His 1978 slasher movie Halloween isn’t just one of the best Halloween movies—it’s the first and potentially last word when it comes to films set around that holiday, so perfectly capturing both the lovely autumnal ambience of All Hallow’s Eve and the thrum of suburban-legend menace underneath that he and creative partner Debra Hill actually earned the directness of the film’s title. Not only that, Halloween spawned a series that repeated the trick in different ways: The Carpenter-and-Hill-penned Halloween II is a perfectly serviceable slasher sequel that goes deeper into the holiday’s wee hours; the Carpenter-and-Hill-produced Halloween III: Season of the Witch makes trick-or-treating costumes the centerpiece of its Twilight Zone-ish holiday terror.