A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools. Although the term "slasher" is sometimes used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as splatter films and psychological horror films. Critics cite the Italian "giallo" films and psychological horror films such as "Peeping Tom" (1960) and "Psycho" (1960) as early influences. The genre hit its peak between 1978 and 1984 in an era referred to as the "Golden Age" of slasher films.
Introduction
Slasher film
Slasher film | Introduction
These are a subgenre of horror films involving a killer murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools Horror genre. It is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools. It is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools.
who played jason voorhees in friday the 13th
user
Ari Lehman
assistant
who is this character?
user
He is the main character from the "Friday the 13th" movie series.
assistant
does he hide his face?
user
Yes he wears a hockey goalie mask in "Friday the 13th Part III".
assistant
how is this date significant in italy?
user
Due to Americanization, young people consider Friday the 13th unlucky, even though 13 is generally considered a lucky number.
assistant
is it anyway linked to mishaps on roads?
user
A study in the "British Medical Journal" stated that "'the risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident "may" be increased by as much as 52 percent' on the 13th". Subsequent studies have disproved any correlation between Friday the 13th and the rate of accidents.
assistant
what other characters were present in the movie mentioned earlier?
user
Chris Higgins, Shelly
assistant
what is the genre of this movie?
user
Slasher film
assistant
what sort of movies are these?
user
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools. Although the term "slasher" is sometimes used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as splatter films and psychological horror films. Critics cite the Italian "giallo" films and psychological horror films such as "Peeping Tom" (1960) and "Psycho" (1960) as early influences. The genre hit its peak between 1978 and 1984 in an era referred to as the "Golden Age" of slasher films.
Slasher film | Introduction
Slasher films are a subgenre of horror films featuring acts of violence portrayed in graphic detail. In his book entitled "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986", author Adam Rockoff states, "The slasher film typically involves a killer who stalks and graphically murders a series of victims in a typically random, unprovoked fashion. The victims are usually teenagers or young adults who are separated from mainstream civilization or unable to easily access help. These films typically begin with the murder of a young woman and end with a one female survivor who manages to subdue the killer, only to discover that the problem has not been completely solved".
Gender in horror films | Slasher
Slasher horror is a horror subgenre, which involving a killer murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools. Examples of slasher horror films include "Sleepaway Camp" (1983), "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (1997) and "Lake Bodom" (2016).
Horror film | Slasher horror
Slasher films typically adhere to a specific formula: a past wrongful action causes severe trauma that is reinforced by a commemoration or anniversary that reactivates or re-inspires the killer. Built around stalk-and-murder sequences, the films drawn upon the audience's feelings of catharsis, recreation, and displacement, as related to sexual pleasure.
Slasher film | Definition
The Slasher Genre appeared in other media besides movies such as TV shows,video games, books, and comics.
Slasher film | In other media
Notable slasher films include "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974), "Black Christmas" (1974), "Halloween" (1978), "Friday the 13th" (1980), "Friday the 13th Part 2" (1981), "Friday the 13th Part III" (1982), "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984), "Child's Play" (1988), "Candyman" (1992), "Scream" (1996). Many slasher films released decades ago continue to attract cult followings. The slasher canon is divided into three eras: the classical (1974–1993), the self-referential (1994–2000) and the neoslasher cycle (2000–2013).
Slasher film | Introduction
The genre continued into and peaked in the 1980s with well-known films like "Friday the 13th" (1980) and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984). Many 1980s slasher films used the basic format of "Halloween", for example "My Bloody Valentine" (1981), "Prom Night" (1980), "The Funhouse" (1981), "Silent Night, Deadly Night" (1984) and "Sleepaway Camp" (1983), many of which also used elements from the 1974 film, "Black Christmas". The genre experienced a mainstream revival in the 1990s with the success of "Scream", which both mocked and paid homage to traditional slasher conventions. Slasher films often prove popular and spawn sequels, prequels and remakes that continue to the present day.
Exploitation film | Slasher films
Subgenres that influenced slasher films include splatter films, "Krimi" films, and "giallo" films. Splatter films focus on gratuitous gore. Herschell Gordon Lewis's "Blood Feast" (1963) was a hit at drive-in theaters and is often considered the first splatter film. Lewis followed with gory films "Two-Thousand Maniacs!" (1964), "Color Me Blood Red" (1965), "The Gruesome Twosome" (1967) and "The Wizard of Gore" (1971). This grotesque style translated to Andy Milligan's "The Ghastly Ones" (1969), "Twisted Nerve" (1968), "Night After Night After Night" (1969) as well as "The Haunted House of Horror" (1969). Post-World War II Germany adapted British writer Edgar Wallace's crime novels into a subgenre of their own called "Krimi" films.
Slasher film | Splatter, Krimi and giallo films
Film Bizarro also found the film watchable, despite listing a number of problems such as bad editing and acting, no atmosphere or suspense, restrained gore, erratic pacing, and a lack of originality.
Slasher (2007 film) | Reception
Slashers ("スラッシャーズ" "Surasshāzu" in Japan) is a 2001 slasher film written and directed by Maurice Devereaux.
Slashers (film) | Introduction
The film is a historical and critical look at slasher films, which includes dozens of clips, beginning with "Halloween", "Friday the 13th", and "Prom Night". The films' directors, writers, producers, and special effects creators comment on the films' making and success. During the Ronald Reagan years, the films get gorier, budgets get smaller, and their appeal diminishes. Then, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" revives the genre. Jumping to the late 1990s, when "Scream" brings humor and TV stars into the mix. Although some criticize the genre as misogynistic, most of the talking heads celebrate the films: as long as there are teenagers, there will be slasher films.
