That is a great point about Halloween and the Exorcist being the last great horror movies before the onset of splatter. That's why I prefer the films of the 1930s, 40s, 50s and even 60s - from White Zombie with Bela Lugosi to Night of the Living Dead. But I till say that John Carpenter's has three other movies - Prince of Darkness, The Fog, and In The Mouth Of Madness (this one especially) were pretty darned creepy. If we can at least examine splatter and gore, Dawn of the Dead and The Evil Dead were exceptionally frightening and probably would be even without all the blood.
