With the spookiest day of the year right around the corner, it’s finally time to talk about the mother of the slasher genre on the whole. “Halloween” was released in 1978, and since then, it has garnered almost half a century of love, acclaim, spin-offs, sequels and reboots (of varying quality). 

Since its release, “Halloween” has been lauded as the first-ever slasher movie—at least, the first of the slashers as we’ve now come to know them. It was made on a meager budget of $300,000. While that may sound like a lot of money, in terms of movie budgets, it’s practically pocket change. It fit all the criteria for an indie film: a low budget, several first–time actors (Jamie Lee Curtis among them) and a short filming schedule—altogether, “Halloween” only spent 21 days filming. 

But with only $300,000 and 21 days, the shape of the horror genre was forever altered.

It’s fair to assume that no one involved in the making of “Halloween” expected it to be such an overwhelming success. Grossing over $70 million at the box office, the film provided an entry into the horror genre for the teens of America, making fear personal. In an age where every small–town girl grew up babysitting and every small–town guy spent the evenings driving up and down Main Street, the main cast of characters were relatable to young people in a way that hadn’t been attempted in the horror genre before. It hit closer to home, so to speak, and immediately became a sensation.

Even now, nearly 50 years after its release, “Halloween” still remains one of the most classic Halloween movies out there. After its massive success, other essentials of the slasher genre— namely the other two entries into the so–called Unholy Trinity, “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street”—were able to find an audience. Thus, in the 80s and 90s, moviegoers were captivated by more and more stories of rogue serial killers targeting young teens. Movies like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” also rose up alongside their peers, and before Hollywood knew what hit them, each of these franchises was spinning out into the 5-10 installment range.

So much so that in 1999, a movie parodying the tropes introduced in “Halloween” and compounded upon in its descendants slingshotted the slasher genre into a new realm of cultural relevance. “Scream,” which I covered last year, helped erase any growing fatigue with the slasher genre. It opened the door for parody and a new, fresh spin on now–familiar ideas.

Without “Halloween,” the slasher genre might not exist. At the very least, it probably wouldn’t have come along so early and with such a fervor. “Halloween” serves as a time capsule to the late 70s in American pop culture, and aside from its nostalgic and historical value, it still stands the test of time as a genuinely scary movie.

While it’s difficult to be immersed in the horror genre—or really, movies at all—and not know anything about “Halloween,” going into it with a blank slate can still prove to be a uniquely harrowing experience. Keeping in mind that the budget was low and the effects admittedly aren’t that great, it still commits to a very simple story and executes it extremely well. The shots from Michael’s point of view before we ever truly see him are ingenious, and the score is one that will go down in history as one of the most memorable and iconic of all time. Then, there’s the scream queen herself, Jamie Lee Curtis. 

Being a scream queen was practically in Curtis’s blood, though—her mother, Janet Leigh, is hailed as quite possibly the very first scream queen for her performance in “Psycho” a few decades prior.

All in all, at the very least, “Halloween” can be credited with the invention of dozens of classic scary movie tropes that millions have enjoyed across other films for decades. It revolutionized the idea of having a final girl—a unique instance of feminism in 1970s cinema, proposing the main character as a woman who ends up the sole survivor of the deranged killer’s attacks—and even reimagines the entire idea of a cast of characters being picked off, one by one, by a deranged killer with a modern lens. 

“Halloween” has had a life beyond itself, and beyond the measure of how it functions as a film. Sure, some of the scares aren’t exactly terrifying and some of the scenes that garnered the film an R rating can feel gratuitous at times—but sheerly by its cultural impact on the Hollywood horror scene, “Halloween” is one of those movies that has earned its place in the annual Spooky Season lineup.

And, if you’re me, that rewatch just has to happen on October 31st—it’s tradition!