1.TEENAGE WASTELAND: THE DYING ART OF STALK N' SLASH
www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/hysterialives/Hysteria/teenage_wasteland.htm
2.MY NIGHT WITH TOM SAVINI
www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/hysterialives/Hysteria/my_night_with_tom_savini.htm
Extract :
"I've always thought that there are great similarities between directing horror and directing comedy. With both, you're building up tension and curiosity. The audience is asking, 'what possibly could the punchline be here?' It's the exploitation of tension and that's what horror is all about. You've got to create a situation that's unbearably tense and the audience knows that something's going to happen. That the guy in the black is suddenly going to leap into the frame. It's a very unifying thing in a cinema" These are the words of Wes Craven, director of the 1984 movie A Nightmare on Elm Street. Some would say he is one of the initiators of the horror/slasher genre that spurned a flurry of unnecessary sequels and myriad clones. Others would say that he helped implement a level of excellence on the teen horror flick that was only ever reached again recently. Horror films are designed to invoke our worst hidden fears and to draw out our human insecurities that lie deep within. Horror effectively focuses on the strange and forbidden side of life that alarms us. They deal with our most basic instincts of fear and survival: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our fear of the unknown, of death and our loss of identity.
Good Stephen King Essay here :
www.oppapers.com/term-papers/50806.html
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Nightmare on Elm Street
Essay written by Anonymous
At a time when the stalker movie had been exploited to all ends and the image of mute, staggering, vicious killers had been etched into society’s consciousness to the point of exhaustion, a new kid entered the block. The year was 1984 and it was time for a new villain to enter into the horror genre. A villain that was agile, intelligent, almost inviolable yet viscous, and by all means deadly. A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced the distinctive presence of Fred Krueger to the horror industry and to the audience. Freddy Krueger took the center stage and with him a new era of horror films began. This horribly scarred man who wore a ragged slouch hat, dirty red-and-green striped sweater, and a glove outfitted with knives at the fingers reinvented the stalker genre like no other film had. Fred Krueger breathed new life into the dying horror genre of the early 1980’s.
Horror films are designed to frighten the audience and engage them in their worst fears, while captivating and entertaining at the same time. Horror films often center on the darker side of life, on what is forbidden and strange. These films play with society’s fears, its nightmare’s and vulnerability, the terror of the unknown, the fear of death, the loss of identity, and the fear of sexuality. Horror films are generally set in spooky old mansions, fog-ridden areas, or dark locales with unknown human, supernatural or grotesque creatures lurking about. These creatures can range from vampires, madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts, monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, satanic villains, the possessed, werewolves and freaks to the unseen and even the mere presence of evil.
Within the genre of horror films falls the sub-genre of teen slasher/stalker films. These teen slasher/stalker films take the horror genre film characteristics into account, however they add more to the formula. More violence, sadism, brutality, and graphic blood and gore are used to increase the terror factor. Sexuality and gratuitous nudity are also key characteristic of many of these films. Imitations and numerous sequels are also a common characteristic of teen slasher/stalker films as well.
A Nightmare on Elm Street and all of the following six sequels fall into its own sub-genre of the teen slasher/stalker sub-genre as well, know as the Nightmare on Elm Street Series. This series of films adds a new dimension to the typical teen slasher/stalker film, depth of character and story. The characters are not there only to be killed, but rather they have distinct personalities, they are independent and intelligent, particularly the female lead characters. The killer, Fred Krueger, as well is not only there to murder his victims. He displays a great amount of wit, sarcasm and intelligence. The audience comes away with a knowledge of each of the characters individual personalities. The storyline takes on a greater depth as well. The story goes beyond the simple gore and focuses more on the psychological terror that lies within and scares society the most. The line between nightmare and reality becomes blurred and the terror is allowed to build up, which results in a tremendous amount of suspense.
