Slasher film

Not to be confused with Slash fiction.

Slasher films are a subgenre of horror films, typically involving a violent psychopath stalking and murdering several people, usually with bladed tools. Although the term "slasher" is sometimes used informally as a generic term for any horror movie involving murder, analysts of the genre cite an established set of characteristics which set these films apart from other horror subgenres, such as splatter films and psychological horror films.

Critics cite the Italian giallo films and psychological thriller films such as Peeping Tom (1960) and Psycho (1960) as early influencers, with the genre hitting its peak between 1978-1984 during an era known as the Golden Age of Slasher Films. Notable slasher films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Child's Play (1988) and Scream (1996). Many films in the slasher genre that were released decades ago continue to attract cult followings.

Definition

Slasher films adhere to a specific formula: a past wrongful action within a community takes place and causes severe trauma, and some time passes until a commemoration or anniversary of the past trauma that reactivates or re-inspires the killer. The films are built around stalk-and-murder sequences, drawn from the audience's feelings of catharsis, recreation, and displacement, as related to sexual pleasure.

Common tropes

The final girl trope is often discussed in film studies as a young woman (though occasionally a man) who is alone to face the killer's advances by the film's end. Film historians cite Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the heroine in Halloween (1978), as the prototypical final girl, as slasher film heroines that followed were often, like Strode, virgins amongst sexually active teens.

Some long-running slasher film villains have grown to take on anti-heroic characteristics, as the franchises follow continued efforts of a specific villain, rather than the killer's victims (i.e. Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Chucky, Pinhead, Ghostface and Leatherface).

Origins

A scene from the Grand Guignol, a format some critics have cited as an influence on the slasher film

Slasher film formula and appeal date back to the late 19th century horror plays produced at the Grand Guignol. Silent films, such as Maurice Tourneur's The Lunatics (1912), used visceral violence to attract the Guignol's audience; films like this 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 what could be shown on film, with mild references to sexuality and brutality deemed unacceptable.

Crime writer Mary Roberts Rinehart influenced on the emerging horror genre with her novel The Circular Staircase (1908), later adapted into the film The Bat (1926), about guests in a remote mansion menaced by a killer in a grotesque mask. Its success led to a series of "old dark house" films produced in the late 1920s including: The Cat and the Canary (1927), based on John Willard's 1922 stage play of the same name, and Universal Pictures' The Old Dark House (1932), based on the novel by J.B. Priestley. Both films employed the theme of town dwellers pitted against strange country folk, a recurring theme in later horror films. As well as the "madman on the loose" plot, several elements of these films would later be employed in the slasher genre, especially lengthy point of view shots and the "sins of the father" as a catalyst for the plot's violent mayhem.

Early film influences

Dorothy Maguire in The Spiral Staircase (1946)

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 photo, a device used in subsequent films such as Prom Night (1980) and Graduation Day (1981). Other early examples include a maniac seeking revenge in The Terror (1928), based on the play by Edgar Wallace.

B-movie producer Val Lewton partnered with director Jacques Tourneur for The Leopard Man (1943), about a small town 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. Robert Siodmak's The Spiral Staircase (1946), based on Ethel White's novel Some Must Watch, stars Ethel Barrymore as a helpless but sympathetic heroine trying to survive black-gloved killers; the film also features early use of jump scares.

Influential was British writer Agatha Christie, particularly her 1939 novel Ten Little Indians (adapted in 1945 as And Then There Were None). The story centers on a group of people with secret past crimes who are killed one-by-one on an isolated island. Each of the murders mirrors a verse from a nursery rhyme, merging the themes of childhood innocence and murder. The remake House of Wax (1953), mystery thriller The Bad Seed (1956), Screaming Mimi (1958), British B-movie Jack the Ripper (1959), and Terry Bishop's Cover Girl Killer (1959) all would incorporate themes and storytelling elements from Christie's writings.

1960s Horror-Thrillers

Psycho logo

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) used visual imagery that had been deemed unacceptable by production companies, mainly scenes of violence, sexuality, and the interior of a bathroom. That same year, British director Michael Powell released Peeping Tom, a film showing the killer's perspective as he murders women to photograph their dying expressions.

Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Janet Leigh, with Anthony Perkins receiving critical acclaim for his role as killer Norman Bates. This drew bankable movie stars to the genre; Joan Crawford starred in William Castle's Strait-Jacket (1964) and in Jim O'Connolly's Berserk! (1967), while Albert Finney starred in MGM's Night Must Fall (1964) (a remake of the 1937 British film) and Peter Cushing starred in Corruption (1968).

Francis Ford Coppola's debut film, Dementia 13 (1963), about murders in an Irish castle where relatives gather to commemorate a family death, would go on to greatly influenced the Italian giallo thrillers of the 1970s.

Hammer Studios, a Britain-based production, quickly produced Psycho-inspired genre pictures such as Taste of Fear (1961), Maniac (1963), Paranoiac (1963), Nightmare (1964), Fanatic (1965), The Nanny (1965), Hysteria (1965), and Crescendo (1970). Hammer Studios' rival, Amicus, had Psycho author Robert Bloch write the script Psychopath (1968).

William Castle's Homicidal (1961) features gore in its murder scenes, something both Psycho and Peeping Tom had edited around. Richard Hillard's Violent Midnight (1963) included the black-gloved killer's point of view as they pull down a branch to watch a victim; the film also featured a skinny-dipping scene. Crown International's Terrified (1963) features a masked killer stalking people. The Spanish film The House That Screamed (1969) features violent murders that thematically preempted later campus-based slashers.

Splatter, Krimi & Giallo films

See also: Splatter film and Giallo

Violent sub-genres that influenced slasher films include splatter films, Krimi films, and giallo films.

Splatter films focus on realistic or gratuitous gore. Herschell Gordon Lewis's campy Blood Feast (1963) was a hit at drive-in theaters and is often considered the first splatter film. Lewis' followed with gore-focused films Two-Thousand Maniacs! (1964), Color Me Blood Red (1965), The Gruesome Twosome (1967) and The Wizard of Gore (1971). Lewis' grotesque style can be seen in Andy Milligan's The Ghastly Ones (1969), Twisted Nerve (1968), Night After Night After Night (1969) and Tigon Productions' The Haunted House of Horror (1969).

Krimi films, post-World War II German adaptations of British writer Edgar Wallace's crime novels, were released in the late 1950s through the early 1970s and features villains in bold costumes, with musical scores by jazz composers such as Martin Böttcher and Peter Thomas. Fellowship of the Frog (1959), about a murderous villain terrorizing London, popularized the Krimi films in America. The film's success led to similar adaptations and imitations, including The Green Archer (1961) and Dead Eyes of London (1961). The Rialto Studio produced 32 Krimi films.

Italian giallo thrillers are crime procedurals or murder mysteries interlaced with eroticism, psychological thriller, psychological horror and mystery fiction. The movies feature unidentified killers who stalk and murder in grand fashions, and unlike most American slasher films, the protagonists of gialli are frequently (but not always) jet-setting adults sporting Milan fashions. These protagonists are often community outsiders reluctantly brought into the mystery through extenuating circumstances, such as witnessing a murder or being suspected of the crimes themselves. Much like Krimi films, gialli plots are often outlandish and improbable, and may occasionally include supernatural elements.

