The 2026 Searching the Psyche Through Cinema series explores the world of horror, inviting us to confront our deepest fears. The series kicks off with the 1978 classic Halloween (R, 92 minutes).

The story takes place in a fictional Illinois town, where Michael Myers killed his 17-year-old sister on Halloween night when he was six years old. Fifteen years later, he escapes from a mental hospital and returns, wearing a white Halloween mask and looking for new victims. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Laurie Strode, one of the teenagers he targets.

The New York Times writes, “In horror, the jack-in-the-box scare (think of the head floating out of the boat in Jaws) is the quickest way to get a scream, but the still shocks (the twin girls in The Shining) are the ones that linger with you. Halloween has them both.”

Following the screening, licensed psychologist Robin Li and journalist and film expert Troi Buford unpack the film’s psychological depths.

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