Horror films developed over a century ago and have come from a number of different sources: folktales, witchcraft, fables, myths, and ghost stories. The first horror movie was made by Georges Melies, titled The Devil’s Castle (1896). Another of the early influential films was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). The shadowy, dream-nightmarish quality of this film was brought to Hollywood in the 1920’s and continued on into the horror films of the 1930’s. Horror entered into the Dracula and Frankenstein era during the early 1930’s. The studios took stories of European vampires and mad scientists and created some of the most iconic beings ever known on the screen. Dracula films and sequels were less successful than many of the Frankenstein sequels. Many of the films in the horror genre from the mid 1930’s to the 1950’s were B-grade films, inferior sequels, or low budget gimmick films. During the 1950’s most of the films were cheaply made, drive-in teenage oriented films. To counter the popularity of television, experiments with 3-Dimensional films were made. These low budget films helped to keep the horror genre alive when the larger Hollywood studios turned away. Horror films branched out in all different directions in the 1960’s and afterward. Film censorship was on the decline and directors began to frankly portray horror in ordinary circumstances and seemingly innocent settings. Alfred Hitchcock brought out his most horrific film, Psycho, at the start of the decade, which changed the face of horror films. In 1968, the MPAA created a new ratings system with G, M, R, X ratings in part to the violent themes of horror films. In the 1970’s the horror genre was subjected to far more violence as well as blood and gore. Slasher films, in which the victims were stalked and killed by mortal or immortal psychopaths, also became popular during this decade, with films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978). This trend carried through to the 1980’s as well with films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th , with the sequels to these films carrying them throughout the rest of the decade and into the 1990’s. During the 1990’s Wes Craven, the writer and director of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, has been credited with bringing the horror genre back to life with films like Scream. The characters in these films are now aware of the history of the slasher horror film and know all the rules. “They survive the movie based on their ability to outguess the twists of the formulas in which they are trapped” (Mast, Kawin, 553).
The horror genre, as well as slasher/stalker genre, and The Nightmare on Elm Street genre have been influenced by Expressionism, rendering inner states as aspects of the outer world. “Masks, madness, and shadows come together in the Expressionist horror film, where the threatening figure is often uncontrollably destructive, sexually aggressive, masked or in heavy makeup, and acting out some culturally repressed impulse” (Kawin, 94).
A Nightmare on Elm Street was written and directed by Wes Craven. The movie was released in 1984 and challenged the typical slasher genre film of the time in many aspects. The movie begins with the haunting children’s song, “One, two Freddy’s coming for you /Three, four, better lock your door / Five, six grab your crucifix / Seven,eight gonna stay up late / Nine, ten never sleep again.” A teenage girl wanders around a dark boiler room in only her nightgown, as a screeching is heard as knives are scratched against the pipes. A badly burned man wearing a dirty hat and striped sweater with knives for finger grabs her from behind and she then wakes up screaming in her bed, it was only a dream. Not long after this, the same girl is in another dream where she is being chased by the same man, he catches her in the dream and in reality she is thrown around the room in a state of unconsciousness and stabbed repeatedly by an attacker that can only be seen in her dream.
The film is already different from the typical slasher/stalker film in that the terror is taking place in both the dream state, as well as in reality. The basic plot resembles other slasher films in that a scary, strange entity is stalking teens in order to kill them. The setting is dark and spooky with a foggy appearance. As in many horror films a character who is thought to be one of the main characters is killed off early on and that is where the similarities end. The plot of this film gives a reason as to why Fred Krueger is after these teenagers. The parents of these teens who live on Elm Street had gotten together, captured him and burned him alive because he had gotten out of jail, charged with murdering children, on a technicality. Now as his revenge he must kill the children of all the parents that were involved in his murder, by stalking them in their dreams. By making Freddy Krueger the result of a dark secret in the neighborhood, the motivation is much deeper than the average slasher film. Although Freddy is a horrible villain, his crimes existed in the past. The teenagers parents are now responsible for the reawakening of the terror because they committed an act just as horrible and as a result, their children must now pay for their sins.
The nightmare world is connected to reality, which effects the visual style of the film. This allows for anything to happen, there are no limitations. While other villains are restricted to real world laws of physics, Freddy Krueger can do anything when looking for people in their dreams. There are no physical limitations to what he can do. This also allows the filmmakers to do things in terms of effects that had not been done before, such as when Freddy pushes through the wall and knocks the crucifix over Tina’s bed onto the floor. Weaving the reality sequences with the dream sequences so that the audience did not know which was which also had an impact on the visual style of the film. Some of the dreams appeared so realistic that when it was cut to reality or switched back into a nightmare it added even more surprise to the where the story was.
