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The Slasher Movie Thread

post #1 of 77
4/22/08 at 2:57am
Thread Starter 
I hope there isn't one of these already, but I couldn't find one with the search function.

Rene (Mr.Eko)'s thread about The Intruder, along with a few recent Code Red releases got me thinking about slasher movies the other day. What are everyone's favorites? I know it's a hard genre to pin down to specifics, but I'd rather not include Giallo, or more traditional thrillers that happen to involve killers here.

I'm a fan of the wacky excesses of Juan Piquer Simón's Pieces and Buddy Cooper's The Mutilator (though mostly for its last act shenanigans), the camp and tension of Michelle Soavi's Stage Fright, and the genuine frightfulness of Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn. Well, and Halloween, of course.
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post #2 of 77
4/22/08 at 4:51am
You mentioned some really great ones that I have in my collection, Gabe.

Stage Fright is one weird ass flick, but has great effects, and Just Before Dawn is atmospheric, and actually has Gregg Henry playing a good guy for once, one who survives as well. The death of the twin is also very original. Gotta have Halloween in the collection as well. I've only seen the cut vhs of The Mutilator, and am looking forward to picking up the Code Red dvd once it's released.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is definitely one of the originals that I love, as well as Joe Spinell's masterpiece that is Maniac.

Cheesy slashers? My Bloody Valentine. Love the shit out of that flick. Seriously.
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post #3 of 77
4/22/08 at 5:02am
Me and my siblings make a point to watch Black Christmas every Christmas eve. Although a proto-giallo it marked the start of the slasher period in American films (Halloween was originally conceived as a sequel).
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post #4 of 77
4/22/08 at 11:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabe Powers View Post
I know it's a hard genre to pin down to specifics, but I'd rather not include Giallo
So many great borderline cases though e.g. Stage Fright, which you mention.

Zito's The Prowler is the goods. It's all about the eyes rolling back into the skull. Always liked the nasty little one-off slashers like this more than the ongoing series stuff like Friday.
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post #5 of 77
4/22/08 at 12:12pm
The Prowler and The Burning are both "pure" slasher flicks, but my favorite 80s "kill one girl at a time" opus is The Unseen, though it's not really a slasher flick.

Quote:
Originally Posted by James May View Post
Me and my siblings make a point to watch Black Christmas every Christmas eve. Although a proto-giallo it marked the start of the slasher period in American films (Halloween was originally conceived as a sequel).
Wait, what?
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post #6 of 77
4/22/08 at 3:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James May View Post
Me and my siblings make a point to watch Black Christmas every Christmas eve. Although a proto-giallo it marked the start of the slasher period in American films (Halloween was originally conceived as a sequel).
The original Black Christmas is highly underrated. Quite effective. The remake doesn't come close (obviously), but at least it does feature some good bloodloss.

Sleepaway Camp sucked.

What's your favourite Halloween sequel?
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post #7 of 77
4/22/08 at 3:11pm
Outside of the original Halloween I avoid them mostly altogether. 3 is the one I probably enjoy the most, but mostly because it doesn't feature Michael Myers. Halloween 3 probably doesn't belong in this discussion though.
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post #8 of 77
4/22/08 at 3:48pm
I think my favorite part of slasher films are the stars of today who were killed in slasher films back in the day.

Jack Black in I still know what you did last summer
Kevin Bacon in Friday the 13th

Those two are my favorites.

I remember having a fondness for the movie "Popcorn" but its been forever since I've seen this movie.
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post #9 of 77
4/22/08 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I don't really like any of the Halloween sequels, but I have an affection for 3, which isn't a slasher.

Disciple_72, you are correct about Stage Fright. I consider it a slasher rather then a giallo because of the lack of mystery concerning the killers identity and the fact that he always wears a mask.

I really liked The Prowler, and did not realize that Code Red was releasing The Mutilator. I have it on unrated VHS, and the German DVD release (which was part of my payment for designing some images for xploitedcinema.com).
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post #10 of 77
4/22/08 at 5:42pm
Halloween III is great. I don't care what anyone else says. Taking it as a standalone flick, it's really creepy, and has a great Carpenter/Howarth score. "Chariots of pumpkins" is a great opening/closing theme song.

