Review: FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

I am over-critical of Sean S. Cunningham's FRIDAY THE 13TH, usually citing THE BURNING, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II, and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III as better "backwoods camping" slasher films. But having re-watched Friday the 13th on a rainy Sunday afternoon as part of a Friday the 13th marathon, I have come to a conclusion: Friday the 13th is a darn good slasher flick that has unfortunately been overshadowed by its long line of sequels and countless rip-offs.

Much annoyance with Friday the 13th comes from the film's final act, where a grief-stricken psychotic old woman named Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) attacks lone-surviving camp counselor Alice (Adrienne King) after killing off the rest of the counselors. There is a lot of filler during the climax that don't have much pay-off. Some might argue this builds suspense, but really it drags the plot. There are some suspenseful moments in the climax but it doesn't maintain the momentum of great chase scenes, like Laurie Strode and Michael Myers' showdown in HALLOWEEN or Ellen Ripley and the Alien's battle in ALIEN. The ending also loses the great atmosphere established earlier in the film - while Alice is still isolated with the maniacal Mrs. Voorhees, she has more at her disposal than being truly lost in the wilderness like Annie (Robbi Morgan) was earlier in the film.

Another problem with the ending is the character of Mrs. Voorhees. Yes, Betsy Palmer does an excellent job portraying the psychotic, schizophrenic mother of a drowned child. That is not the argument here. It is the build-up to her character that is completely lacking. Only once earlier in the film is the "young boy who drowned" even referenced, and for the entire motive to be built around him there has to be more of a connection to his death throughout the movie. It was a great idea to keep Mrs. Voorhees hidden throughout most of the film, but there is literally no build up to her character. Had it not been for her monologue, the audience would have no idea who Mrs. Voorhees is, or her relation to Camp Crystal Lake. Basically, Mrs. Voorhees and her motive just appear in the movie, making the build up to the motive very lazy.

But ultimately, Friday the 13th is a great slasher flick, and much of that is owed to its brilliant atmosphere. The quiet, lurking, shadowy trees provide a barrier from civilization where anything can happen. Anything! Sex, drugs... murder. The first act of the movie establishes the strongest atmosphere in the entire series, particularly when Annie walks through the small town of Crystal Lake en route to the camp itself, only to find out that it is still another 20 miles out! The roads are empty, and there's always that feeling that someone's watching. All in all, Friday the 13th and its first three sequels might have the best atmosphere of any slasher flick.

The character of Friday the 13th are also great fun, a tradition that would be continued throughout its 80's sequels and adds to the appeal of the movies. These kids, while young and clueless, are a real joy to watch. It's like viewing PORKY'S or ANIMAL HOUSE, only with bloody deaths. Alice is a good final girl. Sure, she would be surpassed by other final girls in the series, but respect has to be paid to the one that started it all. Her co-campers are great, too. One really nice scene involves Alice finding a snake in her cabin and calling for help - the others run in, and while hunting the snake it becomes an all-out frenzy and pillow fight. This is how these people bond, and this is why we care about them. Another memorable scene involves the kids taking a break from setting up the dilapidated camp to sunbathe, and one of them plays a classic prank on the others. What more could you ask for in protagonists than to care about them?

Of course, what Friday the 13th has become known for is breaking ground in mainstream American cinema violence - the death scenes. Friday the 13th was one of the first American movies to combine the stalking suspense of films like Halloween and BLACK CHRISTMAS with gruesome splatter death scenes of movies like TWITCH OF DEATH NERVE and THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Some great make-up effects by the master Tom Savini include a slashed throat, axe through the face, arrows in the eye, decapitations, and spears through the neck - tame by the SAW-level standards of today, but in 1980 they were the real deal. And they were the main attraction of the film, leading to it's monster success.

I often view Sean Cunningham's Friday the 13th as a movie that inspired a series of spin-offs rather than being the first film in the Jason-saga. It is more pleasing to give that crown to Steve Miner's Friday the 13th Part II, as the real "original" movie of the series. Why? Because it was Part II that introduced the character Jason as the film's antagonist, and Jason has become the face of the series by appearing in (almost) all the sequels. To date, Jason has been the main villain in ten movies. That's more than Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger! And because of that Friday the 13th is his series. So this original movie that does not feature him as the antagonist can really be viewed as a stand-alone film that launched a spin off - Part II - that in turn started the trend of Jason movies.