The characters in this film are also very different from the typical characters in a slasher horror film. These characters have personalities and are intelligent. Nancy ,the female lead character, is a particularly strong character in the film. She is not about to let herself be killed by Freddy. She fights back by trying to stay awake drinking coffee and taking caffeine pills. She also discovers ways to go into the dream state and learn about it without being killed. She even manages to find a possible way to bring Freddy into reality from a dream and sets him up to be killed. Nancy redefines the role of a victim in this genre of film. She does not just run from the attacker to get away, nor does she try and hide from him. Rather she goes right into the killers world announces that she’s there by screaming out “Krueger, I’m here”, captures him herself by going after him, fights back and destroys Krueger for the time being by not fearing him and standing up to him.
Freddy Krueger also redefines the typical role of a killer in this film. The typical stalker was one that never spoke, was unimaginative, and vicious, that captured their victim by chasing them down to a dead end. While Krueger is scary and dangerous, it is his wit and intelligence that really come through. He has a brain and knows how to use it, he uses all the tricks of the trade to lure his victims to him and is very cunning while he does it. He uses sarcasm and plays with the minds of the victims, for example when Krueger transforms himself into a high school girl hall monitor and asks Nancy where her hall pass is. This is not the typical image one would have of a killer but this lets the audience know that he is lurking about just waiting to make his move.
The film also deals with certain thematic concerns, such as the role of parents and the police in society. The parents in this movie are not interested in what their children are telling them. Nancy’s mother, who is an alcoholic, won’t believe her when Nancy tells her about Freddy. Nancy’s father, a police officer, doesn’t show up to help Nancy when she brings Freddy out of her dream into reality, even though he said he would be there. Nancy believes that something might happen to Rod while he is in jail and she asks the police to check on him. The police don’t check up on Rod and he is murdered in his cell by Krueger. The parents feel that there is no problem because they think that they solved the problem by killing Krueger themselves. The parents won’t listen to their kids, which is a common theme in many movies.
A Nightmare on Elm Street adds to the horror genre, by bringing into light the psychological aspect of horror, which can be much scarier than blood and gore. It brought a new perspective to the typical horror movie and allowed for serious character development. Therefore, it became possible to battle the killer, it became an issue of the mind, not over who was bigger or stronger. The movie gave motives for the plot and made it interesting and intelligent It also made a connection between what society fears and the reality of those fears.
In an time when the horror film had become little more than a mindless game of cat and mouse, with excessive amounts of blood and gore, Wes Craven brought hope to the genre. A Nightmare on Elm Street intelligently probed into the audience’s fear of nightmares and combines that with the fear of being trapped within a nightmare in order to create a very intelligent thought-provoking movie that helped to redefine the horror genre.
Bibliography
Brown, Gene. Movie Time, A Chronology of Hollywood and the Movie Industry from Its Beginnings to the Present. Macmillan Company, 1995.
Mast, Gerald and Bruce Kawin. A Short History of the Movies, Seventh Edition, Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
Kawin, Bruce. How Movies Work, University of California Press, 1992.
The Blue Iris writes :
As much as I dislike certain aspects of living in New Jersey (the traffic, the dense population, the way people assume I say things like "New Joisey"--that's North Jersey!) there are still a few things to keep a lifelong horror fan from going nuts from all the nothing there is to do. One is ChillerCon, which doesn't come around often enough because I'm always stuck in some prior obligation when it does, and then there are the people from Exhumed Films, housed most of the time at the Harwan Theater in Mt. Ephraim, but who are now moving to another location nearby, at least temporarily (check out their website for more info). EF has made the summers in New Jersey more tolerable with Friday night double features of the movies you can only find at the video store or on Ebay. So far this season, they've presented Creepshow/Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, House by the Cemetery/Shock, and Fright Night/Near Dark. Last summer they invited Bruce Campbell to introduce and talk about Evil Dead 2 as well as sign autographs and answer audience questions. He was a good sport, despite the constant dumbass questions like "When is Evil Dead 4 coming out?" (it's not) and "When are they going to write Evil Dead 4?" (they aren't). Especially after expounding for 20 minutes on his busy career in television and non-horror movies, people will still only hear what they want to hear and that's how we end up with dumbass questions. (I should also point out that in the summer, the Harwan gets to be about 9,000 degrees so everyone's patience is a little shorter and tolerance is a lot lower--except for the stars themselves.) Tom Savini was their latest guest, appearing June 2 to introduce and talk about his version of Night of the Living Dead. And, oh yes fright fans, it was very, very cool…and there were PLENTY of dumbass questions.