Sergio Martino's Torso (1973), a gialli featuring a masked killer preying upon beautiful and promiscuous co-eds in retribution for a past misdeed. The movie's climax finds a "final girl" facing off with the killer, a scene referenced three decades later in Alexandre Aja's extreme French splatter film High Tension (2003). Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood (1971) famously depicts explicit creative death sequences, a lakeside setting, and a whodunit mystery, also prominent story points in Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981). Gialli were popular in American cinemas and at drive-in theaters, which promoted their international appeal, though they were much more heavily censored than in Europe, where British ads promoted the films' sex and nudity over the thriller and mystery. The British thriller Assault (1971) shares many traits with the giallo genre, as does the Spanish film A Dragonfly For Each Corpse (1974). The genre's familiarity and conventions inspired spoofs like Death Steps in the Dark (1977). Despite hits like Deep Red (1975) and The Blood-Stained Shadow (1978), giallo films graduall fell out of fashion by the mid-1970s as declining returns forced budgets and production values to plummet. Films such as Play Motel (1979) and Giallo a Venezia (1979) would exploit their low-budgets by including shocking hardcore pornographic scenes.

Exploitation films

Main article: Exploitation film

The early 1970s saw an increase in British and American exploitation films, which lured an audience to grindhouse theaters and drive-ins with promises of sex and violence while appealing to the teenaged audience demographic. British director Robert Fuest's And Soon the Darkness (1970) set off the 1970s exploitation wave, maximizing its small budget by taking place in the daytime, ultimately distancing itself from Gothic 1960s horror. Similarly, Fright (1971), based on the "babysitter and the man upstairs" urban legend, finds the protagonist not only stalked but also humiliated by the killer, and Tower of Evil (1972) features careless partying teens murdered in a remote island lighthouse. Well known in the exploitation genre was British director Pete Walker broke publicity taboos by advertising his films' negative reviews to attract viewers; his sex and gore-filled B-movies like The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), Frightmare (1974), House of Mortal Sin (1976), Schizo (1976) and The Comeback (1978), featured killer priest and psychotic ice skaters. Posters dubbed Blood and Lace (1971) as "sickest PG-rated movie ever made!", while Scream Bloody Murder (1973) advertised itself as "gore-nography."

By 1974, exploitation films battled political correctness and the popularity of sex and violence waned, as films like The Love Butcher (1975) and The Redeemer: Son of Satan (1976) were negatively retrieved and accused of bigotry. Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) was a major hit and the most commercially successful horror film since The Exorcist. The story concerns a violent clash of cultures and ideals, mainly the counter-culture and traditional conservative values. The film's antagonist is Leatherface, a squealing man who carries a chainsaw, wears the skin of past victims, and eats human flesh.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's success spawned imitators and its false "based on a true story" advertisements birthed violent reenactments of true crime. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), based on the unsolved Phantom Killer case, and Another Son of Sam (1977), based on the Son of Sam slayings, cashed-in on the headlines and public fascination. Wes Craven modernized the Sawney Bean legend for The Hills Have Eyes (1977), building upon the clash of culture themes presented in Hooper's film. The Hills Have Eyes was a financial success, relaunching Craven's career after it had been damaged by the controversy of his previous film, The Last House on the Left (1972).

Coming off earlier holiday-themed horror films like Home for the Holidays (1972), "All Through the House"(1972) and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1973), Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974) smartly uses horror as a board to debate social topics of its time, including feminism, abortion, and alcoholism. Utilizing the "killer calling from inside the house" gimmick for its entire running time, Black Christmas is visually and thematically a precursor to John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), finding young women terrorized in a previously safe environment during an iconic holiday. Like Halloween, Clark's film opens with a lengthy point-of-view, but it differs in the treatment of the killer's identity. Black Christmas was criticized upon its release, with Variety complaining that it was a "bloody, senseless kill-for-kicks" flick that exploited unnecessary violence. 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 citing it as the original slasher film.

Golden Age of Slasher Films

Jumpstarted by the massive success of John Carpenter's Halloween, the era commonly cited as the "Golden Age of Slasher Films" is 1978-1984 due to the sheer number of releases, with some scholars citing over 100 similar films released in those six years. Despite most films receiving negative contemporary reviews, many Golden Age slasher films were extremely profitable and have gone on to establish cult followings. Many films reused Halloween's template, having a murderous figure stalk teens, though escalating the gore and nudity of Carpenter's film, which had been praised for its restraint. Golden Age slasher films exploited the dangers lurking beneath American icons such as high schools, college dorms, summer camps, hospitals, or suburbia.

1978

To cash in on the drive-in success of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), The Toolbox Murders was quickly and cheaply shot, with the First Act following a deranged apartment manager killing female tenants until turning over to a kidnapping plot by Act Two. Exploitative Killer's Delight is a San Francisco-set serial killer story claiming to take inspiration from Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer.

Leading up to the October 1978 release of Halloween were August's gialli-inspired Eyes of Laura Mars (written by Halloween's John Carpenter) and September's "babysitter in peril" TV Movie Are You in the House Alone? Eyes of Laura Mars grossed $20 million against a $7 million budget, and was deemed a success.

Influenced by everything from the French New Wave's Eyes Without a Face (1960) to science fiction thriller Westworld (1973) to Black Christmas (1974), John Carpenter's Halloween has a simple plot of an escaped mental patient stalking unsuspecting teens. Syrian-American film producer Moustapha Akkad backed the film for Carpenter to direct, compose, and co-write with his then-girlfriend, Debra Hill on a budget of $300,000. To minimize costs, locations were minimized and time was cut to occur over a brief period of time. Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of Psycho-star Janet Leigh, was cast as the film's heroine while veteran actor Donald Pleasance's was cast as Dr. Sam Loomis, an homage to John Gavin's character in Psycho. Halloween's opening scene is a six-year-old killer's point-of-view as he stalks his sister, a scene emulated in many later films such as Blow Out (1981) and The Funhouse (1981). Carpenter denies writing sexually active teens to be killed in favor of a virginal "final girl" to survive, though, subsequent filmmakers copied what appeared to be a "sex-equals-death" mantra.

When shown an early cut of Halloween without a musical score, all major American studios declined to distribute it, one even remarking that it was not scary. Carpenter added music himself, and the film was distributed locally in four Kansas City theaters through Akkad's Compass International Pictures in October 1978. Through word-of-mouth, the movie became a sleeper hit and was selected to screen at the Chicago Film Festival in November 1978, where the country's major critics acclaimed it. Halloween was a major box office success, grossing over $70 million worldwide hit and selling over 20-million tickets in the United States and Canada; it was the most profitable independent film for twelve years Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) surpassed it.

1979

Though it has undergone a critical reevaluation in recent years, David Schmoeller's telekinesis slasher Tourist Trap was initially unsuccessful. The most successful slasher of 1979 was Fred Walton's When a Stranger Calls, which sold 8.5 million tickets in North America. Its success has largely been credited to its opening scene, in which a babysitter (Carol Kane) is taunted by a killer who repeatedly calls her to ask, "Have you checked the children?"

Less successful were Ray Dennis Steckler's burlesque slasher The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher and Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer, both of which featured gratuoitous on-screen violence against homeless people.