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film | Plot
Adam Green's "Hatchet" and Ryan Nicholson's "Gutterballs" bill themselves as throwbacks to the slasher films of the 1980s.
Exploitation film | Slasher films
Despite its modest initial box office run, the film has garnered critical reappraisal, with film historians noting its importance in the horror film genre and some even citing it as the original slasher film.
Slasher film | Exploitation films
Carol Clover's "Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film" is generally thought of to be the cornerstone work of studying gender in slasher films. Slasher films can include "scenes of explicit violence primarily directed toward women, often occurring during or juxtaposed to mildly erotic scenes". Research has been unable to show if female characters are killed more often in an explicitly sexual way than male characters in this genre.
Gender in horror films | Slasher
Slasher is a 2007 German slasher film written and directed by Frank W. Montag, and co-written by Jörn Döring.
Slasher (2007 film) | Introduction
A score of two out of five was awarded by Moria, which wrote that "Slasher" was amateurish, derivative, and unimaginative with bland characters and a preposterous twist ending. Everything about the film was criticized by Slasherpool, which gave it a zero. Wildside Cinema said "Slasher" is "an unimaginatively titled, unimaginatively written, poorly directed, low-budget horror film from Germany that, in my opinion, didn't even rise to the worst German splatter films" and "The cons are incredibly numerous here including days that run into nights in seconds, non-stop music, bad writing, color saturation issues and more". Despite deeming it clichéd in every regard, Oh, the Horror! stated "Slasher" was competent and "a decent, bloody time-waster for fans of this particular genre".
Slasher (2007 film) | Reception
The film has met with critical acclaim, it currently holds an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Slasher (2004 film) | Reception
The "Krimi" films were released in the late 1950s through the early 1970s and featured villains in bold costumes accompanied by jazz scores from composers such as Martin Böttcher and Peter Thomas. "Fellowship of the Frog" (1959), about a murderer terrorizing London, was successful in America, leading to similar adaptations like "The Green Archer" (1961) and "Dead Eyes of London" (1961). The Rialto Studio produced 32 "Krimi" films between 1959 and 1970.
Slasher film | Splatter, Krimi and giallo films
Slasher films focus on a psychopath stalking and violently killing a sequence of victims. Victims are often teenagers or young adults. Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho (1960)" is often credited with creating the basic premise of the genre, though Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" (1974) is usually considered to have started the genre while John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978) was responsible for cementing the genre in the public eye. "Halloween" is also responsible for establishing additional tropes which would go on to define the genre in years to come. The masked villain, a central group of weak teenagers with one strong hero or heroine, the protagonists being isolated or stranded in precarious locations or situations, and either the protagonists or antagonists - or possibly both - experiencing warped family lives or values were all tropes largely founded in "Halloween".
Exploitation film | Slasher films
Bloody Disgusting rated it 1/5 stars and wrote that the film did not live up to its promising premise. Eric Campos of Film Threat rated it 1.5/5 stars and criticized the poor dialog that dominated the film at the expense of horror.
Slashers (film) | Reception
Films such as "Hospital Massacre" and "Night Warning" enjoyed strong home rentals from video stores, though "Dark Sanity", "The Forest", "Unhinged", "Trick or Treats", and "Island of Blood" fell into obscurity with little theatrical releases and only sub-par video transfers. Supernatural slasher films continued to build in popularity with "The Slayer", "The Incubus", "Blood Song", "Don't Go to Sleep" and "Superstition" (the supernatural-themed "", though part of the "Halloween" franchise, does not adhere to the slasher film formula). "Alone in the Dark" was New Line Cinema's first feature film, released to little revenue and initially dismissed by critics, though the film has gained critical reappraisal.
Slasher film | 1982
and Liev Schreiber. "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" were internationally popular. In Asia, Hong Kong released "The Deadly Camp" (1999) and South Korea released "Bloody Beach" (2000), "The Record" (2001), and "Nightmare" (2000). Australia's postmodern "Cut" (2000) cast American actress Molly Ringwald as its heroine. Britain released "Lighthouse" (1999) and the Netherlands had two teen slashers, "School's Out" (1999) and "The Pool" (2001). Bollywood produced the first musical-slasher hybrid with "Kucch To Hai" (2003), as well as the more straightforward "" (2003).
Slasher film | Post-modern slashers (1996–present)
George Archainbaud's "Thirteen Women" (1932) tells the story of a sorority whose former members are set against one another by a vengeful peer who crosses out their yearbook photos, a device used in subsequent films "Prom Night" (1980) and "Graduation Day" (1981). Early examples include a maniac seeking revenge in "The Terror" (1928), based on the play by Edgar Wallace. B-movie mogul Val Lewton produced "The Leopard Man" (1943), about a murderer framing his crimes against women on an escaped show leopard. Basil Rathbone's "The Scarlet Claw" (1944) sees Sherlock Holmes investigate murders committed with a five-pronged garden weeder that the killer would raise in the air and bring down on the victim repeatedly, an editing technique that became familiar in the genre.
