How did Halloween change horror movies

Hello everyone, my name is Jared, and thanks for reading. Halloween is a movie that every horror fan should see. It is what is often credited as the beginning of the modern slasher film. Halloween was released in 1978 and for a very long time was the highest-grossing independent film of all time. It’s arguably the film that brought John Carpenter to the forefront in the horror genre. Halloween not only was an incredibly successful movie, it also sparked 11 sequels with two more on the way. This film changed horror movies forever and in many ways, it's completely unseen. I’ll be discussing slasher movies, the sequel paradise of the eighties, remakes, and direct sequels to the original movies.

When Halloween was released it was not the first slasher. What set up the slasher sub-genre are Psycho, Black Christmas, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. First, Alfred Hitchcocks’ 1960 hit, Psycho. Psycho introduced many of the stereotypes that we see today. For example, Norman Bates is a killer who ends up slashing his way through 3 people. Psycho not only helped create slasher films but it also is the first movie to kill its main character halfway through the movie. Something Scream would copy when it killed Drew Barrymore in the first ten minutes of the movie. Psycho also does something that a particular slasher would do later on. In Psycho, Norman Bates dresses up like his mother. He basically cross-dresses as his mom, something we would see repeated in The Texas chainsaw massacre where Leatherface dresses up as a woman during some of the at-home scenes where the entire family is involved, as well as at the end of the movie. Black Christmas, which came out five years before Halloween, was released in 1974. This is the film I believe is the first film to fully be a slasher.. If you haven’t seen this movie (which you should) it features a house full of sorority girls. An anonymous caller stalks them until they’re slowly killed off one by one. It is then discovered that the call is actually coming from inside the house (the overexaggerated line “The killer is inside the house..inside the house” becoming incredibly popular in pop culture). The final girl finds all the bodies and the killer is then killed off. The next movie is the one that popularized this idea of a slasher to an elevated point before Halloween took it to the atmosphere. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre almost revolutionized the entire horror genre before Halloween even had a chance to. I think the one-two punch of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, then Friday the Thirteenth, created slashers as we know it. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about a group of teenagers that are going to Texas to make sure the one woman's grandpa's grave is okay after a series of grave robbing has inflicted the area. After the visit, they decide to go to their old house. After picking up a hitchhiker, they eventually make their way to the house. Two of them stumble on an old farm and the rest is history. This movie, while grossing out many audience members, managed to captivate audiences. This is where I believe Slashers started becoming popular. The next film would create such an ever-popular icon that would boom the slasher genre into the atmosphere. Halloween, directed by John Carpenter, introduces Michael Myers into the cultural zeitgeist. It follows a girl named Laurie Strode who is stalked and her friends are slowly murdered by Michael. This began what is often mentioned as the beginning of slasher films. Due to this, Halloween is often referenced or copied in incredibly popular movies like Friday the 13th. Michael Myers escapes at the end of Halloween and thus the sequel paradise of the 1980s is born.

Halloween Two is the immediate predecessor to Halloween. Halloween Two takes place the same night as Halloween when Laurie Strode is recovering from her attack in the hospital. Michael Myers, after escaping at the end of the movie, goes to the hospital and attacks her once more. This is where Michael dies in an oxygen tank explosion. Halloween isn’t the only film to get a sequel. Following in the footsteps of Halloween, Friday the 13th is the most well-known series for booming the sequel paradise of the 1980s. Friday the 13th Part Two followed only a year after the original. In fact, the only years of the 80s not to have a Friday the 13th movie are 1983 and 1987. Another similar franchise is that of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Excluding the 2010 remake, there are 7 films. The major franchise that started slasher films that weren’t part of the numerous sequels of the 1980s is that of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. They had one sequel in the eighties (Texas Chainsaw Massacre two) and the next would be in the year 1990. I believe that because of the sequels after sequels in the 1980s, we would see a very sharp decline in the quality of slasher films. The studios didn’t care about originality or creativity, they just wanted Jason in the movie or Michael. So when it came time for a movie that was an original story and not a sequel, the writers had a harder time pitching their movie because it wasn’t necessarily a money maker. That’s why movies like Sleepaway Camp and Silent Night Deadly Night would be released independently or through a lesser production company. Halloween was an independent film that subsequently made it harder for other films to get made. Without Halloween, it’s likely that we would have gotten many more interesting and creative horror films during the eighties that were completely unique. Halloween started the sequels of the 80s and would later start the horror remake craze of the 2000s.

In 2007 something happened that many people would never have imagined. John Carpenter's Halloween would be remade. Rob Zombie would be listed to direct and his remake would get a sequel as well. This remake took the original story, and in my opinion, made it unnecessarily more depressing. I think it is still an interesting take on the entire premise of Michael Myers and how he got his murderous start, but it didn't need to be as graphically bleak as it is in the film. Anyways, after Halloween came out it did relatively well, meaning that everything had to be rebooted. We got Friday the 13th the remake. This movie did something similar (kind of) to what Halloween did. It ignores everything that happened in the franchise and paves its own story carved from the original. Jason gets his hockey mask later on in this movie. This film originally had its own planned sequel that got axed due to copyright issues that still plague the franchise. The next film to be remade would be Nightmare on Elm Street. This is another film that I think took the horror aspect and made it more depressing than it should have been. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the movie but it was not written as well as it could have been. Remakes of horror movies have been around for a while but what interests me is how the three major horror movies were all remade within three years of each other. Where Halloween brought on the three major horror movies to be remade, we are seeing Halloween being a leader in another aspect of movies. The direct to original film sequel.

In 2018, we got our first Halloween sequel in many years. This sequel was unlike any other because it ignored everything before it other than the original. This movie was incredible and with a sequel on the way, it’s going to be amazing to see what they come up with. After the success of Halloween (2018), it was announced we would be getting two more films to wrap up their own trilogy of films. It was then announced that we would be getting Scream Five, which is basically the same as Halloween (2018) where it ignores most of the sequels and cares more about the original film. Not only was Scream Five announced, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is even more analogous to what Halloween did. This film follows an old Leatherface who is still angry about Sally getting away in the original movie. While there aren't currently any more big-name movies that are getting direct to original sequels, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next few years we get sequels to Sleepaway camp and I Know What You Did Last Summer that fits this idea.

That’s all I have for this post. I hope you enjoyed it, if you did, remember to subscribe using your email for the mailing list to get notifications for every post. Also if you aren’t already, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @slashithorror, and if you're interested maybe consider joining our Patreon so we can afford a better website :). Thank you, and like always, treat every day, like it's Halloween