Slasher film

The slasher film is a sub-genre of the horror genre. Typically, a masked, psychotic person stalks and graphically kills teenagers or young adults who are away from adult supervision. Slashers are often followed by multiple sequels which steadily decline in quality and fan interest.

Critical analysis

Critic Roger Ebert has taken to calling this genre the "Dead Teenager Movie", the principal cliché of which is that the only teenager to survive is always the virginal girl who declines all of the vices (pot smoking etc.) indulged in by those who end up skewered. And some other films in this genre have explored the sexual morality question from the other angle, drawing metaphorical parallels between sexual repression and the acts of the killer (as in William Lustig's Maniac (1980)).

Related Topics:
Roger Ebert - Sexual morality - William Lustig - Maniac

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Carol J. Clover, in her book Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, identified what she called the "final girl" trope; the heroic young woman who ultimately survives and defeats the killer (at least until the sequel).

Related Topics:
Carol J. Clover - Final girl

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The history of the slasher film has also been explored by Mikita Brottman in her book Offensive Films : Toward an Anthropology of Cinema Vomitif.

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