Scarecrowber: Halloween

“Halloween is an absolutely merciless thriller, a movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would compare it to Psycho (1960). It’s a terrifying and creepy film about what one of the characters calls Evil Personified.” – from Roger Ebert’s 1979 review. I first saw it when I was 9 and it scared the crap outta me. Though it set up the template for slasher films of the 80s and beyond, most directors after Carpenter focused on the violence instead of the suspense – and the suspense is what makes this film terrifying, even now. —Greg