Halloween

It is Halloween in Haddonfield, Illinois, at some point the film never names, though it looks like the 1970s. Ten-year-old Michael Myers is already showing the signs of a psychopath. He tortures animals and wears masks. His home is a mess. His mother Deborah dances at the Rabbit in Red strip club, her boyfriend Ronnie White is a drunk who tears into him, and his older sister Judith verbally abuses him. The only people he seems to love are Deborah and his baby sister, whom he calls Boo. At school, the bully Wesley Rhoades torments him. That Halloween, Michael follows Wesley into the woods and beats him to death.

That night Michael kills Ronnie, then kills Judith's boyfriend Steve. Wearing a mask, he stabs Judith to death with a kitchen knife as she tries to get away down the hall. He spares only Boo. After one of the longest trials in state history, he is found guilty of first-degree murder and sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium under child psychologist Dr. Samuel Loomis.

At first Michael talks to Loomis and looks forward to his mother's visits. Over the next months he pulls away from everyone, his mother included, and spends all his time making papier-mache masks. When he kills a nurse just as Deborah is leaving one of her visits, she cannot take it anymore and kills herself.

For fifteen years Michael makes masks and does not say a word. Loomis keeps treating him, then decides to move on with his life and closes the case. Soon after, Michael breaks out of Smith's Grove, killing guards and staff on the way. At a truck stop he kills trucker Joe Grizzly in a bathroom and takes his coveralls, then heads for Haddonfield. On Halloween day he walks into his boarded-up childhood home and pulls the kitchen knife and the Halloween mask he hid under the floorboards the night he killed his family.

Laurie Strode is a high school girl getting ready for Halloween with her friends Annie Brackett and Lynda Van Der Klok. All day she keeps seeing a huge man watching her from a distance. That night Lynda sneaks into the abandoned Myers house with her boyfriend Bob Simms. Michael stabs Bob and strangles Lynda. While Laurie is babysitting Tommy Doyle, Michael kills her parents, Mason and Cynthia Strode.

Loomis learns of the escape and drives to Haddonfield. He gets a handgun and warns Sheriff Lee Brackett, who heads for the Strode house. On the way, Brackett tells Loomis the secret. Laurie is Michael's baby sister, adopted by the Strodes after their mother's suicide.

Annie talks Laurie into watching Lindsey Wallace so she can spend time with her boyfriend Paul. At the Wallace house, Michael kills Paul and attacks Annie. Laurie brings Lindsey back and finds Annie beaten and bleeding on the floor but alive, and calls for help. Michael comes after Laurie and chases her down the street and back into the Doyle house. The kids hide in the bathroom while Michael grabs Laurie and carries her to the old Myers house.

There Michael tries to show Laurie who she is. He hands her a photo of the two of them together as children. She does not understand, stabs him in the neck with his own knife and runs. Loomis arrives and shoots him three times. Michael gets up, catches Laurie again and drags her back to the house. Loomis steps in and Michael crushes his skull. Laurie takes Loomis's gun and hides upstairs inside the walls. Michael finds her on a balcony and charges, and they both go over the railing. Laurie comes to on top of the unconscious Michael and aims the gun at his face. He grabs her wrist just as it goes off. She drops the gun and screams as police sirens close in.

Story notes

• Rob Zombie reimagines Michael Myers's origin and return to Haddonfield, following Michael from childhood violence and institutionalization to his adult escape and pursuit of Laurie Strode.

Release facts

• Status: Released. Opened August 31, 2007 on 3,472 Screens in North America, the Widest Opening of Any Halloween Film Up to Then.
• Runtime: 110 minutes theatrical (BBFC 110:14; The Numbers lists 109); 121 minutes unrated director's cut
• Worldwide: $77,514,401 per The Numbers; $80,253,908 per Box Office Mojo
• Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (United States); The Weinstein Company (international)

Halloween opened August 31, 2007 on 3,472 screens. It made $10,896,610 on opening day, more than the entire opening weekends of Halloween II (1981), III, 4, 5 and The Curse of Michael Myers. The three-day weekend was $26,362,367 and the four-day Labor Day weekend was $30,591,759. That was a Labor Day record, beating Transporter 2's $20.1 million from 2005, and it held until Shang-Chi in 2021. It was number one that weekend.

