Quote:
Originally Posted by knife_fight
I always liked Michael Myers more when he didn't have a motivation for killing. it's much scarier, to me, that anyone, at any time, could just flip out and go on a rampage. when they started delving too much into his backstory (motive, what drove him to it, etc.) the franchise lost me big time. it just lets the audience breathe a big sigh of relief like, "OHhhhh, he was abused! that'swhat drove him over the edge! whew! for a second I thought anyone could be a killer at any moment!"
so my killer would be like that. no backstory. just one day flips his shit and starts murdering people in brutal ways (a la Hatchet). except he'd be skinny and not ugly or malformed in any way. just to, yet again, get back to the "regular joe" ideal.
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I believe that a slasher character doesn't necessarily have to have a backstory in order to be frightening. Consider some famous real life serial killers who had so-called normal middle-class upbringings, (Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer). Their backgrounds probably wouldn't make a very interesting or believable backstory for any crime or slasher movie. But they're still pretty damn scary.
On the other hand, I think that fleshing out a character with background information can only add to their fascination without in anyway detracting from the horror of their deeds. Take, for example, someone like Diane Downs, that woman who shot her children sometime back in the eighties because her boyfriend didn't want a family. She's been analyzed to death, histrionic, narcissistic, personality disorder, etc. Yet no reasonable person could feel more than a superficial feeling of reassurance from any explanation of her actions. The fact remains that she's just an evil bitch.
Anyway, here's my slasher. He's a Viet Nam veteran, close to sixty years old. Still relatively strong and healthy but old enough to be non-threatening. He's a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy, wears old combat boots and sometimes a camouflaged field jacket. Yet he's actually well-groomed and avoids the appearance of an aging hippie.
When he was stationed overseas, he became interested in eastern religion and meditation techniques. One day, he witnessed a soldier's death while in a meditative state and the event had a profound effect on him. He became convinced that he could achieve spiritual growth by witnessing physical death.
When he returned to the States, he began haunting bus stations, labor pools, cheap diners, and other places where he might meet homeless men. He chose them as victims because they would be hard to trace and noone would miss them.