Another great slasher. Silent Night, Deadly Night. Really down and dirty, and sleazy.
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post #11 of 77
4/22/08 at 5:56pm
Thread Starter 
Nightmare (aka: Nightmare in a Damaged Brain ) is also pretty sleazy, but it also isn't very good.
I've got love for the original April Fools Day, a fun time.

And I can't believe I forgot the granddaddie, Mario Bava's Bay of Blood. That's a great slasher movie, though it's often confused with the director's Giallo work.
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post #12 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:01pm
Yeah, I've always wanted to check out Bay Of Blood. Apparently Steve Miner cribbed quite a bit from this flick. Also it stars Luciana Paluzzi of Thunderball, and Luigi Pistilli of Leone's Dollars flicks.
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post #13 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:08pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, Friday the 13th 2 is basically a remake.
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post #14 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:19pm
Picked up the Grindhouse Psychos! three pack from Shriek Show today at Best Buy, and it has Tenement, a flick called Cop Killers, and Don't Go In The House.

I'm looking forward to seeing Don't Go In The House, since I've heard so much about it. Didn't know that Dan Grimaldi (aka the twin Patsy Parisi) from The Sopranos was the main character.
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post #15 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:21pm
Thread Starter 
Don't go in the house is a little dull, but the kill scenes are genuinely disturbing. I actually almost bought that set on Saturday. I look forward to hearing about Cop Killers.
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post #16 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rene (Mr.Eko) View Post
Picked up the Grindhouse Psychos! three pack from Shriek Show today at Best Buy, and it has Tenement, a flick called Cop Killers, and Don't Go In The House.

I'm looking forward to seeing Don't Go In The House, since I've heard so much about it. Didn't know that Dan Grimaldi (aka the twin Patsy Parisi) from The Sopranos was the main character.
Did you also know that my old grade school classmate played the killer as a little boy? Now you do. The movie is terrible. There's one death that's unsettling, I think.
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post #17 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:29pm
Well, at least I know now to keep my expectations down when I pop it in the player in a bit.

Tenement's ok so far. Cool seeing a young Paul Calderon, and the guy who played Cigarface from Toxic Avenger in here.
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post #18 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rene (Mr.Eko) View Post
Yeah, I've always wanted to check out Bay Of Blood. Apparently Steve Miner cribbed quite a bit from this flick. Also it stars Luciana Paluzzi of Thunderball, and Luigi Pistilli of Leone's Dollars flicks.
It's not Bava's finest hour, but it's essential viewing if you call yourself a slasher film fan. It's a giallo, but it's so rough and artless (at least compared to Bava's previous efforts) that it presents the clearest transition from the Italian giallo to the American slasher film.
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post #19 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:48pm
I've read that the old Image R1 dvd has bad audio. Wonder when it'll get a re-release?
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post #20 of 77
4/22/08 at 6:55pm
http://www.amazon.com/Bava-Box-Set-Vol-2/dp/B000UVV23S
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post #21 of 77
4/22/08 at 7:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rene (Mr.Eko) View Post
I've read that the old Image R1 dvd has bad audio. Wonder when it'll get a re-release?
You have to buy the whole Bava set to get Bay of Blood, but it's worth it. The thing about Bay is that it's sort of the Giallo to end all Giallo. The film basically plays against the Giallo rules, mostly as set by Argento's Bird with the Crystal Plumage. It's a who dunnit where everyone dunnit, which takes it all full circle to Ten Little Indians and Murder on the Orient Express, which are two of the bases of Argento's brand. It's actually very clever in this regaurd, and in the end Bava considered it a dark comedy. The ultimate irony of the whole film is the fact that it was entirely misread by American exploitation filmmakers, who turned Bava's joke into a lucritive b-movie staple.
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post #22 of 77
4/22/08 at 7:18pm
Nice looking box set. 5 Dolls For An August Moon is another flick I've heard about that I want to see. 24 bucks and change sounds good for that box set. I'll have to order it when my next paycheck comes in.
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post #23 of 77
4/22/08 at 7:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacknifeJohnny View Post
Good to know. I got this for my brother for christmas, I'll have to steal it from him.
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post #24 of 77
4/22/08 at 7:32pm
Another slasher/monster flick that I'd love to see hit disc, is Humongous. The vhs release was so dark, muddled, and atrocious. Hear that Code Red? Another little flick for you to get on the ball and release.
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post #25 of 77
4/22/08 at 9:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rene (Mr.Eko) View Post
Another great slasher. Silent Night, Deadly Night. Really down and dirty, and sleazy.
If you've not seen the British slasher Don't Open Till Christmas ('Pieces' actor Edmund Purdom's first and last effort as a director), then you must. Gloriously lacking in any sense whatsoever, the film's death scenes aren't exactly gory, but they're funny as all hell. The killer here is into taking out guys dressed as Santa Claus, and lucky for him, London is abound with Santas, even luckier, they all seem partial to stumbling down dark, spooky alleyways, drunker than shit.

