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April 30, 1981 - Friday the 13th Part 2 is released theatrically in the US.

The horror film was directed by Steve Miner and Ron Kurz wrote the screenplay. It starred Amy Steel, Adrienne King and John Furey.

In order to avoid an X-rating from the MPAA, forty-eight seconds of the film was cut. 

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April 13, 1984 - Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is released theatrically in the US.

The slasher film was directed by Joseph Zito and Barney Cohen wrote the screenplay. It starred Kimberly Beck, Peter Barton, Crispin Glover, Ted White and Corey Feldman.

The fourth installment in the Friday the 13th series was meant to be the last, but its success at the box office prompted another sequel, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, that was released eleven months later.

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April 5, 2063: First Contact Day - Mankind has its first contact with the Vulcans in Bozeman, Montana. 

After tracking the warp signature of the Phoenix (piloted by Dr. Zefram Cochrane, who also invented warp drive), the Vulcans landed their survey ship, T’Plana Hath, and made First Contact with the human race. This meeting would lead to the formation of the United Federation of Planets.

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March 28, 1979 - Phantasm is released theatrically in the US.

The horror film was written and directed by Don Coscarelli. It starred A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester and Angus Scrimm.

The film was nominated for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards and Coscarelli won the Special Jury Award at Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in 1979.

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February 19, 1993 - Army of Darkness is released theatrically in Canada and the US.

The horror comedy was written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. Sam Raimi also served as the director. It starred Bruce Campbell and Embeth Davidtz.

It’s the third installment of the Evil Dead franchise. The cult film won a Saturn Award for Best Horror Movie and earned a nomination for Best Make-up.

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February 1, 2019 - Arctic is released in Norway, Poland and the US (limited).

The 2018 Icelandic survival drama film was directed by Joe Penna, who also wrote the screenplay along with Ryan Morrison. It stars Mads Mikkelsen.

Fun Fact: After the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, it received a ten minute standing ovation.

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January 14, 1981 - Scanners is released theatrically in the US.

The sci-fi horror film was written and directed by David Cronenberg. It starred Jennifer O’Neill, Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside and Patrick McGoohan.

It won a Saturn Award for Best International Film and ended up grossing $14.2 million at the box office in the US.

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December 25, 1998 - The Faculty is released theatrically in the US.

The sci-fi horror film was written by Kevin Williamson and Robert Rodriguez was brought on to direct. It starred Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Robert Patrick, Bebe Neuwirth, Piper Laurie, Famke Janssen, Usher Raymond, Salma Hayek and Jon Stewart.

A first draft of the film was actually written and sent out in 1990 by David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel, but they couldn’t find any buyers. However, that all changed with the release and success of Scream (1996) and Miramax ended up buying the script. That was when Williamson was brought in to do some rewrites by changing the dialogue and adding some more characters, but kept the story. 

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December 9, 1983 - Christine is released theatrically in the US.

The horror film is based on Stephen King’s 1983 novel of the same name. John Carpenter served as director while the screenplay was written by Bill Phillips. It starred Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton.

It opened at #4 by earning just over $3.4 million. By the time its run was over at the box office, it had grossed just over $21 million.

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November 14, 1986 - Slaughter High was released in the US.

The slasher film was written and directed by Mark Ezra, Peter Litten and George Dugdale. It starred Caroline Munroe, Simon Scuddamore, Carmine Iannaconne, Donna Yeager, and Sally Cross.

Fun fact: It was originally titled April Fool’s Day, but the filmmakers changed it when they learned another horror film of the same name was to be released the same year.

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October 30, 1981 - Halloween II is released theatrically in the US.

This sequel to Halloween (1978) was directed by Rick Rosenthal. John Carpenter and Debra Hill co-wrote the screenplay and they also served as producers. Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence returned to reprise their roles as Laurie Strode and Dr. Sam Loomis.

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Fun fact: In 2006, the film qas chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

October 25, 1978 - Halloween premieres in Kansas City, Missouri at the AMC Empire Theatre.

The horror film was directed by John Carpenter. He also co-wrote the screenplay along with Debra Hill. It starred Jamie Lee Curtis (her film debut), Donald Pleasence, P.J. Soles, Nancy Kyes and Charles Cyphers.

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October 22, 1982 - Halloween III: Season of the Witch is released theatrically in the US.

This film is the only one in the Halloween series to not feature Michael Myers. It also doesn’t feature any of the story elements from the first two Halloween films.

It was directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace. John Carpenter and Debra Hill (the creators of Halloween) served as producers. It starred Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin and Dan O’Herlihy.

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October 13, 1989 - Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is released in the US.

The horror film was written by Michael Jacobs, Shem Bitterman and Dominique Othenin-Girard. Othenin-Girard also directed the slasher film. It starred Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, Beau Starr, Wendy Kaplan and Tamara Glynn.

The film was given an X-rating due to violence, blood and gore. In order to get an R-rating before being released, some scenes had to be edited and/or cut. One such scene involved Jamie (Danielle Harris) climbing the laundry chute and Michael stabs her in the leg. In an interview, the director said the scene wasn’t gory with blood everywhere, but just the knife going into her leg and while he was disappointed it had to be re-edited, it had to be done for the R-rating. 

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September 26, 2001 - Stark Trek: Enterprise premieres on UPN.

The show, titled just Enterprise for its first two seasons, ran for four seasons (98 episodes) with the final episode airing on May 13, 2005. It starred Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, and Connor Trinneer.

Fun fact: In 2016, The Los Angeles Times ranked every Star Trek film and series. Star Trek: Enterprise came in at number 12. You can see the whole list HERE.

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September 22, 1976 - Charlie’s Angels premieres on ABC.

The crime drama television series ran for five seasons (110 episodes) with the final episode airing on June 24, 1981.

In 1980, ABC tried to create a spin-off that was titled Toni’s Boys. It involved a friend of Charlie’s, Antonia “Toni” Blake, who ran a detective agency where three male detectives (Cotton, Matt and Bob) would solve crimes much like the Angels. The pilot ran near the end of season four, but wasn’t picked up.

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September 20, 1940 - The Mummy’s Hand is released in theaters.

This film is the first in a series of four films featuring the mummy, Kharis. For this film, Tom Tyler played the role of Kharis while Lon Chaney Jr. took over the role for the other three films…The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), The Mummy’s Ghost (1944) and The Mummy’s Curse (1944). Some consider the film to be a sequel to the 1932 classic The Mummy even though it doesn’t continue the storyline and the only character to be featured in both films is Pharaoh Amenophis.