Another strong contender for “first” slasher, 1974’s Black Christmas gets credit for many of the tropes that the golden age of slashers was best known for. The cynical use of a holiday, archetypal young women in danger, and well-used killer POV shots; while novel at the time, these quickly became standard.  There is one major standard that I’m…

Intended and written as a parody of slasher movies by Rita Mae Brown, The Slumber Party Massacre director Amy Holden Jones made the brilliant decision to film the movie as seriously as possible. The result is a campy, and at times hilarious, take on the genre filtered through the eyes of underrepresented demographic: women. Specifically, well-written women.…

There is a lot of debate over the “first” slasher, and A Bay of Blood gets brought into the discussion for good reason. Packed full of moody, tense atmosphere, brutal kills, and plot twists, it’s one of Bava’s more controversial films. Critics were put off by the excessive gore and weak plot, especially when compared to his…

Known in Spain as La Residencia, The House That Screamed from 1969 is another Psycho-inspired horror movie.  With each iteration on the psychological thriller’s base formula, more extreme themes and gore are introduced, pushing movies like Dementia 13 and The House that Screamed away from thrillers and mysteries, and more solidly into horror.  The themes of abuse of power, control and isolation that…

In 1963, Roger Corman gave a young Francis Ford Coppola the opportunity to direct the low-budget film Dementia 13. Corman was looking for something tonally in line with Psycho, heavy on psychological drama and brutal knife kills. Despite giving creative freedom during filming, Corman was displeased with Coppola’s finished film and required changes to make it releasable.…

Saving the most derivative for last, Valentine is a retro-inspired slasher that hits all the high notes without adding anything new.  While critics called it too much like ‘80s slashers, with the benefit of 24 years of hindsight, the real problem is Valentine isn’t nearly enough like the beloved slashers of the ‘80s. Recap and Review: Spoilers Ahead! Traumatic Past Valentine opens with…

Yes, I’m actually going to cover My Bloody Valentine 3-D and the original in back-to-back weeks. And honestly, I’m doing it for no other reason than it’s one of my favorite horror franchises, and it’s Valentine’s season.  My Blood Valentine 3-D  follows much the same general ideas as the original. After a cave-in, miner Harry Warden snaps…

Happy Valentine’s Season! I’m taking a break from the chronological review of slashers to focus on more seasonal fare, starting with My Bloody Valentine. For this review I’m watching the unrated, almost-director’s-cut of My Bloody Valentine from Scream Factory.   To get this out of the way, this is not an unbiased review, although I will try my best. My…

Just to be clear, And Then There Were None is not a slasher movie, at least not in this interpretation of the story. It is a well-known murder mystery that uses elements that later become tropes in slashers and other horror movies.  The aspects of the story that are most interesting to me in the…

Released in 1932, Thirteen Women will be the oldest film I cover on here, at least for a while. Based on a best-selling novel written by Tiffany Thayer, this pre-Hayes Code film is a violent tale of revenge, racism, and female fury.  I’ve made no secret over my love of all kinds of slashers. It’s…