1980

The election of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States drew a new age of conservatism that ushered concern of rising violence and misogyny which manifested into protests and boycotts. 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 1980's most commercially successful slasher film, selling nearly 15-million tickets in North America. Despite this financial success, distributor Paramount Pictures was heavily criticized for "lowering" itself to release a violent exploitation film, with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert famously despising the film; Siskel, in his Chicago Tribune review, revealed the identity and fate of the film's killer in an attempt to hurt its box office, even providing the address of the chairman of Paramount Pictures in case viewers wanted to complain. The MPAA was criticized for allowing the film to pass with an R rating, though this violence would be replicated in subsequent slasher films hoping to cash in on its success, 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-budgeted thrillers Silent Scream and Prom Night continued to draw big box office results with $15.8 and $14.8 million, respectively. Halloween-star Jamie Lee Curtis returned to slasher films with in Prom Night, as well as the more high-profile horror films Terror Train and The Fog; the three films earned her a "scream queen" title. MGM released the Halloween-clone He Knows You're Alone, which sold nearly 2-million tickets, and Paramount Pictures hired Academy Award winner John Huston to direct the slasher whodunit Phobia, though the film only sold an estimated 22,000 tickets. Two high-profile slasher-thrillers were met with criticism; William Friedkin's Cruising starred Al Pacino as a vice cop investigating a series of leather bar murders and Gordon Willis' Windows, both of which equate homosexuality with psychosis; Cruising drew protests from gay rights groups, and though it pre-dates the AIDS crisis, the film's negative portrayal of the gay community fueled subsequent backlash once the virus became an epidemic.

Low budget exploitative slasher films like New Year's Evil, Don't Go in the House and Don't Answer the Phone! were criticized for misogyny for dwelling on the suffering of females exclusively. Acclaimed filmmaker Brian De Palma's Psycho-homage Dressed to Kill drew a wave of protest from women's groups, including the National Organization for Women (NOW), who picketed the film's screening on the University of Iowa campus. Despite controversy, the film was a success and took in $32 million at the box office. One of the 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 bring in $6 million at the box office.

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho continued to influence two decades after its initial release with films such as Funeral Home and The Unseen. Like Carpenter's Halloween the success of Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) spawned its own horror sub-genre, including pseudo-slasher Scared to Death and Without Warning. The $86.4 million box office success of The Amityville Horror (1979) spurred an interest in supernatural slashers, from Ulli Lommel's The Boogeyman to the Bigfoot slasher, Night of the Demon. Joe D'Amato's violent Italian horror film Antropophagus and the Australian slasher Nightmares showed that the genre was spreading internationally.

1981

Slasher films reached a saturation point, as heavily advertised movies like My Bloody Valentine and The Burning were box office failures. After the box office success of Friday the 13th, Paramount Pictures quickly picked up My Bloody Valentine, hoping to achieve similar success. The film became the subject of intense scrutiny in the wake of the murder of John Lennon, and was released heavily edited; lacking the draw of gore, My Bloody Valentine barely sold 2-million tickets at the box office, much less than the 15-million sold by Friday the 13th the year beforehand. Thematically similar to My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler hoped to lure an audience with gore effects by Friday the 13th's Tom Savini but heavy MPAA edits contributed to its failure to find a distributor, and, as a regional release, affected its total profit. Suffering similar censorship was The Burning, which also employed Savini's special effects, which was a box office failure despite launching the careers of Brad Grey, Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein (The Burning is a film named in Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse allegations).

Seeing profits from Halloween and Friday the 13th, studio interest in the sub-genre grew, to varying success. Warner Bros. distributed Eyes of a Stranger ($1.1 million) and Night School ($1.2 million), Paramount Pictures paired Lauren Bacall and James Garner for The Fan ($3 million), Universal Pictures released Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse ($8 million), and Columbia Pictures picked up Canadian whodunit Happy Birthday to Me ($10 million). CBS made the TV movie, Dark Night of the Scarecrow. Two sequels brought bigger body counts and more gore than their predecessors, but not higher box office results; Friday the 13th Part 2 sold 7.8 million tickets and Halloween II sold 9.2 million tickets. Both sequels sold around half of their original film's tickets, though Halloween II was still the second highest-grossing horror film of the year, behind only An American Werewolf in London.

Independent companies continued churning out slasher films such as Final Exam, Bloody Birthday, Hell Night, Don't Go in the Woods... Alone!, Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing and Graduation Day, the latter of which made $25 million at the North American box office against a $200,000 budget. Fantasy and sci-fi genres continued to seep into the slasher sub-genre with the releases of Strange Behavior, GhostKeeper and EvilSpeak. The international market grew Joe D'Amato's Italian Absurd, Jesus Franco's German Bloody Moon, and Ovidio G. Assonitis' Italian Madhouse.

1982

The production straight-to-video horror films begins to cut costs and maximize profit as budgets were cut. The independent horror film Madman opened in New York City's top 10, according to Variety, but soon fell out of theaters for a much healthier life on home video. The Dorm That Dripped Blood was made for $90,000 and Honeymoon Horror was made for just $50,000, and like Madman, both films became successful in the early days of VHS. Because of this, many independent productions were having trouble finding theatrical distribution. Girls Nite Out had a very limited release in 1982 through Aries International, but was re-released in 1984 to more theaters, before achieving modest VHS success. Paul Lynch's Humongous was released through AVCO Embassy Pictures, but a change in management at the company severely limited the film's theatrical release and it quickly went to video. Films such as Hospital Massacre and Night Warning enjoyed healthy rental runs from video stores, while Dark Sanity, The Forest, Unhinged, Trick or Treats, and Island of Blood quickly fell into obscurity, barely receiving theatrical releases and only sub-par video transfers.

Supernatural genre films continued to build in popularity, with 1982 as a benchmark due to the release of Arnold Schwarzeneggar's Conan the Barbarian. Body-count films with supernatural antagonists released in 1982 include The Slayer, The Incubus, Blood Song, Don't Go to Sleep and Superstition; the supernatural-themed Halloween III: Season of the Witch, though part of the Halloween franchise, does not adhere to the slasher film formula.

Alone in the Dark, starring veteran actors Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau, and Jack Palance, was New Line Cinema's first release; despite a quiet theatrical release and initially dismissment by critics, the film has gained critical reappraisal and has achieved a cult fanbase. Director Amy Holden Jones and writer Rita Mae Brown gender-swapped exploitative violence against men in The Slumber Party Massacre. Despite the feminist attitude brought to The Slumber Party Massacre by Jones and Brown, misogynistic undertones continued in films like Visiting Hours, which pitted liberal feminism against macho right-wing bigotry.

Friday the 13th Part III, the first slasher film to complete a trilogy, was an enormous financial success, selling 12-million tickets and becoming the first film to dethrone E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial from the box office charts. Friday the 13th Part III is the first that Jason Voorhees wears his iconic hockey mask, now an image symbolic of the entire horror film genre. Hollywood continued to output slashers, although new approaches moved in different directions. Universal Pictures gave a very limited release to Death Valley, while Columbia Pictures had a modest success with Silent Rage, starring Chuck Norris. Independent distributor Embassy Pictures released The Seduction to a surprising $11 million, and predating blockbusters like Fatal Attraction (1987) and Basic Instinct (1992) by several years.

Internationally, Australia's Next of Kin was a hit back home. The Puerto Rican film Pieces was filmed in Boston and Madrid by an Italian-based American producer, with a Spanish director. Italian gialli continued output, with Sergio Martino's The Scorpion with Two Tails, Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper and Dario Argento's Tenebrae.

1983

Traditional slasher films were still produced in 1983, though less frequently. Mark Rosman's The House on Sorority Row followed the same general plot as Prom Night (1980) and Terror Train (1980) as guilty teen protagonists are punished for a secret crime. The Final Terror borrows visual and thematic elements from Just Before Dawn (1981), as Sweet Sixteen does to Happy Birthday to Me (1981).