The killer is also something of a MacGyver when it comes to his killing tools, he likes to improvise, switch it up, and keep it fresh. In two of my favorite scenes, one alleybound Santa turns right into the killer's semi-automatic and gets a faceload, and in the other, an undercover cop's scrotum is at the receiving end of the killer's homemade boot-knife.

Also, the film's title has a great pay off at the end. It's not entirely on par with the glory of Pieces, but it's close.
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post #26 of 77
4/25/08 at 7:44pm
The new Prom Night wasn't actually as bad as I expected, but damn. No nudity, no gore, no blood. Totally pointless affair.

Compared to the painfully tedious original it does have a way better pace and lead, but that's not much. Obsessed teacher gutting girls on prom night could have been something, but instead there are tons of false scares. They didn't even use "that" song. Meh.

What do think of Venom, that voodoo swamps slasher?
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post #27 of 77
5/1/08 at 12:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabe Powers View Post
Yeah, Friday the 13th 2 is basically a remake.
No it's not -- that's become some kind of weirdly apocryphal Slasher Law: it (or Miner) simply steals a couple of it's most guignol kills from the horny-campers-get-offed sequence to which Bava devotes about 20 minutes. There's no bag-on-his-head psycho in Bava's picture nor are there any creepy giggling kids or murderous inheritees in Miner's. One is plainly influenced in certain aspects by the other, but Friday 13th Part 2 is no more a remake of Bay Of Blood than it is of the same year's The Burning. It's always puzzled me why Miner, not Cunningham or Victor Miller, gets the short shrift of accusations of ripping off Twitch Of The Death Nerve -- the answer of course lies with spear-in-the-back scene. That's it.

They do share a proclivity for doing spectacular things with wheelchair bound victims, though.

Remember, those rules "set" by Argento were from Bava himself -- The Girl Who Knew Too Much laid most of the psychology of those pictures out in the mid 60s. In any case, they all ended up cribbing from Robert Siodmak's 1945 The Spiral Staircase -- the true granddaddy of black-gloved mystery killer pictures and slasher films in general. Everything from Tenebre's 'death-through-t-shirt' to the 'don't-go-into-the-basement-to-investigate-a-strange-noise' cliché came from The Spiral Staircase. It's required viewing and where the slasher film was born...
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post #28 of 77
5/1/08 at 12:39pm
Anyone familiar with the flick Hide and Go Shriek? I rented this sometime in the mid '90s, and haven't thought about it in year. While the flick is pretty unremarkable, the movie does feature one really memorable kill that involves someone being impaled with a mannequin arm.

