The Big Picture
- Slashers are popular horror films that have permeated pop culture and are instantly recognizable, even to those who don't watch horror movies.
- While there are many subgenres in horror, slashers stand out for their simplicity and the terrifying realism of their killers.
- Beginners should start with iconic slashers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Ghostface before exploring more disturbing and influential films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas.
Ask a person who doesn't watch horror to name a popular horror film, and you're going to get a lot of titles. Classics like The Shining or The Exorcist will be up there for sure, but most of the time what you're going to hear from non-fans are the popular slashers, like Halloween, Friday the 13th, or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Many times, these people might not even know the franchise titles, but they know the household names like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees (it's debatable if Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street is a true slasher). Even if you've never seen a horror movie, you know there's that guy with the hockey mask, and that one with the chainsaw.
Slashers are so ingrained in pop culture that everyone is at least a little familiar with them. Being able to look at a photo of Ghostface and be vaguely familiar with them is a given, unless you've been living in a cave. There's so much more to slashers than just the icons, however. They weren't even the first, nor are they the most twisted. So many slashers paved the way, leading to the icons who then created a slasher wave that dominated the '80s and still tops the box office today.
What Is a Slasher Movie?
Horror is a genre like few others due to just how many subgenres there are. There are movies about ghosts and hauntings. Think The Haunting or The Conjuring. In the '70s, and now again, possession and religious horror were all the rage, giving us classics like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and Insidious. Creature features have always been fun. Name an animal, and it's been a killer in a horror movie, including everyday birds in Alfred Hitchcock's aptly titled The Birds, a shark in Steven Spielberg's Jaws, and a rabid dog in Cujo. Add to that the plethora of more urban legend creatures like Big Foot and werewolves and you'll get must-watches such as Willow Creek and An American Werewolf in London.
In the late '90s, and into the 2000s, found footage was everywhere. We have The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity to thank for that. Most recently was the subgenre that wrongly gets labeled as "torture porn." Splatter films are what these are really called. The Saw franchise is at ten films now and counting, and another Final Destination entry is on the way soon as well.
While these subgenres come and go, slashers stay. We might not always get a lot of new ones, but the legends of the '80s and '90s still have a strong hold on us. The last few years have seen very successful Halloween and Scream sequels come out. Friday the 13th would be right there as well if it wasn't for the lawsuit that held up new movies being made. So why do we keep going back to slashers? It's because they're simple. They're the most realistic, nightmares we can envision actually happening. That doesn't mean there can't ever be a more supernatural bent to them, but slashers follow a predictable formula: we meet our future victims (often some young horny teens), the usually masked killer is introduced, he starts piling up bodies with inventive kills, and in the end he is unmasked, either revealing the mysterious killer or showing us his disgusting face, by a final girl who takes him down and saves the day. The tropes might be done to death, but slasher fans love them.
Beginners Should Stick to Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Ghostface
So where should a beginning viewer start with the slasher subgenre? The easiest way is to start with the popular. John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978 wasn't the first slasher, but it was the one that made them wildly popular. Halloween is scary as hell, but it's not too much to take in. You're not going to be grossed out by gore, and it's not over-the-top disturbing. It's Halloween's simplicity that makes it so frightening. You can check out the entire franchise, where simplicity and limited bloodshed give way to wild plots and incessant gore, to see how slashers have progressed to keep our attention.
The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked
From ‘Frankenstein’ to ‘Psycho’ to ‘Hereditary,’ this is Collider’s ranking of the best, scariest horror movies ever made.A lot of non-fans confuse Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. One silent killer in a white mask might as well be the same as the other. That's not exactly wrong. Friday the 13th was conceived as a blatant ripoff of Halloween after all. Still, its franchise is its own fantastic creation. The first film is a murder mystery, and after that, you can watch the evolution of Jason, as he goes from wearing a bag over his head to acquiring his famous hockey mask, to dying and coming back as a zombie. It's here you'll first be introduced to the more gross kills, famously created in part by practical effects genius Tom Savini.
Once you've seen those, move on to Scream. Wes Craven's 1996 film brought the long-dead slasher film back by being a meta love letter to the past. Scream is if you took Halloween and turned it into a murder mystery that winks at the viewer. The gore isn't as intense as other slashers and each entry is a whodunit. Ghostface isn't one man, but a different killer each time. That difference alone makes them a fun foray into the subgenre.
'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Black Christmas' Are Disturbing and Influential
Now that you've discovered the big names, it's time to see where they came from. First, go back to 1960 and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. It's perhaps the first slasher, along with another film we'll get to later. Even if you've never seen it, you know that shower scene and the spine-chilling theme. Over six decades later, it's engrained into pop culture. Psycho is tame compared to what came after, but it's where you can find the beginnings of a disguised killer with a knife.
1974 might have been the biggest year ever for slashers, thanks to two very influential films. One, everyone has heard of. Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is as disturbing as it gets. If you liked the Halloween or Friday the 13th films and thought they were fun, a good time is not what you will have with Leatherface and his family. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's gritty style makes it feel almost like a documentary. The viewer can't separate themselves from it. You'll feel like you're right there. The film gets a bad rap for being a gorefest, but in actuality, we see almost none of the violence. Hooper implies the mayhem, forcing us to imagine it, which is all the more terrifying. Sequels would go for blood and guts, but the original scares you by going for your mind.
The other influential film of 1974 isn't as well known, but it's just as important. Before Bob Clark gave us A Christmas Story, he made Black Christmas. It created many of the tropes later seen in Halloween, from the killer attacking on a holiday to showing his point-of-view and giving us the first-ever final girl. Though other horror hits became unending franchises, outside of a few bad remakes, Black Christmas and its chilling ending have stood on their own for almost half a century.
You're Now Ready for the Underrated Gems Like 'The Burning' and 'Pieces'
Now that you've discovered the classics, and have seen where they came from, it's time to become a slasher expert by diving into the underrated slashers that either got lost in the '80s phenomena or influenced the subgenre in their own ways. First, go back to 1960 again. Alongside Psycho was another crazed killer proto-slasher called Peeping Tom. It was considered so messed up that it ended the director's career. Though Jason Voorhees was the slasher king of the '80s, his influence was felt in many clones which stood out on their own. 1981 was a huge year for the slasher. It was in this year that we got cult hits like The Burning, The Prowler, and My Bloody Valentine. These once-off fright fests gave us all the tropes you've now learned about and come to expect but in a fun new package.
You will think you've seen it all by this point, but slashers sort of have their very own subgenre as well. In the '70s came another type of horror from Italy called Giallo. These films are usually about an unseen killer murdering their victims with a knife in a bloody fashion, all while a detective or reporter is trying to find out who the killer is and stop them. These aren't slashers exactly, as they have their own separate tropes, but some cross lines. 1987's Stage Fright borders on Giallo and slasher, complete with a killer in a giant owl head mask carrying a chainsaw. Five years before that, in 1982, came one of the most bonkers slasher and Giallo melds called Pieces. It has the mystery of a Giallo and the guts and madness of the craziest slashers. 11 years before that, in 1971, was Bay of Blood. Friday the 13th ripped that off as well, reduplicating some of its kill scenes shot for shot.
Slashers have always been more than just some dude in a mask slaying half-naked teens. Certainly, there is fun in that simplicity, but they have also created iconic films, have influenced our collective culture, and like its unstoppable killers, have led to a subgenre that will never die.
