Halloween is a
1978 American
independent slasher film directed and
scored by
John Carpenter, co-written with producer
Debra Hill, and starring
Donald Pleasence and
Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. The film was the first installment in what has become the
Halloween franchise. The plot is set in the fictional
Midwestern town of Haddonfield,
Illinois. On
Halloween night in 1963, a six-year-old
Michael Myers dressed in a clown costume murders his older sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Fifteen years later, Michael Myers, age 21, escapes from a
psychiatric hospital, returns home, and stalks
Laurie Strode and her friends. Michael's psychiatrist
Dr. Sam Loomis suspects Michael's intentions, and follows him to Haddonfield to try to prevent him from killing.