What Is a Slasher Film?

I’ve always been a big fan of the slasher film genre. The first horror movie I saw was a re-run of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho when my old man took to me to see it at the movies. Slashers can be basic, and easy to follow for those wanting a simple but entertaining watch or dwell more deeply into the psychology behind murder.

Most slasher films are built around a central character who attempts to murder a group of people (usually one by one for maximum film enjoyment). The slasher is usually male, and has a mysterious past which influences or dictates his actions in regards to killings. Usually there’ll be one survivor who stops the killer either temporarily or for good.

It sounds simple—and that’s exactly why it works. The audience knows there is something out there. The characters often don’t. Every empty corridor, dark bedroom and strange noise becomes a potential warning sign. The tension comes from waiting for the inevitable moment when the killer finally appears.

But the slasher genre is about more than blood and body counts. At its best, it is about suspense, fear, mystery and the uncomfortable feeling that danger could be hiding somewhere completely ordinary.

The Origins of the Slasher Genre

Although the classic slasher didn’t truly explode until the late 1970s, its roots stretch back much further. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is one of the genre’s most important influences. Norman Bates and the infamous shower sequence demonstrated that a horror film could shock audiences by placing violence inside an apparently normal environment.

Around the same time, Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960) explored the disturbing relationship between filmmaking, voyeurism and murder. Both films helped establish the idea of following a killer and placing the audience in an uncomfortably close relationship with violence.

Another important influence came from Italy. The giallo films of directors such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento frequently featured mysterious killers, elaborate murders, shadowy investigations and striking visual style. Their influence can be seen throughout the slasher genre.

Then came Black Christmas in 1974. Directed by Bob Clark, the film follows young women living in a sorority house who begin receiving threatening phone calls while a killer stalks them from inside the building. Its isolated setting, anonymous murderer and emphasis on stalking made it one of the clearest blueprints for the slasher films that followed.

Halloween Creates a Horror Icon

If Black Christmas helped build the foundations, John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) helped define the modern slasher.

The film introduced Michael Myers, a masked killer who returns to the town of Haddonfield after years of confinement and begins stalking teenager Laurie Strode. Michael rarely speaks, rarely shows emotion and seems almost impossible to stop. His blank white mask became one of the most recognisable images in horror cinema.

Halloween also helped establish one of the genre’s most enduring characters: the “final girl.” Laurie is resourceful, frightened but determined, and ultimately forced to confront the monster hunting her.

The film’s success transformed the slasher from a developing horror formula into a commercial phenomenon.

Friday the 13th and the Rise of Jason Voorhees

Two years after Halloween, audiences were introduced to another legendary horror location: Camp Crystal Lake.

Friday the 13th (1980) follows a group of young camp counsellors who are picked off one by one by a mysterious killer. Interestingly, Jason Voorhees is not the murderer in the original film. His mother, Pamela Voorhees, is revealed to be responsible for the killings.

Jason eventually takes centre stage, becoming the face of the franchise and one of the most famous killers in horror history. His signature hockey mask, introduced in Friday the 13th Part III, transformed him into a pop-culture icon.

The series also pushed the slasher formula toward increasingly outrageous territory. As the sequels continued, Jason became less like a human murderer and more like an unstoppable supernatural force.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Changes the Rules

In 1984, Wes Craven gave the genre another major reinvention with A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Its villain, Freddy Krueger, didn’t need to wait for his victims to wander into the woods or an abandoned building. He could attack them while they slept.

That simple idea changed everything. Dreams allowed the filmmakers to break the normal rules of reality, producing surreal environments and bizarre death scenes. Freddy himself was equally distinctive. Unlike the silent Michael Myers or largely wordless Jason, Freddy was talkative, sarcastic and theatrical. Freddy came out with some great one-liners that have endured since the 1980’s until today.

The result was a franchise that could be genuinely frightening while also introducing a kind of black humour into proceedings as the sequels progressed.

Other Famous Slasher Films of the 1980s

The success of Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street sparked a flood of slasher movies during the 1980s.

Some became cult favourites, including Prom Night (1980), The Burning (1981), My Bloody Valentine (1981) and Sleepaway Camp (1983).

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) also became an enormous influence on the genre. Although it is often described as an exploitation, survival horror or horror film rather than a conventional slasher, Leatherface became one of the genre’s most recognisable killers.

By the end of the decade, however, audiences had seen the formula repeated many times. As is frequently the case when something becomes “trendy” sequels became increasingly predictable, less talented directors produced inferior films and the popularity of the slasher began to fade.

Scream Brings the Slasher Back

Then Wes Craven did something unexpected: he made a slasher about people who knew exactly what slasher films were.

Released in 1996, Scream combined genuine horror with comedy and self-awareness. Its characters understand the conventions of horror movies and even discuss the supposed rules that determine who survives.

At the centre of the franchise was Ghostface, the instantly recognisable masked killer. Unlike Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, Ghostface isn’t necessarily one supernatural individual. The identity behind the mask can change, turning each movie into part slasher and part murder mystery.

The success of Scream sparked a new generation of slasher films, including I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Urban Legend (1998) and a wave of other late-1990s horror movies aimed at teenagers of that generation.

The Modern Slasher

The slasher genre has continued to evolve in the 21st century. Rather than simply repeating the formula, modern filmmakers have mixed slasher conventions with comedy, science fiction, psychological horror and even time-travel stories.

Films such as You’re Next (2011), Happy Death Day (2017) and X (2022) have demonstrated that there is still plenty of life left in the genre.

At the same time, Hollywood has embraced the idea of legacy sequels. The 2018 Halloween effectively reset the franchise by continuing directly from the original film, while the modern Scream movies have combined new characters with survivors and mythology from earlier instalments.

The Biggest Slasher Franchises

• Halloween – Michael Myers and the masked killer’s decades-long obsession with Laurie Strode.
• Friday the 13th – Camp Crystal Lake, a succession of unfortunate teenagers and the legendary Jason Voorhees.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street – Freddy Krueger, dream stalking and some of horror’s most imaginative kills.
• Scream – Ghostface, murder mysteries and a knowing take on the conventions of horror cinema.
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – Leatherface and one of the most influential families in horror history.

Why Do Slasher Films Still Work?

Perhaps the biggest secret behind the slasher’s longevity is its simplicity. Someone is being hunted. Someone is going to die. The question is whether the characters—and the audience—can figure out what is coming before it is too late.

The great thing about slasher films is they are generally NOT subtle films but in some cases like Terrifier push the envelope of decency and what can actually be shown to its limit.

From Norman Bates and Leatherface to Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Ghostface, slasher films have produced some of cinema’s greatest horror icons. The genre has changed dramatically since its early influences in the 1960s and 1970s, but its central appeal remains remarkably simple: somewhere in the darkness, something is waiting.