How Halloween Influenced the Slasher Genre: A Look at Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream
Halloween Set the Standard
When you talk about slasher movies, it's impossible to leave out Halloween. John Carpenter’s 1978 film created the slasher blueprint that so many horror movies would end up following. Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream all took what Halloween did and ran with it in their own ways, but you can always feel Halloween's influence lurking in the background. Let’s dive into how these horror classics were shaped by Carpenter’s iconic movie.
Friday the 13th: Copying the Playbook, but Adding More Gore
Released in 1980, Friday the 13th didn’t shy away from borrowing heavily from Halloween. The basic setup is the same—a masked killer stalking teenagers, picking them off one by one in an isolated setting. There’s the final showdown with a "Final Girl" (in this case, Alice), and just like Michael Myers, the killer (Jason’s mom in the first film, then Jason later on) is relentless.
But while Halloween was more about suspense and atmosphere, Friday the 13th ramped up the gore. It took the slasher formula and made it bloodier, with more brutal kills. Jason Voorhees became one of the biggest names in horror, but without Halloween paving the way, it’s hard to imagine Friday the 13th even existing.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: Giving Slasher Films a Surreal Twist
In 1984, Wes Craven gave us A Nightmare on Elm Street, a movie that added a supernatural twist to the slasher formula. Freddy Krueger isn’t just a guy with a mask—he’s a burnt, dream-haunting maniac with knives for fingers who can kill you in your sleep. That’s pretty far removed from Michael Myers, who is more grounded (if you ignore his almost indestructible nature), but the core elements of Halloween are still there: teens in danger, a killer hunting them, and a final showdown between Freddy and the "Final Girl," Nancy.
Freddy might be more talkative and have more personality than Michael Myers, but the influence of Halloween is still there, especially in how the movie builds tension and horror around a group of teenagers being hunted down one by one.
Scream: A Nod to the Classics
By the time Scream hit theaters in 1996, audiences were familiar with all the slasher tropes—so Wes Craven, who also directed this one, made a movie that called attention to them. Scream is a clever, self-aware film where the characters know they’re in a horror movie and openly discuss the rules, like "don’t have sex" and "don’t go alone." This all started with Halloween, which is even directly referenced in Scream multiple times.
Ghostface, the masked killer in Scream, is clearly modeled after the likes of Michael Myers. While Scream plays with the conventions of the genre, it’s still very much a slasher movie at heart. The film might be winking at the audience, but it still follows the path that Halloween laid out almost two decades earlier.
Wrapping It Up
Halloween did more than just give us Michael Myers and the holiday’s ultimate horror film—it set the stage for an entire genre. Movies like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream all owe a huge debt to Halloween for creating the formula that makes slasher movies work. Each of these films added their own twist to the genre, but it’s clear that without Halloween, they wouldn’t be what they are today. From the masked killers to the suspenseful chase scenes to the iconic "Final Girl," Halloween left its mark on horror in a way that’s still felt in these films—and countless others.