In this episode, the Bear Cave of Terror kicks off Spooky Season with a little independent film that broke records, launched careers, and started a franchise featuring one of the most recognizable modern movie monsters: 1978's Halloween, directed by John Carpenter! Because this is such an important horror movie, we have TWO guest hosts with us to discuss it - Bill Zanowitz of the Comic Book Bears, and Jay Yospa of the LOTSL podcast. With even the actors pitching in to make the movie, and a production crew made up of friends and significant others, the release of the first movie to feature the name "Halloween" in the title made millions at the box office and was followed by multiple sequels, reboots, and sequels to reboots, spanning nearly 45 years. We talk how this low-budget indie came together, from the instantly-recognizable music, to the use of film techniques that pushed the boundaries of what a small picture could do, to an iconic killer in Michael Myers aka The Shape. We cover our favorite scary moments, Donald Pleasence's performance (and woofiness), and how Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode defined final girls for the next decade. Is this slasher one of your favorites, too? Let us know!

Additional resources for this episode:

Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest (2003), dir. Tommy Lee Wallace, produced by Compass International Pictures for Fox Television Network

"A Farewell to Halloween" by Marc Shapiro, Fangoria #89 Dec 1989, pp. 30-33- 62

"The Night He Made History" by Anthony C. Ferrante, Fangoria #138 Nov 1994, pp 12-22. 90

Catch Jay Yospa on the LOTSL (Life on the Shit List) Podcast on Apple Podcasts and other podcatching platforms, or hauntcub on social media

Bill Zanowitz can be found on the Comic Book Bears podcast, available on all podcatching platofrms and Youtube.com/@comicbookbears