Slasher film is a sub-genre of the horror film genre typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a chainsaw or scythe. Although the term "slasher" may be used as a generic term for any horror movie involving graphic acts of murder, the slasher as a genre has its own set of characteristics which set it apart from related genres like the splatter film. Writer Adam Rockoff, in an interview with Bryan Layne reported in Oddity Cinema, says: "I guess I could spout out some academic BS, but really, I think that as long as you have a killer who murders people with sharp objects, and a few thematic and/or stylistic conventions that have become staples of the genre– the final girl or the killer’s POV, etc.– you’ve got yourself a slasher film."
Development
Origins and influences
Forerunners
Possibly the earliest film that could be called a slasher, Thirteen Women (1932) tells the story of an old college sorority whose former members are set against one another by a vengeful peer, seeking penance for the prejudice they bestowed on her because of her mixed race heritage. Another film important to the sub-genre is Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960). The film's plot centers around a man who kills women while using a portable movie camera to record their dying expressions. The film was immensely controversial when first released, critics called it misogynistic (similar to the slasher films of the golden age). Today is as seen as a masterpiece of the horror genre and is viewed as an important part of the development of the slasher sub-genre. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) was released three months after Peeping Tom is described as 'the mother of all slasher films'. With its 'whodunit' plot structure, mixed the knife wielding, mentally disturbed killer, twist ending and 'stalking' camera technique, provided a basis for many films in the sub-genre, most importantly Halloween .However, the infamous shower sequence has since become a classic of horror cinema, and the film itself hailed by contemporary critics as a modern masterpiece. Also important to the development was Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). This film often credited with establishing many of the staples of the slasher genre, such as young people poking around in places where they don't belong (and harm consequently befalling them), the lone female survivor (or Final Girl), the lumbering masked killer who never speaks.
The Splatter Film
The self-proclaimed "guru of gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis," invented the splatter film in 1963 with the release of Blood Feast . Blood Feast was made quickly and cheaply but differed from its genre contemporaries in that it featured the stalking and mutilation of beautiful women. Lewis went on to use this successful formula to make movies such as 2000 Maniacs , Color Me Blood Red and The Gruesome Twosome .
Giallo
Another influence for the slasher sub-genre was the Italian Giallo genre. This film genre was made up of films done by various Italian directors, most notably Dario Argento and Mario Bava. These films were known for extended, graphic murder sequences and bizarre storylines. Probably the most notable are Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1963) and Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), several critics have noted that the films had profound impact on the development of slasher film sub-genre. Writing in 2000, Tim Lucas wrote that Bava is “the acknowledged smoking gun behind the ‘body count’ movie phenomenon of the 1980s, which continues to dominate the horror genre two decades later with such films as Scream , I Know What You Did Last Summer , and their respective sequels.” According to Gary Johnson, “ Twitch of the Death Nerve is one of the most imitated movies of the past 30 years. It helped kick start the slasher genre…. influence still resonates today (although somewhat dully) in movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer , Scream , and Urban Legend .”. Johnson also states of Blood and Blace Lace that "Equipped with his colored gels and his predatory camera, Bava arguably created the slasher subgenre and kicked down the door for subsequent directors to stick in their cinematic blades as well, for better or worse. Hitchcock toyed with us, Powell showed us but kept his emotional distance, but Bava passionately reveled in the shock of it all. Camera as weapon; the masked killer as cipher upon whom the audience was almost gleefully invited to imprint their darkest animosities. " The 1992 movie Knight Moves has been described online as a Western Giallo , with considerable elments to the genre used in this motion picture.
The Exploitation Film
The 1970s were arguably the Golden Age for exploitation films, which tended to be low budget affairs and specialize in suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudity, freaks, gore, the bizarre, destruction, rebellion, and mayhem. While such films have existed since the earliest days of moviemaking, they were popularized in the 1960s with the general relaxing of cinematic taboos in the United States and Europe. Additionally, low budget filmmakers used sensational elements to attract audiences away from television.
Important to the development of the slasher sub-genre were rape and revenge films, notably, Wes Craven's film Last House on the Left (1972), one of the first of its kind.. The 1970s saw a number of new filmmakers such as Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter and others making names for themselves in the horror genre. Many of these directors were young, but would soon be considered important to the horror genre. Slasher films are often considered exploitation films because of their use of their often low budgets, nudity, gore and shock techniques.
Early Slashers
The movie that is considered the first proper slasher film is Black Christmas (1974) directed by Bob Clark, later the director of A Christmas Story . Black Christmas was noted as one of the earliest films to present some of the sub-genre's characteristics that the slasher film would come to be known for: a mysterious stalker, a set of adolescent victims, a secluded location cut off from adult supervision, point-of-view shots showing the "killer's perspective", and graphic depictions of violence and murder. The film was remade in 2006 by Dimension Films.
It wasn't until the huge box office success of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980), both of which spawned numerous sequels and countless imitators that endlessly recycled their predecessors' character archetypes and plot. Halloween , though not the first film of its kind, was the first to introduce the concept of the slasher as an indestructible evil force and is often considered the film responsible for the rise of the slasher trend, popularizing many of what would become key elements in the genre. A long succession of slasher films started to be produced, though Halloween actually has far less graphic violence than the slasher genre has become known for.
Golden Age
Following a trend set by Black Christmas , Halloween , and Friday the 13th , many films of the era focused on holidays or special occasions, such as My Bloody Valentine , New Year's Evil , Happy Birthday to Me , The Funhouse April Fool's Day , Prom Night , Mother's Day , and Silent Night, Deadly Night (followed by such others as Bloody Birthday , Hell Night , Terror Train , Visiting Hours , Mortuary, and Night Warning ).
During the height of the genre's popularity, despite a strict formula developing within the genre, audience interest was maintained by developing new, increasingly "novel" ways for victims to be killed (as the Friday the 13th series is best known for), as well as increasingly graphic and realistic special effects (Some of the most effective were The Burning , The Prowler , and Maniac) . Some series, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and later Child's Play, added supernatural twists to the slasher formula, as well as comedic elements as the respective series progressed. Earlier films, such as Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , were also revived and given a series of increasingly gory sequels in attempts to compete with other franchises. The genre arguably peaked in 1983, a year in which, according to the book Crystal Lake Memories , nearly 60% of all box-office takings were for slasher movies. Even feminists took a satirical stab at the sub-genre with Slumber Party Massacre (1984).
Franchises and Anti-Heroes
Long-running franchises in the genre tended to focus more and more on the returning villain than on surviving victims, effectively transforming characters once viewed as frightening monsters into antiheroes. Notables include: Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Chucky and the Jigsaw Killer, all of whom have become some of the most recognizable 20th century American pop culture icons.
Decline and Direct-To-Video
The profitability of the slasher genre began to dwindle, and controversy over the subject matte
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