7. Halloween (1978)
Whereas The Evil Dead set the template for low budget horror in the late 80s and early 90s, Halloween set the template for big-budget horror. Yes, Halloween did start as an extremely low-budget, independent film but it spawned all of the slasher movies that started in the 80s and pervade to this day. Without Halloween, there wouldn't be Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream or any of the lesser known slasher flicks that followed. Halloween took the template set by Psycho and turned it up to 11 to reinforce a new sub-genre of horror and spawn countless films of its type while also being one of the most successful independent films of all time. It also set the standard for the killer in a slasher movie with Michael Myers. Myers is a soulless, ruthless killer who has no other goal than to just stab everything to death, a trait that is in every slasher movie villain and a trope that has never been done better than with Michael Myers.