Friday marks 45 years since a polarizing horror movie hit theaters.

As horror fans and critics will tell you, most sequels in this genre rarely live up to the excitement and thrill of the originals. Just look at how underwhelming the three sequels were to Jaws (1975) or the two films that followed The Blair Witch Project (1999).

Sequels for giant horror franchises like Halloween , Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street were largely hit-and-miss, to say the least.

Forty-five years ago today, one such polarizing horror film sequel hit theaters in the United States, according to IMDB . That movie, Halloween II , came out three years after John Carpenter’s 1978 blockbuster, Halloween .

Directed by Rick Rosenthal (Carpenter and Debra Hill wrote the film), Halloween II featured returning cast members Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode), Donald Pleasence (Dr. Sam Loomis), Charles Cyphers and (Sheriff Leigh Brackett).…