There are hundreds of mass market 'Halloween' films, of which knife wielding maniacs scare off the stereotypical teenager babysitter, in a film with never disappoints if you're a fan of gore and fake blood. What puts John Carpenter’s Halloween in a class of its own is its peerless craft. Its gory business is meticulously directed, staged, and lit (or in many cases, unlit). Like the sadistic murderer at its centre, it proceeds patiently, milking every moment for maximum suspense, capturing the audiences attention and keeping them on the 'edge of their seats' throughout. The film released on October 25th 1978, subsequently spurred the production of the whole franchise of Halloween films. Carpenter budgeted his film to $325,000, which went on to gross $70,000,000 worldwide making it one of the most successful independent films of all time.
Production-
Unlike many of the other horror slasher films of that time it presented a lot of clichéd moments and themes throughout. However unlike many horror films in this time period it present a clear lack of violence and gore. It would be an underestimate to say that the film was difficult to produce, the factors such as the tight budget, limited production time of four weeks and the inexperienced director of John Carpenter, however despite all of the potential set backs they pulled at the stops to produce one of the most successful independent horror films of all time.
The low budget meant that major set backs had to be made, such as the selection of props. Wallace, who was hired for the production design, brought the trademark mask used by the antagonist throughout for $1.98. Some changes were made to the mask like widened the eye holes to create verisimilitude to the character and expose the pale humans face which all created a truly spooky character, all on request of Carpenter.
Distribution-
Halloween premiered in Kansas City on October 25th 1978, then sometime later it was shown in Chicago, Illinois and New York City. The film then grossed $47 million in the United States and additional $23 million internationally, making a theatrical total of $70 million. Since Halloween 's premiere, it has been released on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, UMD and Blu-ray HD format. Early VHS versions were released by Media Home Entertainment and Blockbuster Video issued a commemorative edition in 1995. Subsequently the film has made $18,500,000 in home video revenues on top of the original figure for cinema distribution.
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