Slasher film | Early film influences
A celebration of slasher cinema - from "Psycho" to the present day, with a focus on highlighting many of the genre's forgotten cult classics, deconstructing how to survive a slice and dice movie and meditating upon why it is almost always a final girl and rarely a final guy. Among the films many interviewees are Corey Feldman, Mick Garris, Tobe Hooper, Tom Holland, Eduardo Sánchez, Patrick Lussier, Norman J. Warren, Felissa Rose, Scott Spiegel, Fred Olen Ray, Jeffrey Reddick, John Carl Buechler, Emily Booth, Adam Green, Marysia Kay, J.S. Cardone.
Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever | Overview
Releases began to distance from the genre. The poster for "Mortuary" features a hand is bursting from the grave, though the undead have nothing to do with the film. Distributors were aware of fading box office profits, and they were attempting to hoodwink audiences into thinking long-shelved releases like "Mortuary" were different.
Slasher film | 1983
Stephen Dalton of "The National" wrote in his review: " A good slasher film is not about originality or realism, of course, but about execution – no pun intended. As such, director Menhaj Huda does a decent job with limited ingredients. But there is nothing in this pulpy, formulaic nerve-jangler that horror fans will not have seen countless times before."
Comedown (film) | Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 20% of five surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.2/10. Video Graveyard rated the film two and a half stars and called it "a ride that incorporates both horror and reality show clichés in a funny, gory manner" with "a great concept that is executed with confidence and does not hold back despite the budget". While it wrote that the acting was below average and the characters were unrealistic, The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre still found "Slashers" to be "a somewhat entertaining B movie". Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic heavily criticized "Slashers", writing that it was boring "bargain-basement dreck" that was witless, full of shoddy gore effects and painfully amateurish acting, and was ultimately nothing more than "low-grade horror machinations at their most confoundingly stupid".
Slashers (film) | Reception
In the Hack/Slash comics the comics stars Cassie Hack fighting off the slashers. Horror movies like the Texas chainsaw massacre series also had comic book adaptions. The Comic Book series Nailbiter also has some elements of a slasher film.
Slasher film | Comics
Two back-to-back sequels are in the works, "Halloween Kills" and "Halloween Ends", due to be released in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Slasher film | Recent works
The public had largely lost interest in theatrical released slashers, drawing a close to the Golden Age. Production rates plummeted and major studios all but abandoned the genre that, only a few years earlier, had been very profitable. Many 1984 slasher films with brief theatrical runs found varying degrees of success on home video, such as "Splatter University", "Satan's Blade", "Blood Theatre", "Rocktober Blood" and "Fatal Games". Movies like "The Prey" and "Evil Judgement" were filmed years prior and finally were given small theatrical releases. "Silent Madness" used 3D to ride the success of "Friday the 13th Part III" (1982), though the effect did not translate to the VHS format.
Slasher film | 1984
Linz and Donnerstein state that slasher films single out women for attack. They argue that the female body count in slasher films should be examined in the context of other film genres. Linz and Donnerstein affirm that "across most television and film content females are less often murdered and brutalized than males by a very large margin." The study tested this assertion compared with the genre selected for analysis, which is popular action/adventure films containing violence. Gloria Cowan conducted a study on 57 different slasher films. Their results showed that the non-surviving females were more frequently sexual than the surviving females and the non-surviving males.
Gender in horror films | Portrayal of women vs. men
The final girl trope is discussed in film studies as being a young woman (occasionally a young man) left alone to face the killer's advances in the movie's end. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the heroine in "Halloween", is an example of a typical final girl. Final girls are often, like Laurie Strode, virgins among sexually active teens. Several slasher film villains grew to take on villain protagonist characteristics, with the series following the continued efforts of a villain, rather than the killer's victims (for example, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Chucky, and Leatherface). The "Scream" film series is a rarity that follows its heroine Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) rather than masked killer Ghostface, whose identity changes from film to film, and is only revealed in each entry's finale.
Slasher film | Common tropes
Slasher.com is a 2016 horror feature film directed by Chip Gubera and starring Jewel Shepard, R.A. Mihailoff, All-4-One's Delious Kennedy, Ben Kaplan, and Morgan Carter.
Slasher.com | Introduction
Williamson, a self-confessed fan of "Halloween" (1978), "Prom Night" (1980), and "" (1986), wrote the characters as well-versed in horror film lore and knowing all the clichés that the audience were aware of. The film grossed $173 million worldwide, it became both the highest grossing slasher film of all time and the first one to cross $100 million at the domestic box office, and the most successful horror film since "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). The marketing for "Scream" distanced itself from the slasher subgenre as it passed itself as a "new thriller" that showcased the celebrity of its stars, promoting the appearances of then-popular stars Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox and Neve Campbell over its violence.
Slasher film | Post-modern slashers (1996–present)
Sex in slasher films is broken down into the following behaviors: flirting, kissing, petting, exposed breasts or genitalia, masturbation, intercourse, or forced sex. In slasher films from 1980 to 1993, studies in Linz and Donnerstiens article have concluded that 33% of occurrences of sex were connected to violence (male or female). 14% of all sex incidents were linked to the death of a female. A slasher killed 22% of all "innocent" female protagonists during or following a sexual display or act. If a person watched all of the slasher films included in the Molitor and Sapolsky study they would have seen sex and violence paired 92 times.
Gender in horror films | Sex paired with violence
"Friday the 13th Part 2" sold 7.8 million tickets and "Halloween II" sold 9.2 million. Both sequels sold around half of their original film's tickets, though they were still very popular ("Halloween II" was the second highest-grossing horror film of the year behind "An American Werewolf in London"). Independent companies churned out slasher films "Final Exam", "Bloody Birthday", "Hell Night", "Don't Go in the Woods... Alone!", Wes Craven's "Deadly Blessing" and "Graduation Day". Fantasy and sci-fi genres continued to blend with the slasher film in "Strange Behavior", "GhostKeeper" and "EvilSpeak". The international market found Italy's "Absurd" and "Madhouse" and Germany's "Bloody Moon".