The only screen-time given to Jason is a few quick seconds at the very ending of the movie, where his child-like corpse leaps out of the water and attacks Alice. The ending is shocking and scary, but was never intended to imply that Jason was alive. It was simply implying that Alice is haunted by Jason because of her trauma with his mother. You see, the original sequel idea for Friday the 13th was to have an entirely different plot than the first film, focusing on a different type of horror story about bad luck on Friday the 13th. Jason was only chosen for the sequel when producers saw how people reacted to the "last-scare" ending, and the success the slasher genre was having.

Friday the 13th has done many things to impact American slasher movies; aside from laying the groundwork to the "rules" of horror movies, it also dared to take things a step further than what had been seen before with its gruesome deaths. The movie is unfairly compared to Halloween, a superior film on all accounts but also a very different film. Halloween had a different story, a different setting, a different atmosphere, and a different approach. All that they have in common is a killer stalking teens, but that's about as far as the comparisons can truly go.

In retrospect, Friday the 13th has become unfairly lumped in with the dozens of trashier, less inventive forms of the slasher genre - including the rest of its franchise (you really can't look at Friday the 13th and JASON GOES TO HELL back-to-back and believe they are apart of the same series). If you need further evidence as to how far away the films got from the spirit of the original Friday the 13th, look no further than the 2009 remake: That film was a greatest kills hit-list starring Jason with no story. The first film tells the story of a "doomed" summer camp with an unlucky penchant for murder. If only the world would recognize what really worked in the first Friday the 13th, then maybe we'd get a worthy reboot of the legendary film after all.

Recommendations:
The Burning (1981)
The Prowler (1981)
Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Retrospective: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE LEGACY

It has recently been announced that Lionsgate, the distributor of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3D, has pushed the film from an October 2012 release to a January 2013. This is, by no means, a good sign - to push any movie back is usually foreboding, but to push a horror movie from a Halloween seasoned release to the post-Holidays "dump month" raises some red flags. All in all, after everything I've heard about the production of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D, it seems like we might have another really lousy entry to the franchise ahead of us (let's not forget this same franchise gave us LEATHERFACE: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION).

It has been nearly six years since the last film in the franchise, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING, was released. Wow. It really doesn't seem like that long ago, but in retrospect a lot has changed in the past six years... just in my life alone, I've graduated high school, graduated college, and moved across the country to begin a career in the entertainment industry.

Speak of the entertainment industry, in 2006 that world was different; Chris Nolan had not released THE DARK KNIGHT or INCEPTION. INDIANA JONES was still a trilogy. No IRON MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, or THOR movies. TWILIGHT was a recently released book, and HARRY POTTER still had six more movies to go. Classic horror had not yet been "rebooted", like HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13TH, or A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The SAW movies were at their peak, and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY did not yet exist. No one cared about Snooki or the Situation, and shows like "THE WALKING DEAD", "MADMEN", and "MODERN FAMILY" were not yet in production. And legends like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston were very much alive.

The world, too, has changed. America was not yet in its recession, and George W. Bush was still an office. Probably less than 25% of the population knew who Barack Obama was. Both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were still alive. Japan had not been devastated by a tsunami. Facebook was still in its beginnings, and MySpace was at its most popular. Twitter didn't exist. YouTube was still fresh. And neither the iPhone or iPad existed.

Yes. That was the last time we saw Leatherface and his crew. In 2006. And I remember how hyped I was about the prequel's release. I had seen the 2003 TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE in theaters and loved it. It was my first venture into hardcore horror films (not just HALLOWEEN and SCREAM movies, but truly disturbing stuff). I saw the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE shortly after. And then its sequels (all of which I hated). And the time finally arrived on October 6, 2006 to see The Beginning.

Much of my anticipation was built around my intrigue into the other victims and their stories in dealing with Leatherface and the Hewitt clan. So, I did a really geeky thing: I wrote a fan fiction screenplay, and called it THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE LEGACY. My fan fiction was set between the events of The Beginning (which took place in 1969) and the remake (which took place in 1973). So, I chose a year directly in the middle - 1971.

The story revolved around six childhood buddies (yes, all male) who have gone their separate ways in life; some served in the Vietnam war while others protested it. In a last-ditch effort to reclaim their friendship, the boys set out on a bachelor party weekend of camping, but tensions rose quickly within the group. It isn't long before the boys offer a lift to a sickly hitchhiker and her son, and as events unfolded the group landed face-to-face with the chainsaw-wielding maniac Thomas Hewitt.

