Ah, the 80s. Pop music, big hair, a slew of teen comedies, ground breaking sci-fi movies, tube tops. Sounds more like the current trend, doesn’t it? As the saying goes, history repeats itself and it’s evident in the entertainment industry. In the music industry there is a return of boy bands and wildly popular teen music. In the film industry teen comedies, horror and big sci-fi films are making their comebacks where remakes and sequels have come to be expected from production companies.
Moving back in time a little, the master of horror himself, John Carpenter created one of the most influential independent horror films of the decade:
Halloween (1978). Writing the film, directing it, producing it and finally composing the score, Carpenter created a film around a young boy institutionalized for his murders committed as a child escaping to kill his sister (Jamie Lee Curtis). The opening sequence itself is one of the most chillingly amazing shots in a horror film. Made for $325,000 million, the film grossed $47 million and is still regarded as one of the best horror films to this date. That didn’t stop it from creating its sequels
Halloween II (1981), the proclaimed non-sequel
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982),
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988),
Halloween 5 (1989),
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995),
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and the upcoming
Halloween: The Homecoming (2002).
Other famous killers besides Halloween’s Michael got a chance at the spotlight like Jason Voorhees with the Friday the 13th series starting with Friday the 13th (1980), Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D (1982), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), and the upcoming Jason X (with a sci-fi twist) coming March 29 of 2002. The Friday the 13th television series about two cousins who inherited an unique antique shop and must recover it’s cursed treasures is currently running on the sci-fi channel.
Lastly, Robert Englund made Freddie Krueger famous in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's RevengeA Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) and New Nightmare (1994). There was also a Nightmare on Elm Street television series where Freddie Krueger hosted an anthology of stories on Elm street.
