There are a few reasons that this movie came in at #1. First of all, it’s about Halloween, DUH! Now throw in a psychopathic guy in a blank white mask and you’ve got one scary night. As an added bonus, you’ve got the original “Scream Queen” Jamie Lee Curtis playing the role of the hunted heroine. And if you look at her list of scary movie roles—Prom Night, The Fog and Terror Train, to name a few—it’s no wonder she’s at the forefront of the horror flick world. In Halloween, maniacal Michael Myers has broken out of the mental institution that has been his home ever since he murdered his sister years before on Halloween night. Now, on the anniversary of the notorious murder, Michael is headed home to track down his other sister and finish the job he started 15 years before. Talk about sibling rivalry.
Fun & Freaky Facts:
• This was Jamie Lee Curtis’ first film.
• The movie was shot in early spring in southern California, so the crew had to buy plastic leaves from a decorator to scatter them in their filming locations.
• Because of a tight budget, the prop department bought the cheapest Halloween mask they could get: Captain Kirk. They then spray painted the face white, teased the hair and re-shaped the eye-holes to create “Michael Myers.”
• It took 21 days to shoot this movie.
• The character of Laurie Strode was named after director John Carpenter’s first girlfriend.
• The film’s budget was $320,000.
• The original title of the movie was “The Babysitter Murders.”