The second weekend fell 63.9 percent to $9,513,770, second behind 3:10 to Yuma. It was sixth in its third weekend and out of the top ten by its fourth. It finished with $58.3 million domestic, 44th for 2007 and the eighth-biggest R-rated film of the year. Overseas it opened September 29, 2007, leading new releases Michael Clayton and Mr. Woodcock with $1.3 million from 372 theaters. Box Office Mojo puts the worldwide total at $80,253,908, and The Numbers at $77,514,401.

Reviews were mostly negative. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 28 percent from 122 reviews with a 4.4 average. Metacritic gave it 47 from 18 reviews. CinemaScore audiences gave it a B-minus, and the crowd was 62 percent male, 57 percent 25 or older. Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle said Zombie put his own spin on it while paying tribute to Carpenter. Several critics, including Matthew Turner and Jamie Russell of the BBC, liked the childhood first half more than the remake half and praised McDowell. Dennis Harvey of Variety, Jack Matthews of the New York Daily News, Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter and Kim Newman of Empire all said it lacked suspense. Ken Fox of TV Guide and Bill Gibron of PopMatters defended it.

Quentin Tarantino said he disliked it at first and came around to it, praising Danielle Harris, Daeg Faerch and Zombie's Sam Peckinpah style. John Carpenter was cool on it. He said the backstory took away Michael's mystique and that Michael is supposed to be almost supernatural, though he later said he was on good terms with Zombie.

It won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Film of 2007 with 550 votes, the most in the award's history, and Best Remake at the 2008 Spike TV Scream Awards. It was nominated for Best Film at the Sitges Film Festival, and Sheri Moon Zombie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Fright Meter Awards. PETA's Dan Mathews sent Zombie a thank-you letter for showing the link between animal cruelty and violence against people.

Press and marketing

• Theatrical key-art / poster campaign reference: IMP Awards — Halloween (2007) poster archive.

Cast

Crew

Production

After Resurrection, several ninth films were tried. Dimension pursued a crossover with Hellraiser after Freddy vs. Jason. One pitch had young Michael open the Lament Configuration and be possessed, with the Cenobites hunting him. Doug Bradley said Clive Barker agreed to write it while John Carpenter was considered to direct. It died when 52 percent of an online poll disapproved and Moustapha Akkad was not interested. Other unmade scripts included Halloween: Bad Blood by Josh Stolberg and Bobby Florsheim, bringing back Jamie Lloyd; Halloween: Retribution (2004) by Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton; Halloween: Asylum (2004) by Matt Veene, with Michael escaping death row; and Jake Wade Wall's prequel Halloween: The Missing Years. Moustapha and Malek Akkad were also working on a story about Dr. Wynn from The Curse of Michael Myers.

Moustapha Akkad was killed in the November 2005 Amman hotel bombings in Jordan while attending a wedding, and his son Malek decided to take the series somewhere new. The film carries an in memory credit for him.

On June 4, 2006, Dimension announced Rob Zombie would remake the 1978 film, writing, directing, producing and supervising the music. Bob Weinstein approached him. Zombie told Carpenter first out of respect, and Carpenter told him to make it his own. On June 16, 2006, Zombie said the film would combine prequel and remake with plenty of new material. A 2006 treatment and early draft by Zombie are indexed by 45 Lampkin Lane.

Zombie felt Michael, like Freddy, Jason and Pinhead, had become too familiar to be scary. He gave the mask its own story instead of a hardware store theft, wanted Michael to be a real psychopath hiding behind it, and made his reason for coming home unclear. Michael talks as a boy and goes silent at Smith's Grove. Zombie planned for the adult Michael to say "Boo" to Laurie at the end, but cut it so the character would not be demystified. Michael does not drive in this version, and Loomis is tied much more closely to Michael's story. Zombie kept the mask and Carpenter's theme.

