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Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
It's commonly agreed that the slasher genre had its early beginning with Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho. This film had many of the cliches commonly associated with classic slasher films. For example Psycho includes a mysterious knife wielding murder and even premarital sex. -
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Era of Giallo
Giallo was and still is a style of mystery film made in Italy. Giallo films often included very similar themes and tropes. In fact Author Michael Mackenzie wrote that the Giallo stories could be divided by gender. With the male oriented Gialli (the plural form of the word) the stories are mostly about a man witnessing a murder and then becoming the target when he tries to solve the mystery. With women the story focuses more on her sexuality and mental state. -
The Girl who knew to much
This film is about a woman, named Nora, who travels to Rome and witnesses a murder. Much to her dismay the police don't believe her due to the lack of a corpse. Soon after other murders occur. This film is considered to be the first film in the Giallo genre of film. -
Black Christmas
This film is about a group of sorority girls who get a series of threatening phone calls and wind up being murdered by a man who broke into their home. This film received mixed reviews when it released in 1974, but it has since become a cult classic. This is largely due to its influences on John carpenters halloween and because of it being an early slasher film. -
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The Golden Era
The Golden Era of Slasher films is the era most commonly associated with slasher films. This is when slashers were in their prime. This era saw the release of many classics and staples of genre. Some of the films released in this era include John Carpenter's Halloween, Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th, and Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm St. -
John Carpenter's Halloween
This film is about a girl who is stalked by an escaped mental patient named Micheal Myers. This film is largely important to the slasher genre and is considered to be the first actual slasher film. This film became the perfect blue-print for slasher films. -
Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th
This film is about a group of camp counselors who are hunted down by a mysterious killer. The producers of this film where heavily inspired to make a slasher film in the vain of Halloween after seeing how much it made. After filming this film was picked up by paramount and became the first independent slasher film to be picked up by a major studio. -
Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm st.
This film is about a group of teens who are murdered in their sleep. So the teens must find away to stay awake or defeat the man in their dreams. This film followed the tropes and blue prints set up by John Carpenter's Halloween. This film was a commercial success and is widely considered a classic of the slasher genre. -
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Slasher Fatigue
With the success and popularity of John Carpenter's Halloween and its piers came the countless sequels and ripoffs. The thing about slashers, and horror films in general, is that they are very cheap to make and can make a lot of money. So with a low risk and high reward structure the market became oversaturated and audiences grew tired of the same re-used plots and tropes. -
Wes Craven's Scream
After years of slasher fatigue Wes Craven the mastermind behind the Nightmare on Elm St. revisited the genre with his 1996 classic Scream. Scream flipped the genre on its head by satirizing the very same clichés the genre was built on. This film was widely popular and brought the genre back from the dead. In fact this film jumpstarted a new era of slasher films called the post modern era. -
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Postmodern Slashers
The postmodern slasher era was started by Wes Craven's 1996 classic Scream. Postmodern slashers were inspired by the golden age of slasher while implementing twists on the tropes to keep them fresh they also featured a lot of the contemporary pop culture of the time. Notable films in this era include: I know what you did last summer, Jeepers Creepers, Final destination and many others. -
Scary movie
This film while not being strictly a slasher it self is a parody of slashers and horror films that came before. This movie caused movie audiences to take the already outdated cliches of the genre even less seriously. the Scary movie was a very influential movie and wound up rekindling the parody genre. -
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Slasher Remakes and Reboots
The most modern era of slasher films is the era of remakes and reboots. This era was brought to life with the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003. Since then countless remakes of beloved classics have been released including a remake of Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St. and Friday the 13th. Besides remakes this era also sports countless reboots to classic slasher films. A good example of this is with the 2018 film Halloween which was a direct sequel to 1978's Halloween. -
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Remake)
This film is a remake of a 1974 film of the same name. It follows the plot of the original as a group of young adults are driving through rural Texas and run into a family who want to murder them. This film helped jumpstart the era of remakes and was even the first film produced by Platinum Dunes a production company who went on to produce countless other horror remakes.