They were Henrietta (Heather Kafka in the 2003 version) and Jedidiah (David Dorfman). I took a lot of creative liberties with these two characters, as they did not appear in The Beginning and the purpose of their characters were never fully disclosed in the remake. In The Legacy, Henrietta returns after years of pursuing a career as an actress in California. She now has a bastard son, Jedidiah, as well as a horrible cancer that makes her weak. She hitchhiked until she met up with the boys, and she led them to her now-psychotic family (you see, Henrietta had no clue what kind of monsters they had become).

Other returning characters included the obvious Thomas Hewitt (Andrew Bryniarski) and Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey), both of which are the same that you had come to expect after the remake and The Beginning. Luda Mae (Marietta Marich), Old Monty (Terrence Evans) and the Tea Lady (Kathy Lamkin) also return, with the Tea Lady kicking a little ass this time! All the major locations - the old Crawford mill, the Hewitt house, the factory, the rest stop - were brought back, too.

To spice things up, a new family member was added: Edwin, modeled between the Edwin Neal's Hitchhiker in the 1974 original and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2's Chop-Top (William Moseley). In The Legacy Edwin is a Vietnam veteran who was absent in The Beginning because he was at war, but has been sent home for undisclosed reasons. And he's more than happy to take his part in the family's murderous ways. Of course, Edwin does not appear in the remake, so you can use your imaginations as to what happens there...

Finally, we have the protagonists. These boys are all different people, dealing with different issues. But at their core is a bond that is unbreakable, as each of these characters would give their lives for one another. Their leader is Dan, a Vietnam veteran who is the polar opposite of Edwin or Hoyt - he is still horrified by what he did and saw in war, yet he is trying to start a new life. His fellow-veteran and best friend Justin also just returned from the war, but as a broken man. He hates himself, and indulges in alcohol to cope.

Also in the group is everyday guy Sean who is about to get married. Sean is like the glue to the group, as he's the one member who wants to stay in touch with everyone and who cares enough to do so. Casey (originally named Zeke, but changed in re-writes) is the young, witty, and somewhat spoiled "little brother" of the gang who is about to enter college. Chris is a preppy college dude who is starting to think for himself, and attending college protests in return. Rounding out the crew is Taylor, a stubborn hippie with a drug problem. Taylor's a perfect internal opposition to Dan and Justin.

Of course, while the internal struggles of the group always add a good dynamic, people want to see a massacre. And I was sure to give them that. Aside from the usual shootings, slicings, choppings, and mutilations, this group is subjects to various types of torture - from being strung up on meat hooks to being locked in rooms with rats who eat at their flesh, to a re-creation of the original film's infamous "dinner scene" (head-over-a-bucket part and all) to doing push-ups on glass. You see, for characters like Edwin and Hoyt, killing the boys is not enough. They need to be humiliated and tortured.

There are many chase scenes, most of them involving the young Casey or the battle-minded Dan. He gets chased through the Crawford mill, the factory, and the Hewitt house, but his most impressive chase comes from his sprint through an abandoned row of small houses where factory workers used to live before the town died. I had wondered, after seeing The Beginning, where the rest of the town used to live. This scene gave us a glimpse into the answer to that question.

Casey became a fan-favorite character for his witty remarks and cool one-liners, where he would bust his friend's chops while also delivering nasty send-offs to the Hewitt family. Some comic relief is needed, and that was found not only in the villains like Hoyt and the Tea Lady, but in one of our protagonists as well.

The six boys - especially Dan and Justin, who are trained for battle - are really better opponents to the Hewitt family than some beautiful girl like Jessica Biel, Marilyn Burns, or Jordana Brewster. While their heroines were great for those movies, it's kind of nice to have an all-male slasher film that isn't about homosexuality, like HELLBENT. While the Hewitt's are a threat, these guys do have survival skills. It's like Eric (Matt Bomer) from The Beginning, only multiplied.

