Your Opinions on the Slasher Genre

[vampyr789]

Idk if this has been a past thread, but i was wondering what your thoughts on the slasher genre is. Personal Favorite? Most Hated?

what are your thoughts on it?

[old-boo-radley]

You know, I used to love the damn genre, as filthy as it is. Then somewhere along the line I just sort of lost my way. I still can enjoy them. I like Rituals Terror Train and Funeral Home and to a lesser extent, Humongous. But too many poor ones left a bad taste in my mouth. And, I love ones like Slumber Party Massacre and Cheerleader Camp.

I think I'm turning it around though and starting to get back into them. I just am going to be much more selective this time around so this doesn't happen again. No more buying a movie because it's a rare slasher with a cool cover.

Plus, it's hard to hate a genre where the fat dudes rule the world.

When I first got into really collecting movies I kind of sought after gore shock stuff, the crave didnt last long. It mostly meant a lot of italian shockers. To be honest those started to get pretty old and BORING! I still have a soft spot for cannibal flicks though. In short, yes this is my personal favorite genre, Especially 80's, pre 87 and the 70's were solid as well. There are some bad ones, but even they can keep me more interested than some italian murder mystery with a splash of gore.

[NaturesMistake]

It's fun mostly mindless entertainment. Black Christmas is a masterpiece of cinema though.

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by old-boo-radley

You know, I used to love the damn genre, as filthy as it is. Then somewhere along the line I just sort of lost my way. I still can enjoy them. I like Rituals Terror Train and Funeral Home and to a lesser extent, Humongous. But too many poor ones left a bad taste in my mouth. And, I love ones like Slumber Party Massacre and Cheerleader Camp.

I think I'm at that stage right now. Most of the movies I watch now are from the '30s-late '60s. I tend to go through phases. (My horror/slasher phase lasted a whopping 8 years.) I LOVED the genre at one point, it was all I watched, then somewhere along the line my love slowly faded. There's still a few I LOVE, (most of them are the first slashers I ever saw) Halloween, Black Christmas, Prom Night, Hell Night, but most of the "rarities" that I tracked down, I've lost my love for those too. (I can honestly see why they were OOP for so long.)

I've wasted so much money on blind buys. I look at them now and go, "Shit I don't know if I'll even watch that again." Put it this way: Horror/slashers used to make up a little over half my movie collection, now they barely make up a third. The "classical Hollywood"-era films make up about half of it and the other quarter are movies from about the '80s-present. I've definitely grown away from the genre as of lately (the past year or so) but the love is still there, which is partly reason why I still do come here. There's some that I'll always love, but right now I think my "slasher" days are over.

~Matt

[vampyr789]

Originally Posted by Matt89

I tend to go through phases. (My horror/slasher phase lasted a whopping 8 years.) I. There's still a few I LOVE, (most of them are the first slashers I ever saw) Halloween, Black Christmas, Prom Night, Hell Night, but most of the "rarities" that I tracked down, I've lost my love for those too. (I can honestly see why they were OOP for so long.)

I've wasted so much money on blind buys. I look at them now and go, "Shit I don't know if I'll even watch that again."

~Matt

wow, the exact same thing happened to me, i go through phases as well, it tends to be more of the sub-genres of horror. I started with the old 50s-60s suspense, asian horror, video nasties, euro horror, then i came to the slashers. i still am obessed with them, but i own a copy of Graduation day, but i never watch it..

[rhett]

Originally Posted by old-boo-radley

I still can enjoy them. I like Rituals Terror Train and Funeral Home and to a lesser extent, Humongous.

Damn, now that's spoken like a true Canadian! The fact that the slasher was the one genre that Canadians pwned at was one of the initial reasons I got into the genre, growing up on late night airings of all the PROM NIGHT flicks. It wasn't until I started reading Laura Mulvey and Robin Wood in college that I started to take the genre really seriously, and I haven't looked back since. At its best it's the genre of the sub-conscious, and at its worst it's still bloody fun.

There's too many reasons to list here why I cherish the genre, that's for another thread and another time, but suffice to say that I don't think I can ever rest until I've seen every slasher ever made. Or, realistically, at least the ones made before 1992 or so, after shot on video gave the genre a second life, and before SCREAM made it a parody.

[Matt89]

Prom Night
Terror Train
Funeral Home
Humongous
Happy Birthday to Me
Black Christmas
Curtains
My Bloody Valentine
American Nightmare
Visiting Hours
Phobia
Deranged
Corpse Eaters
Spliced

Fuck yeah Canada! We fuckin' kicked ass.

~Matt

[Matt89]

....fuck I never knew Curtains was filmed in Muskoka, either! And Prom Night was filmed in Scarborough...wow LOL.

~Matt

[old-boo-radley]

If you guys ever get a chance to see the only Saskatchewan-lensed slasher, Spliced... don't. I will leave it at that. When Drew Lachey is the highlight of the movie, things are all sorts of wrong.

And Matt, don't forget Deranged! I think Playgirl Killer is a type of slasher, but don't quote me on it. I bought it when I was gathering up all my Canadian horror flicks but never got to it because I was kind of pissed off I ended up paying $8 for a DVD in a paper sleeve...

And since we have Ontario peoples in the house, check out Corpse Eaters. Best thing to come out of Sudbury!

I kind of get a kick out of the fact that no matter where you go, when slashers are spoken of by people who really know them, it all comes back to Canada. Gives me a good chuckle.

[Matt89]

Duly noted. Added to the list.

~Matt

[old-boo-radley]

Corpse Eaters is actually a zombie flick, sorry I wasn't clear on that. But, it sure feels like a slasher. Normally when a POV shot on a couple of lovebirds pops up, it's that bastard with a hook in the woods just waiting to make its move. Not in Corpse Eaters. Nope. Just an owl. I'm dead fucking serious.

There's also a shot where a guy pops a can of Molson Ex all over a lady's tit. Only one way to describe those Sudbury boys; classy.

[Mark Relford]

I love this genre. I grew up with some of those movies and it was an excellent intro to horror. The slasher movie took a nose-dive in the late 80's, but has recovered. Do some horror fans still consider this genre as a red headed stepchild of horror? There seems to be plenty of love for slashers these days.

If loving slashers is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I can honestly say that never, not once, in my movie watching career have I been in an "anti-slasher" phase. I do not expect that to ever change.

[fattyjoe37]

Halloween got me into horror movies and therefore slasher movies. They aren't my favorite (I'm more of a monster movie guy), but I'll always love them.