The most successful slasher of 1983 was Psycho II, an attempt to follow Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho by reuniting original cast members Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles. The film's victims now include pot-smoking teenagers rather than the adult characters of the original. With 11-million ticket sales, Psycho II was a hit. 10 to Midnight, inspired by the real-life crimes of Richard Speck, promoted star Charles Bronson's justice-for-all character above its slasher elements. Robert Hiltzik's Sleepaway Camp was a sleeper hit and successful on home video. Sleepaway Camp was unique in that it featured victims pubescent victims and themes of paedophilia and transvestism; the movie also featured homosexual scenes, which were taboo at the time.

In Canada, whodunit Curtains had a brief theatrical life before finding new life on VHS, while American Nightmare was met with criticism and a short shelf-life due to its exploitative focus on prostitutes, drug addicts, and pornography addicts. The genre's transition from theatrical releases to home video began to show in 1983, with the release of Sledgehammer, shot-on-video for just $40,000. Sledgehammer's climax includes a gender reversal, with Playgirl model Ted Prior as the "final guy." Other home video slashers from the year include Blood Beat, Double Exposure, and Scalps, the latter of which claims to be one of the most censored films in history.

Some releases distanced themselves from the genre. The poster for Mortuary features a hand is bursting from the grave, though the image has nothing to do with the film. This indicates that distributors were aware of the fading box office attraction of the slasher genre, and they were attempting to hoodwink audiences into thinking Mortuary was something else.

1984

By 1984, the public had largely lost interest in theatrical slashers, thus drawing a close to the Golden Age of Slasher Films. Production of slashers plummeted and major studios all but abandoned the genre that, only a few years earlier, had been very profitable for them. Many slasher films had brief theatrical runs in 1984 but would find varying degrees of success on home video. These include Splatter University, Satan's Blade, Blood Theatre, Rocktober Blood and Fatal Games. Movies like The Prey and Evil Judgement were filmed years earlier and finally had small theatrical releases. Silent Madness used 3D after the success of Friday the 13th Part III (1982), though the 3D effects did not translate to the film's VHS release.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter brought the saga of Jason Voorhees to a close, and his demise was used as a marketing tool. When The Final Chapter sold a massive 10-million tickets the North American box office, it seemed clear that the franchise would continue, though Jason's demise signified a shift from the Golden Age.

This shift was emphasized by controversy surrounding Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984): Protesters picketed theaters playing the film with placards reading, "Deck the hall with holly -- not bodies!" Despite earlier Christmas-themed horror films, including the same year's Don't Open till Christmas, promotional material for Silent Night, Deadly Night featured a killer Santa with the tagline: "He knows when you've been naughty!" When released in November 1984 by TriStar Pictures, persistent carol-singers forced one Bronx cinema to pull the film a week into its run and soon after widespread outrage led to the Silent Night, Deadly Night's removal, only selling 741,500 tickets.

As interest in the slasher waned, Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street revitalized the genre, mixing fantasy and horror on a low-budget. Craven had toyed with slasher films before in Deadly Blessing (1981), however he was frustrated that the genre he had arguably helped create with The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977) had not benefited him financially. Having developed A Nightmare on Elm Street since 1981, Craven saw time running out due to declining revenues from theatrical horror releases.

A Nightmare on Elm Street, and especially its villain Freddy Krueger (portrayed by Robert Englund), became cultural phenomenons. On a budget of just $1.8 million the film sold over 7-million tickets in North America and launched one of the most successful film franchises in cinematic history. It also helped establish its studio, New Line Cinema, as a powerhouse in Hollywood; to this day, it is referred to as "The House That Freddy Built." The final slasher film released during the Golden Age years is The Initiation, which was overshadowed by A Nightmare on Elm Street, though also features themes on dreams and a horribly burned man. The success of A Nightmare on Elm Street ended the low-budget Golden Age to usher in a new wave of horror films that relied heavily on special effects and strong acting, almost systematically silencing the simpler low-budget features.

Silver Age of Slasher Films

Despite the sleeper success of A Nightmare on Elm Street in late 1984, audience fatigue hit the slasher genre and its popularity had declined substantially. The home video revolution, fueled by the popularity of VHS, provided new outlets for low-budget filmmaking. Without the backing of major studios or their willingness to pick up independent features for theatrical release, slasher films relied heavily on the home video market that, with the exception of pornography, was arguably the most popular with horror films. Although financial returns were down, there was still potential to turn a profit on the new cheaper medium. A few holdovers filmed during the Golden Age were finally released on home video, including Too Scared to Scream (1985), The Mutilator (1985), Blood Rage (1987) Killer Party (1986) and Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1986). Mirroring the punk rock movement, novice filmmakers believed anyone could make a movie with home video, resulting in micro-budget slasher films shot-on-video like Blood Cult (1985), The Ripper (1985), Spine (1986), Truth or Dare? (1986), Killer Workout (1987), and Death Spa (1989), among others.

The blockbuster success of Jaws 2 (1979), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Superman II (1980), Halloween II (1981) and Friday the 13th Part III (1982) spurred interest in sequels and franchises. The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985) and Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) attempted to revive properties from the Golden Age, though neither film was well-received. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) was rushed into production following the original's success, distinguishing itself from other horror films by having a male protagonist and overtly homoerotic undertones. Freddy's Revenge became the highest grossing horror film of 1985, inspiring "dream" slasher subgenre, such as Dreamaniac (1986), Bad Dreams (1988), Deadly Dreams (1988), and Dream Demon (1988).

Paramount Pictures released April Fool's Day (1986) with hopes of starting a franchise, though the film had a modest box office intake. Other sub-genre spoofs were Evil Laugh (1986), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). Despite growing cult followings and critical reappraisals, both The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives were box office disappointments; Texas Chainsaw 2 sold just over 2-million tickets and Jason Lives sold 5.2-million, both significantly down from their predecessors.

The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise dominated late-1980s horror, with A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) breaking records by selling 11.5-million tickets in North America and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) selling another 12-million tickets. By comparison, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) had modest returns by selling approximately 4.5-million tickets each. The importance of personality-driven slasher villains like Freddy Krueger was not lost on producers; Chucky and Candyman quickly became popular with audiences, as both characters catered to urban audiences that had largely been ignored during the 1970s and 80s. Child's Play (1988) and its 1990 sequel sold over 14.7-million tickets combined, while Candyman (1992) sold a healthy 6.2 million. Fatigue hit both franchises rather quickly, as Child's Play 3 (1991) sold only 3.5-million tickets in North America and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) sold only 3.2 million tickets.

Internationally, the slasher film remained producible. Mexico released Zombie Apocalypse (1985), Don't Panic (1988), Grave Robbers (1990) and Hell's Trap (1990). Europe saw releases from Sweden's Blood Tracks (1985), The United Kingdom's Lucifer (1987), Spain's Anguish (1987) and Italy's StageFright (1987) and BodyCount (1987). In the Pacific, Australia released Symphony of Evil (1987), Houseboat Horror (1989), and Bloodmoon (1990), while Japan only released Evil Dead Trap (1988).

By 1989, fatigue hit the major Hollywood franchises, resulting in box office failures for Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989). The Dream Child brought in 5.6-millino tickets, while Jason Takes Manhattan and The Revenge of Michael Myers each sold approximate 3-million tickets at the North American box office. Due to the drop in ticket sales, the Friday the 13th and Halloween franchise rights were sold to New Line Cinema and Mirimax Films, respectively. With the Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger characters both owned by New Line, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) attempted to a cross-over, but lackluster results to both those films would stall the crossover project for a decade. The Halloween franchise was resurrected under Mirimax's Dimension Films banner, though Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) drew only modest results.

