80s Slasher Craze

[Mortal Envelope]

There are just too many 80s slasher to each have their own thread so I thought this might be a good place to talk about the golden age of slashers.  In the early 80s I had the at-the-time primitive Movie Channel and a step-mother who was only 10 years older than I who rented a lot of these movies so I was exposed to a great many of them.

Note: some spoilers ahead...if you care

Most of them were basically the same formula with a few exceptions and most centered around some holiday, following in the footsteps of the popularity of Halloween (although it wasn't the first, it was definitely the first very popular one).  And you can bet that 90% of them create a killer via a prank gone wrong.

As the 80s continue, we got more and more clones, sequels, and experiments; I'll just start out with the early 80s and work from there as I remember them.

Black Christmas - haven't seen this one but I hear it's the precursor to Halloween.  I hear the killer is pretty much never seen.

Halloween - the major one that really got the ball rolling.  Psycho kills his sister as a kid, breaks outta the mental institution and comes back home to stalk Jamie Lee Curtis who dropped off a key at a house at the wrong time.  Lesson Learned - stay out of the real estate business!

Friday the 13th - ah the more famous camp slasher - funny this spawned 8 sequels.  Kevin Bacon gets killed for having sex at camp.  Killer is an angry soccer mom wanting revenge.

Hell Night - Linda Blair and crew spend a night in the crazy guy's house to get into a frat/sorority.  Killer is the sole survivor of his family that he murdered years ago.

Prom Night - Jamie Lee Curtis is stalked by someone's brother who was the victim of a prank gone wrong...if I remember correctly

Terror Train - New Years Eve party with Jamie Lee Curtis, David Copperfield, and a necrophiliac.  Prank with a dead body turns pledge into a mask wearing axe-wielder!

Tourist Trap (technically late 70s) - the Puppet Master Master's first piece - quite creepy if I remember.  Killer/creep is a split personalty type who makes dolls outta his victims

Motel Hell - classic pig-face wearing human butcher abducts seedy tenants for his mystery meat.

My Bloody Valentine - a Canadian mining town shouldn't have held that dance.  Killer wearing the mining gear is definitely scary looking.  He witnessed the original killer doing his business when he was young and it warped his fragile little mind.

Night School - this one's not actually a holiday - guess you're not safe even if you're taking classes at night.  Prof has multiple affairs and one of the girls gets pregnant and extremely jealous of all the others.

Happy Birthday to Me - don't remember much of this one besides the title - I think I might even be confusing it with something else

Slaughter High - a cross between April Fool's day and a class reunion.  Too bad another movie used April Fool's Day.  Killer is Marty, the school nerd who somehow gets super powers after his transformation.

April Fool's Day - I have vague memories of this one but I remember a girl inviting all her friends to an island/boat ride or something.

Return to Horror High - an early meta-slasher where George Clooney bites it.

I'm sure I'm missing a few ...I'll just have to add more as I remember them.  What 80s slashers do you remember?  What did you think of them?  Which ones did you like?

[The Burgomaster]

Here are a few more from the 70s/80s slasher craze you can add to your list:

* THE PROWLER
* DON'T ANWER THE PHONE
* A STRANGER IS WATCHING
* CHEERLEADER CAMP
* WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
* GRADUATION DAY
* DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE (well, not exactly a slasher flick, but it's along the same lines)
* THE BURNING
* SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE
* THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW

The list is endless . . .

[Doc Daneeka]

ALONE IN THE DARK ('82) is a favorite, with 4, count 'em, 4 slashers! Well not really slashers... There was a pretty low body count and the execution methods were tame compared to many, but a creepy, lurking feel was kept up until the climax. I felt though it was pretty dang good, it could have been handled much better!

Unfortunately, the slashers are dispacthed pretty lamely, 2 with a simple stabbing, and all are badly-timed, it's intense yes, but not very suspenseful.

In addition to the atmosphere, it was a film that gave our antagonists personality that goes beyond body language and heavy breathing, our bad guys actually talk, and, being mental patients of various persuasion, what they have to say can at times be quite interesting!

[RCMerchant]

Here's a few obscure-pre slasher fliks...
DRIVE IN MASSACRE (1976)-Some nut is running around a drive in with a sword lopping of teen heads-pretty lame and VERY low budget!
TOOL BOX MURDERS (1976) -I KNOW you guys must have seen this one! Cameron Mitchell and his power drill...plus naked porn star Kelly Nichol in a tub? A CLASSICK! I treasure my copy!
Would Mario Bava's BAY of BLOOD (1972) be classified as a slasher? How about Argento's DEEP RED? Hmm.
 HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME (1981) stars Melissa Sue Anderson of Little House on the Prarie fame and BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981 as well!!!)  is about 3 kids born on the same day...who also happen to be 3 psycho little basterds! A wild movie! 

[scabboy]

Some that come to mind that I love:
House Of Death
Terror At Tenkiller
The Final Terror
The Forest
Don't Go In The Woods... Alone
Slaughterhouse
Edge Of The Axe

and so on

[Pilgermann]

There are just too many 80s slasher to each have their own thread so I thought this might be a good place to talk about the golden age of slashers.  In the early 80s I had the at-the-time primitive Movie Channel and a step-mother who was only 10 years older than I who rented a lot of these movies so I was exposed to a great many of them.

