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The Top Slasher Films You Need to See

Co-written by Dandy J. West

By Gene LassPublished about a year ago 17 min read
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The Top Slasher Films You Need to See
Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash

"Psycho" (1960) (BOTH pick)

It all begins here. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch, which was in turn inspired by notorious serial killer Ed Gein, this masterpiece by Alfred Hitchcock is the result of Hitchcock being bored and wanting to do something that neither he nor anyone else had ever done. Something that elevated film from suspense to pure terror, and brutal violence. The film does an incredible switch of perspective, as the lead characters change partway through the film, and all of the violence is purposefully, painstakingly realistic.

"Last House on the Left" (1972) (BOTH pick)

The first movie written and directed by Wes Craven, this film is a pioneer of two genres - slasher films, and the lesser-known sub-genre of revenge films, both of which picked up speed in the '70s. When a couple's daughter is brutally killed, the couple realize that by a twist of fate, those who killed her have come to their home. Distraught and seeking vengeance, the couple decide to kill them all, painfully.

"Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974) (BOTH pick)

While marketed as "based on actual events," there actually weren't any chain saw killings in Texas, the film, like Psycho, was inspired by Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, who like the film's iconic killer Leatherface and his demented family of cannibals, did make things out of his victims. Spawning two sequels, a prequel, and a few remakes, none are quite as good, quite as groundbreaking, quite as brutal as the original. In the case of both "Psycho" and this film, they were so horrific compared to anything that had come before, people passed out and vomited in the theatre. While "Superman the Movie" had the tagline, "You will believe a man can fly," this movie could say, "You will believe you've seen a person get impaled on a meat hook."

"Black Christmas" (1974) (Dandy pick)

A sorority keeps receiving obscene phone calls that are too short for the police to trace. Jess (Olivia Hussey) is the only woman awake in the house and becomes the primary target since one by one, her sorority sisters who’ve not left for the holiday are being silently killed around the house. Is it some maniac or Jess’s hot-tempered boyfriend?

"I Spit on Your Grave" (1978) (BOTH pick)

Another brutal entry in the Revenge Film sub-genre, this movie features a woman who hunts down, mutilates, and kills the group of men who brutally raped her and left her for dead. Banned in multiple countries due to its explicit violence, the film is both reviled and celebrated for its gore.

"Halloween" (1978) (BOTH pick)

This wasn't writer-director John Carpenter's first film, but it was the one that put him on the map, subsequently making Michael Myers one of the most iconic killers in film, and launching the career of actress and scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. The 13th and supposedly final film in the series, "Halloween Ends," comes out this month, all started by this film, in which a maniac, kept in a mental hospital since he killed his sister at age 6, escapes and comes home to kill again, until he encounters a very resilient baby-sitter.

"Friday the 13th" (1980) (BOTH pick)

With the smash success of "Halloween" and "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," of course Hollywood wanted more slasher films, and in the case of "Halloween," stay on the theme of scary times of the year and go with Friday the 13th, plus up the ante on killing scantily-clad teenagers by having the killer stalk and butcher counselors setting up for the season at a summer camp. The film establishes themes continued later in the franchise, as the characters with the worst behaviors (sex, smoking, drinking, drug use) die, while the "final girl" is the smartest, most resourceful, and pure of heart. Note: If you think you've seen them all just because you've seen later entries in the series, you haven't. The first one is entirely different.

"Maniac" (1980) (Gene pick)

The subject of a very good remake with Elijah Wood, it's fair to say you could see either the remake or the original, you don't necessarily have to see both. Both films handle the central character, a homicidal maniac, with depth and a human dimension, while showing that yes, he has severe issues related to his deceased, overall not upstanding mother, and he has an odd fixation with mannequins, which is on its own creepy as hell.

