Today in History: Halloween debuts as does Jamie Lee Curtis

Prior to this film's release there had been a lot of slasher films but Halloween kind of stands in a category of its own as it cost nearly nothing to produce (thanks in part to using mostly unknown actors) and managed to pull in an absolutely massive return at the box office. A relatively unknown director by the name of John Carpenter was approached and offered a whopping $10,000 to write, score, and direct the film.

The year was 1978

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The original request to Carpenter was to create an villain that stalked and killed babysitters.... and that was basically all the information that was provided to him. He agreed to do the film provided that he would have complete creative control. The screenplay took a mere 10 days to write and the inspiration for Michael Myers came from a trip Carpenter had taken to an asylum for the "most serious, mentally ill patients" in Kentucky years earlier while in college. There, he had encountered a severely schizophrenic boy who had the most sinister looking gaze.

The original title of the film was "The Babysitter Murders" but it was suggested by the person bank-rolling the project, Irwin Yablans, that the film take place on Halloween night and thus, the iconic name of the film was born (thank goodness they changed the name.)

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Carpenter intentionally didn't explain in the movie what it is that gives Myers his power but he clearly has super-human abilities in that he just wont die. He preferred that to keep the audience guessing and to have them formulate their own hypothesis about how it is that the stalker came to be this way.

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A 19-year old Jamie Lee Curtis was not Carpenter's first choice for the role of Laurie Strode but upon learning that Curtis' mother had been in Psycho he realized the marketing opportunities that could arise. Curtis was paid a shockingly low $8,000 for the film. The salaries were really low for everyone in the film actually. Nick Castle played Michael Myers for a mere $25 a day. It's funny because i have been an extra in films and was only visible in the background and I have always been paid significantly more than this.

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It is fairly well-known that the mask Myers wears is a painted Captain Kirk mask but this wasn't some artistic decision, it was chosen because it was on sale for less than $2 at a local costume shop. Almost all the wardrobe were actually clothes that were owned by the various actors. Only Jamie Lee Curtis got new clothes purchased from a luxury clothing store called J.C. Penny.

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That trailer is a pretty good representation of how little money they actually had for this movie and Carpenter, not having much money to play with had to resort to creative directing techniques such as using the 1st person perspective of Myers, through the eye holes in the mask. While it is quite evident that the film was not a grade-A production, it started a trend of slasher movies in the 80's that to be honest, became a bit tiresome after a while.

Halloween is set apart from later franchises such as Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th in that there was very little in the way of gore or really even violence (later slasher films would also rely very heavily on nudity - of which Halloween has none.)

The famous Halloween theme song was a creation of John Carpenter as well and he made the entire score for the film in a mere 3 days.

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Initially bashed by critics, most of which had pretty nasty thing to say about the film and also about Carpenter personally, the film went on to make $70 million globally, the most an independent film had ever made by far.

It is also become absolutely legendary in film history and enjoys a "viewers' score" much higher than most other films, even those with huge budgets. Needless to say, most of those critics who originally roasted the film backtracked on their initial assessments being the cowards that they are.

There have been 11 sequels / remakes (there's also a porn parody film,) all of which did well at the box office but other than the "bookend" releases, they received mixed or negative reviews. There are 2 more films already in planning that are to be released in 2020 and 2021. Halloween might be one of the most influential movies ever made since most horror films in the 80's basically had the same theme.

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_{I actually haven't seen the latest one... i'm watching it tonight}

When adjusted for inflation Halloween is the most financially successful horror franchise of all time grossing $620 million.... and it all began today.

Not bad Mr. Carpenter, not bad.