John Carpenter's 1978 edge-of-your-seat thriller ushered in a whole wave of slasher films in the late '70s and early '80s, cleverly casting Psycho star Janet Leigh's daughter Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, a prudish babysitter who must battle the seemingly unstoppable Michael Myers, who "came home" after years locked in a mental institution. From the hypnotic theme song to Myers' distorted William Shatner mask, Halloween is a perennial horror classic.