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The movie set up mood of the slasher: Sexually charged, with a degree of mystery, where the ample cast of characters one-by-one take a sharp turn into doom. Slashers can be stylish ( Opera , Dressed to Kill ), carnal ( Torso , Friday the 13th ), grimly violent ( The Prowler , The Burning ), trashy ( Pieces , The Slumber Party Massacre ) and even supernatural ( Halloween , Child’s Play ).
1. Scream. 1996 1h 51m R. 7.4 (392K) Rate. 66 Metascore. A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game. Director Wes Craven Stars Neve Campbell Courteney Cox David Arquette.
An American novelist visiting Rome to promote his latest book is stalked and harassed by an obsessed fan who is committing a string of murders that appear to be tributes to his work. Director Dario Argento Stars Anthony Franciosa Giuliano Gemma John Saxon. 23. Girls Gone Dead.
Oct 6, 2023 · 23. A Bay of Blood, a.k.a. Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971) Director: Mario Bava. A Bay of Blood, released in the U.S. as Twitch of the Death Nerve, is the most important proto-slasher to often ...
- Michael Myers, Jason, Freddy, Chucky, and more. Let the bodies hit the floor.
- IGN's Festival of Fear
- Halloween (1978)
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- Candyman (1992)
- Child's Play (1988)
- Scream (1996)
- Tenebrae (1982)
By Matt Fowler
Updated: Oct 30, 2023 4:47 pm
Posted: Oct 30, 2023 3:20 pm
Movies have been scaring the wits out of folks for a century now and one of cinema's most effective terror delivery systems is the "slasher."
Yes, horror movies have dozens of sub-genres and one of horror's most sinister and enduring offshoots involves people scrambling for their lives while being stalked by a cunning, patient maniac. Inventive, gruesome deaths, a brutalized lone survivor, and the effortless promise of seemingly endless sequels, the slasher pits humans against themselves in a nasty fight to live through the night.
Sure, these killers sometimes have a supernatural advantage -- whether they're undead, invading your dreams, or...you know, a pint-size doll -- but for the most part slasher psychos are just deranged murderers out to rack up record body counts. Distinguishable usually only by their weapon and mask of choice.
We're celebrating the spookiest season in style this year with over 20 articles, videos and more. Check out the IGN's Festival of Fear schedule for the full rundown on everything that's going on in the countdown to Halloween!
The early '80s was a boom for slashers, which moved and morphed from pivotal pictures from horror masters to a glut of cheap knockoffs and copycats. By the end of 1984, the slasher “heyday" was kaput, but that didn't mean the slasher fully died off. No, much like the killers in these movies, the slasher never truly dies. It's still one of the most dependable and diabolical branches of horror and below you'll find 15 of the very best slashers ever made, some featuring the biggest horror villains of all time - like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Chucky, and more!
Where to Watch: Shudder, AMC+, Fubo
Though there are some important slasher heavy-hitters that arrived before John Carpenter's Halloween (and you'll see them on this list, as well), nothing changed the game like Michael Myers' first outing as "The Shape."
Halloween -- with its indie movie low budget, masterful score (also by Carpenter), and direct no-frills story -- launched a thousand slow-moving madmen, turning the six years that followed it into SlasherMania. It even fell victim to its own influence as eventual sequels were mostly cheap cash-grabs, never matching the magic that Carpenter was able to achieve with the original.
Halloween a simple, scary campfire tale about a lunatic who escapes an asylum and returns to his hometown, stalking a teen girl and a young boy simply because they made the mistake of stopping by his childhood porch (sequels would give "meaning" to his target, and even to Michael's "evil"). Star Jamie Lee Curtis became an instant Scream Queen and earned an eternal place on the Final Girl Mount Rushmore. You can check out our explainer of the full Halloween timeline for more info about the other movies.
Where to Watch: Shudder, AMC+, Peacock, Pluto TV (w/ ads), Roku Channel (w/ ads)
Before Halloween there were a handful of standout slashers. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most aggressively terrifying movies ever made.
Sure, it struggled when it came to sequels (though the 2003 reboot was solid) as the premise itself, of a nasty cannibalistic family, was a tricky one to franchise (it also wouldn't get a single follow-up for 12 years) but like most first movies in a long-running horror franchise, it's the best. And it's complete. There's no actual need for more.
Tobe Hooper's mean, dirty road trip-gone-violently wrong touched on the changes happening to America at the time and the diminished role of farmers all while serving up an unsuspected group of young adults to a crazed, murderous family of outcasts. Leatherface, in particular, remains as a ghastly fixture of horror to this day, as a hulking, skin-wearing brute capable of killing folks with his bare hands...much less the chainsaw he wields with a butcher's precision.
Where to Watch: Paramount+ (via Apple TV)
The idea for Friday the 13th may have come about in a copycat manner, as the creators looked to replicate the success of Halloween by pairing a killer with a "notable day/holiday" but the film is very different from Halloween, playing out more in a "whodunnit?" fashion. Plus, it's massively influential in its own right.
