Queens Drive-In: Halloween + The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Double Feature)

1978. With Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, PJ Soles. Carpenter knew how to use the super-wide CinemaScope frame better than any other horror director, and his proto slasher film, about a masked maniac with a vendetta, stalking babysitters in suburban Illinois, remains the most elegantly shot and composed film of its kind. This brilliantly paced movie of mounting anxiety and dread perfectly evokes an autumnal atmosphere and features a naturalistic, star-making performance by Jamie Lee Curtis.

1974. With Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal. After picking up an unhinged hitchhiker during a drive deep in rural Texas, a group of young people from somewhere up north are unwittingly plunged into a nightmare as they find themselves hunted down by a cannibalistic clan of maniacs. When Hooper first unleashed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it stunned audiences and drew a mixture of admiration and revulsion from critics. The film would be banned in several countries, but today it remains unequaled as a landmark of outlaw filmmaking, and is perhaps the most frightening film ever made.