October— the month of spookiness. As Halloween nears and the sun sets earlier, an eerie ambience sets in among the many decorations and haunted houses. Another factor contributing to the spookiness of the month is film, especially horror movies. Typically, every October indicates at least one or two horror film releases, and October 2017 is no exception.

“Happy Death Day” hit the box offices on Friday, October 13, earning an inordinate amount of money compared to its low budget.

“Studio estimates Sunday show ‘Happy Death Day’ took in $26.5 million from 3,149 North American theaters,” Time Magazine said. “With a $5 million production price tag, ‘Happy Death Day’ is already a hit.”

The film is about a college student named Tree Gelbman who keeps reliving her birthday until she discovers the identity of her murderer. Played by Jessica Rothe, Tree soon realizes that every time she dies at the end of the day, she perishes in a different manner each time. Her actions every time change the course of events, but until she identifies her masked murderer, she will continue to relive her “Death Day.”

Time Magazine was able to interview Jim Orr, executive vice president of domestic distribution for Universal.

“‘Happy Death Day’ is an original film that’s [reimagining] the genre,” Orr said. “It’s as much thriller as it is horror film. It’s scary, it’s funny, and it has an extraordinarily clever script that is very well executed.”

Another October film, although not classified as horror, is “Blade Runner 2049.” Featuring well-known actors such as Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, and Robin Wright, this film came out on October 6.

“From Oscar-nominated director Denis Villeneuve (‘Arrival’) comes Alcon Entertainment’s science fiction thriller ‘Blade Runner 2049’, the much-anticipated sequel to the acclaimed sci-fi film ‘Blade Runner’,” Warner Bros said.

The sequel focuses on previous events in the original film, so it is advisable to watch “Blade Runner” before seeing “Blade Runner 2049.”

These two films don’t have much in common in regards to plot or genre, but they did have a monetary competition in box office sales.

“This weekend the ‘Groundhog Day’-like horror pic ‘Happy Death Day’ scored a first-place finish, surpassing expectations and blowing the much costlier and star-driven ‘Blade Runner 2049’ out of the water,” Time Magazine said.

The trailer for “Happy Death Day” was shown before “It” in theaters, which lended it much notoriety. This is one of many reasons for its surprising success.