Irrespective of the horror genre or Halloween, Carpenter was an absolute talent.
Halloween is an low budget masterpiece. The cinematography (including the rarely used at the time steadicam shots) is exquisite. Apparently some of the scenes were based on Edward Hopper painting and you can see it.
Dean Cundey who went on to work with Spielberg.
Remember this being dissected on Movie Drome years ago and there's some really clever background dialogue (the classroom scene talking about the 'personoficartion of fate' as the camera shows 'the shape' outside the classroom.
The music is highly influenetinal too. I don't really watch it as a horror more for the photography, mood and soundtrack.
Plus Shatner's face as the shape....
Forget the other films, they missed the point entirely.