Pointless trivia: Hide and Go Shriek was directed by Skip Schoolnik who edited Halloween II and went on to produce and direct many episodes of Angel.
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post #29 of 77
5/1/08 at 5:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Straxboy - An Anthony Hickox Film View Post
Remember, those rules "set" by Argento were from Bava himself -- The Girl Who Knew Too Much laid most of the psychology of those pictures out in the mid 60s. In any case, they all ended up cribbing from Robert Siodmak's 1945 The Spiral Staircase -- the true granddaddy of black-gloved mystery killer pictures and slasher films in general. Everything from Tenebre's 'death-through-t-shirt' to the 'don't-go-into-the-basement-to-investigate-a-strange-noise' cliché came from The Spiral Staircase. It's required viewing and where the slasher film was born...
I know that Bava set the 'rules', but Bird with the Crystal Plummage was the film that every Giallo in the era aspired to rip off because it made so much money. I see Bay of Blood as a comment on where the genre was, not where it started, meaning I totally misworded my previous post. No matter how much I love Argento, and I do love Argento (though apparently not as much as someone with an Argento avatar), I'll freely admit he ripped off most of his best ideas from Bava, Hitchcock, and other prolific thriller and horror directors. Bava was a true original.

I still haven't seen The Spiral Staircase, it and The Screaming Mimi have been on my to-do list for ages.

And I just watched the notoriously awful Don't Go In The Woods....Alone. I'll probably post my review here when I finish it.
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post #30 of 77
5/2/08 at 8:30am
Eh, The Screaming Mimi is okay. It feels like a Roger Corman, Sorority Girl-era potboiler though -- which may be no bad thing: it's just no Bird.... Or anywhere close, really.

The Spiral Staircase is one for the ages though.

Sincerely,

An Argento Whore (though not enough that I think Mother Of Tears is anything less than completely terrible -- but with gore worthy of the best 80s slasher film though, ironically...)
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post #31 of 77
6/3/08 at 10:23pm
You know what I love about Friday the 13th 3 & 4? They're teen comedies. The plots of the movies have nothing to do with Jason Voorhees until the last act. The plots of the movies are "Crispin Glover is shy and is trying to learn how to talk to girls" or "Nobody likes Sheldon, cuz he's an obnoxious self-loathing asshole". They're just bad teen comedies who's subplots get cut short one by one with a machete (or ax or 3D arrow to the eye).
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post #32 of 77
6/3/08 at 10:33pm
Just wanted to thank Strax for the insight-(SPIRAL STAIRCASE just got bumped up the queue) and echo the appreciation for THE BURNING and (especially) JUST BEFORE DAWN. I don't know if it's considered a "slasher" but I dig BLUE SUNSHINE as well.
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post #33 of 77
6/4/08 at 6:08am
While I don't think Blue Sunshine can really be considered a slasher, it's Jeff Lieberman, which is recommendation enough for anyone to check it out.
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post #34 of 77
6/4/08 at 7:38am
I'm making an unhealthy habit of checking out the absolute worst slashers I can come across, usually they're on Zone Horror. But a couple have been paid for and currently reside in the DVD collection:

KILLJOY is one of them. My word. Anyone else suffer through this? Killer clown in the ghetto!

Following that I splashed out on a KILLJOY 2/JIGSAW double feature and you coulda knocked me down with a feather, I enjoyed them! JIGSAW has a couple of good twists but the ending is just diabolical. It's like they ran out of money and just stopped the film in the middle of a scene.

That discussion about the early F13s being teen comedies reminded me of a post I saw on the old F13 Forum about JASON TAKES MANHATTAN, and all the complicated relationships within it. Typing it out now would probably be disappointing, but I remember at the time seeing an epic post and thinking it was pretty impressive to get this much in when no one really cares about the teens. Apart from JULIUS!

"Take your best shot... motherfucker!"

"School is OUT, McCulloch!"
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post #35 of 77
6/4/08 at 4:21pm
Thread Starter 
Here's an update on my latest Code Red stash.

Don't Go in the Woods...Alone
The Forest
Boarding House
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post #36 of 77
6/4/08 at 6:01pm
On those Code Red releases: Even with my adjusted barometer of quality when it comes to slasher films, I swear that Boarding House is easily one of the worst films I've ever seen.
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post #37 of 77
6/4/08 at 6:04pm
Thread Starter 
Easily. Top ten. It's so bad.
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post #38 of 77
6/6/08 at 7:39pm
I was watching the Scream films the other day and I had forgotten how weak they were (not a revelation on Chud I know). I used to like them because they were fun popcorn films, but there's just too much self-awareness beneath the surface to appreciate them on that level. Is it clever that Kevin Williamson is free to point out all these horror movie cliches through his characters yet use them freely throughout the story? Only as clever as Meet the Spartans I guess.