Bronze Age of Slasher Films

Unexpectedly, Wes Craven, who had retooled the slasher in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street, returned for Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), a spin-off of that franchise. With the concept of a spin-off from the Freddy Krueger films, Craven utilized characters from the Elm Street films, including Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Robert Englund, and even himself, to play versions of their true personas targeted by a demon that had taken the form of the Freddy Krueger character. The film single-handedly led to the subgenre's postmodern revival in the coming years with the release of Craven's Scream. While New Nightmare was a meager success at the box office, it would help establish the meta self-referential irony that dominated the genre for the next decade.

By 1996, the slasher film was pretty much a fad of the 1980s that had not translated to the 1990s. The subgenre's surprising resurrection with Scream was proof that the slasher film, like many of its iconic villains, refused to stay dead. A box office smash at the tail end of 1996, Scream skillfully juggled the postmodern humor found in Quentin Tarantino's landmark film Pulp Fiction (1994) with visceral horror. The film played on nostalgia for those who had frequented theaters during the slasher's Golden Age, yet also appealed to a younger audience who saw their contemporary stars menaced and terrorized by homicidal maniacs for the first time. In a decade where pop culture was cannibalizing itself, Scream exploited this and worked as a straightforward slasher whodunit.

Scream was the brainchild of screenwriter Kevin Williamson, a self-confessed fan of slasher films including Halloween (1978). Prom Night (1980), and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). Originally titled Scary Movie, the twist in Scream is that the victims are well versed in horror film lore and know all the clichés, comparing scenes for their favorite movies to a series of murders in their small town. The fact that the audience was also aware of those clichés added to the fun and helped propel the film to a gross of over $103 million, making it the first slasher film to cross $100 million at the domestic box office as well as being the most successful horror film since The Silence of the Lambs (1991). As the attraction of slasher films had been exhausted by 1996, Scream{'}s advertising distanced itself from the subgenre; posters for the film announced Scream as a "new thriller" from Craven, and played up the celebrity of star Drew Barrymore as well as other recognizable cast members from hit TV shows and films, a casting decision that differed from the unknown actors used in low-budget slashers of the early 1980s.

The stellar box-office of Williamson's follow-up I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) silenced naysayers who assumed that Scream was a flash in the pan. Based loosely on the Lois Duncan novel, four teens find themselves targets of a killer after they cover up a hit-and-run. The film acknowledges the setup of films such as Prom Night and The House on Sorority Row (1983), where an accident is the catalyst for later mayhem. Despite the success of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer played as a straight slasher film with little pop-culture trickery. Unlike the positive critical response that Scream received, I Know What You Did Last Summer was reviewed negatively, but proved to be "critic proof" as it grossed over $70 million at the domestic box office.

Following in the wake of the slasher revival was Urban Legend (1998) that uses the premise that a killer is targeting co-eds using methods described in American folklore. The film was widely criticized as being silly, earned only $38 million at the box office, and showed that the slasher film revival was losing momentum. The next year Canada, which had produced its fair share of slashers in the Golden Age, attempted a comeback with The Clown at Midnight (1999), but the film received little attention and was widely panned. Valentine (2001) brought to mind My Bloody Valentine (1981) and Hospital Massacre (1982); however, despite starring Denise Richards and Katherine Heigl, it was a box office bomb, making just $20 million, not enough to cover its own production budget.

Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer found popularity not only in America, but across the world, although their international success was not as immediate. Hong Kong's The Deadly Camp (1999) took inspiration from backwoods slashers of the 1980s, while South Korea had a string of prolific slasher film hits, starting with Bloody Beach (2000), The Record (2001), and Nightmare (2000), the latter mixing the slasher film with the supernatural chills of Japanese ghost films such as Ringu (1998). Australia's postmodern slasher film Cut (2000) cast Molly Ringwald, a 1980s icon from John Hughes films, as its heroine. India's Bollywood produced the first ever musical-slasher hybrid with Kucch To Hai (2003) as well as the more straightforward Dhund: The Fog (2003). Britain also had a release with Lighthouse (1999), and the Netherlands produced teen slashers School's Out (1999) and The Pool (2001).

Return of the sequel

After the success of the first few Halloween and Friday the 13th films in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the slasher movie was built around setting up a familiar pattern, with sequels being made of the most successful films. Scream 2 (1997) followed just a year after the release of Scream, and scored big at the box office. The film had the highest grossing opening weekend of any R-rated film at the time, and brought in over $101 million at the domestic box office. Reuniting much of the surviving cast of the original, as well as bringing back creators Williamson and Craven, Scream 2 successfully combined straight scares with postmodern quips about the nature of sequels. Scream 2 took the campus slashers of the early 1980s, such as Final Exam (1981) and Graduation Day (1981), as inspiration. Along with its stellar box office, the sequel was also a critical hit. Scream 3 (2000) finished the trilogy with a distinct case of diminishing returns. In another self-referencing manner, murders are plaguing a Hollywood movie set. The film marked the first entry in the Scream series not written by Williamson, and was also the first film in the franchise not to break $100 million at the box office, however it did bring in $89 million and was a financial success. Released one year after its predecessor, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) was hated by critics and fans alike, yet was still a modest success with $40 million at the domestic box office. Profits continued to shrink with Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000), in which film students are attacked by a killer in a fencing mask - another postmodern reference to Graduation Day. The film starred Hart Bochner from Terror Train (1981), and made a meager profit of $21 million. Both the I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend franchises would find life in the direct-to-video market in later years.

Michael Myers returned in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), spurred by the success of Scream and Scream 2. Steve Miner, who directed Friday the 13th Part 2 and Friday the 13th Part III, directed the film from a story by Williamson. It was a direct sequel of Halloween II, ignoring all the sequels between, to the annoyance of many fans. This allowed final girl Laurie Strode, once again played by Jamie Lee Curtis, to take on Myers. Despite John Carpenter's refusal to return, the film was a sizable hit, bringing in over $55 million at the box office and receiving some positive reviews. Curtis would return for a cameo in the sequel, Halloween: Resurrection (2002), which was inspired by the reality TV craze, as cameras placed around the infamous childhood home of Myers capture the killer's murderous deeds. It starred rapper Busta Rhymes and supermodel Tyra Banks, hoping to attract the black demographic. While not being the hit that Halloween H20 was, Resurrection still earned a respectable $30.3 million at the domestic box office, even if it was met with scathing reviews by critics and fans.

Chucky also made a comeback in the dark comedy Bride of Chucky (1998), featuring Jennifer Tilly as the titular bride with supporting roles by Brad Dourif, John Ritter, and Katherine Heigl. The film mixes genuine scares from the original Child's Play with the self-referencing humor of films such as Scream and was a hit, scoring a respectable $33 million at the domestic box office, enough to warrant the release of Seed of Chucky (2004). Seed, directed by series creator Don Mancini, was a straight comedy with little emphasis on scares. Compared to its predecessor its lack of success at the box office success was such the franchise was put on hold for nearly a decade.

Jason X (2001) did little to bolster the slasher film revival's fleeting appeal. Marked as the tenth film in the Friday the 13th franchise, the movie propelled Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) into the distant future where he kills teens aboard a spaceship. The film was a box office bomb, bringing in just $13 million, making it the lowest-grossing film of the franchise. However, the following year's Freddy vs. Jason (2003) would prove to be a totally different case. An idea around since 1986, the battle of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees came to fruition under director Ronny Yu, who had directed Bride of Chucky. The film featured Freddy (Robert Englund) and Jason (Ken Kirzinger) battling each other with an unlucky group of teens caught in the crossfire. As Scream had done, the film played off nostalgia as well as interest from new fans. The movie scored a massive $82.6 million at the domestic box office, however it was unable to regenerate the slasher genre, and instead acted as a send-off to the second slasher revival with its wink to the Golden Age.

