Not like the inferior sequels and clones

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2001)

The story of a maniac killing people on Halloween night is a great scary movie. Director John Carpenter knows how to scare his audience primarily through the faceless Shape and his great use of the widescreen frame. Carpenter never falls into the trap that most of the sequels fell into. He shows very, very little of Michael Myers in the movie (thus the character's name is The Shape since he only appears in the shadows and backgrounds) where as the sequels show Myers ad nauseum. Carpenter co-wrote the movie, directed and scored it. The score is a landmark and stands with Jaws and Star Wars as one of the most recognizable scores of the 1970's. Overall, I think many people fail to see this movie as the classic it is. This is for the simple reason that it spawned a wave of sequels and clones that were (at best) terrible. Keep in mind though that the sequels and rip offs are all pale imitations to the original night he came home.