10 Scariest Horror Movies Set At Halloween

10. Halloween

It may be an obvious choice, but it’d be remiss not to include John Carpenter’s slasher classic somewhere on this list – it is the definitive Halloween movie, after all.

Any horror fan worth their salt knows the movie inside out, but just to recap for any genre newbies out there: Halloween follows deranged killer Michael Myers who escapes from an asylum where he’s been imprisoned for the last 15 years for stabbing his sister to death as a child. He returns to his suburban hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to wreak terror on Halloween night specifically targeting babysitter Laurie Strode (scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis in her debut role) and her friends.

Surprisingly non-gory for a slasher, Carpenter’s classic relies more on good old tension and scare factor brought about by its chilling theme music (composed by Carpenter himself), unnerving long takes and claustrophobic POV shots punctuated by heavy breathing and – of course – that menacingly featureless mask the ever-lurking Michael Myers wears.

It’s undeniably creepy even forty years after its original release and stands the test of time as the best babysitter-in-peril horror to date.