Modern Age of Slasher Films & Reboots

Original slasher films started off the 2000's with Final Destination of 2000, the James Wong teen ensemble cast slasher film starring Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Seann William Scott, Brendan Fehr and Amanda Detmer which spawned a franchise of four following films, spanning from 2003 to 2011.

The first instalment was well received by critics and loved by audiences also proving to be a huge financial box office success. The same year of 2000 saw the third Scream instalment by Wes Craven, written by Ehren Krueger and featuring alongside series stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Liev Schreiber and Courtney Cox a new supporting ensemble cast of slasher film victims: Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Deon Richmond, Jenny McCarthy, Kelly Rutherford, Emily Mortimer, Scott Foley and Lance Henriksen. The film was a departure from the younger teenage ensemble cast of slasher characters instead opting for a body count of middle aged adults but again maintaining the self-referential meta satire of the series.

Final Destination 2 was released in 2003 featuring returning actress Ali Larter reprising her role and a new ensemble cast including A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, Jonathan Cherry, Keegan Connor Tracy, David Paetkau and T.C. Carson in which the large majority of teenage protagonists are killed off in the beginning death orchestrated accident, so like in the third Scream installment, the victims were mostly adults. Final Destination 3 an instalment again helmed by Wong was released in 2006 and returned to the format of teenage main characters as the slasher collective, starring an ensemble cast led by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche and Amanda Crew. The fourth instalment The Final Destination another entry helmed by the late David R. Ellis returned to the diverse adult slasher repertoire and starred Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Haley Webb, Nick Zano, Mykelti Williamson and Krista Allen.

All of the first four and the later decade following fifth instalment of the Final Destination franchise were all box office successes, though only favorable reception was dealt to the first, second and fifth instalments. In 2003 Ron Schmidt and the late great creature designer Stan Winston brought the box office and audience acclaim success Wrong Turn, starring the ensemble of Desmond Harrington, Eliza Dushku, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jeremy Sisto, Lindy Booth, Kevin Zegers and Julian Richings. The film spawned a slasher horror icon of the modern set with Richings' Mountain Man character Three-Finger, one of three maniacal deformed killers of the West Virginia woods chasing and killing the onset of college teenagers abandoned with Harrington's young adult medical student in the Greenbrief Backcounty mountains. The film was turned into a direct to video successful slasher horror franchise, each instalment becoming increasingly more gory and selling lots of DVD copies. In 2004 James Wan and Leigh Whannell released their first film Saw, an adaption of Whannell's previous 2003 horror short film. Saw was conceived as a more directly horror homage to the psychological neo-noir thriller classic of 1995 Se7en directed by David Fincher. The film however featured gruesome, creative contraptions of victims in a subplot supporting the mystery horror element of the entrapped two main actors: Cary Elwes and Whannell. The film subsequently began the torture porn series of slasher films that worked their way through the 2000's along with the slasher horror remakes, the only other greenlit mainstream slasher films released theatrically. The second Saw instalment released the very next year on Halloween saw what would be the continuation of year by year releases of the franchise's instalments all on Halloween, like the slasher franchise Friday the 13th's 1980's decade of year by year Friday the 13th releases.

The Saw series continuing all the way up into the 2010's saw the birth of another major slasher horror icon: Jigsaw represented by the visage of the contraption forging killer's talking, homemade ventriloquist dummy utilised to converse with the victims of the series. From 1999 to 2002 Dark Castle entertainment forged with the release of the remake of House On Haunted Hill of 1999 starring Ali Larter, Geoffrey Rush, Famke Jansen, Peter Gallagher, Taye Diggs and Bridgitte Wilson started an unrelated trilogy of ghost slasher films where a group of people are killed by one in a setting overrun with many violent apparitions.

The design of the spectres of all three of these films were very similar under the same production company and the Thirteen Ghosts and Ghost Ship entries were both helmed by director Steve Beck. House on Haunted Hill like its' original William Castle classic involved a former insane asylum turned strange machine run house playing host to a con party of a black widow socialite with a designer husband and their money coerced guests meeting demise one by one by the home's apparitions.
The 1999 remake introduced gore and the more directly slasher subgenre that only stemmed from the original's plot elements. The film was a box office success. Thirteen Ghosts followed in 2001 starring Tony Shalhoub, Matthew Lillard, Embeth Davidz, Shannon Elizabeth, J.R. Bourne, F. Murray Abraham and Rah Digga which began with a massacre of male characters perpetrated by a violent spirit that then captured and transported to a glass prison home, secretly serving as a machine would play host to a poor family, former aiding medium, female spiritualist and greedy lawyer, several of these characters dying gruesomely one by one by the faux home's titular number of wraiths.

2002 Ghost Ship starring Julianne Marguiles, Gabriel Byrne, Karl Urban, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Alex Dimitriades and Emily Browning saw a beginning massacre much like Thirteen Ghosts' junkyard opening sequence and House on Haunted Hill's asylum riot opening in which the crew and guests of the spanish ocean liner Antonio Graza meet a gruesome demise by suddenly dislodged spool wire. In present day 2002 a salvage crew are approached by a young man to recover the Antonio Graza only to be killed one by one by the demonic entity that rules the ship and his coterie of trapped, marked souls. Both Thirteen Ghosts and Ghost Ship like House on Haunted Hill were box office successes.

By 2002, the slasher film had all but disappeared from mainstream Hollywood cinema, largely due to budgetary declines and more popular, diverse subject matter. Make a Wish (2002) distinguished itself as the first lesbian-centered slasher film. Because the genre typically aimed to lure men with the promise of female nudity, horror and homosexuality appeared to have no connection, however the genre's queer fan base is possibly its largest. Whereas it once steeped in allegory, Make a Wish was one of a number of horror films that emerged primarily for the gay audience in the early 2000s. It was followed by HellBent (2004), the first gay slasher film that features the famous West Hollywood Halloween Parade as the setting. There was even a gay porn version of Scream called Moan (1999). Slasher films were also being made primarily for black audiences, with all-black casts, including: Killjoy (2000), Holla If I Kill You (2003), Holla (2006), and Somebody Help Me (2007).

Although the slasher film had seemingly died by 2002, it was once again jumpstarted by the success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), a loose remake of Tobe Hooper's 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Produced by Michael Bay and starring recognizable stars including Jessica Biel and R. Lee Ermey, the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a surprise sleeper hit, grossing over $100 million and signaling a significant change from the days of franchise sequels of the 80s and self-aware 90s slasher films. It was the success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake that launched a string for remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings of classic horror that attempted to lure audiences in through familiarity. Like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, these films added more slasher movie trappings to the retelling of the original film and only brought back key ingredients of their original counterparts, such as the lead villain being prominently featured or, in some cases, just the title and very basic premise. The margin of profit behind producing relatively inexpensive remakes that already had a built-in audience ensured that the trend would be long-lasting. As with most remakes, including Psycho (1998), these films diluted the original's more controversial aspects for maximum commercial appeal. The success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was followed by a prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) starring Matt Bomer and Jordana Brewster. Although the prequel did not match the remake's financial success, it managed to make a respectable $39.5 million at the domestic box office.