"Terror Train" (1980) (BOTH pick)

Jamie Lee Curtis isn't considered a scream queen because of the first two Halloween films. She's considered THE Scream Queen because she was in those films, plus "Prom Night," and this film, and she's excellent in all of them. In this film, a group of college students have booked a charter train to celebrate New Year's Eve. But they're being stalked by someone who wants revenge. As Hitchcock showed in "Strangers on a Train," and as shown ever since, trains are an excellent location for a suspense or horror film, because they're big enough to hide in, but there's only so far you can go.

"Prom Night" (1980) (Dandy pick)

An unfortunate accident happens to a little girl while a group of children are playing in an abandoned building. Years later, the children are teens getting ready for their high school prom. What was supposed to be a night filled with glittery disco fun becomes a bloodbath as the core group from their childhood are killed off in brutal ways by a masked psychopath.

"The Burning" (1981) (Dandy pick)

A former summer camp caretaker who was badly burned in a prank gone wrong, stalks teenage campers five years later, looking for revenge for his disfigurement.

"My Bloody Valentine" (1981) (Dandy pick)

Supervisors leave the mining caves to attend a dance, forgetting to check the methane levels. After an explosion occurs, there is a sole survivor, Harry Warden. Harry goes insane from the ordeal, committing murder and being institutionalized. His main purpose was to threaten the town to never hold another Valentine’s Day dance. Years pass and Warden becomes an “urban legend,” therefore, the town proceeds with a Valentine’s Day dance, only Warden isn’t far away placing real hearts in candy boxes.

"Friday the 13th Part II" (1981) (BOTH pick)

There are many sequels in this franchise, and you may want to check out all of them, particularly 3, but we've only added the most noteworthy ones to the must-see list. In this one, it still doesn't have all the hallmarks of the later entries in the series, but it's getting there. As the poster says, the body count continues. There's no hockey mask, no unstoppable killer. The film is still about a real person, seeking vengeance on anyone who tries to open Camp Crystal Lake, where a boy named Jason Voorhees drowned years ago.

"Sleepaway Camp" (1983) (BOTH pick)

Clearly influenced by "Friday the 13th," which had already spawned two sequels, this film continued the still-new but growing genre of slasher films set at a summer camp, which is a great locale. Camps are secluded. Cell phones weren't yet reality, and even today slasher films just say there's no reception due to the remote location, or mountains, or whatever. So you isolate the teens, put them in bikinis because you normally swim there, then start picking them off. Easily done, fun to watch. What makes "Sleepaway Camp" unique is the killer, and the amazing twist at the end.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) (BOTH pick)

Arguably this film could be on our list of Supernatural films you need to see, because in the time frame of the film, Freddy Krueger is no longer an ordinary killer. But the feel of the film is of a slasher film, and Freddy is normally associated with the other slasher icons of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Leatherface. Wherever you want to categorize the film, you should still see it. After already having several successful films under his belt, this is what made writer-director Wes Craven a legend, and actor Robert Englund an icon.

"Silent Night, Deadly Night" (1984) (BOTH pick)

Like "I Spit on Your Grave," this film was banned in many countries, but unlike that film, it wasn't due to the violence, it was due to the theme. "Halloween" started the theme of holiday-themed films, which continued with "Mother's Day" in 1980, and then this classic, set naturally on Christmas, in which the killer is dressed as Santa Claus. Having a killer Claus was too much for many people, thus the ban. If you can, find the anniversary edition DVD, which has a special feature detailing the controversy over the film, which was denounced by legendary actor Mickey Rooney. The irony is, Rooney later starred in the largely forgettable and awful "Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker."

"A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge" (1985) (Gene pick)

In this sequel, Freddy Krueger returns in a way different from any other film in the series, he slowly takes possession of a teenager, with the intent of eventually fully possessing his body, and thus continuing his career as a serial killer. That concept alone is horrifying and worth seeing, plus at least two scenes in the film are so visceral, they induce shudders to this day. At this point, Freddy was starting to blend in the bits of humor, but he wasn't the full anti-hero killer full of one liners he became later in the series.

"April Fool's Day" (1986) (Dandy pick)

A group of friends are invited to spend the April Fool’s Day weekend at their friend’s house out on an island. As they party and hook up, deaths are happening all around the property by a mysterious murderer. It’s all fun and games until a snake is trying to attack you!