With disposable camera in hand, my man and I got in line around 9:15, despite the fact that the movies don't really start until 10:30 (and they don't REALLY really start until well after 11) but I knew from the Bruce Campbell appearance that people would be coming out of the woodwork to see a celebrity. Luckily there were only about 10 people in line when we got there--until a whole crowd of people showed up who were apparently friends of the people directly in front of us and suddenly there were about 30 people in front of us. (Note to people who do that--the people behind you DON'T like when you do that and yes, we ARE making fun of you.) Soon though, the linecutters were forgotten as who should come walking around the corner but the Wizard of Gore himself, Tom Savini. He asked for a cigarette and made his way down the line, stopping to chat, shaking hands, and taking a photo with one nervous Jersey girl who has been a fan since she was little, bonding with her dad over Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow. The first thing that entered my mind when I saw him standing in front of me was "I thought he'd be taller." The second thing was "Wow, here's a nice guy and he's making a lot of fans really happy when he could be off in Hollywood hanging with celebrities."
After a while he went inside to sign autographs and sell some videos, books, and photos. He signed everything you asked him to though, not just his own merchandise. And he didn't charge to autograph other things you brought in, unlike some celebrities who shall remain nameless ("dadadadadada Batman!"😉. One guy had him sign all four of his Zombie Dawn of the Dead action figures, including "Motorcycle Man" who is really Tom Savini's character from the film but with hands, as he put it, "bigger than the Creature from the Black Lagoon's". I bought his first special effects how-to book, including how he did the great effects in The Burning, Friday the 13th, Creepshow, and, one of my personal favorites, Maniac. After a while, he got up in front of the screen and talked a little about some NOTLD little-known facts. He told us to notice the scene in which Barbara has fled the cemetery in the beginning and has lost her shoes on the way. He wanted Patricia Tallman to run in one take from the woods to the barn, then up to the main house, which would require her to run across a gravel and stone strewn yard. His solution? When she runs and leans against a haystack to "catch her breath", it's actually to allow someone off-screen to put shoes on her to prevent her from cutting up her feet. When that scene in the film shows up, it's amazing how obvious it is that someone's putting shoes on her, but damned if I never noticed before. He gave away other little trivia bits, like how Laurence Fishburne and Eriq LaSalle both auditioned for the part of Ben, but lost to Tony Todd. Then he left the stage until after the movie.
Anyone who's ever been to Exhumed Films' nights knows that the best part of the evening isn't the double features or celebrity guests--it's the previews. Films that are hard to find if not lost in a vault entirely somewhere, but their trailers remain to give us all a laugh and make us reminisce about the past. Some that I've seen are real riots, like "The Embalmer!" (When you spell terror, it's spelled "THE EMBALMER!"😉, Three Tough Guys (starring Isaac Hayes AND Lino Ventura!), and Dracula's Dog (See it's eyes glow! Like a doberman with someone shining a flashlight in its face!) Others are films I would love to see on the big screen--Suspiria, The Prowler, and Return of the Living Dead. We all applaud them, partially to acknowledge the classics and partially because, well, most of them are so damn funny we just have to applaud. After NOTLD, Tom came back onstage to answer questions--and that's when we got some real howlers. All of the fans who are the models for the Comic Book Store Guy on the Simpsons were out in droves last night. We had questions like "How did you feel when Joe Spinell died after Maniac?" (how the hell are you supposed to feel when a friend dies suddenly?) and "I heard you were in Vietnam.", but Tom gamely answered everything. We really got to know a little more about the man behind the makeup, and I got to ask a question of my own, which I guess someone else might think is a dumbass question, but we all have our opinions. I asked what it was like to work with Dario Argento on Trauma and if he planned on collaborating