Among the early films to ride on the success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was House of Wax (2005), a film marketed as a remake of House of Wax (1953), itself a remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), although it shares little in common with either of those earlier films. Typical of the remake trend, the film was more a re-imagining loosely based on the original's core premise, as the House of Wax remake shared more similarities with other films, such as Tourist Trap (1979). The film cast then-bankable upcoming television stars Chad Michael Murray, Jared Padalecki, Elisha Cuthbert, and Paris Hilton, and was marketed largely on showcasing Hilton's demise. Glen Morgan, the writer-producer behind Final Destination (2000), was tasked with writing and directing Black Christmas (2006), a remake of Bob Clark's influential 1974 film. Morgan changed the story into a black comedy, focusing on over-the-top gore more than the Gothic imagery and suspense of the original.

One of the most financially successful remakes was When a Stranger Calls (2006). Expanding the original film's first twenty minutes into a 90-minute feature that relied solely on the tale of the babysitter and the man upstairs, the film was a hit with younger audiences who could see it due to its PG-13 rating, bringing in a total of nearly $50 million at the box office. This was not the first, or the last, slasher film that attempted to capitalize on the PG-13 rating to lure the younger audiences. In 2005 two PG-13 slashers were released, although neither were particularly successful critically or commercially. Cry_Wolf (2005), starring Jon Bon Jovi and Lindy Booth, arguably did not have the studio-backed marketing push to become as big a hit as When a Stranger Calls, but The Fog, a remake of John Carpenter's 1980 film, hailed from Sony Pictures and used the popularity of its TV stars Tom Welling and Maggie Grace to promote it. Following the success of When a Stranger Calls, the PG-13 slasher remake craze continued with Prom Night (2008), which was similar to the 1980 original only in title alone. It boasted a higher body count and was a more straightforward slasher film than When a Stranger Calls, yet its PG-13 restrictions led to negative reception from fans who did not find it gruesome enough to be a slasher. Still, it was a hit, pulling in nearly $44 million at the box office.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, several remakes exploited their original counterpart's notoriety, pushing ultra violence. Rob Zombie's Halloween (2007) took the simplicity of John Carpenter's 1978 film and added an extreme vision that, according to critics, systematically replaced everything that made the first film a success. Despite these criticisms, Zombie's remake was a financial success, pulling in $58 million and warranting a sequel. Halloween II (2009) featured more of the same ultra violence only now with surreal imagery. The negative reaction to the 2007 remake carried over to its sequel, as the film made less than half of what its predecessor made at the box office. In contrast, Alexandre Aja used modernized violence to enhance The Hills Have Eyes (2006), an update of Wes Craven's 1977 film. It followed the original's premise closely, adding a few sequences of violence and assault that would not have passed censors in the 1970s. The film was a hit, generating more than $44 million at the box office and getting its own sequel the following year. The sequel upped the violence, gore, and sexual assault, yet was met with harsh reaction from fans who found its gratuitous violence to be too over-the-top to the point of absurdity.

The remake craze stretched into 2009, when several updates were released, with varying degrees of success. From Lionsgate, the company responsible for the Saw franchise, came My Bloody Valentine (2009), a remake of the 1981 cult classic. The movie did not stick close to the original in terms of plot, but it had plenty of homages to it. To add to the roller-coaster, carnival feel of the film, it had impressive special 3D effects. The movie also generated enough interested to secure a re-release of the original film on DVD, this time completely uncut. The film made over $100 million. A month after the release of My Bloody Valentine came Friday the 13th (2009), made by the same team behind The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. A reboot of the first three films of the franchise, this remake exploited the slasher film's fame for gruesome death scenes, oblivious partying, and gratuitous sex, all with a self-aware wink. The film was another successful remake, earning over $90 million at the box office.

While a slew of slasher remakes were hugely profitable, the remake craze declined in the late 2000s. On top of the disappointment of potential "franchise-fuelers" such as The Hills Have Eyes II and Halloween II, the Terror Train remake, Train (2008), failed to generate enough interest to obtain a theatrical release. The film was poorly received, owing more to Hostel than the 1980 original. Sorority Row (2009) is a loose remake of The House on Sorority Row (1983) and featured rising stars Briana Evigan, Audrina Patridge, Rumer Willis, and Jamie Chung, both of whom were nominated for Teen Choice Awards for their performance. April Fool's Day (2008) played it straighter than the 1986 horror-comedy, but received complaints from fans of the original film who criticized its lack of creativity and bad acting. The low-budget holiday-themed slasher films Silent Night (2012) and Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming (2013), remakes of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), respectively, fared just as badly, generating little to no interest. The once high-profile Mother's Day (2010), directed by Darren Lynn Bousman of the Saw franchise, starring Rebecca De Mornay, changed the plot line of the 1980 Troma film, but production delays and distribution problems forced the film into a little-seen direct-to-video release.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), a remake of Wes Craven's 1984 film, starred Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger and Rooney Mara and Katie Cassidy as his teenage targets. The film returned the story to its darker, scarier roots. Despite its financial success, the movie was almost universally panned by fans and critics alike. The popularity of the slasher remakes faded, as talks of further sequels and remakes were put on indefinite hold.

The film Wrong Turn (2003) earned over $25 million worldwide and launched a franchise of straight-to-video films. That same year, Rob Zombie's directorial debut, House of 1000 Corpses (2003), hit theaters and was a modest success, although the film was greeted with mixed reviews. It was followed by a sequel two years later, The Devil's Rejects (2005), a harshly violent film which mixed several exploitation genres. The film was a modest hit, bringing in over $15 million at the box office and gaining a strong cult following.

Dark Ride (2006) and Hatchet (2006) used the setting of a theme park and a swamp, respectively. Hatchet was a minor success, generating two sequels. Simon Says (2006) and The Tripper (2006) were also released in the mid-2000s to DVD. In Simon Says, Crispin Glover returned to the genre 22-years after 1984's Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and in The Tripper, directed by David Arquette of the Scream trilogy, a killer in a Ronald Reagan mask slices his way through kids at a music festival. WWE Films made its first feature starring wrestling phenomenon Kane as a monster who picks off juvenile delinquents in an abandoned hotel in See No Evil (2006). The film was followed by a sequel in 2014. The parody Gutterballs (2008) made several references to the early 1980s Golden Age, including its poster which played on the advertisements for Maniac (1980).

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) was a straight horror film that showcased tragedy over the thrill. The film had trouble finding a distributor, and sat on the shelf for over seven years in the United States; it was released after cast member Amber Heard became a star. A more comedic, postmodernist slasher was Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006), in which a documentary crew follows a fledgling serial killer who models himself after slasher film icons of the 1980s. The film was a "found footage" slasher film. Independent film director Adam Wingard created You're Next (2011) and The Guest (2014), both of which added twists to the familiar genre conventions; in You're Next, the masked killers unknowingly pick a target in a final girl (Sharni Vinson) who is a survivalist expert prepared to fight back, while The Guest turns the hero (Dan Stevens) into the villain.

Internationally, filmmakers tested extreme levels of tension and violence through slasher films. In France, a new wave of extreme horror began in the early 2000s, including Alexandre Aja's High Tension (2003), the bloody Inside (2007) and the suspenseful Them (2006), which was remade in the United States as The Strangers (2008). Austria's Dead in 3 Days (2006) was a loose remake of I Know What You Did Last Summer, only with much more violent results. Among the many British films that embraced the violent new-wave of filmmaking were: Long Time Dead (2002), Creep (2004), Wilderness (2008), The Children (2008), and Tormented (2009). Britain would also see the release of slasher films that would achieve worldwide acclaim, including: The Descent (2005), the black comedy Severance (2006), and the disturbing Eden Lake (2008), starring Michael Fassbender. In Norway, the snow-set Cold Prey (2006) launched Europe's most successful slasher franchise of the decade. The film's popularity was overshadowed by the even-greater success of its sequel, Cold Prey 2 (2008). A third installment, Cold Prey 3 (2011), was released with less success. South Korea tested the limits of violence with films like Bloody Reunion (2006) and Taiwan followed suit with: Invitation Only (2009), Scared (2005), and Slice (2009).

