First, Carpenter had a few stipulations.
One, he wanted total control over the final cut.
Two, he wanted his girlfriend and script editor Debra Hill on board as co-writer and producer.
When it came to castingHalloween, Carpenters lack of budget severely limited the kind of talent he could afford.
I dont understand this script.
I dont like this script.
I dont know who my character is, Pleasence told Carpenter during a lunchtime meeting.
PJ Soles, previously ofCarriefame, was hired to play tear-away high schooler Lynda.
The key addition, though, was the then-unknownJamie Lee Curtis as protagonist Laurie Strode.
The rest ofHalloweens cast and crew was assembled from a selection of Carpenters friends and colleagues.
That youthful hand clutching the kitchen knife in the opening POV shot?
The masterstroke, perhaps, was the appointment of cinematographer Dean Cundey.
Despite the crews relative inexperience,Halloweens production wrapped on time and within budget.
And there was one guy who raised his hand and said, Here you are, a film student.
So why in the world would you make that kind of movie?
I mean, this is just a low-class, trashy horror film.
And with that, he got up and left.
read more Halloween: A Legacy Unmasked
Critics werent particularly friendly towardsHalloween, either.
One review memorably described it as More trick than treat.
Another argued, stingingly, that Carpenters direction had no rhythm.
But then Roger Ebert went to see it.
Academics and critics dissected and argued about its themes and politics, and still do to this day.
Like Michael Myers himself,Halloweenis a film that simply comes back, time and again.
Even now,Halloweenremains an effective, nail-biting shocker.
Most of all, itsHalloweens simplicity that makes it so effective.
The lack of backstory encourages us to add one for ourselves.
Even the absence of gore adds to the suspense rather than diminishes it.
Myers is a truly spectral presence, and he spends much of the movie simply standing and staring.
And then theres that astonishing opening sequence, which Carpenter and his crew worked on so diligently.
Its clever, button-pushing stuff, and sets the tone for the stripped-back, nasty story to come.
As Carpenter said years later, It was rough, but it was a new frontier.