Slasher film | 1981
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film is a 2006 documentary film about slasher films. It makes reference to many popular horror and thriller films as well.
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film | Introduction
This is a list of lists of horror films. Often there may be considerable overlap particularly between horror and other genres (including action, thriller, and science fiction films).
Lists of horror films | Introduction
The election of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States drew in a new age of conservatism that ushered concern of rising violence on film. The slasher film, at the height of its commercial power, also became the center of a political and cultural maelstrom. Sean S. Cunningham's sleeper hit "Friday the 13th" was the year's most commercially successful slasher film, grossing more than $59.7 million and selling nearly 15 million tickets in North America. Despite a financial success, distributor Paramount Pictures was criticized for "lowering" itself to release a violent exploitation film, with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert famously despising the film.
Slasher film | 1980
Slash is a 2016 American comedy film directed and written by Clay Liford. The film stars Michael Johnston, Hannah Marks, Michael Ian Black, Missi Pyle, Sarah Ramos, Peter Vack, Jessie Ennis, and Matt Peters.
Slash (film) | Introduction
Its success led to a series of "old dark house" films including "The Cat and the Canary" (1927), based on John Willard's 1922 stage play, and Universal Pictures' "The Old Dark House" (1932), based on the novel by J.B. Priestley. In both films, the town dwellers are pitted against strange country folk, a recurring theme in later horror films. Along with the "madman on the loose" plotline, these films employed several influences upon the slasher genre, such as lengthy point of view shots and a "sins of the father" catalyst to propel the plot's mayhem.
Slasher film | Origins
In 1973, American International gave a shot to director Brian De Palma, whose previous movie, a Warner Bros. comedy, had flopped badly. Reviewing "Sisters", De Palma's first horror film, "New Yorker" critic Pauline Kael observed that its "limp technique doesn't seem to matter to the people who want their gratuitous gore. The movie supplies it, but why is there so much gratuitous dumbness too?... [H]e can't get two people talking in order to make a simple expository point without its sounding like the drabbest Republic picture of 1938." Many examples of the so-called blaxploitation genre of the early and middle part of the decade, featuring stereotype-filled stories revolving around drugs, violent crime, and prostitution, were the product of AIP.
B movies (exploitation boom) | Sleazeballs and slashers: 1970s
Slasher is a 2004 documentary film directed by John Landis for the Independent Film Channel. The film was produced by Chris Kobin, Stephen Cantor, and Daniel Laikand. Shot over a weekend in Memphis, Tennessee, the film centers on uber-used car salesman Michael Bennett, a traveling master of the Slasher Sale, Kevin-the-DJ, and Mudd the closer, as they put on a tent-style used car sale.
Slasher (2004 film) | Introduction
Notable feature-length documentaries about fandom (some more respectful of the subjects than others) include "Trekkies" and "A Brony Tale". "Slash" is a movie released in 2016 about a young boy who writes slash fanfiction.
Fandom | In film
Paul Zachary of Bloody Disgusting stated that the film combined elements of "giallo" and more straightforward slasher films. Zachary described it as a "Franken-film" combining several bit and pieces of other related work.
Night Killer | Style
The film is not overly gory but is along the lines of some of the earlier slasher-type films.
All Saints Eve (film) | Review
AllMovie called the film "bland early '80s slasher fare".
Death Screams | Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "My Bloody Valentine" holds a 54% approval rating based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 5.38/10. In a March 30, 2007 issue of "Entertainment Weekly", the film was ranked 17 in a list of guilty pleasures, listed among such films as "Dawn of the Dead" and "Escape from New York", and called "the most criminally underappreciated of the slasher genre." Popular filmmaker Quentin Tarantino called it his all-time favorite slasher film. In a retrospective assessment, film historian Adam Rockoff wrote that the film was "easily one of the best and most polished slasher films." In another retrospective assessment by scholar Jim Harper in his book "Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies", he notes that the film distinguishes itself from other slashers by moving outside the "typical teen based scenario," instead focusing on a group of twenty-something adults in a working class community, and relying on a notable "atmosphere dread."
My Bloody Valentine (film) | Retrospective
The success of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" welcomed in a new wave of horror films that relied on special effects, almost completely silencing the smaller low-budget Golden Age features.
Slasher film | 1984
Giallo films are Italian-made slasher films that focus on cruel murders and the subsequent search for the killers. They are named for the Italian word for yellow, "giallo", the background color featured on the covers of the pulp novels by which these movies were inspired. The progenitor of this genre was "The Girl Who Knew Too Much". Other examples of Giallo films include "Four Flies on Grey Velvet", "Deep Red", "The Cat o' Nine Tails", "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", "The Case of the Scorpion's Tail", "A Lizard in a Woman's Skin", "Black Belly of the Tarantula", "The Strange Vice of Mrs.
Exploitation film | Giallo films
During the 1980s, slasher film-makers had begun adding increasing amounts of sexuality into their movies. Working in the "pink film" genre, director Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu decided to inject elements of horror into these softcore pornographic productions. The film became a box-office success.
Entrails of a Virgin | Production
So Sweet, So Dead (, also known as The Slasher is the Sex Maniac and Penetration (the US version with hardcore inserts involving Harry Reems and Kim Pope)) is a 1972 Italian giallo film directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero.
