A brief history of slasher movies -- a work in progress.
Welcome to the Idiot Box, ladies and gentlemen. This week, I'm going to do something a little different from the norm.
And I'll level with you – it's been the week I've had. School and the baby be driving me crazy, ya'll. So anyway, I've decided to post a movie piece I've been tinkering with.
This is an excerpt from a book I'm working on entitled "Everything You Ever Needed to Know About Dead Teenagers" It is a review/critique/loving remembrance of the much maligned and greatly loved (by me) sub-genre called SLASHER MOVIES.
Enjoy. Feedback always encouraged.
Brief History and Overview of the Slasher Movie
Influences
Although the work of Alfred Hitchcock, Tod Browning, and Roger Corman can all be cited as overt influences on slasher movies, there are really only two defining factors that led to the advent of the genre.
The first is the rise of the Cannibal Hillbilly movie in the early 70s, the second is the influence of the Italian "giallo" films.
Partially inspired by the mad antics of Wisconsin ghoul Ed Gein, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974) pitted a group of dumb kids against a family of inbred cannibals. The results were notorious, and "TCM" became an underground sensation. Although there was very little blood and gore (the bloodiest scene features a hand being sliced open) it acquired a reputation of being utterly repulsive, due to the brutal horror depicted in the film.
In 1977, Wes Craven unleashed "The Hills Have Eyes" on an unwary public. In a desert formerly used as a nuclear testing ground, a primitive clan of mutants live like scavengers. Into this dysfunctional family comes a trailer filled with a regular American family, replete with a tasty baby.
The results shame the Hatfields and McCoys, as the mutants pick off the family in gruesome fashion, and finally the innocent survivors battle back.
Both "TCM" and "Hills" preceded the slasher genre, and were in their own way so influential they inspired a sub-genre all their own. "House of 1000 Corpses," "Wrong Turn," "The Devil's Rejects," "Motel Hell," and "House of Wax" (2005) are just a few of the movies inspired by these Cannibal Hillbilly masterpieces.
And although there are notable differences in style, the core story of most cannibal hillbilly movies is not much different from a slasher flick.
But the American genre of slasher movies was most directly influenced by the Italian horror and suspense films often called "giallo" Under the hand of such pioneers as Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento, giallo films pushed the envelope for bloody mayhem, and often featured a shadowy killer in thick black gloves.
Bava had several films featuring several stalk-and-slash sequences, but it was the atmospheric carnage of Argento that most notably guided the hand of John Carpenter, and thus set the wheels of the slasher genre into motion.
In 1975 Argento struck with "Deep Red : The Hatchet Murders," a blunt, brutal thriller with a psychotic horror twist. The killer was a deranged madman, and Argento let us see through his eyes as he poured through his childish trophies, and then butchered people with hatchet and cleaver. There was a strong whondunit element to the film, but the emphasis was on the shocking method of butchery.
In 1977 Argento directed arguably the best and most influential giallo film ever made. "Suspiria" was a tale of witchcraft set at a dance academy that contained several of the most riveting and intense stalk-and-slash ever filmed. The opening sequence alone -- in which a woman is stabbed over and over again before being tossed through a stained glass window and hung by the neck – is the stuff of legend.
"Deep Red" and "Suspiria" created worlds of long, deep shadows, in which faceless killers stalked frightened prey. It was this look, this atmosphere, this feel, that inspired "Halloween."
The Slasher Movie Proper
"Halloween" and "Friday the 13th"
The influences of slasher movies date back to the 50s, and there are a lot of movies in the 70s that fit the description, but the actual age of the slasher genre proper started with two movies, in 1979, and 1980.
The first was John Carpenter's masterwork "Halloween," a box office sensation that made Michael Myers a nationally recognized boogeyman. Carpenter was heavily influenced by the "giallo" horror movies from Italy, in particular the work of Dario Argento. With "Halloween" he created the first urban legend slasher movie, and opened the doors for waves of imitators.
But while "Halloween" might have put the idea into play, it was the 1980 movie "Friday the 13th" that really cemented the slasher movie as more than a passing fad.
The original "Friday the 13th" is a who-slashed-it? type of murder mystery that established many of the crossbeams of the slasher movie platform.
Horny camp counselors? Check
Drinking and light drug use? Check
Graphic and bloody kill scenes? That's a big check.
"Friday" raised the bar for horrible ways to die, and wallowed in excess; unlike "Halloween" which used atmosphere instead of graphic gore. A knife through the neck, an axe to the face, topped off by a Grade-A decapitation (the first of many memorable "Friday" beheadings) – this was a movie that went for the gross-out. The results are obvious, as it is the most prolific franchise in modern horror.
Between the two films, an era was started – an era of bloodbaths set on holidays, and of camp counselors dying by the dozens. There as very little creativity for several years.
