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Miniature of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th at Cockington Green. Steven Cromack Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980)—both more than thirty years old—are now America’s classic horror movies. Why do they enjoy such prominence in American culture? The answer rests in the content of their plots and the context in which they were produced.   John Carpenter’s Halloween catapulted the slasher film into American culture with its release in 1978. In 1974, before he made A Christmas Story , director Bob Clark made Black Christmas , a story of young adults alone in a secluded area, ready to be terrorized, an all but standard plot line in horror movies today. But Halloween ’s central character Michael Myers was something new. He was not just a serial killer, but one who stalked his victims with creepy music in the background. And he was seemingly indestructible. Never before had such a character existed in cinema. Not too long after Halloween came Friday the 13th , another m...