20 Anxiety-Inducing Moments That'll Terrify You Senseless

Regardless of all those unfortunate sequels and the many terrible rip-offs, the original 1978 Halloween is still a masterpiece of cinematic terror that's directed to absolute perfection by the great John Carpenter. Unlike the subsequent films, Halloween forgoes gore and jump scares for atmosphere and tension, resulting in one of the most anxiety-inducing movies ever made. 

Put it this way: any aspiring horror filmmaker owes it to themself to watch Halloween. This whole film is a masterclass in cinematic tension, and any creative will learn plenty from it. 

In particular, the chase sequence near the end of the picture - where Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) discovers the bodies of her three murdered friends and is then pursued by Michael Myers (Nick Castle) - is just remarkable. It's a perfectly-paced, ingeniously directed tour-de-force sent soaring even higher by Carpenter's legendary musical score, which is one of the scariest pieces of music out there. 

Jamie Lee Curtis also deserves a lot of credit for her terrific acting here. Few other actors in any slasher movie have provided such a vivid, convincing portrait of pure terror as she did.