Daeg Faerch was announced as young Michael on December 19, 2006, and Malcolm McDowell as Loomis on December 22. McDowell wanted Loomis to have a huge ego and be chasing a book deal. Tyler Mane, who had worked with Zombie on The Devil's Rejects, was announced as adult Michael on December 24. Mane watched seven of the eight earlier films, skipping Halloween III, and said acting only with his eyes was very hard. Scout Taylor-Compton went through a long audition, but Zombie said she was his first choice because she had a genuine quality and did not seem actor-y. She was one of the last leads cast, after Faerch, Mane, McDowell, Forsythe and Harris.

Kristina Klebe got the part of Lynda about a week after moving to Los Angeles and turned down playing Charlotte Corday in a Marat/Sade production to do it. She did a chemistry read on the Sony lot with Zombie, Taylor-Compton and Danielle Harris. Daniel Roebuck auditioned for Chester Chesterfield, which went to Sid Haig, and Zombie offered him strip club owner Lou Martini instead. Heather Bowen, a fan who won a 2005 contest for a walk-on back when the film was still planned as a sequel, shot a scene as a news reporter that was cut.

Production began January 29, 2007. According to the press notes, the shoot ran 38 days and wrapped March 22, 2007, mostly in South Pasadena, the same area Carpenter used in 1978. The last day went back to the West Adams houses for more basement shots. The crew spread about 200 33-gallon bags of fall leaves to fake an Illinois autumn in Southern California in February and March. Before filming, Zombie saw the first production mask and said the Shape had not looked so good since 1978. Cinematographer Phil Parmet described the look as realistic and almost documentary.

About four days before release, a workprint leaked online and spread on BitTorrent. Zombie said it was an older cut. The leak worried people because Eli Roth had blamed a leaked workprint for Hostel: Part II flopping earlier that year. Dark Horizons noted the workprint showed what changed after test screenings in June 2007, including a scene of a female Smith's Grove inmate being raped. The R-rated theatrical cut replaced it with a simpler breakout, and the unrated director's cut kept it.

After being cast as Lynda, Kristina Klebe performed a chemistry read with Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton.

Klebe improvised the walking scene’s French-teacher conversation, retained in the director’s cut, after Zombie encouraged her to use her language skills.

Klebe chose Halloween over playing Charlotte Corday in a Classical Theater of Harlem production of Marat/Sade.

Roebuck auditioned for groundskeeper Chester Chesterfield; after Sid Haig received that role, Zombie offered him Lou Martini.

Roebuck said the removal of most of Lou’s scenes left the character available for a larger role in Halloween II.

Filming locations

• 1110 Glendon Way, South Pasadena, California: The Myers house
• Craftsman houses on Harvard Street, West Adams, Los Angeles: Myers home, per the press notes
• 1002 Highland Street, South Pasadena: Strode house
• 1960 La France Avenue, South Pasadena: Doyle house, where Laurie babysits
• 1937 La France Avenue, South Pasadena: Wallace house
• 1020 El Centro Street, South Pasadena (Administration Building): Young Michael's elementary school exterior
• Charles W. Eliot Middle School, 2184 North Lake Avenue, Altadena: School interiors
• Griffith Park, Los Angeles: Woods where Michael kills the school bully
• Country Girl Saloon, 31602 Castaic Road, Castaic: Rabbit in Red strip club, per Movie-Locations and the press notes
• Set built in Valencia, California: Rabbit in Red interiors, as Daniel Roebuck remembers it
• US Veterans Hospital campus, 16111 Plummer Street, North Hills: Smith's Grove Sanitarium
• Los Angeles City College, 855 North Vermont Avenue, Hollywood: Webster Hall, where Loomis lectures
• Castaic Truck Wash, 31557 Castaic Road, Castaic: Truck stop where Michael gets the trucker's clothes
• South Pasadena Public Library, 1100 Oxley Street: Haddonfield High School
• Mountain View Cemetery, 2400 Fair Oaks Avenue, Altadena: Haddonfield Cemetery
• Los Angeles Police Historical Society Museum, 6045 York Boulevard, Highland Park: Sheriff Brackett's office and the Haddonfield police station
• The remake used Southern California extensively, including South Pasadena for the Myers/Strode/Doyle/Wallace neighborhood geography, South Pasadena Library for Haddonfield High, Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, and Castaic locations for the truck-stop material.
• Dan Roebuck recalled filming his Rabbit in Red material on a strip-club set built in Valencia, California.

