SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021 FINAL EDITION -SLASHTASTIC!

Jason and Me

How I caught air in the theater.

Slashers were once unwelcome companions on my horror movie journey. The stories about the deaths of obnoxious teenagers seemed more like pointless exercises in sadism than genuine horror. But they would do in a pinch. When I was a freshman in college, my girlfriend and I went to see Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. It was hard to keep my opinion quiet about how awful the movie was. Everything from the terrible choices the characters made to the predictable jump-scares were cause for complaint. Most irritating was the scene where Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) returns to the dark basement where she just witnessed Jason kill Rob (E. Erick Anderson). What was she thinking? Rob was dead and Jason was still lurking in the dark. When she turned to run back up the stairs, I whispered to my date, “Watch, he is going to grab her!”

Watching a good scary movie can be a real physical experience. Releasing intense emotions causes an equal release of energy. As my prediction came true and Jason grabbed Trish, my words were lost in the loud scream that came out instead and  I vaulted over the divider and onto my girlfriend’s lap.

Obviously, there was much to learn about the power slashers.

Who is Laurie Strode?

Eventually, I learned the genre deserved more respect than I had given it. Besides providing a good scare, the movies have many other functions. Not the least, female fans say that slashers show the dangerous truth of their lives. To them, the violent assaults on film equal the frightening reality they live with every day. Also, in the 1970s and 80s, they tapped into the older generation’s rising fear of the younger generation.

Structurally, slashers follow a formula that guides the movie to its conclusion. Many revolve around a mystery that explains the killings. The beginning of many is a gauzy flashback of a childhood incident gone horribly wrong. This is a throwback to the genre’s giallo roots. Over the course of the film, the rising kill count and intensity of violence build to the climax between the last victim, called the final girl and the killer.

The Final Girl is the most prominent aspect of the genre. She acts as an idealized version of feminine purity in a decadent world. While her friends die because of their vices, as drug use, sex, or even just swimming naked, her abstinence keeps her alive to the end. This adds a touch of old-fashioned fire and brimstone moralizing to slashers.

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in John Carpenter’s 1979 Halloween, is the template all final girls are compared to. She is a virgin, an excellent student, a loyal friend, and a responsible babysitter.

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The Golden Age of Slashers

The Golden Age of Slashers is the time after John Carpenter’s Halloween (1979) to 1984, during which there was a massive flourishing of films that solidified many of the genre’s conventions.

13) Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) – After walking out of Friday the 13th Part III in disgust in 1982, I thought I was finished with the stupid things. Until a rainy Easter Sunday brought me back to the theaters for this one. Even though it is an exciting movie, there are many flaws that re-watching made more obvious. Weirdly, it is also one of the rare movies featuring a dog committing suicide. Director Joe Zito and writer Barney Cohen did not explain why the dog throws itself out a window. Maybe the poor thing wanted to leave the movie.Violence against animals is lazy writing, a cheap trick to engage the audience in a faltering story. Not cool and did not make this movie any better.

Bonnie Hellman says “No” to violence against animals.

14) The Funhouse (1981) – I forgot I saw this one in the theater (with a date.) Directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chain Saw Massacre – seen twice in theaters with different dates. No wonder there were so few second dates). The story is about four teens trapped inside a carnival funhouse while being pursued by a murderous carnie (Kevin Conway) and his deformed son (Wayne Doba). The setting inside the funhouse is luridly lit, with creepy figures lurking everywhere. Another interesting distinction: Amy (Elizabeth Berridge) is the inversion of many of the final girl tropes – she gets high, lies to her parents and loses her virginity over the course of the movie, all while wearing a dress! (See Carol Clover’s Men, Women, and Chainsaws for more on the unisex or gender swapping qualities of the final girl.)

Buzz (Cooper Huckabee), Amy (Elizabeth Berridge), Liz (Largo Woodruff), and Richie (Miles Chapin ) regret their decision to spend the night in the funhouse.

15) The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) – Written by Rita Mae Brown as a parody of slashers and directed by Amy Holden Jones, The Slumber Party Massacre is one of few female-led films of this type. Unlike many contemporary creators, Brown and Jones focused the film on the women to create more memorable characters.

The movie opens with Trish (Michele Michaels) throwing out childhood toys from her bedroom. The audience is told that she is on her way to independence.This differs from other final girls who live under the protection of something, parents, boyfriends, jobs, etc. Her focus is being her own person, not being someone’s virtuous teen daughter (similar to The Fun House’s Amy, who didn’t give a shit what her parents thought).

Trish (Michele Michaels) prepares herself for adulthood by putting away childish things.

“Forgo the formulas,” – Neo Slashers

The current wave of slashers, called Neo Slashers or Self Referential slashers, throw plenty of “meta” content into the mix. They are slasher movies about slasher movies. Wes Craven’s 1996 Scream is the most well known of this type. These movies give plenty of knowing winks to fans who are thrilled to be in on the joke.

16) Slumber Party Massacre (2021) – More of a sequel than remake, this intergenerational slasher is a satire and tribute to the genre. High school senior Dana (Hannah Gonera) is the daughter of Trish, the final girl of Jones’ and Brown’s The Slumber Party Massacre. She and her girlfriends have a special evening planned to party hard at a cabin in the woods. Chaos ensues. Director Danishka Esterhazy delivers a hilarious sendup of “The Male Gaze” that’s laugh out loud funny.

For once, the ladies get an eyeful of what the boys do when no-one else is around.

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17) The Last Matinee (2020) First time watch!– Set in a movie theater on a rainy evening, a crowd gathers to watch a horror film. An unknown killer stalks the audience. This excellent entry from South America shows the slasher’s enduring and international appeal. Director Maximiliano Contenti recalls the tradition of sitting in a dark theater, while the unsuspecting audience waits for terror to strike!

What can be more self-referential than a killer collecting the eyes of horror-movie loving fans?

We started out with a story about a real-life incident with somebody in a theater on a rainy afternoon at a horror movie that has the bejeebers scared out of them. Let’s end it with a movie about that story. Proof that slashers have a lot to teach us.