Image Courtesy of Universal Studios Hollywood

With David Gordon Green’s Halloween setting box-office records, is it possible that we might see a resurgence of the slasher genre?

Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

This year saw the release of the film (confusingly) titled Halloween. Written as a direct follow-up to the John Carpenter classic, the film followed an elderly Laurie Strode, once again played by Jaimie Lee Curtis, as she encounters Michael Myers once again after 40 years. While a bit jarring in its tonal shifts, the film, for the most part, was well-received by fans and critics, leading to the thought: will history repeat itself, generating more entries in the genre?

Back in 1978, Halloween revolutionized the slasher genre in horror. While certainly not the first slasher film, with some citing Black Christmas or even Psycho as the first, the film did popularize the idea of masked psychopaths attacking and killing young folk one by one. With a measly budget of approximately $300,000, Halloween easily made back twenty times what was given to the creators, and thus started a trend of creators using what little they had to create horror films of their own in a similar style. From smaller fares such as Prom Night, The Burning, and My Bloody Valentine, to the famous Friday the 13th, this gave birth to what many believe to be the “Golden Age of Slasher Films,” going from 1978 to 1985, much to the dismay of film critics.

Image Courtesy of Miramax Studios

However, the genre’s popularity would eventually die down near the end of the decade. With the next two decades, there was a dip back into the spotlight with the likes of Wes Craven’s Scream, a step back down with the onslaught of critically panned remakes put out by Platinum Dunes that kept many franchises on the back-burner for years. While you had the occasional cult classic, such as Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon or Adam Green’s Hatchet trilogy, there hasn’t been stable momentum for the genre since the 90’s.

Then there came the past couple of years…

Image courtesy of Universal Studios

Slasher films have been steadily reemerging from their hiatus. With films such as Hush, Tragedy Girls, and even the return of Chucky from the Child’s Play series, filmmakers have shown that slasher films not only still have a place in the public mind, but could also be positively received by critics and fans. The only perceivable reason that they haven’t broken the floodgates is due to their relative obscurity.

The closest to overcoming this was 2017’s Happy Death Day, receiving fairly positive reviews and admirable box-office numbers. This could very well change with Halloween (2018), as it did currently sits at having a $250 million box-office against a $15 million budget. Not only that, but there have been recent announcements of Friday the 13th coming back in the next few years, spearheaded by Lebron James’ production company, Springhill Entertainment, as well as hushed whispers of Robert England returning to the role of Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series after donning the glove and sweater in the show The Goldbergs.

With slasher franchises attracting renewed interest, this could be the start of a new era for slashers. It could just be a lot of talk between actors and studios that goes nowhere as before with such projects, but if these endeavors are successful, then there could be hope for the genre regaining a bit of the spotlight it once had.