Supernatural Slashers
"A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984)
In 1984, Wes Craven made another mark on the world of horror movies with the release of "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Featuring a disfirgured child killer named Freddy Krueger, long dead, who stalked a bunch of pretty teens in their nightmares, "Elm Street" took slasher movies to the more traditional horror realm of the supernatural.
Where "Halloween" had undertones of sinister forces at work, "Elm Street" was overtly supernatural, with the boogeyman preying on the living. The film was a financial success at the box office, but really became a phenomenon in the burgeoning business of home video.
With VCRs now being more common, more and more video stores were opening up. In the mid-80s, Blockbuster Video began to bloom. This opened up a whole new market for slasher movies. The teenagers who couldn't buy tickets to go see these movies in the theatre, the same teenagers who were the intended audience for these frightfests, now had complete access to all their bloody glory.
The impact of "Elm Street" would forever change slasher movies, and incited a wave of imitators (some good, most not so good) that filled video rental shelves for years to come.
Stagnation
"Child's Play" (1988)
For slasher movies, evolution occurred as it does in nature, and not as it does in fiction. It is nice to have a visual image of evolution, proceeding gradually but with purpose. In reality, evolution works via mutation. There are long dormant periods of the same old thing, and then one freak of nature sparks a change… and then it's back to a long period of the same old thing.
Such is the way of slasher movies. An exciting movie would come along and make everyone pay attention, and then for several years there would be nothing but retreads and variations of that one movie. And then another exciting movie would come along, and everyone would start copying that movie.
In 1988, Craven's influence was still strong in the genre – almost, but not quite, as strong as the sway still held by the "Friday the 13th" franchise. Craven's idea of a serial killer from beyond the grave caught on, and there were literally dozens of killers finding a way back from the dead. Some caught on (thanks again to home video outlets), others fizzled out.
The only bona fied star of the time was a foulmouthed talking doll named Chucky in the movie "Child's Play," and its subsequent sequels. A serial killer (Brad Dourif) gets gunned down by the cops, but manages to transfer his soul into a talking doll. Chucky stabbed his way through four more movies over the next eight years.
That an eighteen inch plastic doll was the highlight of the genre gives a solemn view of how weak slasher movies were at the time.
The Slasher Gets a Make-Over
"The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)
By 1991, the cinematic slasher was a cliché. The film "Silence of the Lambs" was not itself a slasher film, but starred a unique serial killer who pushed the archetype into a whole new direction.
As the slasher was a cliché, it no longer needed explaining. The popular slasher franchises needed no plot whatsoever after the persona of the killer had been established. Cases in point, the stories for the "Friday the 13th" sequels can all be summed up with "Jason kills a bunch of people."
Since serial killers were so cliché – even ones that came back from the dead – they had entered the realm of common knowledge, and become an archetype. That meant the serial killer now needed no explanation or motivation in any format, because a serial killer just killed people, end of story. A serial killer was a stock character.
"Silence of the Lambs" used the slasher in a new way… or at least, brought this type of story into the mainstream, and garnered it enough attention to start a wave of imitation. The movie "Manhunter" had been released five years earlier. It was also featured a killer being hunted by an FBI agent, was also based on a novel by Thomas Harris, and also featured Hannibal Lecter in a supporting role. To capitalize on the success of "Silence," this same story was remade again in 2003 as "Red Dragon."
"Silence" inspired a wave of movies, books, and tv shows about investigators chasing down a brutal serial killer, who stalked victims and killed them in gruesome and creative ways. Instead of the focus being on a group of teens being tormented by an insane killer, the focus was on a handful of law enforcement agents being tormented by an insane killer.
Since serial killers had been so firmly established, this trend was easy to imitate with a minimum of creativity. And while these catch-the-slasher movies are not truly a part of the slasher movie genre, they were deeply influenced by it. This genre would come full circle back to its roots in 2004 with the release of "Saw."
Back to Basics, with Tongue in Cheek
"Scream" (1996)
In 1996, the slasher genre had its greatest resurgence ever, reaching all-time heights of revenue and popularity with the birth of the "Scream" franchise. Its popularity was even greater than that of "Nightmare on Elm Street," and it came from the same director. Once again, a film by Wes Craven made a huge impact on the slasher world, gave it new life, and sent it spinning in a slightly different direction.
"Scream" was the first self-reverential slasher movie. The characters in the movie had seen all the classic slasher flicks, and played by the rules established during the slash boom of the 80s. The clever script used humor to break the tension, but also delivered some of the nastiest, bloodiest stalk-and-slash scenes of the last decade. "Scream" was funny and fresh, but "Scream" was also brutal and vicious in the truest slasher way.
What "Scream" introduced to the genre was the idea that the kids getting killed off would be aware, to some degree, they were in a horror movie situation. This concept spilled over into every facet of horror movies, and reignited a new flood of slasher films.
