Halloween (1978) trailer

HALLOWEEN (1978): It's Shocktober and time to watch some scary

movies.  John Carpenter excels in this one, which still holds up today.

It influenced so many movies to come later, especially in the slasher

genre (FRIDAY THE 13TH, etc).  Not much blood or gore, just pure

thrills and jump scares. Carpenter wrote the theme song and the music

is what really caries this through, like letting the audience know something

dreadful is coming soon. 

    additional info from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . . . .

Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, who co-wrote it with its producer Debra Hill. It stars Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis (in her film debut), P. J. Soles, and Nancy Loomis. Set mostly in the fictional Illinois town of Haddonfield, the film follows mental patient Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his teenage sister one Halloweennight during his childhood; he escapes 15 years later and returns to Haddonfield, where he stalks teenage babysitter Laurie Strode and her friends while his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis pursues him.

The film was shot in Southern California throughout May 1978. The film was released by in October and grossed $70 million on a budget of $300,000, becoming one of the most profitable independent films of all time. Primarily praised for Carpenter's direction and score, many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Psycho(1960), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Black Christmas (both 1974). It is considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films ever made. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 

Halloween spawned a film franchise comprising 13 films which helped construct an extensive backstory for Michael Myers, with some sequels narratively diverging entirely from previous installments; a novelization, video game, board game, and comic book series have also been based on the film. It was followed by Halloween II, released in 1981.