Presents

Halloween

It's Friday and, before I head to the theatre to get my horror movie fix (meaning it's Rob Zombie's Halloween Day, a holiday for the ol' Bad Movie Guy), I thought I'd take a minute to remind all you kiddies that the original Halloween is still one of the best horror movies ever made....EVER!

The story here is one that we should all be familiar with, but, just in case, here it is:  15 years ago, a young Michael Myers killed his sister and was taken away to a mental institution.  Now, he's returning to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to find his remaining family and kill them too.  It's just that simple, psycho in a mask decides to kill off some teenagers, it's a tried and true format, but this is the first time it was really used to mass appeal!

There are a couple of things that really make Halloween a classic, first, it created Jamie Lee Curtis!  Yep, before Halloween, no one really knew who she was, but, after an excellent performance as Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee was the world's most popular scream queen (a crown that she disavowed for years...and may still), after Halloween, she was one of the most in demand actresses in horror!  The other great thing coming from Halloween was Donald Pleasence, Halloween really turned him into the modern horror eras, Peter Cushing.  His performance as Dr. Loomis is still one of the greatest in all of horror history, who can forget the great line 'Evil has come to your small town, sherriff!', I still get chills just thinking about it!

The original Halloween deserves nothing less than four out of four cigars, just for the fact that it still holds up after all these years (it celebrates 30 years in 2008) and it's still one of the scariest movies ever made.  So, if you can't get to the theatre this weekend, instead of feeling the shame and guilt, why not run down to the local video store and grab the original Halloween, it may not be the same movie, but it's still great!  So, until next time, when I'll tell you the story of the time Jamie Lee Curtis drew hearts, flowers and lips on my classis Michael Myers mask (I can't scare anyone with it now!), remember that the best movies are bad movies.