The Slasher Revival of 2018
Much like its iconic antagonists, the slasher subgenre has been resurrected this year.
2018 may be known as the year the slasher film was reborn for this generation. In addition to the two wide-released horror films that fit perfectly into the slasher subgenre this fall, we may be seeing many more in the years to come.
In the 70s and 80s, a slew of horror films featuring young teenagers getting brutally murdered by masked figures with bladed tools were released and gobbled up by the public. Most featured horny teenagers smoking weed, drinking alcohol, and having sex before meeting their untimely deaths at the hands of a wackjob psychopath. They could be set at camps, in suburban neighborhoods, or inside a mine. The killers used anything, from kitchen knives to machetes, pick-axes to chainsaws, hammers to gloves with knife fingers.
As the sequels to the seminal first films found themselves in a steady decline both critically and commercially, the slasher subgenre began to fade away. Then, in the mid-90’s, Scream was released. Directed by A Nightmare on Elm Street filmmaker Wes Craven, Scream was a decidedly scary and funny new take on the genre, with characters seemingly aware of the conventions that had befallen the genre. It had a love for the slasher genre, but poked fun at it nonetheless. It became a runaway success.
That being said, one can only go so far with meta-gags, and by the new millenium, the slasher genre once again fell into the conventions that had gutted them before. Film studios looked at these failures, and, as usual, learned the wrong lessons from them. Suddenly, there was an onslaught of dull, toothless PG-13 slasher films (some remakes, some “original”) that were marketed to a larger audience. These films failed to land with horror fanatics, who called them out for being pale shadows of their predecessors. They also didn’t do well with their target audiences (teenagers), who forgot them almost instantly after leaving the theater. A handful of ill-fated R-rated reboots were released, but none managed to recapture the cultural zeitgeist of the 80s horror craze.
The slasher genre was nothing if not dead, resigned to being spoofed Scream-style in video-on-demand indie films and television shows that had a lot of love for the genre, but brought nothing new to the table. Slashers had been slashed from the mainstream.
Entering into 2018, Blumhouse announced a “reimagining” of Halloween (1978) from the minds behind such films as Pineapple Express and Your Highness. This was met with a mixture of skepticism and intrigue from the public, and in the case of this writer, indifference. The inclusion of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode hadn’t helped other sequels, and the mythos of Michael Myers had become so convoluted, another film seemed destined to fail. After many sequels that hadn’t come close to capturing the magic of the original 1978 film, what was going to make this film any different?
Footage of this new iteration of Halloween was shown on April 25, 2018, during CinemaCon to a positive reaction. The trailer appeared online in June to acclaim from the horror community and beyond. It was a decidedly feminist take on the material, with a promised showdown between Laurie Strode and The Shape forty years in the making. A panel at San Diego Comic Con in July only accelerated the hype train. A slasher film was in the mainstream consciousness in a big way.
At the end of September, a slasher film with not as much hype was released in theaters. Hell Fest followed a group of teens with varying degrees of character development being terrorized by a masked man in a horror theme park. While it didn’t fare as well critically or commercially, there was no denying that it had a feminist energy to it, much like the new Halloween film.
Unfortunately, Hell Fest came and went silently through theaters, barely in the peripheral view of the public eye. The countdown to October 19th began, as people waited eagerly for the Michael Myers return to the cineplex. Early screenings of the film at festivals continued to push the hype train ahead at an alarming pace. The excitement would surely wear off before the film was released to theaters, right?
Wrong. Halloween roared into theaters and made $76.2 million in its opening weekend, the highest opening weekend for a slasher film, even adjusted for inflation. At the time of this writing, the film boasts a 79% fresh critic score and a 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s currently sitting at a B+ CinemaScore, and managed to easily top the box office in its second weekend, pulling in (at the time of this writing) an estimated $32 million.
Many think pieces and discussions have appeared online. The film has its flaws, and doesn’t manage to capture the decidedly lightning-in-a-bottle experience of the original. That being said, the film is a fun and effective horror film that sits firmly in the slasher subgenre. It plays like The Force Awakens for horror fans, slathering on the fan service in a film that is by and large, a greatest hits compilation of the earlier films — albeit with a feminist twist.
What makes Halloween such a hit? It could be the return of Curtis as Laurie Strode. It could be that it was released closer to its namesake holiday, and therefore was more in demand than previous films. It could be the impressive marketing campaign that sold a film about female empowerment. It’s probably a combination of all these things.
Now, does one film doing well mean a whole genre will be resurrected? No, but consider the following. Robert Englund recently reprised his role as Freddy Krueger on The Goldbergs, causing fans of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise to watch a show they had previously never seen (though, one questions why they hadn’t yet). Robert Englund himself has expressed interest in returning to the role for one final film, backed up by Adam Goldberg himself. A (controversial) Child’s Play reboot is currently in the works with Aubrey Plaza attached to star. Just this week, news broke of LeBron James producing a reboot of Friday the 13th. To top it all off, Jordan Peele, writer and director of the modern horror classic Get Out, is producing a new Candyman film. If that doesn’t look like a resurrection of the genre to you, I don’t know what would.