The decade saw some throwbacks to 1990s slasher films. The sequel I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006) bypassed cinemas and was released directly to DVD. The film has a similar premise as the 1997 original, but the characters, setting, and overall storyline are different. The movie was harshly received, ending the franchise. Curse of Chucky (2013) brought the killer doll back nearly a decade, focusing on scares but not forgetting the series' comedic undertones. It marked the first straight-to-video entry in the franchise and was well received. Fifteen years after the release of the original, Scream 4 was released in 2011. The film, in which the killer tries to recreate the original film's murders, was Wes Craven's last film before he died of brain cancer in August 2015. Prior to Wes Craven's final directing credit with the fourth and final Scream film instalment was his final writing credit My Soul to Take a 2010 American Teenager Slasher horror film released theatrically in 3D to poor critical and box office reception, the film oversaw seven sixteen year old high school adolescents targeted by their local fictional town of Riverton's believed to be dead killer: The Riverton Ripper, as his soul had survived in the body of one of the seven sixteen year old youths born the day he died. The film featured an ensemble cast including Max Thieriot, Emily Meade, Frank Grillo, Danai Gurira, Zena Grey, John Magaro and Denzel Whitaker which oversaw it's characters be killed one by one by the costume and mask concealed, ragged blade wielding killer.

Post-Modern Age of Slasher Films

In the mid-2000s the slasher film moved to television. The Showtime series Dexter tells the story of a serial killer who justifies his urge for murder by targeting other serial killers. Set in Miami, the series' darkly comedic undertones reflected the 1980s serial killer thrillers. The first season of the HBO vampire series True Blood revolved around a small town being terrorized by a slasher targeting women who engage in sexual activities with vampires. FX's American Horror Story: Asylum has a plot that centers on a slasher called "Bloodyface" and American Horror Story: Freak Show featured a slasher villain in the form of a deranged clown named Twisty. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho inspired A&E's drama thriller Bates Motel, a prequel detailing teenager Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his relationship with his mother (Vera Farmiga). ABC Family's teen thriller Pretty Little Liars, based on the series of novels by Sara Shepard, plays on themes established by films like Prom Night (1980), The House on Sorority Row (1983), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). MTV has adapted the Scream films with the TV series version of Scream, Chiller has released the TV series Slasher and Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films is developing a Friday the 13th series for television.

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk developed in 2015 the comedy/horror/slasher series Scream Queens which features a Red Devil-masked killer murdering people of a fictional college campus in comical fashion. Despite the advent of slasher television, slasher films began to make a comeback with Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's Scream 4.

In 2012, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard created The Cabin in the Woods which featured Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Sigourney Weaver and Brian J. White. The film concerns an ensemble cast of five freshmen college teenagers who are manipulated into going to a cabin in the forest and are beset by a zombified, murderous family as their behavior is modified with pheromone-changing narcotics. The characters are killed one by one as part of a worldwide ritual in which ancient, gigantic dormant gods beneath the Earth's crust must be appeased with at least one nation's cultural sacrifice. The Cabin in the Woods became a commercial and critical success grossing $66,486,080 worldwide at the box office.

Prior to Scream 4, Wes Craven released My Soul To Take in 2010. The film concerns a group of teenagers being preyed upon by a costumed and masked killer set in a small town who is out for vengeance as they are the remnants of his multiple souls and they were born on the same night of his supposed demise. The film was presented in 3D in its theatrical run. In 2014, Blumhouse Productions released the supernatural teenage slasher horror Ouija in which a group of high school students are set upon by a grisly spirit after messing with a Ouija board following a classmate's death. The film was a box success despite poor critical reception. This was followed up by a sequel entitled Ouija: Origin of Evil in 2016.

In 2011, the home invasion survivalist horror slasher film You're Next by Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett starred Sharni Vinson in an applauded role and the film itself received critical and audience acclaim. It followed a young Australian female TA accompanying her teacher boyfriend to his family's estate where the family are killed one by one by three animal-masked assassins, only themselves and the revealed orchestrators to be dispatched one by one.

In 2015, Blumhouse Productions released the teenage slasher horror Unfriended also starring Ouija's Shelley Hennig. The film portrays a group of high school youths set upon by the unseen apparition of a former classmate driven to suicide by their cyberbullying and viral video humiliation. The film was a commercially success and it received mixed to mostly positive reviews praising the film for its innovative style. A sequel for Unfriended was greenlit for 2016 and a German version was released by Warner Bros. entitled Friend Request. In the same year, Blumhouse distributed the directorial debut of Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing, The Gallows. The movie was a box office success but was panned by critics. Like The Cabin in the Woods, the film was heavily promoted and marketed to Western audiences. The film concerns four primary high school teenagers entrapped in their high school at night who are being stalked by the murderous spirit of a hangman costumed and masked character by the name of Charlie Grimille. Presented in High Definition and as quality found footage, the teenagers and other supporting characters are killed one by one by various means attributed to the antagonist of the film's hangman's noose. Promotional trailers released for the film promoted Charlie as a new horror icon with a signature weapon like Jason Voorhees of the Friday The 13th franchise and Freddy Krueger of the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise.

In 2017, Blumhouse released Happy Death Day, one of the first truly full slasher films by the subgenre's original definition in years.

The same year, the Saw franchise was revived with an eighth instalment entitled Jigsaw which was a box office success and received mixed to positive critical reception, paving the way for a set of instalments of the series. The film's death sequences minimised in grotesque torture violence and rather solely creative open spaced slasher executions.

Following the box office and critical success of Happy Death Day, Jason Blum and Blumhouse signed on to distribute Truth or Dare a 2018 supernatural teenage slasher horror film, directed by Jeff Wadlow. The film starring a ensemble cast including Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane, Sophia Ali, Hayden Szeto, Nolan Gerard Funk and Sam Lerner concerns college freshmen teenagers creatively killed one by one by a force utilising the game of Truth or Dare. The same year, Blumhouse Productions and Jason Blum revitalised the Halloween franchise with Halloween written by Danny McBride and also acting director David Gordon Green a frequent collaborator of McBride which featured Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her iconic lead role. The film ignore all Halloween film series instalments minus the original 1978 John Carpenter picture, also featured the composer, writer and director serving as a primary producer and introduced a new ensemble cast and veteran comedy and drama actress Judy Greer in which an aged Laurie Strode confronts the infamous killer Michael Myers . A new ensemble cast of high school characters of the fictional Haddonfield, Illinois are stalked and murdered by the George Kirk masked sociopath murderer and the film will release on October 17th, 2018.

In 2018, the Scream television series willreturned for a third season which brought back the film series horror icon of Ghostface with the killer get up costume. The season was also a reboot bringing about a new ensemble cast as victims including Keke Palmer, Jessica Sula, RJ Cyler, Tyler Posey and Giorgia Whigham with acclaimed actress Queen Latifah joining as an executive producer.

See also

• List of horror film antagonists
• List of horror films set in academic institutions

Works cited

• DiMarie, Philip C., ed. (2011). Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-598-84296-8. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Kerswell, J.A. (2012). The Slasher Movie Book. Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1556520107. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)