with him in the future. From the reply I got, he doesn't have any plans but would work again with Dario "in a minute." He then went on to excitedly describe the personality of my favorite Italian horror director as a lot of fun, full of energy, as just a very sweet man. He revealed Dario's passion for playing with Tom's upright video arcade games, and I was just really amazed at how different the director of Suspiria and Profondo Rosso is from what I assumed in my head. I assumed he would be dark and serious, possibly scary himself. At least not from Tom's description…he even sounds fun to be around. He said that despite the fact that Dario speaks no English and that he himself hasn't spoken Italian since he was little, they communicate in other ways, either with facial expressions or gestures. I'd also like to add that someone did bring up The Ripper, and Tom apologized again for being in it, and when asked why he did it gave an answer I think I can accept more than if he'd said he'd found it to be worthwhile--"They gave me a whole lot of money for a few hours work" was the basic gyst of his reason. So, the blame lies elsewhere, for the most part. Tom was largely not responsible for it, although as he reminded us, "Everyone [in this business] has a 'Ripper' in their lives…even Rick Baker has 'Octaman'." Point taken…
By the time the Q&A session was over, it was well after 2 a.m. and we decided we should go. I had my photos, my autographed book, and a memory of my night with Tom Savini that I couldn't wait to share with all my horror friends. If you're in New Jersey and a horror fan, there is hope for you yet because you don't have to go anywhere near the boardwalk to have fun on the weekends! And Justin, I've got a seat saved for you when you get to America again…next up, City of the Walking Dead and Man from Deep River, Italian cheese at its finest. See you there…
Relevant Links:
Exhumed Films (the site for the people who put on these great shows)
Savini.com (the official site of the great man himself!)
Slasher Film Essay by Justin Kerswell
Page 1 :
"There's more than one way to loose your heart!" - MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)
"John will never eat shish kebab again!" - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)
"It's not human... and it's got an axe!" - THE PREY (1980)
...if you are anything like me, the above taglines, from early 80's slasher movies, will fill you with a warm sense of nostalgia; rather than the camp terror they were designed to induce. And without meaning to descend into sappy sentimentality, I can't help but recall my yearning, stolen glances at the poster for FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART 2 (1981)- the one with the silhouette of Jason holding the bloody axe, as my school bus passed by the local Odeon. Nor can I help indulge in a bit of moist eyed reminiscing ( the kind usually reserved for a dear long departed pet), for the illicit afternoon spent in front of the television, as a monolithic Betamax VCR whirred; transfixed by the dubious pleasures of HALLOWEEN II (1981)- the first 'X' rated horror film I ever saw!
In the intervening years, between then and now, my taste for the genre has broadened considerably- embracing everything, from Val Lewton, to Walerian Borowcyk, to the low-fi terrors of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT; but I always come back to my first love- the slasher movie. The reasons why I continue to be seduced by its cheesy charms, and why I've dedicated a whole website to them (HYSTERIA!- which you can (plug!, plug!) find at: www.south-over.demon.co.uk/ ),are legion. Alan Jones, in his excellent NEKROFILE: CINEMA OF THE EXTREME, said of the FRIDAY THE 13TH series, "I adore [them]... I love their stripped-to-basics formula splatter approach with the odd twist here, and the strange quirk there, to keep the addicted NEKROFILE on their toes. I get off on the lethal predictability almost... You go in knowing you'll see nothing new, yet that's all part of their charm. Comfort Horror."; and I guess that goes part of the way to explaining why I'll always get a kick out of watching movies which, as Neve Campbell puts it in SCREAM (1996) "[feature] some stupid killer stalking some big breasted girl, who can't act, who's always running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door."
"You gotta see the dress I got. Cut down to there, split up to here. I may not get out alive!"