So Sweet, So Dead | Introduction
The horror subgenre of slasher films is then explored. "Videodrome", "The Stuff", and "They Live" are highlighted as satirizing consumerism, commercialism, and the rise of home video in the 1980s. Parallels are drawn between the charisma and actions of villain Freddy Krueger of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue | Synopsis
In June 2018 "Child's Play" creator Don Mancini Tweeted that he is shopping a TV series with Brad Dourif as Chucky. The series will air on the Sci-Fi network. "It Follows" (2014) was a critical success, mixing slasher film style with demonic fantasy and metaphorical subtext. "The Guest" (2014) and "Don't Breathe" (2016) twisted conventional tropes into unexpected takes on the horror genre. "Bodom" (2016) is inspired but not based on a real 1960s murder case attempt trying to reconstruct events by potential victims. Blumhouse Productions, founded by Jason Blum on his successful "Paranormal Activity" and "Insidious" series, released mid-budget slasher films "The Purge" (2013), "Happy Death Day" (2017) and "Truth or Dare" (2018).
Slasher film | Recent works
The genre developed in the mid-to-late 1960s, peaked in popularity during the 1970s, and subsequently declined over the next few decades. (Some examples continue to be produced). It has been considered a predecessor to, and significant influence on, the later American slasher film genre.
Giallo | Introduction
Horror has become prominent on television with "The Walking Dead", "American Horror Story", and "The Strain", and on online streaming services like Netflix's "Stranger Things" and "Haunting of Hill House". Also, many popular horror films have had successful television series made: "Psycho" spawned "Bates Motel", "The Silence of the Lambs" spawned "Hannibal", and both "Scream" and "Friday the 13th" had TV series in development. "You're Next" (2011) and "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012) led to a return to the slasher genre. The latter was intended also as a critical satire of torture porn. "Terrifier" (2016) is another slasher film, which follows the actions of a homicidal clown named Art, who terrorizes and kills victims in a decrepit apartment building on Halloween night.
Horror film | 2010s
Other filmmakers followed Walker's lead, as posters dubbed "Blood and Lace" (1971) as "sickest PG-rated movie ever made!", while "Scream Bloody Murder" (1973) called itself as "gore-nography." By 1974 the exploitation film battled political correctness and their popularity waned, and while films like "The Love Butcher" (1975) and "" (1976) were accused of promoting bigotry, the low-budget independent film "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974) became a major hit and the most commercially successful horror film since "The Exorcist". The story concerns a violent clash of cultures and ideals between the counter-culture and traditional conservative values, with the film's squealing antagonist Leatherface carrying a chainsaw and wearing the faces of victims he and his family eat.
Slasher film | Exploitation films
/Film, also stylized as Slashfilm, is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005.
/Film | Introduction
To a large degree, the genre's influence lives on in the slasher films which became enormously popular during the 1980s and drew heavily on tropes developed by earlier gialli.
Giallo | Popularity and legacy
However, Brett Gallman on his website "Oh, the Horror!" considers it "a weird, gangly, messy perversion of 80s slashers", commending the film's darker narrative, performances, and dismantling of the typical slasher film formula.
Hell High | Critical reception
The incapacitated Mike is stabbed repeatedly by Erin, who ties a rope around his neck, attaches the other end to a tractor, and drives the vehicle until Mike's neck snaps.
Slasher (2007 film) | Plot
You can see him now, soaking up videos of "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween"—not to mention the lesser likes of "He Knows You're Alone", "Terror Train", and "My Bloody Valentine"—and saying, "I can do that!" And he can." Critic James Berardinelli credited the film (along with "Scream") as igniting a new boom of slasher films, adding: "There is one minor aspect of the plot that elevates "I Know What You Did Last Summer" above the level of a typical '80s slasher flick -- it has an interesting subtext. I'm referring to the way the lives and friendships of these four individuals crumble in the wake of their accident.
I Know What You Did Last Summer | Critical response
The movie was received negatively by critics. Film Threat, while not particular positive towards the film, called it "good campy fun with some of the dumbest scenes you can grab from a slasher of this decade." It has an approval rating of 29% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 7 reviews.
Cutting Class | Reception
Exposure to scenes of explicit violence combined with sexual images is believed to affect males’ emotional reactions to film violence. It has also shown to lead males to be less disturbed by scenes of extreme violence and degradation directed at women, claims the Molitor and Sapolski article. Carol Clover states that the implied audience for slasher films are "largely young and largely male". Studies show that the most popular slasher films of the 1990s are more violent than the most commercially successful slasher films released in the 1980s. Specifically, according to this article, there was a 44% increase in the number of violent acts suffered by innocent victims in the 1990s crop of slasher films.
Gender in horror films | Effects on viewers
In his book "The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s", Scott Aaron Stine stated that "despite cut-rate acting, stilted dialogue, and sometimes-tedious direction, "Satan's Blade" is surprisingly engaging." His review concluded that the film was "pretty typical B-grade slasher fare, even though it's more representative of '70s horror than '80s fare." In "Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies", Jim Harper notes: "Despite the promise of legendary creatures and supernatural goings-on, this is standard stalk'n'slash stuff, with plenty of point-of-view shots to (unsuccessfully) obscure the killer's identity." Joe Yanick of "Diabolique Magazine" wrote: ""Satan's Blade" is firmly entrenched in a genre of so-bad-their-good films and it's hard to see how many would flock to this movie without a heavy veneer of irony.
