Chapter 1:

We see that the shape is a Halloween mask. It is a large, full-head platex rubber mask, not a monster or ghoul, but the pale, neutral features of a man weirdly distorted by the rubber.

Finally on the eye of the mask. It is blank, empty, a dark, staring socket..

HADDONFIELD, ILLINOIS OCTOBER 31, 1963 MYERS HOUSE -- NIGHT --

It is night. Move toward the rear of a house. It is a windy night and the curtains around the Jack-o'-lantern ruffle back and forth. Suddenly you can hear voices from inside the house.

"My parents won't be back till ten." A girl says.

"Are you sure?" Her boyfriend asks. Then laughter. We see the sister's bedroom through the blowing curtains. Into the bedroom comes the SISTER, 18, very pretty. She giggles as the boyfriend jumps into the room. Also 18, he wears a Halloween mask and costume. "We're all alone, aren't we?"

"Michael's around someplace...." The girl says. The boyfriend grabs the sister and kisses her. "Take off that thing." The boyfriend rips off his mask. He is a handsome young man underneath. They kiss again, this time with more passion. The boyfriend begins to unbutton the sister's blouse. She responds to him. swings away from the window and begins to restlessly pace back and forth, agitated, disturbed. You can hear the sounds of the sister and boyfriend inside the bedroom growing more and more passionate. Inside through the moving curtains, we see the sister and the boyfriend on the bed, naked, making love. Someone springs back from the window and stalks quickly down the side of the house, past the Jack-o'-lantern, around to a door. Quietly the door is opened and the Person moves inside. The person glides silently through the house into the kitchen, up to a drawer. The drawer is opened. A large butcher knife is withdrawn. Then the person swings around and moves to the kitchen door. We look down a hallway to the front door. The boyfriend steps out of the bedroom door, buttoning his shirt. The sister stands in the doorway, a sheet wrapped around her.

"I gotta go." Her boyfriend says.

"Will you call me tomorrow?" She asks him.

"Yeah, sure." He responds.

"Promise?" She asks.

"Yeah." He says. They kiss again and the boyfriend walks to the front door. The sister watches as he leaves and shuts the door behind him. Then she turns and steps back into the bedroom. The person moves slowly down the hall to the bedroom door and peers around inside. The sister sits at her night-table brushing her hair. She is still completely nude. Slowly the person moves into the room. Suddenly move down to the discarded Halloween mask on the floor. The person bends down and picks it up. Then suddenly the person is covered by the mask and you can see through the eye-holes. The person moves up behind the sister. Sensing a presence, she spins around and stares at the person, covering her breasts quickly.

"Michael...?" She asks. Suddenly the person lunges forward. The sister continues to stare incredulously. There is a rapid blur as the person drives the butcher knife into the sister's chest and out again almost before you can seen it. The sister looks down at the blood forming at her hands, then back up at the person with an astonished disbelief. Then in a wild paroxysm the butcher knife blurs continuously in and out, slashing the sister mercilessly. She begins to Scream, trying to fend off the blows with her hands, then suddenly falls to the floor. The person moves back away from the sister's lifeless body, spins around and careens out of the bedroom. At top speed Michael races through the darkened house, to the front door, out the door, down the steps and rapidly up the street. Up the sidewalk, up a small side alley, down someone's backyard, then to a sudden, abrupt halt in front of Mother and Father just coming out of a neighbor's house. Mother and Father stare at the Michael, at first in puzzlement, then slow, growing horror.

"Michael?" She asks. The father's hand reaches up and rips off the Halloween mask, revealing Michael,Age 6, underneath, a bright-eyed boy with a calm, quiet smile on his face. revealing the blood-stained butcher knife in his hand, then further back, Craning up past his parents standing there, up from the neighbor's house, the neighborhood as the sounds of Police sirens rise in the distance.

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SMITH'S GROVE, ILLINOIS OCTOBER 30, 1978 DISSOLVE TO: EXT. HIGHWAY -- RAIN -- NIGHT

Two headlights appear in the darkness, backlighting the rain that pours down on a lonely strip of highway. A station wagon hisses along the wet road surface.

INT. STATION WAGON -- NIGHT

The back seat is separated from the front by a wire-mesh screen, much like a police car. Marion, 30, drives. She is dressed in a crisp, white nurse's uniform. Next to her in the passenger seat is Sam Loomis, a clinical psychiatrist. He is a tough-looking man in his forties who flips through pages in a manila folder.

" ...then he gets another physical by the state, and he makes his appearance before the judge. That should take four hours if we're lucky, then we're on our way." Loomis says.

"What did you use before?" Marion asks.

"Thorazine." Loomis says.

"He'll barely be able to sit up." Marion says.

"That's the idea. Here we are." Loomis says. Through windshield -- Sanitarium. Through the rain they see a large sign: SMITH'S GROVE -- WARREN COUNTY SANITARIUM. Behind the sign is the sanitarium itself, a cold-looking building surrounded by a fence.

INT. STATION WAGON

"The driveway's a few hundred yards up on your right." Loomis says.

"Are there any special instructions?" Marion asks.

"Just try to understand what we're dealing with here. Don't underestimate it." Loomis says.

"I think we should refer to 'it' as 'him.' " Marion says.

"If you say so." Loomis says.

"Your compassion is overwhelming, " Marion says.. Doctor. Loomis glances at Marion as she lights a cigarette. She shoves the matches into the pack and tosses it on the dashboard. Loomis stares at the cigarette pack. The pack of matches reads: "The Rabbit in Red Lounge -- Entertainment Nightly." Loomis turns his eyes back to the rain-slicked road.

