Scream 4 is coming out this weekend, so guess what we’re talking about…? Yes, the Slasher movie. Long the black sheep of even horror cinema, this amusing little subgenre about attractive people getting murdered by maniacs with grudges wearing masks finally garnered some critical attention thanks to Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s smart satire Scream in 1996, which acknowledged the oft-chided conventions of the genre while calling into question their supposed cheesiness.
But oh, what cheesiness there used to be! The low-budget nature of the Slasher meant that any Tom, Dick or Harry could pump one out, even back in the days when they had to be shot on 35mm film. The result was a deluge of often stupid movies in which the protagonists were so badly written and acted that the supposed villains of the films became the heroes, quietly ridding the screen of all the annoying human-shaped distractions. Many of these Slasher movies have obvious entertainment value, but calling them ‘good’ would be stretching the definition of that word until it snapped.
So despite decades of entries in the Slasher genre, picking what we consider the 10 Best Slasher Movies was relatively easy, particularly once we narrowed our field to non-supernatural villains. Films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play and even the first two great Final Destination movies all contain Slasher elements, but bringing magic into their stories generates an x-factor which sets them apart from good, old fashioned ‘killer in a mask’ flicks. (Just consider them our Honorable Mentions.) These are our choices for the best Slashers in the classic mold.
10. EVIL DEAD TRAP (dir. Toshiharu Ikeda, 1988)
Evil Dead Trap is not a particularly popular movie. In fact, a lot of people consider it a piece of crap. We disagree, and so does acclaimed director Oliver Stone, who contributed a quote to the home video cover calling it “A daring and grim thriller… reveals Japan’s twisted sexual soul one terrifying scene after the other.” We concur. Miyuki Ono (Black Rain) plays Nami, the host of a YouTube-esque television series that plays weird home videos. When one submission looks suspiciously like a snuff film she brings her crew out to the location where it was shot, and one by one they’re all murdered in gruesome death traps a la Saw, or at least they would be a la Saw if Evil Dead Trap didn’t predate it by 16 years. A rough, grungy film but also an intense thriller with a host of unexpected kills and a twist ending which was probably surprising as hell back in 1988, even though audiences these days will probably figure out less than halfway through the film.
9. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (dir. Charles E. Sellier Jr., 1984)
Many of us remember Silent Night, Deadly Night for its iconic video cover, depicting a snow laden chimney with Santa’s arm sticking out the top, clutching an enormous ax. If you’ve actually seen the film you’re likely to have had one of two reactions: 1) disgust at the film’s sacrilegious depiction of Christmas (Siskel and Ebert reviewed the film on their show, listing the names of the crew and saying ‘shame, shame, shame’ after each one), or 2) glee at the awesome insanity of it all. A little boy is on a trip to see his grandfather at a mental institution where the spooky old guy tells him that Santa Claus doesn’t just reward the good, but also kills the naughty. That’s enough to give any kid a complex, but it gets worse: by sheer blind stupid chance his parents are murdered on the way home by a guy in a Kris Kringle outfit. Years later the guy has a terrifying fear of Christmas, which is exacerbated when he’s forced to play Santa at the toy store where he works. He quickly snaps and goes on a killing spree around town, decapitating sledders and impaling naked lasses on reindeer horns. A low-budget film and a pretty cheesy one, but the incredibly screwed up premise and a host of gruesome sleighings (ha) make it one of the best ‘bad’ Slashers ever made.
8. OPERA (dir. Dario Argento, 1987)
The Italian ‘Giallo’ genre isn’t quite the same as the American Slasher, but they’re closely related. The works of Dario Argento, Mario Bava and their contemporaries were an obvious influence on the Slasher genre as it came to prominence in the late 1970’s. They also focus on serial murderers who gruesomely murder their victims in elaborate ways, but the plot usually revolves around people investigating the crimes over a long period, rather than on a group of unsuspecting individuals getting murdered in a brief, exciting spree. Giallo maestro Argento (try saying that five times fast) made at least one great film that fits both molds: Opera, about a talented ingénue whose biggest fan repeatedly ties her up and tapes pins to her eyelids, keeping them open as he brutally murders her friends and co-workers in front of her. It’s an unsettling concept and an extremely screwed up film, but masterfully made all the way through a dazzling climax which involves a swarm of crows tracking down the killer in a crowded theater. Then the actual last scene of the film inexplicably moves to Switzerland for a completely unnecessary denouement. Ignore the ending and enjoy the Slasher classic that precedes it.