Effects and makeup

Wayne Toth, who had done House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects with Zombie, created the Myers masks. According to the press notes, the clay and latex work took about two weeks before fittings with Tyler Mane, and he made three copies of the clean mask and six of the rotted one. Toth said the goal was to make the masks look as much like the first movie's mask as possible, and that Zombie really liked the result.

The adult Michael wears a rotted version of the mask, which he digs out from under the floorboards of the Myers house. Toth also designed the masks young Michael makes at Smith's Grove, including the one he wears to kill.

Toth said Tyler Mane is very well proportioned and does not have a giant head, so the mask did not have to look oversized. A wig under the tight mask would have distorted it, so he glued hair along the inside of the bottom of the mask, the way old biker hats were made.

Douglas Noe ran the makeup department, and Brian Rae, Chris Zega and Michael Deak worked on makeup effects. Mark R. Byers coordinated physical effects. Toth's team also handled a lot of on-set blood.

The featurettes The Many Masks of Michael Myers (6 minutes) and the three-part Re-imagining Halloween (19 minutes) on the DVD cover the mask, effects makeup, props and wardrobe.

Special makeup effects artist Wayne Toth created the full-head latex Myers masks and the asylum masks, while also handling a high volume of on-set blood effects and pumping gags for the film's expanded body count.

The adult mask was designed as a physically decayed object that Michael had buried beneath the Myers house, so its cracking, grime and rot were built into the latex/paint finish rather than added only through photography.

Props and costumes

Costume designer Mary McLeod's team bought 1970s clothes from vintage shops and thrift stores. Young Michael's clown mask is a 1960s-style mask bought on eBay for $12.

Adult Michael's work suit was washed, stained, stretched and dyed over and over to look like it belonged to a man locked up for years.

A pair of screen-matched bloodied Carhartt coveralls worn by Tyler Mane sold at Propstore's Los Angeles Spring 2026 auction. They are marked Tall with 167 Short written inside the collar and show production grime, tears, blood and a squib hole. Propstore matched them to the scene where Deputy Charles shoots Michael in the Doyle house. The estimate was $2,500 to $5,000.

Michael's kitchen knife and Halloween mask are hidden under the floorboards of the Myers house, and he digs them out when he gets home.

Young Michael's papier-mache masks at Smith's Grove are a key prop and the reason Zombie gave for Michael wearing a mask at all.

Toth sculpted the adult Myers mask around Tyler Mane's proportions. Because a full wig distorted the tight mask, hair was glued inside the lower neck on selected masks so Mane could appear long-haired without wearing the bulky wig underneath.

The Shape's production wardrobe included heavily weathered Carhartt coveralls; a surviving bloodied screen-matched pair documents the film's grime, tears, staining and squib damage.

Production artifacts

Art and design

• The IMP Awards primary one-sheet credits MaD Creative for the poster design.

Scripts and documents

The killers

Deaths

Tyler Bates composed the score, including his version of John Carpenter's theme, titled Halloween 2007. Tim Williams conducted and orchestrated. Rob Zombie and Tom Rowland were music supervisors.

Halloween: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack came out August 21, 2007 from Hip-O/UMe. It has 24 tracks, 12 of dialogue and 12 of music.