"Ever done anything like this before?" Loomis asks.

"Only minimum security." Marion says.

"I see." Loomis says.

"What does that mean?" Marion asks.

"It means... I see." Loomis says.

"You don't have to make this any harder than it already is." Marion says.

"I couldn't if I tried." Loomis says.

"The only thing that ever bothers me is their gibberish. When they start raving on and on..." Marion says.

"You don't have anything to worry about. He hasn't spoken a word in 15 years." Loomis says. Both of them suddenly stare out the windshield in front of them. Through windshield -- Field. Through the rain see a field off to the side of the road. Dimly lit by the car headlights are five patients, dressed in wind-blown white gowns, drenched by the rain, wandering aimlessly around the field.

INT. STATION WAGON

"Since when do they let them wander around?" Marion asks. They look up ahead. Through windshield -- Patient. Standing by the side of the road is a Male Patient, a wild- looking man in his sixties dressed in a white gown, who stares at the station wagon.

INT. STATION WAGON

Marion slows the station wagon and pulls off to the side of the road. Loomis jumps out. Through the windshield we see Loomis rush over to the patient, stand and talk for a moment, then hurry back.

INT. STATION WAGON

Loomis climbs back in, dripping from the rain.

"Pull up to the entrance!" Loomis exclaims.

"Shouldn't we pick him up?" Marion asks.

"Move it!" Loomis exclaims. Marion starts down the road.

"What did he say?" Marion asks.

"He asked me if I could help him find his purple lawn mower." Loomis says.

"I don't think this is any time to be funny..." Marion says.

"He said something else. "It's all right now. He's gone. The evil's gone." Loomis says. Ahead of them is the entrance to the sanitarium.

INT. STATION WAGON

Marion slows down to turn. Through the rear window see a shape spring up out of the darkness, streak through the rain and leap up on the rear of the station wagon. The station wagon bounces up and down. The roof sags in and out with the weight of someone on top.

"Something fell on the roof." Marion says. The roof continues to buckle in and out wildly.

"Something jumped on the roof..." Loomis says. Marion stops and rolls down her window to look outside. Loomis opens his door and steps out. Suddenly he is hit in the face by a powerful fist from the roof. Loomis staggers backwards and falls by the side of the road. Marion starts to react. Suddenly a hand reaches in through the window and lunges at her. The fingers grab her hair. She screams. The fingers tighten around her hair and the hand pulls Marion roughly to the window. Twisted around in the seat, Marion's foot jams down all the way on the gas pedal. The station wagon ROARS forward. Marion continues to scream, clawing at the hand. Through the rain the road spins crazily ahead, the wipers erasing sheets of rain. Suddenly the other hand reaches down from the roof and grabs the wiper, holding it tightly. Rain splashes on the windshield obscuring the road.

INT. STATION WAGON

The hand rips at Marion's hair. Screaming. Clawing. The windshield is completely obliterated by rain.

INT. STATION WAGON

The station wagon skids and whams into the shoulder on the Side of the road. Marion is hurled across the seat against the passenger door. Suddenly the hand springs down from above and slams against the passenger window, shattering it. Shrieking, Marion scurries across the front seat, opens the driver's door and scrambles out.

EXT. ROAD -- STATION WAGON

Marion frantically crawls her way across the rain-drenched road away from the station wagon. She slides down into the muddy shoulder. She looks back. From the shoulder you can see the station wagon in the rain, and the shape jump in the driver's seat and slam the door. Then the station wagon takes off and disappears down the road into the darkness. Loomis runs up out of the rain and helps Marion to her feet. She cries hysterically. Loomis stares off down the road at the disappearing taillights.

"You can calm down. The evil's gone." Loomis says.

HADDONFIELD OCTOBER 31, 1978 DISSOLVE TO: EXT. LAURIE'S HOUSE -- DAY

Laurie, 17 and pretty in a quiet sort of way, steps out of her two-story frame house, down the front walk to the street. Her face has a soft, innocent quality, her eyes bright and alive. Her father steps out of the door behind her and walks to the car in the driveway. His car has "STRODE REAL ESTATE" emblazoned on the side door.

"Don't forget to drop off the key at the Myers place... " He says

"I won't." She says.

"They're coming by to see the house at 10:30. Be sure you leave it under the mat..." He says,

"I promise." She says. She walks down the residential street. She carries a large bundle of schoolbooks in her arms. Across a backyard Tommy Doyle, an eight-year-old boy with tousled brown hair and bright blue eyes comes running with his books.

"Hey, Laurie..." Tommy says.

"Hi, Tommy." Laurie says. He catches up with her and they walk along down the street.

"Are you coming over tonight?" Tommy asks.

" Same time, same place" She says.

"Can we make Jack-o'-lanterns?" Tommy asks.

"Sure." She says.

"Can we watch the monster movies?" He asks.

"Sure." She says.

"Will you read to me? Can we make popcorn?" Tommy asks.

"Sure. Sure." She says. They walk up to the front of the old, two-story Myers house set back from the street. It is now weather-beaten and dilapidated. Laurie walks through the front gate and starts up toward the porch.

"You're not supposed to go up there." Tommy says. Laurie holds up a key.

"Yes, I am." She says.

"Uh-uh. That's a spook house. " Tommy says.

"Just watch." She says. Laurie strolls up to the front porch. She bends down, lifts the welcome mat and places the key under it.