- sadly prophetic words for a teen gearing up for Valentine Bluff's first Valentines dance in 20 years, from MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)
The film which initiated the cycle of slasher movies which dominated the horror genre in the early 80's, was John Carpenter's box-office smash HALLOWEEN (1978); the story of the night "HE came home". Combining many elements (including the soon to become famous opening tracking shot of the house), from BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974); utilising the lean shock tactics of Dario Argento's gialli; and using the blank faced killer from Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964), as the inspiration for his murderous 'shape'- Michael Myers; Carpenter crafted a sublime chiller. It was a hit with the critics; Richard Combs in the February 1979 issue of the 'BFI Monthly Film Bulletin' called it, "...one of the cinema's most perfectly engineered devices for saying 'Boo'!" It is a flawlessly stream-lined thriller, stripped of narrative flab it proved the old axiom that, especially in this case, less was definitely more. However, eager for a repeat of the film's box-office gold, the 'cookie-cutter' imitations soon started to appear (including a cheeky Australian entry originally called SNAPSHOT (1979), which changed its title to DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN; fooling some people into thinking it was an official sequel!). Carpenter's film was easily imitated, but never bettered. Film makers were quick to realise that nothing more could be stripped away from its lean formula, so subsequently they went the other way- expanding the film's more exploitative aspects, upping the ante with extra gore and t&a; and adding superfluous plot. Critical reaction to them quickly cooled. Paradoxically, as American cinema became ever more explicitly violent, the media and pressure groups began to question the effect this was having on society. There began a process of demonisation; violent films, and at the time the majority of violent films were slasher movies, were blamed for an array of ills. By the time FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) (which was a loose remake of Mario Bava's BLOOD BATH (1971)), hit our screens the critical response was downright hostile. After much outrage in the States that such a violent movie had been passed with an R-rating, the influential critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert seethed, "These movies are absolutely beneath contempt." They promptly initiated a campaign to ruin the film's box-office by, firstly, giving away the film's ending; then suggesting a letter campaign against Paramount Pictures for lowering themselves to handling such a picture; and starting a similar one against Betsy Palmer, who could normally found in has-been heaven on Celebrity Squares, for daring to play the homicidal Mrs Voorhees. They failed in their attempts to ruin the film; it did boffo box office. Paradoxically, here in England, then head of the BBFC- James Ferman, was in an uncharacteristically generous mood; explaining why he let the film through unscathed he said, "The murders were so far fetched, with knife blades coming up through beds into somebody, that it was clearly unreal." Then adding, "The nice thing about fantasy is all the time you can keep reminding yourself, "I can't get hurt, no one's going to get hurt, it's just make believe."" But although Siskel and Ebert lost the battle, they pretty much won the war; the MPAA (the US film classification board) took such a rap on the knuckles over FRIDAY THE 13TH, that most subsequent slasher movies had to loose a great deal of their gory mayhem to secure an R-rating; and it was the FRIDAY THE 13TH movies, beginning with the first sequel, which were treated most severely. In turn it was generally these truncated, anaemic versions that made it to the UK; and thus there wasn't much left for the BBFC to cut out (not that, that stopped them trying when it came to home video a few years later!) The slasher movie was, by this point, regularly referred to as the absolute nadir of the genre by critics and a good deal of horror enthusiasts alike; and although they continued to make money, the rot had set in. The majority of them were critically mauled; in the September 1981 issue of 'Films on Screen and Video', Eric Braun, during an emotive (for all the wrong reasons) review of HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, states, that film and others of its ilk were (somewhat improbably), responsible for the decline in British cinemagoing; he whined: "The systematic killing, unhappily, seems to extend to the cinemas on Rank's doomed list, which are being quite inevitably emptied by a constant diet of this kind of nonsense... Please mourn with me the unhappy demise of many splendid halls of entertainment." By 1982, the sub-genre seemed to be dead in the water- certainly as far a major studio financed slasher movies went; and apart the increasingly dry FRIDAY movies, the mad slashers had to relegate their sordid activities to a different medium- the emerging phenomenon of home video.