Yes, some could even argue that Friday the 13th's success, while taking cues from Halloween, is the true start of the '80s maniac madness. And it turned the quaint, fun idea of summer camp into a go-to location for horror movies forever. Counselors would never know peace again, constantly placed in mortal peril thanks to the massacre at Camp Crystal Lake at the hands of a murderer out for righteous, misplaced revenge. It's a must-watch horror classic that helped set the template for slasher mysteries and twist killer reveals for years to come.
See our guide to the Friday the 13th movies in order for the full timeline.
Where to Watch: Max
By the mid-'80s, the slasher well was running a bit dry, carving the path for more bigger imaginations, wilder ideas, and new spins "unstoppable" killers. This is where the Nightmare on Elm Street movies began.
Wes Craven, who had already made a name for himself with '70s exploitation horror flicks The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, created an instant-classic maniac in the form of already dead child murderer Freddy Krueger, who now, from beyond the grave, could attack and kill his victims in their dreams (which also had control over). A Nightmare on Elm Street is a legendary film, delivering terror in ways audiences had never seen before. Freddy himself became a pop-culture sensation (and eventually even a wise-cracking anti-hero in his own films) while Heather Langencamp's Nancy helped level up the Final Girl as she purposefully put herself on a collision course with Freddy in her own mind, and kicking his ass.
More Like This (worth seeing): A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Where to Watch: Rentable on most platforms
Setting Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden" in Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing project was a master stroke of taking source material and breathing more meaningful life into it. Candyman is a tragedy, a love story, a slice of social commentary, and a movie where a lot of folks meet their end via a gross crusty hook all rolled into one. Tony Todd's seductive, almost Dracula-like killer, who haunts Cabrini–Green as a vengeful boogeyman, is an iconic monster born of America's violent racist past, now serving as a reminder that bigotry is still a solid fixture in our society. Candyman casts a huge, illustrious shadow in the somewhat horror-starved '90s, mixing supernatural chills with urban legend thrills.
Where to Watch: Max
Once again, by the back half of the '80s, regular human mass murderers were out and killers with crazy, cool powers were in. Freddy Krueger was ambushing teens in their dreams, Jason Voorhees was now a full-fledged zombie brought back from the dead, Michael Myers was part of some demonic cult, and...Lakeshore Strangler Charles Lee Ray found his soul trapped inside a "I'm your friend to the end" Good Guy doll, allowing him to continue terrify people as toy. Child's Play is miraculous for several reasons. Firstly, it works. Really well. It's an awesome movie. Secondly, Child's Play's decades of sequels, and recent ongoing TV series, are all part of the same timeline and continuity. And all written (and sometimes directed) by creator Don Mancini. That's unheard of in horror. Lastly, the Chucky brand is groundbreaking, over the last 20 years, for LGBTQ+ representation and allyship. And all of this traces back to a tremendously fun and fiendish film about a poor young boy being blamed for the murderous actions of his doll. You can check out the full Child's Play timeline, which actually includes a TV series as well.
Where to Watch: Paramount+
Wes Craven's Scream brought the quasi-dormant slasher genre back in a big way thanks to his masterful hand at suspenseful directing, a young charismatic cast, and a crackerjack meta-humor script from Kevin Williamson. It was a horror movie filled with characters raised on horror movies, and a mystery killer psychotically influenced by them. The Scream franchise is still going strong today thanks to the saga's ongoing "whodunnit?" premise, in which anyone could be the stab-happy Ghostface. The story's legacy characters, including Neve Campbell's stalwart surviving Final Girl Sidney Prescott, is another big draw, though the recent hit Scream movies have demonstrated that the bones of the story are strong enough to pass the torch to a new crew of young stars. Scream, despite being rooted in a love for '80s slashers, is timeless in a way. It speaks to the horror fan in all of us.
You can check our guide on where to watch the Scream movies for streaming details.
More Like This (worth watching): I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Urban Legend (1998), and any Scream movie
Where to Watch: Shudder, AMC+, Plex, Kanopy
It's important to note that slashers were not purely an American pop-culture sensation, and that Italian horror master Dario Argento had been serving up spectacular slaughter all through the '70s, including many notable slashers. The best of his catalog, from a slasher standpoint, is Tenebrae, about an American author (Anthony Franciosa) on an international book tour who discovers that a serial killer has been inspired by his murder-mystery novel. Seen as Argento's masterwork of his favorite thriller genre, giallo (psychological/exploitation slasher), Tenebrae explores the nature of voyeurism, dark doubles, trauma, and death.
Oct 9, 2023 · Horror movie fans know how great The Prowler is, however, with its brutal kills and creepy atmosphere creating one of the most underrated slashers ever. 27 'The House on Sorority Row' (1983)
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Oct 4, 2023 · Nevertheless, the Shape still lurks in the following paragraphs. Now, enjoy EW's list of the 20 best slasher movies of all time. 01 of 20. 20. Tourist Trap (1979) Jocelyn Jones in 'Tourist Trap ...
