Slasher moviesrose in popularity in the 1970s thanks to releases likeBlack ChristmasandHalloween,althoughPsychois considered the grandfather of the genre. From that point, numerous franchises emerged from the slasher film genre,featuring icons such as Freddy Krueger,Michael Myers, Chucky, The Tall Man, Candyman, and more.
However, while theseslasher movie killers remain beloved iconsdecades later, other slasher movies have fallen by the wayside.They are mostly forgotten by anyone but the biggest horror movie fanatics.These films also stretch out of theslasher heyday of the 80s, and some stretch into the 21st century, with some minor masterpieces.
10Pieces (1982)
A Slasher Killer On A Boston College Campus
Released in 1982,Pieceswas an earlylow-budget video nasties-era slasherhorror movie. This was an era when governments began to censor and even criminalize some intense scenes of horror in films.While some became true classics, such asThe Evil Dead,others remain mostly obscure, includingPieces.
Piecesfollows a serial killer of young women on a college campus in Boston. The killer is no secret in this movie. Timmy is a 10-year-old boy putting together a jigsaw puzzle of a nude woman, only for his mother to berate him for it. As a result,he dismembers his mother with a chainsawand pretends to be a witness to get away with it.
Years later, he starts to kill young women, and it is up to the police to figure out who the killer is as the bodies begin to pile up, all missing body parts. As the title suggests, Timmy is collecting the body pieces to create his own human puzzle. The movie is a gruesome body horror film with the practical effects of the missing body parts as the highlight.
The film’s ending was disappointing because it made no sense. However, it has become a cult classic due to its self-aware status as an exploitation film.
9Sissy (2022)
A Bachelorette Party Becomes A Massacre
Sissyis amodern-day slasher movie from 2022with a lesser-known cast, but a great story and some solid kills. The main characters are Cecilia and her childhood friend Emma. They reconnect, and Emma invites Sissy to her engagement and bachelorette parties. However,when Sissy’s childhood bully is also there, things get out of control.
The killings all come thanks to the continued bullying of Sissy, but when she takes the revenge too far, the victimized young woman becomes the ruthless killer and doesn’t stop until everyone is dead, including her childhood friend.
8April Fool’s Day (1986)
The Slasher With A Fake-Out Ending
April Fool’s Daywas not a movie that had a lot of fanswhen it came out in 1986 because of its ending. However, looking back on the movie, it subverted what people expected, and that has helped its reputation over the years as a cult classic. As the title suggests, this was one of the countless holiday-themed slasher movies.
However, as the title also suggests, fans should have known something was up when they went into the theater. Instead of movies like Prom Night, Halloween, and more, this was a mostly non-gratuitous slasher movie without much in the way of blood, guts, and gore. It also wasn’t as scary as its contemporaries.
However, it was also a movie with a purpose. As the title suggests, this movie was an April Fool’s Day joke, asthere was no slasher killer and all the murders were faked.The entire film was a setup for friends who wanted to start a staged horror show, and the audience was the only one not in on the joke.
7The Burning (1981)
A Former Summer Camp Caretaker Returns For Revenge
The Burningcame out just afterFriday the 13th,and it played on the successful summer camp slasher movie trope. This was also the debut of some future acting stars, including Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, and Fisher Stevens. The movie has almost the same plot asFriday the 13th,as well, with only minor changes.
One night at camp, some campers pull a prank on the alcoholic and abusive caretaker, Cropsy, and he ends up caught in a fire. He races outside on fire and leaps into the lake, where he disappears and no one sees him again. Instead of a child almost drowning, it is an adult burned alive. In both cases, they return to kill kids in the future.
The movie has the unfortunate reputation of being based on a story by Harvey Weinstein and a script co-written by Robert Weinstein. However, it received praise for its graphic violence and legitimate scares, with an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score, although much of the praise came in later reappraisals.
6In A Violent Nature (2023)
An Arthouse Slasher Movie
In a Violent Natureis an arthouse slasher horror moviethat is an acquired taste. This is because the film has almost no dialogue, and the camera follows the slasher killer throughout his kills, without allowing the audience to get to know the victims at all, and instead forces viewers to play the voyeur, watching the intense kills.
