Halloween
1978 · USA · 92m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legally$325,000 into $70 million, and every slasher after it is a photocopy.
Slasher
1974–1989 · 28 films catalogued
The giallo, relocated to America and put to work on a holiday calendar.
A masked or unseen killer, a group of young people, a body count, a survivor.
The lineage
Peeping Tom and Psycho (1960), then the Italian giallo through the 1970s, then Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), then Halloween (1978). Halloween made $70 million on a $325,000 budget and started a gold rush. Friday the 13th (1980) industrialised it. By 1982 every holiday on the calendar had a film attached.
The Final Girl
Carol Clover's Men, Women and Chain Saws (1992) named a structure everyone had already noticed. The survivor is female, sexually reticent, often androgynously named (Ripley, Stretch, Laurie), and picks up the killer's weapon in the last act. Clover's larger argument, that the slasher's cross-gender identification is stranger than its reputation allows, is still the most useful writing on the form.
The collapse
Self-parody by 1989, revival by Scream in 1996.
Where to start
Black Christmas. It predates Halloween and it is scarier.
Slasher films on file
All 28 Slasher films →
Friday the 13th
1980 · USA · 91m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legally. banned somewhereCynical, derivative, and it industrialised the whole form. Savini's finest hour.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1974 · USA · 83m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legally. banned somewhereAlmost bloodless, and still the most upsetting film here. The heat is the horror.
Black Christmas
1974 · Canada · 98m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyPredates Halloween and is scarier. The phone calls still work.
A Bay of Blood
1971 · Italy · 84m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereBava invents the slasher a decade early. Friday the 13th copied two kills outright.
High Tension
2003 · France · 87m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyAja before Hollywood, at maximum brutality, with a twist that still starts fights.
Maniac Cop
1988 · USA · 81m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyA dead cop stalks New York in uniform. Larry Cohen writes, Robert Z'Dar's jaw does the rest.
Prom Night
1980 · Canada · 91m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereJamie Lee Curtis, a masked killer, and a decade-old secret. Halloween cashes in, disco included.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
1984 · USA · 79m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyThe killer-Santa movie that got itself run out of cinemas in a week.
Happy Birthday to Me
1981 · Canada · 110m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyA prestige director slumming in the glut, and a poster more famous than the film.
My Bloody Valentine
1981 · Canada · 87m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyCanadian, mine-set, unusually well shot. The censored cut ruined it for decades.
The Burning
1981 · Canada/USA · 91m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereThe raft scene is the best kill in any slasher. The rest is fine.
Sleepaway Camp
1983 · USA · 81m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyNinety minutes of nothing, then an ending nobody who has seen it forgets.
The Prowler
1981 · USA · 89m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereA killer in WWII combat gear stalks a graduation dance. Savini's best gore work.
Alice, Sweet Alice
1976 · USA · 98m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyAmerican giallo in Catholic New Jersey. Genuinely disturbing and well acted.
Maniac
1980 · USA · 88m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereSavini's effects, Spinell's performance, and a very bleak little film.
Terror Train
1980 · Canada · 97m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyA costume party on a moving train, a killer swapping disguises, and Jamie Lee Curtis again.
The Funhouse
1981 · USA · 96m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereTobe Hooper does a carnival slasher. A deformed killer, a hall of mirrors, and real dread.
StageFright
1987 · Italy · 90m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyA killer in a giant owl mask, a locked theatre, and Soavi announcing himself.
The Slumber Party Massacre
1982 · USA · 77m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyWritten as satire, shot straight, and stranger than either choice on its own.
Hell Night
1981 · USA · 101m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyLinda Blair, a frat hazing, an old dark house. Atmosphere over arterial spray, and better for it.
Tales from the Crypt
1972 · UK/USA · 92m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyThe best Amicus omnibus, and Joan Collins versus a killer Santa two years before Black Christmas.
Tourist Trap
1979 · USA · 90m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyMannequins that move, telekinesis, and a masked killer. Far stranger than a slasher should be.
Pieces
1982 · Spain · 90m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallySpanish, incoherent, and gleefully stupid. 'Bastard! Bastard!'