For today's desensitized audiences, Carpenter's seminal slasher flick might seem rather tame, but it's still worth watching for a few reasons.
Even though this film led to a large slew (excuse the pun) of similar movies coming out, this one stands out for being made by a gifted – if impoverished – film maker. Using (for the time) revolutionary techniques such as the steadicam for key scenes, favouring mood and tension over explicit violence, and showing a deft hand with the composition of shots, etc, Carpenter's film is miles ahead of many of the cheap, made-for-a-quick-buck copycat flicks that followed, and were often a training ground for lesser talents. Halloween is a classy flick for the $300k it took to make.
As well, the characters are quite likable and it's easy for the audience to bond with them. In other films in the genre, characters are usually nothing but knife-fodder, simply there to be killed. Add gore to the latter scenario and you still have something interesting to see, but nothing beats the tension of characters you like being in mortal danger.
There's also a truly scary bad guy. Rob Zombie's remake stole some of the horror from the person of Michael Myers by showing a large amount of his backstory as a child, revealing how many diverse familial elements may have played a part in his development as a psychopath. But the original Michael Myers is more frightening in that he just come out of nowhere. His family – in the short scenes in which we see them – look garden variety ‘normal.’ And then Michael just snaps as a kid and becomes a soulless killing machine, pure evil. Next time you want to yell at the neighbour's kids …
I own the remake and I own this: I enjoy them both. But this will be the one that people refer to as ‘classic’ in coming generations.