Satan's Blade | Reception
A list of Horror film originally released in the 2020s. Often there may be considerable overlap particularly between horror and other genres (including, thriller, slasher, and sci-fi); the list should attempt to document films which are more closely related to horror, even if they bend genres.
List of horror films of the 2020s | Introduction
"Halloween" grew into a major box office success, grossing over $70 million worldwide and selling over 20 million tickets in North America, becoming the most profitable independent film until being surpassed by "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990).
Slasher film | 1978
The idea to make a slasher film came from a failed project that Hallam had worked on; after successfully pitching the idea of a slasher to Horvath, the filmmakers decided to combine this idea with their love of European art films.
Entrance (film) | Production
The early 1970s saw an increase in exploitation films that lured audiences to grindhouses and drive-ins by advertising of sex and violence. Robert Fuest's "And Soon the Darkness" (1970) set off the '70s exploitation wave by maximizing its small budget and taking place in daylight. "The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio" (1971) follows an insane killer who stalks and murders victims at a nursing academy. "Fright" (1971) is based on the "babysitter and the man upstairs" urban legend while "Tower of Evil" (1972) features careless partying teens murdered in a remote island lighthouse. Pete Walker broke taboos by advertising his films' negative reviews to attract viewers looking for the depraved, using a "no press is bad press" mantra with "The Flesh and Blood Show" (1972), "Frightmare" (1974), "House of Mortal Sin" (1976), "Schizo" (1976) and "The Comeback" (1978).
Slasher film | Exploitation films
The appeal of watching people inflict violence upon each other dates back thousands of years to Ancient Rome, though fictionalized accounts became marketable with late 19th century horror plays produced at the Grand Guignol. Maurice Tourneur's "The Lunatics" (1912) used visceral violence to attract the Guignol's audience; films like this eventually led to public outcry in the United States, eventually passing the Hays Code in 1930. The Hays Code is one of the entertainment industry's earliest set of guidelines restricting sexuality and violence deemed unacceptable. Crime writer Mary Roberts Rinehart influenced horror literature with her novel "The Circular Staircase" (1908), adapted into the silent film "The Bat" (1926), about guests in a remote mansion menaced by a killer in a grotesque mask.
Slasher film | Origins
Despite "A Nightmare on Elm Street"'s success, fatigue hit the slasher genre, and its popularity had declined substantially. The home video revolution, fueled by the popularity of VHS, provided a new outlet for low-budget filmmaking. Without major studio backing for theatrical release, slasher films became second only to pornography in the home video market. The drop in budgets to accommodate a more economic approach was usually met with a decline in quality. Holdovers filmed during the Golden Age such as "Too Scared to Scream" (1985), "The Mutilator" (1985), "Blood Rage" (1987) "Killer Party" (1986) and "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" (1986) found video distribution.
Slasher film | Direct-to-video and series (1985–1995)
Wes Craven's "New Nightmare" (1994) utilized characters from his original "Elm Street" film in self-referential and ironic ways, as the actors played versions of their true personas targeted by a Freddy Krueger-inspired demon. "New Nightmare" sold 2.3 million tickets the North American box office. The slasher film's surprising resurrection came in the form of "Scream" (1996), a box office smash and redefined the genre's rules. Directed by Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, "Scream" juggled postmodern humor with visceral horror. The film played on nostalgia for the Golden Age, but appealed to a younger audience with contemporary young actors and popular music.
Slasher film | Post-modern slashers (1996–present)
Reviewing "V/H/S" for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobia notes that the genre "has since become to the ’00s and ’10s what slasher movies were to the ’80s." The genre appeals to film producers because of its lower cost, as it is believed the illusion of amateur documentary style allows lower production values than would be accepted on a conventional film. Writer-director Christopher B. Landon, who has made several found footage horror films, posits that the genre is likely to extend in the future outside horror.
Found footage (film technique) | History
Film scholar John Kenneth Muir notes in his book "Horror Films of the 1980s" (2010) that, like other slasher films of the period, "He Knows You're Alone" is structured around an organizing principle, that being a wedding. In this instance, the film follows a format in which the narrative occurs during either a holiday or other important date. Whereas other contemporaneous slasher films, such as "Friday the 13th" (1980), utilize the summer camp setting as an organizing principle and locale, "He Knows You're Alone" takes place in various wedding-specific locations, such as a dressmaker's shop, a church, and the bride's home.
He Knows You're Alone | Analysis
L.A. Slasher is a 2015 American comedy slasher film co-written and directed by Martin Owen. The film stars Andy Dick, Drake Bell, Mischa Barton, and Dave Bautista. The film was released on June 26, 2015 in a limited release by Arthur Jones.
L.A. Slasher | Introduction
"Maniac" has been cited by some media outlets as one of the greatest slasher/horror films ever made. "Esquire" placed it at #18 in their list of "The 55 Scariest Movies of All Time". It was ranked at #44 in "Paste" magazine's "50 Best Slasher Movies of All Time".
Maniac (1980 film) | Legacy
He returned to slasher movies with "Cheerleader Massacre" (2003). "The Thing Below" (2003) was horror. "Lust Connection" (2005) was a return to erotic thrillers.
Jim Wynorski | Horror films
At the time, the slasher sub-genre had seen further commercial success with the releases of "Prom Night" and "Terror Train" (both 1980).
