Blow Out opens across the U.S. in 1981. The Brian De Palma thriller based on Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup, is also another of De Palma’s homages to Hitchcock, and stars John Travolta as a sound engineer who witnesses a murder. Though a minor success at the time, the film later becomes a cult classic and is revered by filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino.

This Day in Halloween: The Brian De Palma thriller "Blow Out" -- starring John Travolta -- opens across the U.S. in 1981. / Illustration by Laura Peyton Maurer