"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Part 2" (1986) (BOTH pick)

As noted, there are multiple sequels, prequels, and reboots in this series, and they're of varying quality. However, this one is unique among all sequels. Not only is it directed by horror legend Tobe Hooper, who directed the original, but it blends horror and comedy in ways unlike any other film. It's rumored that Hooper did the film as a horror-comedy because he was tired of being pestered to do a sequel and he wanted to have it entirely different from the original, and if that's true, that's fine. All that matters is, he made it, and it has the added aspect of starring Dennis Hopper, by then a noted actor for some time, as the heroic lead, hunting down Leatherface and his family for the killings they did in the original, more than a decade earlier.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors" (1987) (BOTH pick)

This film again takes the Nightmare franchise down a different path as some of the kids he's been preying on realize that Freddy isn't the only one with powers in the dream world. They can have powers, too, that make them much more in dreams than they are in their real lives. Not only is this worth watching for the new direction in the series, but it also marks the return of actress Heather Langenkamp from the original film, plus key roles for Patricia Arquette and Lawrence (billed as Larry) Fishburn, both of whom would go on to much bigger careers afterward in films such as "True Romance" and "The Matrix."

"Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" (1989) (BOTH pick)

By the 1980s, much of America assumed New York City was a hellhole that had slid so far into crime and violence that it was possibly irredeemable, thus resulting in films like "Escape from New York," which gave the solution of just walling off the city and making it a large prison. That's the sentiment behind this film, which is noteworthy for two things: One, it gets Jason out of Camp Crystal Lake, which breathed new life into the series. Two, in a series that became so routine one would basically just watch it to see how clever the kills would be, it has two of the most satisfying in the history of slasher films. The first is when Jason efficiently and brutally picks up a victim's sleeping bag, with the occupant still in it, and beats it against a tree. The other, in New York, when a street criminal thinks he can out-fight Jason. He ends exhausting himself, and when Jason sees the thug will fight no more, Jason simply punches his head clear off his body, sending it into a dumpster.

"Scream" (1996) (BOTH pick)

As we noted in our article on "The Top Zombie Films You Need to See," while "Shaun of the Dead" is a fun film of its own accord, the real value is that it showed that zombie films had progressed so far that everyone knew the rules. This is also the significance of "Scream," which came out several years earlier. Here, master of horror Wes Craven, who had produced, written, and/or directed many horror films at this point, deconstructs the slasher genre pointing out what by then were the tired, assumed rules of every slasher film, because it had become obvious to everyone watching the films that the good girl would be left in the end, plus all the mistakes the victims made throughout the film. This was a brilliant move by Craven, as it forced the creators of slasher films to try harder, while also giving us the gore and suspense we expecting.

"I Know What You Did Last Summer" (1997) (Dandy pick)

Fourth of July, before heading off to college, four teens accidently hit a man crossing the road. Because their booze was spilled in the car, they can’t call the cops. They opt to get rid of the body by throwing it in the ocean. One year later, Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), is still plagued by guilt as she returns home for the summer. The friends reunite after Julie receives a threatening note and they discover that maybe whomever they threw in the ocean may not be dead after all.

"Urban Legend" (1998) (Dandy pick)

A group of college students are plagued with deaths that revolve around urban legends. The connection between them appears to go deeper as Natalie (Alicia Witt) reveals that she and a friend in high school accidently killed a man by way of an urban legend. Now, the group of friends can’t trust one another.

"Cherry Falls" (2000) (Dandy pick)

A murderer thought to be a woman who was raped 27 years prior, starts picking off all the virgins in high school. The students then make a pact to all lose their virginities to stay safe.

"Freddy vs. Jason" (2003) (BOTH pick)

This match-up had been teased at the end of a previous "Friday the 13th" installment, in which Jason has been killed yet again, and Freddy's clawed hand comes out of the ground to grab the signature hockey mask lying on Jason's grave. Finally, the film became reality, with Jason and Freddy each killing their share of teens, and attacking each other both in the dream world and in Camp Crystal Lake. Not since "King Kong vs. Godzilla" had there been such a battle of titans, with the added bonus that this film actually maintains continuity with both film franchises, marking the end of each before their reboots.