Of course, everything boils down to the ending. Which is where I believe The Legacy pulls ahead and is a different kind of prequel from The Beginning. Our hero, having witnessed all his best friends get tortured and killed for no apparent reason, finally escapes... only to be hit by a car full of three yapping girls. The girls go to get help, believing the hero is dead, and they go to the Hewitt family, all of whom are themselves grieving over the death of one of their own. Hoyt hops in his car and drives to the road, approaching where the hero was hit, only to discover... he's gone. Moments before, a trucker came by and rescued the hero. But here's the trick - the hero has suffered a concussion on top of all his other traumas, and can't remember anything. Not even his name. He has no idea what happened...

The ending also leaves room for another fan fic script, dealing with those three yapping ladies who now have become unknowing targets of the angry - and hungry - Hewitt family. While The Legacy was a an all-boy adventure, could its follow-up be an all-girls event?

Overall, there's a lot surprises in The Legacy that even I had forgotten about. I remember after I first wrote it, I started a thread on IMDb to see who wanted to read it, and asked for feedback. The feedback was overwhelming, and hundreds of people have read this very fan fic. It was my first success as a writer, and a story that - while extremely gruesome - I will always cherish.

With The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D looming for release, it is officially time to say goodbye to The Legacy. That story, surrounding the Hewitt's, has ended. Years from now, I think that people will look back on this chapter in the franchise with appreciation. The 2003 remake and The Beginning are certainly not groundbreaking classics like the 1974 original, but they are certainly the next-best-thing.

So I am hanging up The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy once and for all. If you would like to read The Legacy, feel free to contact me for a copy.

Recommendations:
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
The Last House on the Left (2009)
Saw (2004)

Review: JASON GOES TO HELL (1993)

JASON GOES TO HELL. More like... what the hell? What could have been a promising new entry in the series (and easily have been an improvement over the last campy entry, JASON TAKES MANHATTAN) actually ends up being the worst of bunch. By far the worst of the bunch. Yes, those who loathed A NEW BEGINNING, Jason Takes Manhattan, and even JASON X will gladly watch them any day of the week over this mess.

For starters, after eight movies, there are certain rules you cannot break... or suddenly start. Never once in the previous films was it even slightly suggested that Jason is some kind of demon with the powers to switch bodies. No, Jason initially started as a kind of super-human in the first four films, and then in the sixth, seventh, and eighth entries he became a zombie. But now he's suddenly a this demonic, unkillable monster with ancient origins (and even a connection to THE EVIL DEAD's book)? Just a horrible, bizarre idea.

Next, Jason suddenly has a sister. And she lives in Crystal Lake. And he has known about her this whole time. So why, after eight movies, is this the first time he's going after her? If he can only truly be killed by a family member, than wouldn't she have been the first on his list of victims a long, long time ago? None of this makes any sense.

Then, adding onto the family continuity problems, you have the Voorhees Mansion. Yes, that's right. A Voorhees Mansion. It's not Camp Crystal Lake, which the filmmakers easily could have used as Jason's hideout (it would have made sense, right?). But instead there is this mansion that has never been mentioned before, where Jason grew up with his mother. Doesn't make sense.

Another huge continuity problem is that if "only a Voorhees can kill a Voorhees", then how the heck did Alice kill Pamela in the 1980 original film? Either Alice is some kind of Voorhees that has never been explained, or this is a huge plot hole. No matter how you want to spin it, it was poorly done in Jason Goes to Hell.

The series that became famous for slasher thrills, over-the-top death scenes, and campy teenage fun had spiraled down to this nonsense by the 90's. I appreciate that the filmmakers tried to do something different with this film, rather than being the same as the others, but it just doesn't work. What is delivered in Jason Goes to Hell is not what fans expect, or more importantly, what they want. If they wanted to see a slasher film with a crazed plot involving supernatural demons, than they would go see A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, or even a CHILD'S PLAY film (both of those series were still pretty popular around 1993, so its obvious that's what the audience wanted).

Finally, the plot: well, Jason (once again played by Kane Hodder) gets blown up at Crystal Lake by the FBI. His mortician gets a strange urge to eat his still-beating heart, and then the mortician is possessed by Jason. The possessed mortician goes back to Crystal Lake and starts killing anyone in sight, trying to kill the last of the Voorhees bloodline - including Diana Kimble (Erin Gray), Jason's sister, and her daughter Jessica (Kari Keegan). Jason's ultimate plan is to be reborn in his old body, as he cannot stay in a possessed body for an extended period of time. Oh, and did I mention that the actual character of Jason barely has any screentime? He's mostly possessing other people, only appearing in the film's teaser and then briefly in the film's end.

