Maybe the Scariest Movie of All Time

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2000)

In a three week shooting schedule, and with a miniscule budget (even by 1978 standards), John Carpenter made what is certainly one of the two or three most frightening movies ever made.
This film is the archetype which many of the horror films of the 80's and 90's unsuccessfully tried to duplicate. It pulled together many elements which have since become horror standards: the silently relentless (and perhaps immortal) killer; the sexy teens who get bumped off and the pure teen who does not; the musical theme which signals the audience of the killer's arrival. All but eighteen minutes of the film take place in the dark. The skillfully underplayed and self-contained performance of Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis may even foreshadow Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter.
One word of warning: don't expect gallons of grue in this movie. As Hitchcock shot "Psycho" without gore, so Carpenter proves that a film can scare the bejesus out of its audience without buckets of blood. Leave Jason in his woods; let Freddie stay on Elm Street; you can even skip the Michael Meyers sequels. But if you want to see how truly frightening a movie can be, nuke the popcorn, turn off the lights, and pop "Halloween" into your VCR.