The sub-genre found a whole new life-blood with the boom of this new technology; and in the case of the 1981 slasher THE BURNING, quite literally so, as THORN EMI accidentally released the film uncut in October 1982 (much to the their eventual embarrassment); complete with the 15 seconds that the BBFC removed to qualify for its 'X'-rated cinema run. It seemed for a while that the gore-slasher movie hybrid might be having the last laugh. Free from the BBFC's meddling censorship it flourished, sharing the limelight with the even less reputable Nazi and Cannibal sub-genres, as horror took over from porn as the biggest money maker in video's pioneer days. Most of the bigger budget, studio made slasher movies appeared on video in their tame cut versions, but the smaller, fly-by-night outfits released low budget efforts that by-passed British cinemas (and hence BBFC censorship)- films like PRANKS (1981) (which is better known in the US as THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD); or beefed them up, doing on purpose what THORN EMI had done accidentally- Romano Scavolini's visceral NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN (1981), being a good example; David Hamilton Grant, the film's UK distributor, infamously reinstated the 60 seconds the BBFC cut for its theatrical run and got a six month prison sentence as thanks when the film was successfully prosecuted on obscenity charges. The brief respite for the slasher movie came to a sensationalised end as many of the movies were yanked from video stores up and down the country; as the media and politically fuelled 'video-nasty' hysteria took hold. By 1984 mainstream cinema was comparatively free of the slasher movie, all apart from the fourth FRIDAY THE 13TH, which was ostensibly the series' parting shot. The sub-genre that had stubbornly refused to die, finally seemed to breathe its last with the release of a irredeemably misanthropic, redundant piece of zero-talent trash called SPLATTER UNIVERSITY (1984)- the moment when the slasher movie really reached its true nadir; and the cycle which had lasted from 1978 to 1984 pretty much petered out.
Continued in next post...........................
(page two)
But everyone knows that one of the cardinal rules of the slasher movie is: it doesn't matter how dead something looks, don't rule out an impromptu resurrection. And, just as the death-rattle was sounding, Wes Craven released his A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1985); a clever, scary little teens-in-peril movie, which had enough of a twist to interest jaded audiences; and made an unlikely anti-hero out of a scarred, undead child murderer. This was, however, only a brief respite. Pretty quickly as the 80's wore on, horror became a neon mess of big hair and latex. Apart from a few gems like Michele Soavi's stylish slasher/giallo STAGEFRIGHT (1987), the sub-genre was relegated to barrel scraping, straight-to-video sequels of films that barely played cinemas in the first place- SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II (1987) anyone? How about SLEEPAWAY CAMP 3: UNHAPPY CAMPERS (1989)? Thought not.... A few elements of the sub-genre made their way into mainstream thrillers like JAGGED EDGE (1985) and FATAL ATTRACTION (1987); but by the early 90's the whole thing was just so completely mired in cliché and over-familiarity as to seem to be irretrievably redundant.
However, 1996 saw the coming of an unexpected saviour for the sub-genre in screen-writer Kevin Williamson. Deftly directed by horror veteran Wes Craven, SCREAM (1996) was a hip, post-modern updating of the slasher movies from the early 80's; ( which was, incidentally, financed by Miramax Films- whose very first movie was THE BURNING). It was reverential satire as opposed to out-right farce. Williamson, who was a fan of the sub-genre and was quoted as saying, "HALLOWEEN was my CITIZEN KANE", insisted it was played straight; arguing that it had to also be scary to succeed. And succeed it did riding on the wave of 80's nostalgia, the film was a massive hit (taking over $100 million at the US box-office), with both adult audiences (who reminisced their misspent youth), and teenagers (for many it was the first horror pic they'd seen at the cinema). Despite being a cause-celebre, the stigma associated with the film being a slasher movie was apparent from the off (it was originally promoted as a 'thriller'😉; Neve Campbell balked at suggestions that she was a Jamie Lee Curtis for the 90's- "I really don't want the comparison", she moaned; and Skeet Ulrich was quick to point out that "I don't really think of Scream as a horror film"- let alone a slasher flick.
