FAQ for
Halloween (1978) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Halloween can be found here.

No. Halloween is based on a script by director John Carpenter and his then girlfriend, screenwriter Debra Hill. Halloween actually started as The Babysitter Murders, but it was changed when producer Irwin Yablans suggested setting the story on Halloween. Halloween was subsequently novelized in 1979 by Curtis Richards. The success of the movie led to seven more movies in the franchise: Halloween II (1981), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5 aka The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and Halloween: Resurrection (2002). Rob Zombie has subsequently remade the series with Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009).

A cute little ditty: Black cats and goblins and broomsticks and ghosts, / Covens of witches with all of their hosts / You may think they scare me, / You're probably right / Black cats and goblins / On Halloween night / Trick or treat!

There is no reason given in the film. Michael simply breaks a 15-year-long state of catatonia and makes his escape. In a paperback novelization of the movie, written by Curtis Richards and published in 1979, it was explained that Michael is "incredibly patient" and waited for the "voice in his head" to tell him to escape and return to Haddonfield.

The short and sweet answer is that no one knows, not even Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Some possibilities that have been suggested are that (1) someone at the asylum taught him, (2) he watched his parents when he was a child, (3) he watched Dr Loomis when he was driven to various hearings and things over the years, (4) he was smart enough to figure it out by himself, and (5) he was influenced by the pure evil inside of him.

It's said that Michael's mask was created from a Captain Kirk mask purchased for $1.98. The eye holes were widened, and the mask was spray-painted a bluish white.

There is no reason given for Michael to target Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), other than the fact that he happened to see her when she drops the key off at the former Myers house. In Halloween II, it is revealed that Laurie is Michael's sister.

The first one was The Thing from Another World (1951). The second one was Forbidden Planet (1956).

Laurie gets a phone call from Lynda (P.J. Soles) in which she's making a lot of funny sounds, so Laurie goes across the street to Lindsey (Kyle Richards)'s house to see what's going on. It appears that either no one is there or they're hiding from her, so Laurie goes upstairs to look in the bedrooms. She finds Annie dead and lying on one of beds with a tombstone on the headboard that reads "Judith Myers." Suddenly a cupboard door opens and she sees Bob's body. Another one opens to reveal the body of Lynda. Now on the verge of total panic, Laurie doesn't see MIchael sneaking up behind her until he stabs her in the forearm with a large butcher knife. The blow knocks her over the stair rail and down the stairs. She gets up and hobbles out through the laundry room door, screaming for help, but no one will help her. She crosses the street and run back to the Doyles' house with Michael in pursuit. When she can't find the key, she screams to Tommy (Brian Andrews) to open the door, which he does in the nick of time.

Laurie locks the front door and sends Lindsey and Tommy upstairs to hide. Then she notices a window open and realizes that Michael is in the house. She hunkers down against the couch and grabs a knitting needle. When Michael suddenly pops up from behind the couch and swipes at her with his knife, she buries the knitting needle in his neck. He pulls out the needle and collapses behind the couch. Laurie goes up stairs and tells Lindsey and Tommy that she's killed him. "You can't kill the boogeyman," Tommy replies. Sure enough, Michael is right behind her baring his big knife. Laurie locks the kids back in Tommy's bedroom, and she tries to hide in a closet. When Michael breaks through the louvered doors, Laurie jabs a clothes hanger into his eye. Michael drops the knife, so Laurie picks it up and plunges it into his gut. Again, Michael falls to the ground. Certain that she's killed him this time, Laurie instructs the kids to run to the McKenzie house and tell them to call the police. Then she collapses against a wall, unaware that Michael has gotten up from the floor, picked up the knife, and is coming at her again.

Meanwhile, Dr Loomis is walking down the street, after having found Michael's car about three blocks away. When he sees Lindsey and Tommy come tearing out the front door, screaming and yelling, he goes inside. He sees Michael trying to choke Laurie, so he fires a bullet into Michael's back. When it doesn't seem to faze Michael, Dr Loomis blasts five more bullets into Michael's chest. The force of the shots causes Michael to topple over the porch railing, falling two stories to the ground below. "Was that the boogeyman?" Laurie asks. "As a matter of fact," Loomis replies, "that was." When Loomis walks out on the porch to look down at Michael's body, he is not surprised to find that it has disappeared.

Yes. Just before Dr Loomis shoots Michael in the back, Laurie rips off his mask, showing his face for about four seconds before he puts the mask back on.

In the context of the movie, Michael is seemingly human but there are all of these ever-increasingly serious indications that maybe, just maybe, he IS what Loomis claims: pure evil and inhuman...the boogeyman. Director John Carpenter's answer to this is simple. He chose to make Michael a human being in the beginning of the film, and then we slowly start to realize that he's a force of nature that won't stop.

For the US-TV-broadcast of this John Carpenter-classic, some additional plot-scenes were inserted. These originally not planed scenes got re-shot during the shooting of Halloween 2. The goal was to reach a running time that was more suitable for television in order to be able to place more commercials. In the meantime the longer version has been released on several DVDs. A detailed comparison between the theatrical version and the unrated version can be found here.