Sounds complicated, doesn't it? That's because it is. Its too complicated, especially for a movie that is apart of a series that has become famous for having, well, such basic plots. In the past Jason has stalked campers in PART 2, gotten the 3D treatment in PART III, been killed by Corey Feldman in THE FINAL CHAPTER, been resurrected in JASON LIVES, fought a telekinetic chick in THE NEW BLOOD, and been to the city in Jason Takes Manhattan. But the core of the story has always been the same - Jason killing teens.

The acting is about what you could expect from a Friday the 13th movie, but whereas in the past the actors were playing clueless teens, the characters in Jason Goes to Hell require a little more sophistication - they are parents and adults (there are only three teen campers that maybe have 3 minutes of screen time before they're dispatched in a the film's coolest - although unnecessary - scene). The actors overall create forgettable characters, save Steven Williams (of "21 JUMP STREET") who plays bounty hunter Creighton Duke, and Rusty Schwimmer (THE INFORMANT! and THE PERFECT STORM, among countless others) who plays the hardass diner owner Joey B.

Had Jason Goes to Hell not been a Friday the 13th film, it might have been more successful. The ideas weren't all horrible, and the film has great gore and plenty of creative deaths. But as a Jason movie it doesn't work. Its just too weird. But then again, a lot of early-mid 90's slasher films were exactly that - weird (just look at HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS). But whereas The Curse of Michael Myers stayed true to the series spirit, Jason Goes to Hell becomes its own beast.

In the end, it might be best for fans to just watch the series in order, and skip from Jason Takes Manhattan to Jason X and FREDDY VS. JASON. Only after you finish the franchise, you might want to take a look at Jason Goes to Hell, out of nothing but curiosity. But believe me, as a fan, it's not what you want.

Recommendations:
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
New Nightmare (1994)
Hellraiser (1987)

Knowing the Psycho Genres: SLASHER FILMS - Part 1

SLASHER FILMS – By Theme

Holiday Slashers

Donned “holiday slashers” by fans, this sub-genre was created as a marketing ploy to make it easier to promote the films. While Bob Clark’s BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) stands as the forerunner to the holiday slasher movement, it was the monster success of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978) that really kick-started the sub-genre. Halloween was the 7^th highest grossing movie of 1978, and every studio wanted to recreate that film’s huge profit. By setting a film on a specific holiday, it made it easier to decide a release date for the film to coincide with that holiday, thus expecting huge box office opening weekend (as horror films tend to have steep box office declines following the opening weekend). The marketing made it easy for films like MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981) and its 2009 remake to attract an audience, with taglines proclaiming, “This Valentine’s Day, There’s More Than One Way To Lose Your Heart.” Even though Halloween and its franchise continued to be big, the sub-genre lost steam by the mid-80s, as movies like SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) and APRIL FOOL'S DAY (1986) were considered box office failures. The genre would make sporadic resurges throughout the 1990’s and 2000s, but none with quite as much impact as those in the Golden Age of Slasher Films.

CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980), NEW YEAR'S EVIL (1980), TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT (1980),  HOME SWEET HOME (1981), DON'T OPEN 'TILL CHRISTMAS (1984), SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (1987), HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988), SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT III: BETTER WATCH OUT! (1989), VALENTINE (2001), HELLBENT (2004), BLACK CHRISTMAS (2006), and APRIL FOOL'S DAY (2008) are good examples of holiday slashers.

Home Invasion Slashers

The “home invasion” fear has been a real threat in American culture, stemming from real crimes committed on American soil while others stem back to World War II or the Cold War where there was a threat of foreign invasion. The film MAN IN THE ATTIC (1955) is probably the earliest cinematic representation of a nuclear family that falls under danger from a stranger living in their attic, although the sub-genre really got its footing in the 1970s when movies like FRIGHT (1971) and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1979) portrayed young women – usually babysitters – being harassed in increasingly threatening ways by an unknown assailant inside the house. Many themes of a home invasion can be found in other types of slashers, such as holiday slashers like Black Christmas or Halloween. The sub-genre became pretty non-existent well into the 1980s and throughout the 1990s, but after September 11^th, 2001, the fear of “home invasion” was once again a daily reminder for American citizens, and movies like FUNNY GAMES (2007) and THE STRANGERS (2008) became popular films in American cinema.

SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME! (1978), GROTESQUE (1988), WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK (1993), WHEN A KILLER CALLS (2006), and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (2006) are all good examples of home invasion slashers.

Escaped Maniac Slashers

After the mega-success of John Carpenter’s Halloween – which told the simple story of Michael Myers, an escaped mental patient terrorizing a small mid-western town – independent filmmakers suddenly saw an easy opportunity to make a quick buck off a slasher film. Many, many movies featured the theme of an escaped lunatic stalking the streets, but most movies tried to infuse some kind of gimmick into the plot to attract an audience – such as a motive of revenge or a holiday as the backdrop to the story. Still, several slasher films chose not to use a gimmick, but rather take the real fear of maniacs roaming the streets as the entire plot. Probably the most famous of these movies is Amy Holden Jones’ satirical feminist film THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982) and its sequels, which feature an escaped mental patient killing high school students in increasingly creative and violent ways. Like other films in the sub-genre, The Slumber Party Massacre ignored the motive of the killer, making a straightforward story with subtext: “It could happen to your town.” There were many escaped maniac slashers throughout the 1980s, but the sub-genre became pretty much obsolete by the 1990s.

MADHOUSE (1981), NIGHTMARE (1981), ALONE IN THE DARK (1982), BLOOD SONG (1982), THE LAST NIGHT (1983), A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER (1983), SILENT MADNESS (1984), THE MUTILATOR (1985), CLOWNHOUSE (1989) and HALLOWEEN (2007) are all good examples of escaped maniac slashers.

Stalker Slashers

The stalker slasher sub-genre is a type of film involving a character that becomes obsessed with another character in the story, resulting in bloodshed and murder when the obsession spirals out of control. The origins of the genre can be traced back to stalker-themed psychological thrillers of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, the most notable being WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) and Clint Eastwood’s PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971), however the themes of stalkers entered the slasher genre after the monstrous success of Halloween (which involved Michael Myers obsessively stalking babysitters), as well as the success of the Italian giallo films in the 70’s that commonly were structured around themes of obsession. The 1980 murder of John Lennon and the case involving John Hinckley, Jr. stalking actress Jodi Foster also increased the era’s fascination with stalkers, as they presented a real threat. The most notable stalker slasher is THE FAN (1981), starring Michael Biehn and Lauren Bacall. While these movies have obtained a cult following today, they quickly faded out in favor of psychological stalker thrillers such as FATAL ATTRACTION (1987) and BASIC INSTINCT (1992). Films like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instict were not slasher films, and the psychological stalker film is still popular today with movies like SWIM FAN (2002) and OBSESSED (2009).

HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE (1980), THE LAST HORROR FILM (1982), and NIGHT WARNING (1983) are all good examples of the stalker-themed slashers.

Evil Children Slashers

The main draw to the “evil child” slasher sub-genre is pedophobia – the fear of children. Many evil and creepy children have graced the screen over the years, from THE RING (2002) and THE GRUDGE (2004) to THE CHANGELING (1980) and THE OMEN (1976). But not all sinister kids need to be supernatural in cinema; some can be quite human. The sub-genre’s most famous and earliest release is THE BAD SEED (1956), the story of a mother who suspects that her young daughter may be a cold-hearted killer. The film earned four Oscar-nominations and was extremely popular upon its release, but the genre would not get a real kick-start until 20 years later with the release of ALICE, SWEET ALICE (1976). The evil children slasher films quickly died out in the early 1980s, after media attention on cases of child kidnappings and abuse – including the murder of Adam Walsh in 1981 – made the genre seem unsatisfactory to the mass public.

PEOPLETOYS (1974), CATHY'S CURSE (1976), BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981), and the CHILDREN OF THE CORN franchise (1984-2011) are all examples of evil child slashers.