Songs on the album and in the film: "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult, heard in the 1978 film; "Love Hurts" by Nazareth; "Baby, I Love Your Way" by Peter Frampton; Iggy Pop's live version of the Stooges' "1969"; "Only Women Bleed" by Alice Cooper; "Tom Sawyer" by Rush; "Let It Ride" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive; "God of Thunder" by Kiss; and "Halloween II" by the Misfits, a 1982 song not connected to the film series.

Nan Vernon recorded a new "Mr. Sandman" for the end credits, produced by Tyler Bates. The song was also used in Halloween II (1981) and H20. Bates's cue "The Shape Stalks Laurie" is also on the album.

Waxwork Records issued Rob Zombie's Halloween soundtrack on vinyl as a deluxe double LP on 180-gram black and clear striped vinyl with orange splatter. It has new art by Robert Sammelin, liner notes by Zombie, a 20-page booklet of unreleased set photos from his collection, an art print and tip-on gatefold jackets. Tyler Bates's Halloween scores got new vinyl releases in 2020.

Soundtrack releases

Home Media

• DVD, US, December 18, 2007, from Dimension Home Entertainment. Two-disc special editions of both the R-rated theatrical cut (110 minutes) and the unrated director's cut (121 minutes), with the same extras: Rob Zombie commentary; 17 deleted scenes (about 22 minutes) with optional commentary; a 4-minute alternate ending with optional commentary; a 10-minute blooper reel; The Many Masks of Michael Myers (6 minutes); Re-imagining Halloween (19 minutes); Meet the Cast (18 minutes); 30 minutes of casting sessions with fifteen actors; Scout Taylor-Compton's 8-minute screen test; theatrical trailer.
• DVD, UK, April 28, 2008, released as the Uncut edition.
• Three-disc DVD Collector's Edition, US, October 7, 2008, adding Zombie's documentary Michael Lives: The Making of Halloween (about 4 hours 20 minutes, covering preproduction and all the shooting days) to the unrated edition's extras.
• Blu-ray, US, fall 2008, unrated director's cut only, with all the DVD extras plus Michael Lives: The Making of Halloween. DVD Sleuth dates it September 21, 2008, while other listings give October 21, 2008.
• Halloween: The Complete Collection Blu-ray box set, September 23, 2014, from Scream Factory and Anchor Bay. The Limited Deluxe Edition gives the film its own disc and an exclusive bonus disc holding the 260-minute Michael Lives documentary. Blu-ray.com lists the theatrical cut on the film disc, with the Zombie commentary, 17 deleted scenes, alternate ending, bloopers, the mask featurette, Re-Imagining Halloween, Meet the Cast, 15 casting sessions, the Taylor-Compton screen test and the trailer.
• The Numbers estimates domestic disc sales at $40,800,314 on DVD and $1,117,475 on Blu-ray.

• Halloween (2007) Michael Myers mask, Trick or Treat Studios, officially licensed.
• Halloween (2007) Michael Myers '92 Murder Mask, Trick or Treat Studios.
• Halloween (2007) Asylum Mask, injection-molded plastic version (SKU WTLG106), Trick or Treat Studios. The maker says it was developed from the film mold supplied by Wayne Toth and scanned. Elastic strap.
• Halloween (2007) Butcher Knife replica, Trick or Treat Studios. Injection-molded plastic with an electroplated blade, 17 inches overall with a 12-inch blade.
• Halloween (2007) '92 Murder Knife, Trick or Treat Studios.
• Halloween (2007) Scream Greats Michael Myers 8-inch figure, Trick or Treat Studios.
• Rob Zombie's Halloween soundtrack double LP, Waxwork Records.
• Halloween: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD, Hip-O/UMe, 2007.
• Halloween: Nightdance comic miniseries, Devil's Due Publishing, 2008, written by Stefan Hutchinson. Zombie's reboot left the comics free of film continuity.
• Trick or Treat Studios Halloween (2007): Michael Myers Mask, cataloged for Halloween (2007).

Replica props and masks

The catalog

• Official trailer — HalloweenMovies.com

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Behind the Scenes

Press & Promo

Effects

Props

Merchandise