My Bloody Valentine (film) | Development
Jumpstarted by the massive success of John Carpenter's "Halloween," the era commonly cited as the Golden Age of slasher films is 1978–1984, with some scholars citing over 100 similar films released over the six-year period. Despite most films receiving negative reviews, many Golden Age slasher films were extremely profitable and have established cult followings. Many films reused "Halloween"'s template of a murderous figure stalking teens, though they escalated the gore and nudity from Carpenter's restrained film. Golden Age slasher films exploited dangers lurking in American institutions such as high schools, colleges, summer camps, and hospitals.
Slasher film | Golden Age (1978–1984)
The story for "Death Proof" developed from Quentin Tarantino's fascination for the way stuntmen would "death-proof" stunt cars so a driver could survive horrific, high-speed crashes and collisions. This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his "death-proof" car. Tarantino remembers, "I realized I couldn't do a straight slasher film, because with the exception of women-in-prison films, there is no other genre quite as rigid. And if you break that up, you aren't really doing it anymore. It's inorganic, so I realized—let me take the structure of a slasher film and just do what I do.
Death Proof | Production
It has been cited as a "proto-slasher film."
Blood and Lace | Introduction
A review in the "Variety" television and film guide called "Rush Week" a "slasher film long on pretty girls and short on gore. It's a belated direct-to-vid release. Durable if cornball format has coeds being killed on a college campus during the frats' annual rush week ceremonies... Bralver seems more intent on satisfying voyeurs." Michael Weldon in "The Psychotronic Video Guide" (1996) called the film "another stupid, boring teen/horror movie." In his book "Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies" (2004), film historian Jim Harper noted: "Although running several years too late to catch the slasher craze, "Rush Week" is a fairly honorable attempt to rehash the past."
Rush Week | Critical response
Club" wrote that the film's "narrative is pedestrian as hell, but damn, the execution. The movie manages to luck into that ideal combination of over-the-top bloodshed, gratuitous nudity (of both male and female types, though the latter is, as expected, the mainstage show), and unintentional absurdity for which enthusiasts of the genre are perpetually on the hunt." Bill Gibron of "PopMatters" wrote of the film: "Thanks to VHS and the thriving home video market, the sleazoid shocker became an instant cult classic... "Pieces" is the kind of fright film that sneaks up on you. It is really nothing more than your standard slasher effort with a chainsaw doing all the slice and dice (well, there are a couple of knife kills thrown in for good massacre measure)."
Pieces (film) | Critical response
The success of "Halloween" made slasher films known again, and so that type of film saw a revival during the late 1970s and entire 1980s. A few such films worth mentioning include "Terror Train" and "Prom Night", in which Jamie Lee Curtis would again essay this type of role; "Friday the 13th", the first entry to have both a female antagonist (Betsy Palmer) and protagonist (Adrienne King); and "A Nightmare on Elm Street", now considered a slasher-classic, which introduced supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger, and whose leading actress, Heather Langenkamp, was dubbed a scream queen, and went on to become one of the most influential.
Scream queen | 1980s
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 7.18/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Horror icon Wes Craven's subversive deconstruction of the genre is sly, witty, and surprisingly effective as a slasher film itself, even if it's a little too cheeky for some." On review aggregator Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Peter Stack of the "San Francisco Chronicle" appreciated the shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s and their "endless series of laborious, half-baked sequels".
Scream (1996 film) | Critical reception
Mirroring the punk rock movement, novice filmmakers proved anyone could make a movie on home video, resulting in shot-on-video slashers "Blood Cult" (1985), "The Ripper" (1985), "Spine" (1986), "Truth or Dare?" (1986), "Killer Workout" (1987), and "Death Spa" (1989). Lesser-known horror properties "Sleepaway Camp", "The Slumber Party Massacre" and "Silent Night, Deadly Night" became series on home video. "The Hills Have Eyes Part 2" (1985) and "" (1985) were theatrically released but neither film was embraced like "" (1985), a sequel rushed into production. Distinguished by overtly homoerotic undertones, "Freddy's Revenge" became the highest grossing horror film of 1985 and inspired "dream" slashes "Dreamaniac" (1986), "Bad Dreams" (1988), "Deadly Dreams" (1988), and "Dream Demon" (1988).
Slasher film | Direct-to-video and series (1985–1995)
Acclaimed filmmaker Brian De Palma's "Psycho"-homage "Dressed to Kill" drew a wave of protest from the National Organization for Women (NOW), who picketed the film's screening on the University of Iowa campus. The year's most controversial slashers was William Lustig's "Maniac", about a schizophrenic serial killer in New York. "Maniac" was maligned by critics. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" said that watching the film was like "watching someone else throw up." Lustig released the film unrated on American screens, sidestepping the MPAA to still bring in $6 million at the box office.
Slasher film | 1980
Black Christmas is a Canadian-American horror film series that comprises three standalone slasher films, as well as a novelization. The original film has gained a large cult following and is credited as being one of the first slasher films, inspiring many others, including the critically acclaimed hit "Halloween" (1978). The series centers around a serial killer that stalks and murders a group of sorority sisters. The 1974 film follows the character of Jess Bradford as she and her sorority sisters begin receiving threatening phone calls from an unknown stalker. The 2006 film explores the background and motivation for the killer and his family.
Black Christmas (film series) | Introduction
Guilt, confusion, and doubt build in them until they can no longer stand to be with each other or look at themselves in the mirror. Sadly, this potentially-fascinating element of the movie is dismissed quickly to facilitate a higher body count. And, as I said before, a few extra deaths can only make a slasher movie better, right?"
