20 Movies That Prove That The 1970s Was The Best Decade For Film

17. Halloween

'The night he came home' John Carpenter's 1978 film is ten times as scary as most contemporary horror could ever wish to be and it accomplishes this without resorting to ultra-violent nastiness. Carpenter, a director who has claimed he would have loved to direct in the Studio system of the 1930s and '40s, made an incredible tense film that spawned the slasher genre. The tropes and tricks used in Halloween were cliche by the mid-1980s, but Halloween has stood the test of time. Watching it today, the film still scares. Much of the credit has to go to to Carpenter's simple yet very effective score and use of shadows and light. Made for $250,000 the film grossed $70m at the box-office, become one of the most successful independent films of all time. Several sequels, spin-offs and remakes have followed, but nothing touches the '70s original.