Halloween
Budget – $325,000
Worldwide Gross – $70,000,000
Return – 10,669%
Perhaps one of the most iconic, if not the most iconic horror film of the 70s, Carpenter’s effortless skill behind the camera works transformative powers to mould a film that looks 10 times what it actually cost. Halloween has since passed into the annals of horror history as the film which defines a whole new genre; the slasher.
Riding on the waves of contemporaries such as Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter had pioneered his career thus far on using low budgets to tackle genres usually requiring mega budgets. Halloween played it cheap but smart, tapping into the teen zeitgeist and preying on their fears.
Halloween is not gory, but instead relies on the excellent score (composed by Carpenter himself) and some incredibly deft camerawork and editing to crank up the tension and fear as Michael Myers preys on teenage babysitters. Critically adorned and marketed beautifully, Halloween was a hit that exceeded all expectations.