JERICHO, NY, September 4, 2002- It was 1978 and a horror movie about a bogeyman terrorizing a handful of babysitters, with a novice director and no stars, was about to change cinema history. John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN came from nowhere and created a whole new vocabulary for horror films, becoming one of the seminal (and imitated) horror films of all time and the most profitable independently released film in cinema history. On Saturday, October 26 at 10 PM ET/PT, AMC's popular series BACKSTORY spotlights the original horror blockbuster in a one-hour special as part of Monsterfest 24/7, October 25-31. To accompany the original special, AMC will also air HALLOWEEN 4 and 5.
With original interviews with director John Carpenter, stars Jamie Lee Curtis and P.J. Soles, and crewmembers, BACKSTORY: HALLOWEEN unveils the tumultuous production of the indy chiller and how the ingenuity of Carpenter and his team, coupled with the modest budget of $320,000, drove the filmmakers to create some of the most inventive, and memorable, images ever put to film. The new technology of the steadicam, just recently introduced into filmmaking, allowed the crew to shoot one of the most gripping opening scenes in horror film history. The film that resulted forever changed horror movies – inspiring scores of imitators and inspiring the "slasher" genre – and, with a worldwide gross of over $70 million, became the most profitable independently released film of all time.
HALLOWEEN (1978) is the story of six year-old Michael Myers, admitted to Smith's Grove Warren County Sanitarium after brutally murdering his teenage sister on HALLOWEEN night, 1963, and the terror that spreads through Haddonfield, Illinois 15 years later when he comes home. In one of the performances of his career, Donald Pleasance plays Dr. Loomis, Michael's psychiatrist, who sees pure evil within the boy and chases Michael's specter to Haddonfield where he has donned a HALLOWEEN mask and begun stalking three teenagers, Laurie Strode (Curtis) and her friends Annie (Nancy Loomis) and Lynda (PJ Soles).
BACKSTORY is AMC's popular weekly series that follows a movie on its journey from script to screen. Stars, directors, producers and other Hollywood players provide revealing inside "backstories" about the events that affected each movie, its success and its stars.
AMC's Monsterfest 24/7 is a 7-day, 154-hour-long HALLOWEEN marathon that is the ultimate television destination for monster movies and themed original programming. The October 25 – 31 event features over 40 films, spanning seven decades – from classic Universal titles like FRANKENSTEIN, MUMMY and DRACULA that launched the genre in the '30s to more modern movies like FRIGHT NIGHT, PREDATOR 2 and HALLOWEEN 4-5.
AMC is a premiere 24-hour movie network dedicated to the world of American film. With one of the finest, most comprehensive libraries of popular films, and a diverse blend of original series, documentaries and interstitials, AMC offers an elegant and contemporary entertainment destination. AMC is a fully distributed network reaching over 83,000,000 U.S. homes (as of July 2002) and ranking #16 in size among all 55 networks.
Since its launch in 1984, AMC has been dedicated to deepening the movie experience for its viewers, featuring film-loving celebrity hosts and an increasingly visible, critically acclaimed slate of original programming. AMC has more than doubled its original programming over the past three years and garnered many of the industry's highest honors, including seven Emmy awards.
A leader in sports, news and entertainment programming, Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc. is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) and NBC. Rainbow owns and manages AMC, WE: Women's Entertainment, Bravo, IFC (The Independent Film Channel), muchmusic usa, Mag Rack, Rainbow Sports Networks, News 12 Networks, and MetroChannels as well as the Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation and Rainbow Network Communications. Rainbow is a fifty-percent partner in Fox Sports Net and has a strategic partnership with MGM (NYSE:MGM), which owns a 20% stake in four of Rainbow's national networks: AMC, WE: Women's Entertainment, Bravo and IFC.
*All times Eastern/Pacific.