It's like I've said in vain elsewhere: the Scream films don't feel like honest horror films. They feel like horror films created by film fans ashamed to admit they like horror films and therefore require as much ironic detachment as possible in order to compensate. The quintessential 'posers'.
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post #39 of 77
6/6/08 at 7:42pm
Scream 3 reached ridiculous "New Nightmare" levels of meta, though, and had Jay and Silent Bob randomly inserted in there.

I remember Scream being pretty good, though. It's been a LONG while, though, so I should probably watch it again.
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post #40 of 77
6/6/08 at 7:46pm
I remember New Nightmare being pretty good though- slapstick Wylie Coyote finale shit aside. It's been awhile though.

I think the 'meta aspects' of Scream 2 actually rival if not surpass those in Scream 3 though.
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post #41 of 77
6/6/08 at 7:48pm
I'll maintain that the original SCREAM is good.

Speaking of NEW NIGHTMARE, I need to watch NIGHTMARE 4 and 5 again. They're the two I get mixed up and it lets down my knowledge of the 'Big Three' franchises. I remember thinking one of them was good and a dinner table scene but beyond that, nothing.
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post #42 of 77
6/6/08 at 7:50pm
I must have done that 3 times already, the knowledge refuses to stick in my head. They are definitely not good. But 4 did add the "nun raped by a thousand maniacs" backstory which was kinda interesting
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post #43 of 77
6/6/08 at 7:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell Faraday View Post
I'll maintain that the original SCREAM is good.

Speaking of NEW NIGHTMARE, I need to watch NIGHTMARE 4 and 5 again. They're the two I get mixed up and it lets down my knowledge of the 'Big Three' franchises. I remember thinking one of them was good and a dinner table scene but beyond that, nothing.
I might be wrong but I was always able to distinguish between the two because one of them (part 4) has Freddy using his victims' heads as pizza toppings (which I thought was the funniest thing as a kid), and the other one did not.
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post #44 of 77
6/6/08 at 8:43pm
Thread Starter 
I'll maintain that I'd rather watch Nightmare 1-6 rather then New Nightmare again. It's just so fucking pompous and straight faced it drives me mad.

And the first Scream really does stand up for me, more or less.
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post #45 of 77
6/7/08 at 7:00pm
I thought it was 3 that first mentioned the 'nun raped by a thousand maniacs' thing?

I can't imagine anyone choosing NIGHTMARE 2 over NEW NIGHTMARE unless the seriousness really does put them off that much. I can enjoy a bad horror film as much as the next guy but NIGHTMARE 2 is something else.
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post #46 of 77
6/7/08 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
Nightmare 2 is glorious if you pay attention to all the super gay elements. Possibly the gayest mainstream movie not diliberately about gays ever made.
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post #47 of 77
6/7/08 at 8:01pm
Fun fact: Jack Sholder, director of Part 2, couldn't direct the pool scene without laughing, so he had to pass the job off to his AD.
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post #48 of 77
6/7/08 at 8:03pm
Oh yeah the gay elements sort of whack you across the head in that. I guess it's just because I love the original and think 3 is bags of fun, 2 just lets the 'early gang' down.

I can laugh at the monstrously gay aspects of it though.
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post #49 of 77
6/7/08 at 8:25pm
Question for y'all;

Obviously, the NIGHTMARE films qualify as slasher as well as post Zombie Jason Friday films, but at what point to "supernatural killer" films cease to be qualified as "slashers"? For instance, are the WISHMASTER films considered slasher? HELLRAISER? What are the elements that must be present to qualify a film as a slasher film.
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post #50 of 77
6/7/08 at 8:37pm
The chase.
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