I dig the vouyeristic side to these films. Some of them have a snuff like quality where you feel like the witness to a random violent crime. This is where the amatuer cinematography/acting becomes a effective asthetic of these films. Definatley the most exploitative of all the subgenres of horror.

ten character minimum...

these are the ones I'm talking about ... heavy hitters..
the ones that actually considered making people feel dread.
All of the ones mentioned were theatrical releases as well.


thats what i'm talking about .. the list is too long to mention. same old thing over and over again ....

they even stopped bothering with inventive kills ...

what the hell, people will rent it anyway.

I like slashers but it's so hard to find the good ones when they're submerged so deeply in a sea of mediocre films and utter garbage. Most are fun to watch for the gory and sometimes clever kills and I can even get into some of the lesser quality ones (although I love campy B slashers). I think the last couple of good slashers I watched were Pieces (ok so this one is ok, maybe not good), Canydman, and Maniac. I also think it depends on what you consider a slasher, I'd consider American Psycho slasher at least in part.

Yes, particularly the 70s and 80s European stuff - far more disturbing that with today's glossy photography and hyper-kinetic, blink-and-you'll-miss-it editing.

Take The New York Ripper for example: the mystery killer lurches forward with his knife... cut to skin-puncturing... cut to hysterial reaction of victim... cut back to knife being withdrawn, where it's as if the killer deliberately moves out of the way so we the viewer can get right in there for a good look at the carnage.

This might sound a bit sick (psychologists could have a field day with the slasher fan), but it really delivers the goods.

Yeah, New York Ripper is a pretty good one. Basically I look for a few things in slasher movies.... well, any movie actually.

#1. Plot (has to be somewhat palatable, instead of aimlessly aiming the camera at nothing in particular and pointless dialog)

#2. Scares (either inventive or the tried-but-true-cliche style)

#3. Atmosphere (dark, gloomy and creepy tones with good 'horror music', not that shitty hip-hop, disco, or popular sound tracks with so many modern horrors)

#4. Gore (if weak/low on 1 through 3 or the complete lack of, massive amounts of vomit-inducing, head pounding splatter)

I don't understand why people dislike Scream sometimes, could someone just elaborate?

I really enjoyed Scream, but in my opinion it's only major flaw was it's attitude. The whole self-referential thing got pretty damn annoying FAST. It went way overboard in places...a good example being the Freddy-styled janior, just Craven at his most bloated.

I love Nightmare In A Damaged Brain, The Intruder, The Burning, The Prowler and of course the wonderful New York Ripper - these are all classics in my opinion.

I though find it hard not to like most horror movies (they have to be insanely bad for me to turn off/not watch again eg. Ghost Lake). I adore the Friday 13th Series, Halloween and NOES.

Scream I thought was excellent...

As for bad or should I say terrible slashers...well how about Camp Blood or the Friday 13th rip off Scream Bloody Murder - these two have to be two of the worst ever slashers.

But for me, slashers are great popcorn movies, sometimes I just wanna see some gorey deaths without having to think too deeply about it. I must also add that whenever I do a film night easily the most requested films tend to be the Slashers. they are just great fun when ya have friends around and you want to take bets on the first to 'get it'.

Actually, Posher, I've been meaning to open a thread on this. I figured you'd be a good participant. I'm just the opposite; I'm not sure why some people praise it so highly. This is, however, EC's thread, and I'll answer his question and save the debates for later.


I've always liked slashers. I appreciate most of them for different reasons: creative kills, campiness, good mystery or brutality to name a few.

I'm a big fan of Argento Slashers. I'm a huge fan of Sleepless. There are some kills in that movie that just make me cringe, not to mention a decent mystery as to 'who done it?'

New York Ripper, as mentioned above, is another great one. I've also a great appreciation for F13, Halloween & the like. I do, generally, prefer my slasher movies to be non-supernatural. The occasional Jason-type makes them fun, however, simply because they can just come out of anywhere with no explanation.

I consider the slasher to be one of the purest forms of horror. They're also the least likely to be a CGI-shitfest nowadays.