Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Thats a programmed movie, he toldFilm Comments Todd McCarthy.
Its an old county-fair haunted-house movie.
You say to the audience, Youre going to see something thats going to scare you.
Im not going to tell you when its going to come … but here it comes!
Its programmed right in, just laying it on.
At least, that was the movie Irwin Yablans saw in his head.
I dreamed upHalloweenon an airplane, hetoldthe New YorkTimesin 1981.
I couldnt afford to buy a book or a play.
And it happened to be Halloween night.
When his plane landed, he hurried to a phone and pitchedThe Babysitter Murdersto John Carpenter.
They made a deal.
And it seemed, to them, a highly commercial product.
Soles, who played Linda inHalloween, was cast on the strength of her small role inCarrie.)
Well, not all of them.
But a handful of critics sawHalloweenfor what it was.
We arent seeing the movie, were having it happen to us.
Maybe you dont like movies that are really scary: Then dont see this one.
That film had a far more impressive $2.5 million budget, provided this time by Universal.
But theyll probably keep trying.
