream and jump started the careers of director Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis (this was her film debut). The film is now considered a classic of the horror genre but although I like it well enough, I've never been a big admirer of it (I much prefer Carpenter's follow up feature, THE FOG) as some. It's an efficient little horror film, basic and crude, that does what it supposed to do but lacks that certain "something" (Style? Subtext?) that would elevate it to the next level. But hey, the film spawned a franchise that's still going so it must have done something right. Carpenter wrote the effective monochromatic score. With Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles, Kyle Richards and Charles Cyphers.