10 Iconic Movies That Spawned A Thousand Imitators

You can tell how much of a lasting impact John Carpenter's Halloween has had on the horror genre that the twelfth installment of the franchise is currently slated to arrive in October, over 40 years after it became one of the most profitable movies in history after making $70m at the box office on a $300,000 budget.

The low-risk, high-reward model still influences the genre to this day, but the slasher boom of the 1980s was a direct result of Halloween's success. By the end of 1981 alone Friday the 13th, Silent Scream, Prom Night, He Knows You're Alone, My Bloody Valentine, The Burning, Eyes of a Stranger, Night School and The Fan all came and went, experiencing varying degrees of success.

While the arrival of Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger alongside Michael Myers established the 'unholy trinity' as the genre's leading lights, the vast majority of the copycat slashers that sought to emulate Halloween were forgotten about almost as soon as they had arrived.