Though Halloween is renowned among horror hounds, the film is not without its flaws,
oddities, and strange leaps of logic.
None of these examples can diminish the film's overall legacy, but let's not pretend there
aren't some dumb things everyone ignores about John Carpenter's Halloween.
Major horror films of the 1970s, like Carrie and Last House on the Left, tended to cast
20-somethings in the roles of teens.
In this respect, Halloween is no different, but that doesn't make the casting any less
distracting.
With the exception of Jamie Lee Curtis, who was 19 at the time Halloween was released,
the actors who played the teenagers were all well into their twenties.
P.J. Soles, the actress who plays Laurie's cheerleader friend Lynda, was 28 years old.
Similarly, Laurie's other friend Annie was portrayed by 29-year-old Nancy Kyes.
When all three girls are together on screen, it's incredibly awkward to watch two grown
women pretend to be high school girls.
When paired with Curtis, who is noticeably younger than the other two actresses, the
glaring age differences are impossible to ignore.
"I forgot my chemistry book."
"So who cares?
I always forget my chemistry book, and my math book, and my English book..."
After Michael breaks out of Smith's Grove sanitarium at the beginning of the film, Dr.
Loomis rightfully fears what Michael will do with his newfound freedom.
He takes his concerns to the police but is promptly brushed off, leaving him to hunt
Michael on his own.
"Well, he was your patient, Doctor, if precautions weren't strong enough, you should've told
somebody."
"I told everybody!"
Suspecting Michael will return to his childhood home, Loomis makes his way to Haddonfield.
On his way, he stops at a payphone and by pure circumstance, stumbles onto an abandoned
car.
While the camera pans to show the audience the driver's body lying nearby, Loomis is
not privy to the murder.
Nevertheless, the good doctor somehow surmises that the abandoned car and a stray matchbook
are solid proof that Michael Myers was there.
What's so bizarre about this scene isn't just the unlikely circumstances or Loomis' apparent
sixth sense, but the fact that he doesn't appear to report the crime at all.
If Loomis is genuinely concerned about what he found, why wouldn't he call the police?
If he had taken even a minute to look around and not run off after finding a random matchbook
on the ground, he would have seen the dead body, and it would have likely forced the
police to cooperate.
While we don't know much about the specific events that triggered Loomis' immense fear
of Michael, it's safe to say the doctor knows far more about the killer's violent tendencies
than anyone else.
After breaking out of confinement, stealing a car, assaulting a woman, and killing an
innocent man, you'd think anyone hunting Michael would at least be cautious.
Surprisingly, the hunt for Michael is incredibly low-key.
Loomis seeks out the help of Haddonfield's sheriff, Leigh Brackett, and the two hunt
Michael alone.
At some point, the sheriff suggests a full-blown man-hunt, but Loomis tosses the idea aside
for fear of causing a panic.
"If you do that, they'll see him on every street corner, they'll look for him in every
house.
Just tell your men to keep their mouths shut and their eyes open."
Meanwhile, Michael is walking around, killing teenagers and terrorizing Laurie.
It seems hypocritical from Loomis of all people to prefer discretion over action.
At the beginning of the film, he was desperately seeking police help, but when he finally gets
it, he turns the offer down.
If a full search was organized, maybe Laurie's friends wouldn't have been butchered.
When Annie and Laurie stumble onto a recently robbed hardware store, Annie's father tells
them that someone has stolen a Halloween mask, some knives, and rope.
The robbery must have just happened, as the alarm is blaring in the background, and a
group of police officers are actively surveying the scene.
"What happened?"
"Oh, uh, somebody broke into the hardware store, probably kids."
Given the context, the film is hinting that Michael is the one who stole the mask and
the murder tools.
In theory, that makes sense, but given the fact that the girls had already encountered
a masked Michael far before the robbery supposedly occurred, he couldn't have stolen the mask.
The first time we see Michael after he escapes from Smith's Grove is when he waits outside
of Laurie's school, clearly already wearing the mask.
Hours later, when Laurie walks home with her friends, the group encounters Michael twice.
And right before Laurie goes out with Annie, she spots him again outside of her window.
All of these occurrences happen before Michael supposedly robs the store, and yet in all
of them, he's wearing the mask.
Unless he robbed another store and took another identical mask for good measure, this timeline
just doesn't add up.
Though it's understandable that Laurie would make some mistakes in a life or death situation,
it's less acceptable that she would make the same mistake three times.
When Michael surprises Laurie from inside the Doyle house, she reflexively stabs the
killer with a knitting needle.
Michael falls to the ground, seemingly defeated.
In typical horror fashion, however, he is very much alive and pursues Laurie again shortly
after.
Again, Laurie attacks Michael, jabbing him in the eye with a coat hanger and stabbing
him with a knife.
Michael is down once more, but instead of checking to see if he's done for good, Laurie
makes the same mistake as before and just assumes he's dead.
Not ready to call it quits, Michael gets right back up.
This time, Loomis takes the offensive and shoots him, causing Michael to fall off of
the balcony.
Despite Laurie failing to kill Michael twice before, she and Loomis decide it's better
to have a conversation, rather than check to make sure the fall or the gunshots successfully
killed Michael.
"It was the boogeyman."
"As a matter of fact, it was."
By the time anyone bothers to look, he's long gone.
If Loomis or Laurie had cared enough to check Michael's pulse, they wouldn't have to worry
about him continuing his killing spree.
Then again, how else could we have had so many Halloween sequels?
Being a low budget independent film created in a short period, Halloween naturally couldn't
avoid its fair share of little mistakes, ranging from continuity errors to production goofs
that eagle-eyed viewers may be able to catch.
For example, a crew member is reflected in the phone booth glass right before Loomis
discovers the driver Michael killed on his way to Haddonfield.
Though it can be a bit hard to notice, you can see Lynda stumble as she and Bob head
upstairs in the Wallace house.
Apparently, P.J. Soles didn't just lose her footing.
The actress tripped over a dolly track.
And when Annie is teasing Laurie about Michael in front of the hedges, a puff of smoke is
briefly caught on camera.
According to John Carpenter, the smoke came from his own cigarette.
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