Maybe it wasn't Carpenter's intention, but Halloween did start many of those trends.
Anyway, TCM is my favorite movie, and is the one movie I'd actually want to own all dvd versions of just for the novelty. Once you watch it a bunch of times, you start to appreciate the humor more as well, and there are many great lines (the famous "Look what your brother did to the door!" and "Shut up, you bitch hog!" are my favorite). I'll see the remake, as I'm one of the few who likes all four movies so far, and it's not going to be any worse than them. You can see the still catatonic Sally at the end of The Next Generation, and the orderly pushing the gurney is the dude who played Franklin (guy in the wheelchair)