A seminal calling card both for the slasher genre and director John
Carpenter (who quickly became A-list), this is still scary as hell.
Bringing the killer into the supposed security of the suburbs was one
masterstroke, the white mask another, and Dean Cundey's terrific
long-take cinematography a third. Carpenter's score, too, is
amazingly effective. The only sequel worth bothering with is the
second, which Cundey directed, and which still has Jamie Lee Curtis,
here the most sympathetic scream queen of all. (Halloween: H20 is OK as
well.)