A group of friends finds an old locket hanging in an abandoned fire tower, and when they take it, they inadvertently cause a mute serial killer named Johnny to be resurrected from his grave. There is a moment where the friends recount the legend of Johnny and his death, but most of the movie just sees the killer murdering anyone he finds.
This is a very polarizing movie, and one that many fans won’t be able to sit through since it takes its time and moves slowly, often using static long shots, forcing the viewers to get antsy and nervous before the kills come hard and heavy. It received mostly positive reviews, anda sequel toIn a Violent Natureis in the works.
5Hatchet (2006)
The Legend Of Victor Crowley
Hatchetbecame a franchise after its 2007 release, but it remains a slasher film that is mostly obscure to all but true horror fans. There werefour movies in theHatchetseries, andit showed that Adam Green was a horror filmmakeron the rise in the early 2000s, but with an ’80s slasher sensibility
The movie follows a slasher killer in the Louisiana swamps named Crowley, who kills anyone who comes close to his home. The cast is a horror fan’s dream, with Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees) as Crowley, Tony Todd (Candyman) as Reverend Zombie, and Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) as Sampson.
The film received high praise when it was released as a throwback slasher horror movie, and it remains a highlight of the genre in the 2000s.
4Cherry Falls (1999)
A Serial Killer Targets Virgins
One of thebiggest tropes in slasher horror movies is that if a person has sex, they die.This is one of the many sins (along with drinking and drugs) that sentence a person to death when the slasher killer starts his (or her) rampage. However, the 1999 slasher movieCherry Fallssubverts that entire trope and flips the genre on its head.
The movie takes place in Cherry Falls, Virginia, where a serial killer is murdering young adults and carving the word “virgin” into the victims. The film boasts an impressive cast, featuring Brittany Murphy as the lead, alongside Michael Biehn and Jay Mohr as adults in the story, and Jesse Bradford as an early victim of the killer.
The slasher film received mixed to positive reviews, earning cult classic status despite being the least seen of the late-90s horror movies, which included hits likeScreamandI Know What You Did Last Summer.
3All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
A Bullied Teenager Seeks Revenge Against His Tormenters
All the Boys Love Mandy Laneisa slasher movie that stars Amber Heardas a high school girl who blossomed over the summer and attracted the attention of all the boys in her school. She also has a best friend named Emmet (Michael Welch), but everything changes after a pool party that results in the death of a popular male student.
Nine months after the accident, Mandy goes to another party, this one at a remote ranch, and soon Emmet shows up and starts killing people in revenge for the intense bullying he began receiving after the death at the previous party. What helps elevate this film is the twist ending, where it turns out Emmet isn’t alone.
While the film received negative to mixed reviews, the slasher movie deserves much more praise for what it accomplished. It wears its grindhouse influences on its sleeves, and is a film that deserves a new audience almost 20 years later.
2Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
A Mockmentary That Morphs Into A Real Slasher Movie
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernonis a brilliant slasher horror movie from 2006 because it subverts the genre and takes on two different forms, switching halfway through the movie. The first half is shot like a mockumentary, withfilmmakers creating their documentary about a real-life slasher killer.
The first half of the movie is the best part, as Leslie Vernon shows how he accomplishes his goals. He shows how he preps houses before the kids arrive to ensure the “accidents” that make his kills easier. He shows why he always catches the kids, even though it looks like he is always moving slowly. It deconstructs the entire genre.
Things change in the second half of the movie when Leslie Vernon reveals that the filmmakers were always his next victims. When they realize he has set them up, it is too late, and he puts his plan into motion and kills them for the explosive climax.This might be the best slasher movie of the 21st century.
The slasher movie that might be the one true slasher masterpiece of the 21st century isYou’re Next.Released in 2011, Adam Wingard directs the horror movie abouthome invaders who show up and unexpectedly attack a vacation homeand the people who are there for a dinner celebration.
At first, this seemed like just another home invasion movie, similar toThe Strangers,but then it takes a left turn, and what happens next elevates it above its contemporaries. The killers are all wearing animal masks and kill each person one by one, but they find their mistake was targeting the house with Erin in it.
Sharni Vinson plays Erin, who, at one point in the movie, decides she’s had enough of running and turns the tables on the killers, becoming as vindictive and deadly as the home invaders. When she starts setting her traps and methodically killing them, the movie takes on a new meaning and becomes a ton of fun.
