Good Morning Friends! As we are well into the “season of spoop”, this morning I am picking up a series that I started a few weeks back where I talk about my favorite horror films. The problem with that undertaking is that horror as a genre is too broad to ever boil it down to a comprehensive top-ten list. Instead, I am tackling things by various subgenres, and to date, I have covered Zombie films and Vampire films. This morning I will rip the bandaid and get this genre out of the way because I have to admit slasher films are not exactly my favorite. There are gems in the genre, but my preferences tend to align more towards dark fantasy or films with a clearly defined monster and some deep world-building. That is not to say that I do not occasionally enjoy watching some villain tear through a bunch of drunken college kids.
I am saying this ahead of time because my favorite slasher films are likely not going to align with someone who is really into that genre. This is probably the most “your mileage may vary” that we are going to get with this series of listicles. Again these are not necessarily in any particular order.
Halloween
We have to start things off with what is maybe objectively the best movie on the list. Halloween is a master class in suspense and leaving the worst parts unseen. It also introduces what is potentially the most relentless hunter that does not dip down into the supernatural. Jamie Lee Curtis will always be the queen of horror movies in my book, and this movie highlights why. The Michael Myers appearance is reportedly a cheap William Shatner mask, but the end result leads to one of the most creepy and soulless killers out there. There are a handful of sequels that I have enjoyed, but nothing will beat the original.
Friday the 13th
When looking at Friday the 13th it is impossible not to think about the deeply derivative number of sequels this movie has had. I think to date there are twelve different movies in this series, including the truly dumb Jason X which is set on a space station. However, the original movie is a truly creepy film and I think deserves our respect. As far as villains go, Jason is known for being this relentless force that will track you forever but the first film didn’t even need the supernatural to lean on. While I really dig some of the later films like Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, I still feel like the first film is the best.
Nightmare on Elm Street
Continuing the sequence of bringing out the great slasher baddies, let’s talk about Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddie Krueger. If you were a child of the 80s… we all wanted that glove. Sure Robert Englund did an excellent job bringing this bloodthirsty oneiromancer to life, but the glove… that is the part that made everyone love Freddie. Again you have a series with many sequels… some of which are not all that good but I think the first film is probably objectively the best. That said I really loved dream warriors as a kid in part I think because it gave the “victims” way more agency.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
One of my core problems with the slasher genre as a whole is that so often it devolves into torture porn. That really is not my jam as far as films go, so you are unlikely to see any movies of the Saw series on my list. That said every so often there is a movie that is ABSOLUTELY torture porn, but it is delivered in such a compelling manner that it has to be respected. For me, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of those films and while it is legitimately hard to watch at times, it presents a world that is deeply disturbing but also extremely unique for the time in which this was released. Not only is Leatherface an iconic villain but the fact several of elements from the movie are lifted directly from the life of Ed Gein makes it even more traumatizing.
Childs Play
I love this movie for entirely the wrong reasons. In the 80s there was this toy called “My Buddy” and the commercial was played so often during Saturday morning cartoons that the theme song drilled into your brain. The Chucky doll is a play on this and what if this object of safe childhood play… went horribly wrong. The BEST version of this is the Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors Krusty Doll satire, but the original Child’s Play movie is still a pretty solid outing. I love the world that got built around this movie and more specifically the phenomenal performances that Jennifer Tilly has given as Tiffany the girlfriend/bride of Chucky.
Wrong Turn
This is another film that borders on torture porn but still is extremely interesting. City folk especially have deep-seated fears of the unknown in the undeveloped green wastes of our world. I come from “Rural America” and even then there are always the weird people that come to town very rarely, and largely live off the grid. This movie dials this up to eleven and presents a clan of highly deformed mountain folk who prey upon outsiders. There are multiple versions of this film, but I think the 2003 rendition is my favorite. It feels like it draws heavily upon the banned television episode of the X-Files called “Home” from 1994. It is a disturbing watch to say the least.
Happy Hell Night
I can pretty much guarantee that this film is not going to be on anyone else’s list, but it means a lot to me personally. Once upon a time, there was a movie rental place near me called Video Giant, and they had this 20 movies, 20 dollars, 20 days deal exclusive to effectively “B Movies”. My friend Kaleon occasionally comments on this blog and I would go over there, each get 20 movies, and then swap back and forth until it came time to return them. There was many a treasure unearthed through these adventures and one of my favorites was Happy Hell Night. It features a very young Sam Rockwell and Jorja Fox and is not likely something they specifically promote on their resumes. Everything about this film is “not great” except for the villain which is this demonic priest that has a “catchphrase” of a sort each time he kills someone. He does not really speak at all other than uttering things like “No Sleep”, “No Sex”, or something similar with No and something relevant to the context of the killing. Something about the absurdity of it all made me fall in love with this film and recently I tracked down a DVD so I could rip it and add it to my digital collection.
Happy Death Day
Also in the absurdist sub-sub-genre is Happy Death Day. Essentially this movie is what if you combined a slasher flick with groundhog day. It is Tree Gelbman’s birthday, and at the end of the night, she is going to die. Each time she dies… it resets the loop and she wakes up in a dorm room after a one-night stand each day she has to live out a walk of shame… and a sequence of events leading up to the same conclusion. Essentially she has to figure out how to solve her own murder so that she can avoid it… close the loop, and live to see another day. The movie is definitely not your standard brain-dead slasher fare and is extremely funny in the process.
Candyman
I love Clive Barker and this is his ode to the slasher film genre. What this has that so many other films lack is this rich mythology that is built up around the titular villain the Candyman. Into the narrative are woven statements about social class structure and racial violence, that make this far more than just a tale of the boogeyman. The brush chosen to paint this story however is borrowed from the Bloody Mary style mythos where someone saying a name three times in the mirror summons forth a demonic presence. Like pretty much everything that Barker has been involved in, it is both compelling and terrifying at the same time with a palpable sensuality. Sweets for the sweet.
Scream
Scream is a great film… full stop. It is a satire of the slasher film genre, while at the same time being one of the best and most competent examples of it. While this gets watered down greatly over the course of a series of movies, the first film is still phenomenal. The Ghostface killer also walks this line between being one of the most generic-looking villains ever but also summoning forth an iconic appearance at the same time. What I find so interesting about it and that will not be understood by future generations… is the mask used in this movie was like the cheapest of cheap Walmart discount bin costumes for years. Much like Michael Myers gave new life to a discount bin William Shatner mask, Scream made this awful ghost mask design the stuff of legend. If you have never watched this film I highly suggest doing so.
More to Come
This is probably going to be one of the more controversial lists that I have released in this series because in creating it… I left out a lot of fan-favorite slasher films. That said this is “my” list of favorites not designed to be universal. I think next up we are going to tackle Werewolves, which moves us back into more of my favorite sub-genres. Like I said before, Slasher flicks are not exactly my favorite in the genre but I wanted to tackle them just so I could talk about Happy Hell Night, a film that I think more people should appreciate for its absurdity.
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