The Slasher Film in Its Prime
Following a trend set by Black Christmas, Silent Night, Bloody Night, Halloween and Friday the 13th (as well as To All a Good Night, a slasher film with a Christmas setting released in January 1980 and preceding Friday the 13th by four months), many films of the era used special days or holidays as a motif. Titles released the same year as Friday the 13th were New Year's Evil, Delusion (Also known as The House Where Death Lives), Prom Night and Christmas Evil, and 1981 saw the release of My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday to Me and Graduation Day. 1982's Humongous opened with a Labor Day weekend setting. Toward the end of the cycle, a twist on the genre was seen in 1986's April Fool's Day. 1987's Blood Rage used a Thanksgiving weekend setting.
A few films picked up Friday the 13th's "youth camp in the woods" setting, like The Burning (1981), Madman (1982), Sleepaway Camp (1983) and Cheerleader Camp (1988). Other films highlighted high school or college settings: Terror Train (1980), Hell Night, Final Exam, Night School, the serio-comic Student Bodies (all 1981), The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982), The House on Sorority Row (1983) and The Initiation, Splatter University and Girls Nite Out (all 1984). The "hospital" setting was used at least four times in 1982 with Visiting Hours, Alone in the Dark, Hospital Massacre and Halloween II.
Other lesser-known films during the genre's heyday include He Knows You're Alone (1980), Just Before Dawn, Bloody Moon and Nightmare (all 1981), Blood Song (1982) and Mortuary (1983). Later entries include The Mutilator (1985), Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1986), Stage Fright (1987) and Intruder (1989). Obscure entries are Night Warning (1982) and Curtains and Death Screams (both 1983).
Despite a strict formula developing within the genre, audience interest was maintained by developing new, increasingly "novel" ways for victims to be killed, as well as increasingly graphic and realistic special effects. 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street added supernatural twists to the slasher formula, as well as comedic elements as the series progressed.
Earlier films, such as Psycho (1960) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), were revived and given a series of increasingly gory sequels in attempts to compete with other franchises. The genre arguably peaked in 1983, a year in which, according to the book Crystal Lake Memories, nearly 60% of all box-office takings were for slasher movies. Even feminists took a satirical stab at the subgenre with Slumber Party Massacre (1982).
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Famous quotes containing the words slasher, film and/or prime:
“Ambivalence reaches the level of schizophrenia in our treatment of violence among the young. Parents do not encourage violence, but neither do they take up arms against the industries which encourage it. Parents hide their eyes from the books and comics, slasher films, videos and lyrics which form the texture of an adolescent culture. While all successful societies have inhibited instinct, ours encourages it. Or at least we profess ourselves powerless to interfere with it.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“The woman’s world ... is shown as a series of limited spaces, with the woman struggling to get free of them. The struggle is what the film is about; what is struggled against is the limited space itself. Consequently, to make its point, the film has to deny itself and suggest it was the struggle that was wrong, not the space.”
—Jeanine Basinger (b. 1936)
“Being prime minister is a lonely job.... you cannot lead from the crowd.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)