One Hitters: Cinemacabre’s Guide to Your Slasher Movie Marathon
It’s been a spooky October for the books, and I have the Cinemacabre Month of Mayhem to thank; For this final week, I combed through Twitter-sourced slasher recs. Here, I offer something of a Cinemacabre horror movie marathon guide. Watch if you dare.
It’s been a spooky October for the books, and I have the Cinemacabre Month of Mayhem to thank; I’ve doubled down on my horror movie habit for the past several weeks. I’ve looked at the uncanny in Burning, my pet dog and teen werewolves with Ginger Snaps, and adaptation and mythology with Candyman. For this final week, I combed through Twitter-sourced slasher recs. Here, I offer something of a Cinemacabre horror movie marathon guide. Watch if you dare.
Slasher Classics
Staples for any fan of slasher movies
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Perhaps one of my favorite moments from horror films is this one:
Nancy: Somebody’s going to try to kill you tonight.
Glen: Why would anyone want to kill me?
Nancy: Don’t ask!
While there are such gems of writing throughout the film, Wes Craven’s foundational contribution to the slasher canon offers a tight premise: don’t fall asleep or Freddy Krueger might kill you with his bladed glove. If you’re new to this subset of horror and looking for a good place to start, this is your movie.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Any fan of slasher movies will be familiar with this canonical film. Five friends get out of town for some fun in the woods, meeting unsavory, cannibalistic folk on their trip. The film features a very long chase scene in the woods and the killer, Leatherface, dances triumphantly with his chainsaw. Incidentally, the actor who played Leatherface, Gunnar Hansen, came to my small college town on his book tour and I somehow did not go. Still upset about that.
Black Christmas (1974)
The same POV camera that opens Halloween four years later takes us into this sorority stalked by a killer. I watched this with my family, and it delivered on every communal horror-viewing experience. Underscoring our screening was a running commentary on the seventies: every woman has long brown hair and a middle part; why did barometers used to be a household thing; everything is mustard-colored. The film blends Christmas with slasher flourishes. The creepy child carolers are transcendent.
Halloween (1978)
I cannot mention this movie to a fan of Real Housewives without them saying Kyle Richards appeared in it. Jamie Lee Curtis, our reigning slasher queen, is in her prime as the babysitter Final Girl, Laurie Strode.
Prom Night (1980)
Creepy kids chant “Kill! Kill!” in an abandoned hospital (?) to open this movie. If slasher films frighten teens into line and establish conservative order, what better setting for this than prom, that protracted push to a comfortable suburban “adulthood.” Think Carrie but disco and no telekinesis. Jamie Lee’s got moves in this one.
Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
A loose killer with a power drill is out for blood in this small California town. Amy Holden Jones’s slasher film brims over with fake-out jump scares, cheeky writing, and several victims. The editing of this movie is slick with so many cuts on sound, creating bridges between the domestic and horrific –– scary movies on TV cut to a killer’s chase, the lethal power drill cuts to a blender mixing strawberry daiquiris.
Scream (1996)
They really pull a fast one on you with Drew Barrymore. Knockout performances from Matthew Lillard, Rose Magowan, and Neve Campbell. A parody, but this slasher film still rattled me the first time I watched it.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Look at that cast of 90s stars: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe. A squad of teens is caught in a violent act. The killer knows what they did last summer and sets out to get them at their seaside town festival. This movie isn’t afraid to off main characters in exciting chase scenes. Great 90s vibe and addition to slasher canon.
Halloween (2018)
A very contemporary update to slasher movies. Laurie Strode takes no prisoners and stands her ground. A fun response to an old franchise, and I’m personally invested in the next couple installments as they’re filmed locally, in Wilmington.
Serial Slashers
TV shows that sustain the horror week to week
Scream (2015)
I fell into a deep hole of bad TV during a winter in Hokkaido, Japan, and MTV’s Scream series was the centerpiece. Part Riverdale, part Degrassi maybe, Scream is a gloriously dramatic teen soap, full of lying, deceit, affairs, and murder.
American Horror Story 1984 (2019)
I was very into the Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk interpretation of the eighties in their ninth season of American Horror Story. Even the opening credits slap. The aesthetics for this 1980s sleepaway camp are beautifully nightmarish. As is typical for AHS, 1984 spins out of control at the end, but the first few episodes are particularly fun.
Scream Queens (2015)
Murphy and Falchuk hit their slasher stride with their 2015 parody series, Scream Queens. An all-star cast — Jamie Lee Curtis, Emma Roberts, Keke Palmer, Billie Lourd, Abigail Breslin, Lea Michele — along with some stunt cameos — Nick Jonas and Ariana Grande — reprise classic horror moments from Psycho and The Shining. The Red Devil killer stalks a sorority at Wallace University. The tone is on point, and even its most gruesome murders are playfully absurd. I’m terrible at bingeing shows, and this one I finished within days.
Community Requests
Not quite slashers, but too good to pass up.
Psycho (1960)
My mom and I watched Psycho the night before I took my driver’s license test, and it seemed fitting that I would fail after watching Janet Leigh drive anxiously through a tense montage. Psycho is, of course, a classic, modern horror film. For class, I just read Benjamin Percy’s craft book, Thrill Me, and he discussed how the film’s most famous shower scene makes 52 cuts in 45 seconds. Artfully crafted and Hitchcock at his prime, Psycho is a great place to start for people new to horror.
Suspiria (1977)
One of Dario Argento’s most beloved films, the original Suspiria is a tight, technicolor nightmare of witches, dances, razor wire, and a dreamy score by Goblin. Luca Guadagnino’s remake rebuffs the original’s concision and color palette for an unwieldy new mythology, but you can’t go wrong with Argento’s take.
It Follows (2014)
If you sleep with someone who has “it,” pass it on or die. David Robert Mitchell’s imaginative film It Follow sunpacks our anxieties with sexuality and STIs through a haunting synth soundtrack, a bold new monster, and uncanny anachronisms
