... sometimes less is more.
The first Halloween has the least amount of deaths: 5 people (and two dogs, one unseen on screen). After that there are more and more. The second film is a lot more gorier already. And what Rob Zombie was doing, had little to do with the original spirit of Halloween - which is more about suggestion. Carpenter said the film was inspired by childhood fears - hence the reference to the Boogeyman.
Body Count
I must admit though, the first time I saw Halloween I had already seen other slashers, like Friday the 13th, and Halloween felt very tame. It is however much better shot than a lot of slashers that followed later, and the music is what made it iconic. I'm not sure if it would have done as well without the music, but the same is true about the impact of the violins in the shower scene in Psycho, or Harry Manfredini's music for Friday the 13th (the famous whispered kill-kill), or Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells in Exorcist.
Music often can make movies iconic, whether it's Jaws, Star Wars, James Bond or Morricone's western music. It's impossible to imagine those movies without the music, and would they have done as well without it?