Exploitation films

Boardinghouse

The first shot-on-video horror feature, blown up to 35mm and just as ugly as that sounds.

Human Lanterns

A Shaw wuxia that turns into a slasher, with lanterns made of human skin.

Rituals

The Canadian Deliverance, and grimmer than the nickname promises.

The Toolbox Murders

A proto-slasher that front-loads its nastiness, then becomes a different and stranger film.

Pieces

Spanish, incoherent, and gleefully stupid. 'Bastard! Bastard!'

Tourist Trap

Mannequins that move, telekinesis, and a masked killer. Far stranger than a slasher should be.

Hell Night

Linda Blair, a frat hazing, an old dark house. Atmosphere over arterial spray, and better for it.

Tales from the Crypt

The best Amicus omnibus, and Joan Collins versus a killer Santa two years before Black Christmas.

StageFright

A killer in a giant owl mask, a locked theatre, and Soavi announcing himself.

The Slumber Party Massacre

Written as satire, shot straight, and stranger than either choice on its own.

The Funhouse

Tobe Hooper does a carnival slasher. A deformed killer, a hall of mirrors, and real dread.

Alice, Sweet Alice

American giallo in Catholic New Jersey. Genuinely disturbing and well acted.

Maniac

Savini's effects, Spinell's performance, and a very bleak little film.

Terror Train

A costume party on a moving train, a killer swapping disguises, and Jamie Lee Curtis again.

Sleepaway Camp

Ninety minutes of nothing, then an ending nobody who has seen it forgets.

The Prowler

A killer in WWII combat gear stalks a graduation dance. Savini's best gore work.

Happy Birthday to Me

A prestige director slumming in the glut, and a poster more famous than the film.

My Bloody Valentine

Canadian, mine-set, unusually well shot. The censored cut ruined it for decades.

The Burning

The raft scene is the best kill in any slasher. The rest is fine.

Silent Night, Deadly Night

The killer-Santa movie that got itself run out of cinemas in a week.

Prom Night

Jamie Lee Curtis, a masked killer, and a decade-old secret. Halloween cashes in, disco included.

Maniac Cop

A dead cop stalks New York in uniform. Larry Cohen writes, Robert Z'Dar's jaw does the rest.

A Bay of Blood

Bava invents the slasher a decade early. Friday the 13th copied two kills outright.

High Tension

Aja before Hollywood, at maximum brutality, with a twist that still starts fights.

Black Christmas

Predates Halloween and is scarier. The phone calls still work.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Almost bloodless, and still the most upsetting film here. The heat is the horror.

Friday the 13th

Cynical, derivative, and it industrialised the whole form. Savini's finest hour.

Halloween

$325,000 into $70 million, and every slasher after it is a photocopy.