I Watch Films: Halloween (1978)
Well there’s some parallels (and even scenes) shared with Halloween (2018). In the prologue at Halloween 1963, six year-old Michael Myers puts on a mask, spies on his sister and her boyfriend, then murders her with a knife. (This is pretty extreme even for some of the Halloween pranks of the 1930s, in which lampposts were cut down, cars turned upside down and shops set on fire). Some fifteen years later he escapes from the mental institution (where he has apparently not spoken a word) and returns to his hometown on Halloween.
Laurie’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) friends manage to annoy Myers by yelling when he drives badly (which is fair, this is only the second day he’s had a car, and I’m fairly sure he has no license or insurance). He stalks them as two of them are babysitting in houses opposite each other and another turns up with her boyfriend to make out. The camera work and people appearing from (and disappearing to) nowhere in in-camera effects is excellent.
Loomis (Donald Pleasance), Myers’ psychiatrist, claims that Myers is pure evil. Or maybe Loomis is just bad at his job? Though he has a point as [SPOILERS] no matter how many time Myers gets knocked down he keeps getting up to fight again. Pretty evil.
Watch This: For the ur-Slasher Film, a masterpiece of its genre
Don’t Watch This: If the babysitter stripping to her pants and later getting stabbed sounds like bad film times
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