Now, we’ve done a lot of lists on
here about slasher movies from that great heyday of the 1980’s. It was the
infamous boom of stalk-n-slash, after all! However, the grand tradition of a
deranged killer knifing their way through a group of hapless teens didn’t die
when that decade ended, no sir! The genre has soldiered on during the
intervening decades, delivering homages, send-ups, love letters, and new
villains to get tattooed on your neck. With this article, let’s take a look at
a few of the good ones!
For the purposes of this list, we
won’t be including any remakes, reboots, or sequels. Michael Myers, Jason
Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger never really left us, but I want to focus on the modern
slasher. You know, scrips that are self-aware and hip! The Scream (1996)
blueprint! So, as always, without further ado…
10
Great Modern Slashers!
10)
Urban Legend (1998) dir. Jamie Blanks
Any time a movie
opens with Brad Dourif, I’m in. Urban Legend is generally
considered to be one of the better tail-end entries in the 90’s “hip” slasher
boom that began with Scream. A bunch of college teens and Jared Leto (oof,
that doesn’t age well) must contend with a killer picking them off in the
manner of various campfire stories á la “the killer is in the backseat!” It also
takes a page from the campus slashers of old and features Robert Englund as a
professor!
9)
Laid to Rest (2009) dir. Robert Hall
Gore FX guru Robert Hall graduates
to director with this low-budge splatter-fest featuring a villain deserving of
being a genre icon. Chromeskull is an enigmatic murderer with a, well… chrome
skull mask. But he also has a video camera on his shoulder to film his kills! The
narrative is lean as it’s essentially just one long chase sequence, but the
violence is remarkably graphic. Effectively, the movie is just a chance for
Hall to show off his practical gore effects skills. That’s not a bad thing though,
because said effects are truly impressive, and the pace never really lets up.
It’s a fine… uh… slice of independent filmmaking.
8)
High Tension (2003) dir. Alexandre Aja
French director Alexandre Aja became
popular in the US with his ultra-gory remakes of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and
Piranha (2010). Before coming to Hollywood though, he let loose with this
example of extreme horror popular in his home country. A young woman staying
with her friend’s family in the country must survive the night when a deranged
killer invades their home. The gore is wince-inducing here, featuring a
handheld buzzsaw and decapition with… *checks notes* a bookshelf?
7)
Hell Fest (2018) dir. Gregory Plotkin
Like Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse
(1981), Hell Fest makes use of the extra-creepy carnival setting as
a backdrop for a masked murderer to do his grisly thing to as many teens as
possible. What makes this installment good is that it is a return to the
simplicity of 80s slashers. No gimmick, no wiser-than-their-years sarcastic
characters, just a creepy location and a bad guy with sharp implements. What’s
not to love?
6)
House of 1000 Corpses (2003) dir. Rob Zombie
When he’s not royally screwing up
the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie actually makes some damned good
movies. His first film concerns the Firefly family, a motley group who like to
murder hapless passersby in the middle of nowhere… essentially The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre but with neon lights and Sid Haig. Zombie creates a truly
demented world as disturbing as the real roadside tourist traps it features. A
harrowing work of art. Oh, and it has a host of familiar faces, including
Walton Goggins, Sheri Moon Zombie, Karen Black, Rainn Wilson, and Bill Moseley!
5)
Hatchet (2006) dir. Adam Green
“Old School American Horror” is the
tagline for this genuinely special homage. Kane “Jason Voorhees” Hodder plays a
modern horror icon in Victor Crowley – the murderous ghost of a deformed backwoods
monstrosity. The Louisiana swamps setting is inspired, and the kills are ludicrously
over the top and gory as hell. On top of that, a healthy dose of irreverent
humor makes the brutality a little less serious, making Hatchet a breezy,
bloody ride. Cameos from Robert Englund and Tony Todd sweeten the deal, so
horror junkies are sure to be in for a treat.
4)
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) dir. Jim Gillespie
Screenwriter Kevin Williamson hit
paydirt with his script for Scream, and immediately set out to write another
smash with his wise-crackin’, hip teens slasher formula. The summer before
college, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillipe, and Sarah Buffy
– er, I mean Michelle – Gellar accidently run over a guy walking in the middle
of the road at night. Instead of calling 911, they dump the body in the ocean.
The next summer, they start receiving mysterious notes claiming knowledge of
what they did and are stalked by a killer in a rain slicker and a big ol’ hook.
While the gore quotient is lower here than pretty much every other entry on
this list, the plot has a timelessness to it that pushes it into iconic
territory. It’s just simply too fun to ignore.
3)
Fear Street (2021) dir. Leigh Janiak
Okay, so this installment is really
THREE movies in one. Fear Street is a slasher trilogy based on R.L.
Stine’s book series. Each installment is subtitled by the year in which it is
set. 1994 is a Scream-styled homage, while 1978 is a
summer camp slasher straight out of Friday the 13th, and 1666
blends the slasher approach with good old fashioned folk horror. All three
films come together to tell an effective, fun, and terrifying tale of witchcraft,
serial killers, and demonic possession. Unmissable. And, for fans of Stranger
Things, 1978 features a show-stealing performance from Sadie Sink.
2)
X (2022) / Pearl (2022) dir. Ti West
Ti West is a horror filmmaker who
has just hit his stride. After his first hits House of the Devil (2009) and
The Innkeepers (2011), he established himself as a director to watch. X
and its consecutively filmed Pearl are quite simply two of the best modern
movies made in the slasher genre. The first, X, is part Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, part Dario Argento. It centers on the untimely demise of
a group of young people in 1979 attempting to make an adult film on a secluded
farm. Mia Goth plays the heroine Maxine and the octogenarian villain
Pearl. Blood and boobs are the order of the day, and it is all done
masterfully. The second film, Pearl, is the villainous backstory via Disney
that we never knew we needed. Mia Goth reprises her role and turns in one of
the best performances in the history of slasher cinema.
1)
Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven
The only reason X isn’t in
the top spot is because it just has to be Scream. It’s rare to find a
movie that holds up this well after twenty-five years, and horror legend Wes
Craven’s tale of horror-obsessed teens, aided by Kevin Williamson’s dynamite
script and firecracker dialogue, remains as thrilling and witty now as it was
in 1996. There isn’t a single weak link in the cast, which includes Neve
Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Matthew
Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, and Drew Barrymore! The film is also bloody as all get-out,
and by the end the red stuff covers practically everything. Naturally, no
rundown would be complete without a mention of Ghostface, a villain that has
deservedly joined the ranks of Michael, Jason, and Freddy as horror royalty. It’s
a love letter to slasher movies that manages to transcend the genre to become a
classic in its own right.
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