When it comes to horror, few subgenres are as widely popular as slashers. While many horror films tend to feature a death or two along with their scares, Slashers are movies that tend to really rack up the kills across their run time. Often focused around a murderer in the midst of a killing spree, slashers have been an integral part of the horror genre for decades.
So today it's time to delve into the wide breadth of slasher's of horror film history, and examine the ten most influential slashers of all time.
Black Christmas
Released in 1974, Black Christmas is perhaps the most underrated and commonly forgotten entry on this list. Released before the slasher boom of the 1980s, Black Christmas contributed to numerous trends of the genre. Most notably, the film's predominantly female cast and setting within a sorority house, and a killer who operates utilizing a phone.
Without Black Christmas, there'd likely be no Scream, nor would there be an entire subset of "sorority horror."
Candyman
While to the uninitiated, slashers are synonymous with senseless killing and violence, 1992's Candyman is a film that integrates numerous deeper themes such as racial tensions and injustice into the traditional slasher equation. The film is centered around the mythical "Candyman" whose ability to kill grows proportionally with those who are aware of him, appearing if his name is said three times in a mirror.
Additionally, this film turns the slasher formula on its head, taking a more romantic form than many of its contemporaries, working well with the movie's established race-based theming.
Child's Play
Similarly to Candyman, 1988's original Child's Play is a slasher that implements the supernatural into its storytelling. Rather that utilize a standard human killer, Child's Play spawned one of the most iconic horror characters in history in Chucky, a doll possessed by the spirit of a murderer.
While Child's Play is indeed a horror movie, it adds comedy to the formula through its killer, allowing Chucky to memorably crack jokes and display a sinister yet entertaining personality. This allows for the character of the killer to shine significantly more than a silent killer.
Additionally, rather than utilizing teenage or adult protagonists, this film helped to popularize the use of a more vulnerable child protagonist.
A Nightmare On Elm Street
1984's Nightmare on Elm Street has a great deal in common with the previously mentioned Child's Play. Between a terrifying yet entertaining killer who cracks one liners in the form of Freddy Krueger, and a more supernatural premise than other reality-grounded slashers, each of these films are prime examples of '80s horror.
However, while Child's Play still utilizes kills that are grounded in realism, Nightmare on Elm Street experimented with what was possible when it came to kills in slashers through fatal dream sequences that are as deadly as they are elaborate.
Scream
Released in 1996, few slashers of the '90s had as fundamental of an impact on the horror industry as Scream did. While the traditional approach to horror is to create a story that is self contained and operating independently, Scream is a much more meta affair.
While on its surface, Scream may appear to be a traditional murder mystery take on a slasher, it is incredibly meta and referential of the horror genre. Numerous characters directly reference horror and slasher tropes and act accordingly based on their knowledge of films such as Halloween.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the earliest released films on this list, being released in 1974, and helped to shape the modern slasher as fans know it today.
Featuring many modern horror staples such as the "final girl," and a rural backwoods setting, a significant amount of horror tropes draws a lot of inspiration from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While it may seem bare bones in departments such as theming, genre blending, and clever writing, the innovation of this film truly shines.
Friday The 13th
Few titles are synonymous with horror itself than 1980's Friday the 13th. With a secluded wooded setting that has become commonplace in the genre, the film takes a grounded approach while setting the groundwork of many films that would follow in its wake.
Friday the 13th defines archetypes in the genre, containing the "final girl" like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, while implementing the horror staple that the less lewd acts a character partakes in, the more likely they'll survive the film.
Friday The 13th Part II
While Friday the 13th, may have a great deal of name recognition to horror fans, many elements that are often associated with the franchise weren't introduced until the film's sequel.
Namely, the series primary character, Jason Voorhees, wasn't featured as a film's killer until Friday the 13th Part II. In addition to introducing the world to one of the biggest icons in all of horror, it kept much of what worked in the first film, while building and improving upon the foundation.
Halloween
Released in 1978, John Carpenter's Halloween is the film attributed to starting the golden age of slasher films that lasted from 1978 to 1984. Nearly any element that is traditionally associated with slashers can be found within Halloween, and all as early as 1978.
Iconic killer who racks up numerous memorable kills in the film's run time? Check. Surviving "final girl?" check. Lewdness and likelihood of death scaling proportionally? Check.
It isn't hard to see how Halloween can still serve as the blueprint to an archetypical slasher to this very day, over forty years later.
Psycho
The oldest entry by a sizable margin, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was released sixty year ago and paved the way for an entire sub-genre of horror. While what is acceptable in film has been pushed further and further as time progresses, Psycho includes a wide array of themes and fixtures of the modern slasher that simply weren't viewed as appropriate for film at the time.
From memorable deaths such as the iconic "shower scene," to one of the most quintessential killers in horror history in the form of Norman Bates, the slasher sub-genre of horror simply would not exist as it does today were it not for Psycho.