Spectacle Slashers

During the Golden Age of Slasher Films (1978-1984), most slasher films were low-budget, independent productions with little in terms of special. It was the release of Wes Craven’s acclaimed A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) that changed the slasher genre, thus ending the Golden Age of Slasher films by starting a trend of making horror movies bigger with more special effects-driven plots, creating an overall spectacle for the viewer. Elm Street’s plot told the story of a spectral serial killer hunting teens in their dreams, thus allowing the filmmakers to create “dream worlds” and increasing the creativity. While A Nightmare on Elm Street was not the first slasher film to use cinematic special effects, it was the most popular, and suddenly moviegoers were drawn to the thrill of seeing these bigger budgeted movies rather than smaller, independent releases. Most low-budget slasher movies found release on the direct-to-video market, making way for studios to release grander, special effects laden slasher movies in theaters. The sub-genre’s popularity grew through the late 1980s and 1990s, with the A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels as well as the CHILD'S PLAY films and the CANDYMAN series. Even slasher series that started as low-budget films like FRIDAY THE 13TH became spectacle slashers to widen their audience and stay relevent. While not quite as overwhelmingly popular today as they were in the 80’s and 90’s, these films still draw an audience. 

EVILSPEAK (1981), CHOPPING MALL (1986), FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES (1986), FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD (1988), JASON GOES TO HELL (1993), the LEPRECHAUN series (1993-2003), JASON X (2002), FREDDY VS. JASON (2003), and MY SOUL TO TAKE (2010) are all examples of spectacle slashers.

Knowing the Psycho Genres: SPLATTER FILMS

SPLATTER FILMS

Gore Film

The “gore film” focuses on portrayals of extreme gore and graphic violence through special effects involving excessive blood and guts that tend to display an overt interest in the human body and its vulnerability to mutilation. Roger Corman’s A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959) and Georges Franju’s French New Wave classic EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960) set the guidelines for the gore film, although neither would match what was to come in terms of violence. These types of movies rose to prominence throughout the mid 1960s with the popularity of Herchell Gordon Lewis-directed films like BLOOD FEAST (1963) and TWO-THOUSAND MANIACS! (1965). The “Gore Film” is generally considered the basic, archetypical splatter film, and its popularity continues today with movies like the popular FINAL DESTINATION franchise launched in 2000.

COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965), THE GRUESOME TWOSOME (1967), THE WIZARD OF GORE films (1970-2007), BLOOD AND LACE (1971), THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW (1972), THE GORE-GORE GIRLS (1972), SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1974), THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET (1977), ANTHROPOPHAGUS (1980), BLOOD DINER (1987), and SEVERANCE (2006) are good examples of a typical “gore” film.

Survivalist Film

The Survivalist Splatter film is a type of horror film that focuses on normal citizens stranded in a rural setting, such as the American Southwest. In these movies, the ideals of the travels clash with the culture of the citizens, resulting in a bloody showdown. THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) lays out the original plot for a survivalist splatter film – in that film, a normal man must try to survive against the world’s greatest hunter, who has trapped him on an island. The sub-genre rose in popularity after the immense success of Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974). The sub-genre peaked in the late 70’s and early 80’s, but faded out until the early 2000s with the releases of the JEEPERS CREEPERS films as well as the WRONG TURN films and the remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2003) and its prequel when the genre made a strong comeback.

EATEN ALIVE (1977), THE HILLS HAVE EYES franchise (1977-2007), ISLAND OF DEATH (1977), HUMONGOUS (1982), SCALPS (1983), HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (2003), HOUSE OF WAX (2005), WOLF CREEK (2005), TURISTAS (2006), WILDERNESS (2006), BORDERLAND (2007), THE HILLS RUN RED (2009), and LEATHERFACE 3D (2013) are good examples of a survivalist splatter film.

Psycho Protagonist Film

The central characters in these movies were also the film’s villain – a rare case where the protagonist that the audience follows is also the ruthless killer that they fear. These movies usually attempted to explain “why” the killer killed, and also were extremely graphic in their depictions of the violence. While PEEPING TOM (1960) is the forerunner of the sub-genre, the films that best capture the disturbing nature of these movies are MANIAC (1980) and HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986). These movies generally paid very little attention to the other characters in the film, instead choosing to spend the film's plot examining the balance the killer must make between his slayings and his personal life. These movies also typically featured some kind of romantic story that would be to question the killer's humanity. These movies quickly came and went between 1979 and 1980, with Henry's release in 1986 truly being the last of the genre, before it fell into the hands of psychological thrillers like THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) and SEVEN (1995). The mockumentary BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON (2006) is an homage to these film.

THE DRILLER KILLER (1979), DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE! (1980), and DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE (1980) are all good examples of a Psycho Protagonist splatter film.