I Know What You Did Last Summer | Critical response
Curtains is a 1983 Canadian slasher film directed by Richard Ciupka, written by Robert Guza Jr., and starring John Vernon, Samantha Eggar, Linda Thorson, and Lynne Griffin. Centered on theater and filmmaking, its plot focuses on a group of actresses auditioning for a role in a movie at a prestigious director's mansion, where they are targeted by a masked killer. Conceived by producer Peter R. Simpson after his box office hit "Prom Night" (1980), the film was intended to be an "adult" slasher aimed at older audiences in contrast to the standard genre films of the time, which featured predominately teenaged characters.
Curtains (1983 film) | Introduction
The study also reported that the number of violent acts against males increased across the 1980s, but tended to decrease for females. Apparently, the producers were criticized for the depiction of women as victims in slasher films, so they toned down such attacks.
Gender in horror films | Changing patterns
Offerings was considered a late addition to the 80's slasher film genre and received lukewarm reviews.
Offerings (film) | Reception
Siskel, in his "Chicago Tribune" review, revealed the identity and fate of the film's killer in an attempt to hurt its box office, and provided the address of the chairman of Paramount Pictures for viewers to complain. The MPAA was criticized for allowing "Friday the 13th" an R rating, but its violence would inspire gorier films to follow, as it set a new bar for acceptable levels of on-screen violence. The criticisms that began with "Friday the 13th" would lead to the genre's eventual decline in subsequent years. The small-budget thrillers "Silent Scream" and "Prom Night" were box office hits with $7.9 and $14.8 million, respectively.
Slasher film | 1980
and was even nicknamed "The House that Freddy Built". The film is credited with using many of the tropes found in the low-budget horror films of the 1970s and 1980s that originated with John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978) and led this subgenre to be called the slasher film. The film includes a morality play where sexually promiscuous teenagers are killed. Critics and film historians state that the film's premise is the struggle to define the distinction between dreams and reality, manifested by the lives and dreams of the teens in the film. Critics today praise the film's ability to transgress "the boundaries between the imaginary and real", toying with audience perceptions.
A Nightmare on Elm Street | Introduction
As the bodies pile up amongst this testy crowd of horny teens, there remains a vacant hole were someone scary should be. In a strange way, this film stands unique amongst all slasher films as one where the killer is nearly intangible." Jeremiah Kipp of "Slant Magazine" reviewed the film in 2009, noting "a kind of minimalism at work, eschewing anything special in terms of mood, pacing, character, plot, and tension." Further commenting on the revelation of the killer's identity, Kipp observed: In 2012, Bill Gibron of "PopMatters" wrote of the film: "This movie feels at least twice as long as its 90 minute running time and not always in a good way.
Friday the 13th (1980 film) | Contemporary
Types of fiction which may seem unrelated can also combine to form hybrid subgenres, such as the melding of horror and comedy in the "Evil Dead" films. Other popular combinations include the romantic comedy, some vampire films, and the action comedy film. Alan Williams distinguishes three main genre categories: narrative, avant-garde and documentary. Genre movies are "commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters and familiar situations". Genre affects how films are broadcast on television, advertised, and organized in video-rental stores. One can also classify films by the setting, theme, topic, mood, format, target audience or budget.
Film genre | Introduction
Slasher films of the 1990s portray an act of brutal violence an average of once every two and a half minutes. Also, characters are shown in terror an average of three and a half minutes longer in slasher films in the 1990s. According to Gloria Cowan and Margaret O'Brien, experimental studies have been done to show the effects of viewing R-rated violent films have found "increased acceptance of interpersonal violence and rape mythology". These studies have also found desensitization with "carry-over attitude effects" towards victims of violence. These studies have shown, that after viewing slasher films, college male students have less sympathy for rape victims, see them as less injured, and are more likely to endorse the myth that women enjoy rape.
Gender in horror films | Effects on viewers
Surviving as a female slasher victim was strongly associated with the absence of sexual behavior. In slasher films, the message appears to be that sexual women get killed and only the pure women survive. Slasher films reinforce the idea that female sexuality can be costly. Films such as "Fatal Attraction" feature actresses sexualized for viewer pleasure. Liahna Babener examines the movie, arguing "Beth acts the perfect Total Woman, wearing clingy undershirts and bikini panties around the apartment, primping before the mirror in lacy black undergarments, making a voluptuous ritual out of the nightly bath and applying lipstick with sensuous strokes to the accompaniment of Dan's and the camera's admiring gaze."
Gender in horror films | Portrayal of women vs. men
Jim Davidson of "The Pittsburgh Press" panned the film, writing: "The only suspense in this appalling 1980 movie... lies in anticipating the who and when of the next stabbing," adding that "Director Jeff Lieberman uses forest locations and a full set of dark filters that disguise the cheapness of the production." Todd Martin from "HorrorNews.net" gave the film a positive review, praising the film's script, soundtrack, and bleak tone, calling it "one of the most underrated slasher flicks of all time". Dennis Schwartz from "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" awarded the film a grade C+. In his review of the film, Schwwartz wrote, "Fans of slasher films should be drawn to the blood and gore that is so beautifully shot and is not as graphic as it could have been.
Just Before Dawn (1981 film) | Critical response
horror flicks to date." Retrospective assessment has noted the film's mixture of slasher films with Italian gialli films and police procedurals. Film scholar Adam Rockoff deemed the film "grim" and one of the "slickest-looking slasher" films.
Night School (1981 film) | Critical response