"House of 1000 Corpses" (2003) (BOTH pick)

Two couples hoping for some side road freak show entertainment get more than they bargained for when they are kidnapped by a family of sadistic killers.

"Wolf Creek" (2005) (BOTH pick)

Showing that not all slasher films take place in America, this film, based on actual events, takes us to Australia, where a killer has been stalking and killing victims for years. What makes this film, and the sequels, different is that the killer, Mick Taylor, never becomes superhuman like Freddy, Jason, or Michael. Nor is he largely mute like Leatherface or again, Michael. He's a normal guy who just happens to be skilled hunter and decent combatant, armed with a number of guns, knives, and other tools to really ruin your day. He's even kind of likeable, when he's not terrifying.

"Rob Zombie's Halloween" (2007) (Gene pick)

By the time this reboot came out, the Halloween series had been around for roughly 30 years and had had many sequels. Some of the sequels were good, but to be certain the gory glory days of the franchise were in the past, and the Michael Myers saga, which started as a maniac in a mask killing teens in his old neighborhood one Halloween night, had been overly muddied with the addition of more characters and especially Celtic mysticism. In this version, we see more of the Myers family, and Michael himself looks huge and menacing, with his signature mask a bit rotten from age. Acting legend Malcolm McDowell is a nice addition in the role of Dr. Loomis, originally played by the late Donald Pleasance.

"The Strangers" (2008) (Gene pick)

This movie is one of several that came out over the span of a few years centering on home invasion, and they're all pretty terrifying, but this one seemed to be the most original, and has reverberated longest. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman play a couple who go to a cabin in the woods for a romantic getaway. While they're there, a group of masked strangers terrorize and ultimately attack them with intent to kill, yet no apparent motive. This is not a feel-good film. It's a brutal one, not cheesy or cliched in any way.

"Carver" (2008) (Gene pick)

This movie starts out like so many others, as two brothers and their friends going off on a road trip to party, and then it gets interesting. Yes, they're kind of rude to the locals, as in all those other films, And then they realize, through finding a stash of video tapes, that the area they're in is a hunting ground, and the tapes are actual snuff films made of people just like them who have come to the woods and ended up tortured and killed. And they're likely being watched, starring in one of those films right now. This has a clever plot, good acting, and some of the most unbelievably brutal scenes even filmed.

"My Bloody Valentine" (2009) (Dandy pick)

Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles) forgets to vent the lines in the mines which cause an explosion. Like the original, Harry Warden is the sole survivor who has killed the other surviving miners to conserve oxygen. A year after the accident, Warden awakes from a coma set on revenge and a fresh killing spree. He goes after the teens having a party at the mines, where Tom is currently with friends. Warden is shot dead before attacking Tom, leaving Tom traumatized. Ten years later, Tom returns home around Valentine’s Day and the killings start up again. Has Warden come back from the grave?

"Halloween" (2018) (BOTH pick)

This film isn't a reboot like the Rob Zombie film, it's a direct sequel to the original film. In this one, the events of Halloween 2 and the other films of the series have never occurred. Instead, Michael Myers is captured and held again after his attacks in Haddonfield, Illinois. 40 years later, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the girl who fought him off, is still haunted by the events of that night. Much like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, she has prepared herself and waited for the time when her attacker would come back, and it has ruined her life and distanced her family. But now Michael has returned and they both mean to finish what they started.

Gene Lass and Dandy J. West are lifelong horror fans and film buffs. They are the former editors of the blog "So Good It's Scary."

halloweenmovie reviewpop cultureslashervintage
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About the Creator

Gene Lass

Gene Lass has been a writer for more than 30 years, writing and editing numerous books including non-fiction, poetry, and fiction. His short story, “Fence Sitter” was nominated for Best of the Net 2020.

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