Halloween - 1978

This is the classic horror flick that launched the careers of almost everyone involved from Jamie Lee Curtis to John Carpenter and even the guy who played Mike Meyers is Nick Castle who went on to be a successful director (hello? he did the Boy Who Could Fly). This truly creepy movie tells the tale of Mike Meyers, a dude that's been locked up in an asylum for years since murdering his sister. When he escapes the first thing he wants to do is go back to the house where he killed his sister and stir up a little murderous havoc. His family no longer lives there and tonight (which just happens to be Halloween) it is occupied by some kids and their babysitter. Major studio player Irwin Yablans wanted to get in on the independent film scene, so he went out to make one of his own. He hired a very unknown director and told him that he could have total control of the film if he could do it for under $500k. He made it for $300k and that film was Halloween. It went on to be one of the most successful independent films of all time, spawned numerous sequels and even a remake and is in the top 5 (still!) for most profitable films of all time. Part of what makes this movies so great is that they had so little money to work with. Since they had no money they had almost no special effects. Instead, they had to rely on old-school suspense building. There's almost no blood, the mask is a William Shatner mask they bought at a local store and Carpenter himself did the music. And boy is the music good. It too is simple and wicked creepy. This movie is a marvel of simple, straight forward scare. They have truly created a tense, chilling masterpiece here and it's one of my favorite horror films of all time.

• Worth Watching (or maybe a little bit ME)