'Halloween'

Halloween was a film that I thought I might have once seen as a child, but I couldn't honestly tell you enough about that memory to be 100 percent for sure.

Chances are, I had never seen it up until this year. I remember watching slasher and horror movies growing up, especially when I was really young. I remember our local channel 11 used to not be a network station in Dallas-Fort Worth. Basically, they had syndicated sitcoms and movies. They'd play the same movies over and over like Batteries Not Included, Short Circuit, The Three Amigos, Spaceballs and horror films like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.

I watched these films as a young child. Like six or seven years old. Nowadays, I wouldn't let my kid anywhere near movies like these.

Even today, you don't see horror films shown on TV. Probably because they're a lot more hardcore and bloody. And the language has been taken up a notch.

You probably wonder why horror films are still made. Question back to you: When's the last time you went to the theaters to see a horror film? Depending on how old you are, possible 20 years. Horror films are for the young and dumb. Nothing wrong with them, but you're not targetting the mid-aged intellectual with these films.

Anyway, they're still made because they are incredibly cheap to make: Typically very short, never starring anyone of substance, no special effects, no promotion.

Halloween alone cost $320,000 and it made $47 million on its initial release. This doesn't include VHS and DVD sales and all the ancillary cash that rolls in over time. With profits like that, why wouldn't you keep making them?