My favorite horror movie of all time is John Carpenter's Halloween. I was a geeky high school sophomore in 1978 when I first spotted an ad for the film in the Chicago Sun-Times. 'The Night He Came Home' was certainly an awesome tagline, and it really appealed to my rabid horror fan sensibilities. But then the plot thickened when I read a 4-star review of Halloween by Roger Ebert. 4 stars for a horror film? Now I was really intrigued.
I went to see the film on the night it opened and was not disappointed. I remember levitating out of my seat with fear several times as it unspooled--now that's entertainment! And when I got home after seeing it, every light in the house went on just in case Michael Myers just happened to be hiding in a closet or something.
I then went back and saw Halloween three more times and told everybody I knew what a great flick it was. After the huge success of Halloween at the box office, a stampede of slasher movies were released that tried to capitalize on its terrifying formula. Flicks like Friday the 13th had their charms, but in my mind none of them could hold a candle to Carpenter's freaky scary masterpiece.
Speaking of John Carpenter, I eventually met him at a Director's Guild dinner. I tried not too sound too nerdy while I was telling him what an influence Halloween has been on my own work and he could not have been any more down to earth or gracious. Mr. Carpenter has certainly made a lot of terrific movies in his illustrious career, but so far none of them have impacted me quite as strongly as my favorite horror film - Halloween!