Halloween [Mass Market Paperback]

Curtis Richards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1979

Based on the screenplay by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Books; 5th Printing edition (October 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553132261
• ISBN-13: 978-0553132267
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Halloween" novelization expands on the story, March 29, 2002

By 

C.H. (Beach Park, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Halloween: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

This novelization of "Halloween" should delight fans of the movie; it follows the movie to the letter and expands the storyline. After young Michael Myers murders his older sister on Halloween 1963, he's institutionalized and everyone who so much looks at the kid the wrong way has an "accident". Only his psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis, isn't fooled by this charming sweet-faced lad and struggles to convince his superiors that minimum security is no place for the kid. But, hey, nobody ever sees the kid doing anything, so minimum security it is. His sentencing judge ordered him tried as an adult, but before his hearing the twenty-one year old Michael jumps the fence on October 30th, 1978. Loomis, livid as ever because no one listened to him, trails Michael back to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois. While Loomis gets only lukewarm support from the sheriff, Michael robs a hardware store of a fright mask, rope, and a few knives, and sets out to relive Halloween of so long ago. He stalks teenage Laurie, Annie, and Lynda, who remind him of his sister. After killing two of them and one of their boyfriends, it's a fight to the finish between Michael and gutsy last one out Laurie Strode, who finally believes that there is indeed a "Boogeyman".

Well-written and paced, Curtis Richards expands on John Carpenter's storyline much better than any of the latter film sequels. We learn that Michael had a mentally ill grandfather who also had a poisonous rage against young lovers. Michael talks as a child and we get his third person viewpoint. We get Laurie Strode's thoughts on the evils of Halloween and then, when she gets confronted with them. Plenty of teenage chatter that's even better now that I read this as a adult. Unlike the movie, very little restraint with violence and sex. I wish Richards had written the "Halloween II" novel, because that one can't hold a candle, or a jack-o-lantern, to this one.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not only a great novelization, but a good novel on its own., May 12, 2000

By 

Chadwick H. Saxelid "Bookworm" (Concord, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Halloween: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Who was Curtis Richards and just how did this individual know so much about Carpenter and Hill's interest with Celtic myth. Not only are all the characters expanded nicely (we get to see Loomis and Michael interacting in the asylum and the good Doctor's growing understanding that the boy harbors pure evil) but an extended historical back story is revealed as well. The basic storyline of Carpenter's legendary thriller is made so much stronger by these touches. A near classic of its kind.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like the film, brilliant, August 23, 1998

By 

Sean Batman (Caringbah, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Halloween: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

The film, Halloween, would securely hold 1st place in many hearts world-wide as the scariest and most celebrated film ever. Carpenter developed the perfect killer in the form (or Shape)of Michael Myers. By crafting Myers as the pure image of all evil on Halloween night, Carpenter has given all of us the nightmarish question, what if? The novel only reassures that question giving valuable answers to Myers' history and future. Every aspect of the story is anaylised by Curtis through his abundent descriptions and horrorfying evaluations. This is an awsome experience that all fans of the films, horror novels and frights alike should read.