Note: some spoilers ahead...if you care

Most of them were basically the same formula with a few exceptions and most centered around some holiday, following in the footsteps of the popularity of Halloween (although it wasn't the first, it was definitely the first very popular one).  And you can bet that 90% of them create a killer via a prank gone wrong.

As the 80s continue, we got more and more clones, sequels, and experiments; I'll just start out with the early 80s and work from there as I remember them.

Black Christmas - haven't seen this one but I hear it's the precursor to Halloween.  I hear the killer is pretty much never seen.

Halloween - the major one that really got the ball rolling.  Psycho kills his sister as a kid, breaks outta the mental institution and comes back home to stalk Jamie Lee Curtis who dropped off a key at a house at the wrong time.  Lesson Learned - stay out of the real estate business!

Sorry to butt in, but Black Christmas is from 1974 and Halloween is from 1978 (of course it has many 80's sequels).

[RCMerchant]

The DORM that DRIPPED BLOOD (1982)-not to be confused with the early 70's Amicus anthology with Ingrid Pitt and Peter Cushing the HOUSE that DRIPPED BLOOD. Which is too bad. Because HOUSE- was good,and this is gawd awful...and not in a good way. Boring z-Budget slasher hunts collage kids in dorm...blah blah. Lame,no suspense,irratating POV shots...don't waste your time.I own it...bought it for a buck on vhs...and STILL I feel ripped off!

 Now KILLING SPREE.(1984)..which I just got from Great White Dope...-Zero budget...yet fun and oddly hilarious! Watch the trailer! This was directed by Tim Ritter...the genuis(?) that brought us TRUTH or DARE!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3c1RNzs5RU
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[Ash]

RC,
That Killing Spree movie looks hilarious!
Did that one guy get the top of his head chopped off by a ceiling fan?

I'm definitely gonna have to track down a copy of that one.

[RCMerchant]

RC,
That Killing Spree movie looks hilarious!
Did that one guy get the top of his head chopped off by a ceiling fan?

I'm definitely gonna have to track down a copy of that one.

Yeah...he bolted machtes on to the blades of the ceiling fan! Silly-unreal-but fun and bloody!

[Mortal Envelope]

re Pilgermann: yeah I know ...many of these listed (Halloween, Black Christmas, and Tourist Trap) are from the 70s, but I labeled the post "80s" pretty much because the bulk of them are from that era.  It's really late 70s-early 80s, but not to discount the plethora of slashers that came out in the late 80s and there after.
Those few in the late 70s definitely spawned the trend huh?

Anyway, yeah there are lot of titles you all have responded with that I've never gotten a chance to see.  I've heard about a lot of these -especially how Friday 2 rips a scene from Bay of Blood, for example.

Talk about memory lane.  I've been having some fun watching the trailers for some of these titles on youtube.

[RapscallionJones]

Black Christmas - haven't seen this one but I hear it's the precursor to Halloween.  I hear the killer is pretty much never seen.

Yup.  The killer is genuinely frightening in this movie.  As I recall, the only time you ever see him is an isolated shot of his eye and his hands as he does his thing.  It's really more of a giallo than a slasher.  Though by this point, the line between that genre and slashers is tough to distinguish.  The phone calls that he makes are terrifying.

The Burning is a personal favorite of mine.  It steals all of its best moves from Friday the 13th and Prom Night as a camp killer movie and the prank gone wrong angle.  The killer, Cropsy, is one of the most forgettable villains in slasher history and the victims are developed to a point that many of them, even the despicable ones are people you don't want to see killed.  There's a slaughter scene on a raft that is absolutely nasty and so brutal that I felt a little uncomfortable watching it go down.  In spite of all this, that mean-spirited angle makes it unique since few slashers were willing to go that far.  It also has a sweet score by Rick Wakeman.

Also, want to watch a truly dreadful slasher movie?  Look for The Horror Show, though I think it goes under the name House 3 at this point.  I can't figure out what the hell they were trying to do with this movie and by this point, the whole slasher thing had been squeezed dry so it should come as no surprise that it makes no sense at all.  Maybe they were trying to establish another named killer franchise since late comers like Chucky managed to get a few sequels out.  It's f**king awful, though.

[voltron]

Just Before Dawn is one of my personal faves. IMO, probably the best backwoods slasher ever. I think it totally blows away Friday the 13th because it focuses on characters you actually care about rather than over the top gore. (Not that I don't like over the top gore, either).

[Torgo]

Just Before Dawn is one of my personal faves. IMO, probably the best backwoods slasher ever. I think it totally blows away Friday the 13th because it focuses on characters you actually care about rather than over the top gore. (Not that I don't like over the top gore, either).

Man, I'm glad you liked that one. It make me want to pluck my eyes out of my head.  George Kennedy talking to plants and kissing his horse is not something that made it go any better as well. 

[Bonehead-XL]

Being a big slasher fan, I'd say my favorites are probably "Sleepaway Camp II," "The Burning," "The Prowler," and "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter."

"The Prey" is a masterpiece of unintentional hilarity. It's a great example of how "good" trash cinema can be.

"The Mutilator" is pretty good, too, if just for the gore.

[Torgo]

"The Mutilator" is pretty good, too, if just for the gore.

that's a great over-the-top gore flick from what my memory serves me.  I had this one on VHS but the tape broke and I haven't gotten around to getting it on DVD yet.  The version I had on VHS was the uncut Vestron Video version.