Revenge Film

Also known as the “Rape and Revenge” film because the revenge that the protagonists attained in these films was usually set off by a horrific rape and/or murder. The best example of the genre is Wes Craven’s THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) and its 2009 remake. The movies were usually structured into two parts – the first half of the film showed the villain torturing, humiliating, raping, and killing the protagonists, and the second half of the film focused on the protagonists getting their revenge through similar tactics as the villains they despise. The sub-genre was extremely popular in the 1970s, as a reaction to the Vietnam War. In the 1980s they died out, as a reaction to new MPAA regulations, but have made somewhat of resurgence in the mid 2000s as a reaction to the Iraq War.

WRONG WAY (1972), LAST STOP ON THE NIGHT TRAIN (1975), DEATH WEEKEND (1976), MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH (1976), the I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE films (1978-2010), LAST HOUSE ON THE BEACH (1977), THE HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1980), the MOTHER'S DAY films (1980-2010), NAIL-GUN MASSACRE (1985), and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005) are good examples of revenge-themed splatter films.

Euro Erotica

While the American gore film’s popularity grew in the states, European filmmakers advanced a step further by making movies that showed not only extreme violence, but sexual sadism as well. These films were a response to the post-World War II world in a war-torn Europe, trying to capture the horrors of real life in cinematic storytelling. Euro Erotica was most popular from the mid 1960s through the early 1970s, but began to die out by the late 1970s as it became taboo to make films that sensationalized violence and sex. In the early 2000s, French filmmakers rebooted the movement with even more extreme films, a filmmaking movement called “French New Extremity”, where filmmakers like Alexandre Aja released controversial films such as HIGH TENSION (2003) or Pascal Laugier released MARTYRS (2008).

HORROR CASTLE (1963), BLOODY PIT OF HORROR (1965), THE EMBALMER (1965), NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965), BLOOD BATH (1966), ASYLUM EROTICA (1971), HANDS OF THE RIPPER (1971), THE MAD BUTCHER (1971), THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF HER GRAVE (1971), NAKED MASSACRE (1976), THE SISTER OF URSULA (1978), KILLER NUN (1979), and FRONTIER(S) (2007) are good examples of Euro Erotica splatter films.

Asian Extreme

Around the turn of the century, Asian cinema took a turn. A very extreme turn into films that were sold on their violence, torture, and mutilation of the human body. These movies pushed all boundaries, while usually delivering a compelling character-driven story in the process. The films that arguably started the trend were AUDITION (1999), BATTLE ROYALE (2000), and ICHI THE KILLER (2001) - all three of which took what were considered acceptable at the time and pushed the boundaries, while each providing unique twists to their respective plots. The sub-genre grew throughout the mid-2000s, but there were signs that it was started to die out by the end of the decade. That's when releases like I SAW THE DEVIL (2010) and THE RAID: REDEMPTION (2011) were released, and gained success and acclaim worldwide, including in the United States. While many American and European films of the decade were considered to be "torture porn" by critics, and often derailed because of it, the violent Asian Extreme films were critically acclaimed for their filmmaking style and strong themes presented throughout the movies.
SUICIDE CLUB (2001), PHONE (2002), BATTLE ROYALE 2 (2003), GOZU (2003), THE DOLL MASTER (2004), BLOODY REUNION (2006), RETRIBUTION (2006), SICK NURSES (2007), THE SCISSORS MASSACRE (2008), THE MACHINE GIRL (2008), TOKYO GORE POLICE (2008), MACABRE (2009), BEDEVILLED (2010), and CONFESSIONS (2010) are good examples of Asian Extreme splatter films.

Torture Porn

Labeled “torture porn” by genre fans and critics alike, this sub-genre’s focus is on the torture of victims and the mutilation of their bodies before their actual death. The genre’s most famous films are the SAW movies that were extremely popular in the 2000s, starting in 2004 and one being released annually every Halloween until SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER (2010). The torture porn sub-genre may have been a reaction to the Patriot Act and other laws passed in post-September 11^th America, where certain torture tactics could be used on suspects in question. While these movies were extremely popular, they quickly died out toward the start of the new decade in 2011, as now the torture porn genre is more obscure and less mainstream.

The HOSTEL films (2006-2011), CAPTIVITY (2007), TRAIN (2008), BLOOD CREEK (2009), THE COLLECTOR (2009), THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE series (2009-2012), and SEVEN DAYS (2010) are good examples of torture porn films.