Just like in the months after the release of HALLOWEEN it seemed inevitable a slew of SCREAM wannabes would follow. First out of the gate was another movie based on a Williamson screenplay- I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1997), a curiously subdued affair, with a hook handed killer, attempted to re-invent the teen-slasher without the self-referencing of SCREAM; but using the same (cheap) device of peppering the movie with teen TV stars. It succeeded, at least at the box-office, where it made a staggering $72 million in the US alone. And, again repeating the pattern from the early 80's, the sequels began to appear post-haste- starting with SCREAM 2 (1997); which used the ultimate get out clause by conforming to its central ironic observation that sequels suck. It wasn't too bad, but seemed more intent on satirising the first film, rather than the dorm-slashers like FINAL EXAM (1981) and HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW (1982), to which it merely paid lip service to. More movies followed, URBAN LEGEND (1998) (which EMPIRE magazine rather stupidly berated for not being SCREAM-like enough); HALLOWEEN H20 (1998) (where, if Neve Campbell didn't want to be the next Jamie Lee Curtis, then Curtis herself proved happy to oblige); and the sequel I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1998) (which included the awesome moment where a karaoke machine was used as an instrument of terror- I adored the film; but understand that I'm in a slim minority!). By now it was clear to see that film makers had been very selective in what they borrowed from the previous cycle of films; strong female heroines were still mandatory (and in the case of SCREAM's Sidney, retained the earlier film's habit of giving the female protagonists masculine names ); but were pretty much missing the t&a/sleaze angle that the FRIDAY THE 13TH sequels thrived on; and, with the exception of perhaps I STILL KNOW, they avoided the gorier excesses of some of the earlier entries. Despite being what could be seen as slasher-lite these films shared one major thing with the early 80's flicks- controversy. In Britain, the 'voice' of Michael Myers which was blamed for sending Robert Sartin on his fatal killing spree in 1990, was just one of the factors from slasher movies which were spuriously blamed for violent crime; the media was also instrumental in perpetuating the myth that the CHILD'S PLAY movies had anything to do with the murder of James Bulger. Their knack of not letting the truth interfere in a good, salacious story and their pathological obsession with the effects of violence in the movies had clearly not deserted them; and quickly the 90's slasher boom (specifically SCREAM 2) found itself mired by similar accusations of turning previously normal teenagers into homicidal maniacs. At the time of the Columbine School massacre, earlier this year, it was widely regarded as 'un-American' to go and see the horror (all-be-it not slasher) movie that was on release at the time- IDLE HANDS (1999), stiffed as a result.
It was not just the increasing concern over violence in movies that hurt the newly revitalised sub-genre; being regarded as a fad didn't do it any favours either. The cyclical nature of Hollywood is increasingly rapid these days; and fashions come and go with alarming regularity. What had been press darlings in 1996/97 were now regarded with open hostility by the press; or at best complete apathy. Another sure sign that the sub-genre was on the wane was the announcement that Miramax were going to do an all-out spoof, SCREAM IF YOU KNOW WHAT I DID LAST HALLOWEEN (1999) (which is released in the States on October 29th); it neatly mirrors slasher-spoofs WACKO, STUDENT BODIES (both 1981) and PANDEMONIUM (1982), which sounded the death knell for the sub-genre back in the early 80's. Surprisingly the SCREAM era films haven't initiated a series of cheap straight-to-video rip-offs; only THE CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT (1998) coming to mind. Other sure signs of its demise are the announcements that, after the relatively poor box-office of I STILL KNOW, there will be no I'LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER; and the disappearance of a mooted remake of the Jamie Lee Curtis teenie-kill favourite TERROR TRAIN (1979). At the box-office only the fittest will survive and, just like the mid to late 80's, it will be mostly sequels for the various successful franchises. By the time you read this the troubled SCREAM 3 will have finished shooting (Kevin Williamson walked from the project at the 11th hour; being replaced by, the aptly named, Ehren Kruger); the film which follows Neve Campbell's character to Hollywood where she is an understudy to a bitchy horror movie actress where... (well, you can guess the rest), has, somewhat worryingly, been described as, "...more of a psychological thriller, with increased humour". Upcoming sequels include URBAN LEGEND 2; and HALLOWEEN H2K (I can't wait to see how they resurrect old Mikey for this one!). The long promised slasher mega-mix FREDDY VS. JASON has a tentative US release date of Summer 2000, but, seeing as it was originally due for release in December 1997, I wouldn't hold your breath. It's more likely we will see a new FRIDAY THE 13TH sequel before then- JASON X is the title being bandied about. There are a couple new slashers on the way, namely CHERRY FALLS (1999), from the director of ROMPER STOMPER (1992)- the twist here being that a killer is only targeting virgins (debuting in the US in Spring); and CUT (2000), an $12 million Australian entry which pits a group of actors working on a re-opened film project against a homicidal killer- starring (of all people) Kylie Minogue and Molly Ringwald.
So, the sub-genre may be waning somewhat, as the teen-slasher goes out of fashion once again; but, as it has proved before, it's a part of horror's legacy that refuses to lie down and die. Anyone else for a SCREAM revival in 2015?
Relevant Links:
CHAOS MAGAZINE (where this article originally appeared)