Halloween (1978) review

In 1963, a six-year-old boy named Michael Myers brutally murdered his own sister with a chef's knife and was placed in a mental institution where he was looked after by Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence) - fifteen years later, Myers manages to escape, heads back to his (fictitious) hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois and stalks babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).  I've seen this four times now - the first time when I was in high school myself - and can understand why it's considered one of the most influential slashers ever made (it's in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress), but it's also a strictly style over substance horror movie that would have benefited from a trace of nuance: there are no explanations or real motive for Myers' brutality except that he's "pure evil" (according to Loomis), he kills just because he can, Laurie gets targeted just because she's there, and so on.  Still, the score (by Carpenter) is iconic and the villain is a classic (and virtually unkillable): there's something about that emotionless Captain James T. Kirk mask that feels insidious.