In 1978, John Carpenter made Halloween, a low-budget independent horror film. The success of this film popularized the Slasher Movies genre and inspired other similar franchises such as Friday the 13 th -- and it also turned the film into the first of a major horror film franchise. The series starts with the first two films: Carpenter followed those films with: From there, the films go off into a couple of different continuities. First, we have the three direct sequels: The alternate continuity comes next: After Resurrection, the franchise laid dormant until Rob Zombie brought it back: