Final Draft
What Happened to the Slasher Genre?
Slasher is a sub-genre of Horror, which became incredibly popular during the latter years of the 20th century. This essay will discuss the aspects of the history of the slasher genre in detail and will examine the argument of slasher becoming a dying genre, with information supported by theories.
Primarily, people indulge in the horror genre to experience the fleeting feeling of being scared, this is called “sensation seeking” (Skaare, 2017). It is thought that sensation seeking is what ended the well-known, classic, supernatural-horror films and started the exploration into the slasher genre (Tyrrell. K, 2001). From this exploration stemmed popular movies such as Drive-In Massacre (Dir. Stu Segall, 1976), Halloween (Dir. John Carpenter, 1978) and Maniac (Dir. William Lustig, 1980). These movies all follow a similar stereotype; a murderer who is a “white, single, middle-class, heterosexual male, aged 20-40" (Tyrrell. K, 2001). The stereotype of a strong, often masked, male having the ability to overpower others was frightening, and during the 1970s, most slasher movies where based around this conception of male murderers. It was a successful subject, with Halloween making over $47 million in box office (The Numbers, n.d.), hundreds of slasher movies show clear inspiration because of this stereotype. It was easy to create a horror movie, studios would spend a small amount of money on a production, and as a result, they would often triple the money once it was released – sometimes even making millions of dollars. Halloween is a prime example of a movie that accomplished this, the studios budget was 320,000 USD, and made over 150 times its original price. Therefore, other filmmakers joined the metaphorical bandwagon that was creating cheap; but attention capturing movies that were able to gain them an exceptional amount of money. These movies were the beginning of what is called The Golden Age (1978-1984) of horror (Atwood, 2019). As the slasher genre was new and becoming increasingly popular to a wider, younger, audience, there was a rising demand for content that would appeal to this audience’s sensation seeking, and for the beginning of The Golden Age, production companies where able to provide their audience with new, thrilling, entertaining content. Slasher movies where based around teenagers and for this reason, appealed to the teenage demographic – the idea of someone your age being in a horrifying situation shocked this audience more and gained a better impression. However, due to the slasher genre being aimed at a younger demographic, this attention that this new genre received was destined to slow down as the young teens started to become adults, they were no longer interested in the slasher genre as it didn’t appeal to them anymore, additionally, as this demographic had watched these slasher movies throughout their youth, it is a strong possibility that they found it repetitive. Consequently resulted in less views and a decline in popularity of the slasher genre.
Original horror movie franchises such as Friday the 13th (Dir. Sean Cunningham, 1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (Dir. Wes Craven, 1984) continued The Golden Age of slasher films into the early 1990's. In this case, these movies brought new ideas to light, whilst also continuing the male murderer stereotype. For instance, Friday the 13th (FT13) was one of the first slasher movies to be based around a homicide taking place whilst camping, which then prompted other movies like Sleepaway Camp (Dir. Robert Hiltzik, 1983) to come into production. Additionally, FT13 included a second evil character who controlled another character’s choices and emotions, creating a greater evil that was more terrifying than the murderer himself. This character trope which conveys a ‘greater evil’ is continuously used even in modern day movies as it is popular and creates mystery for the audience.
Towards the end of The Golden Age (1985), this new-found love for the franchise slashers began to spread into other movies. Although these movies where equally enjoyable and frightening, results show that the movies referenced prior have been more successful due to the nature of the originality and influence (Navarro, 2018). Along with the introduction of the VHS, more and more members of the public were able to watch movies in the comfort of their own homes, meaning that it was easier to gain access to entertainment. This led to a rise in new sensation seeking and a higher demand of content for viewing purposes. Unfortunately, however, this demand resulted in repetitive storylines and overused clichés. For example, FT13 began the camping murders in 1980, closely followed by Madman (Dir. Joe Giannone, 1981), then Sleepaway Camp in 1983 and finally The Pray (Dir. Edwin Brown, 1983). With the support of this information, it is clear that the slasher genre became repetitive, and began to lack the originality that audience’s where looking for.
According to Steve Neale’s Theory of Repetition and Difference, all genres are "instances of repetition and difference” (Steve Neale, 1980). The horror genre is a prime example of the repetitive nature of film as after The Golden Age finished the popularity of slasher movies deteriorated substantially. Although this is due to lack of original content, it is also because the amount of slasher movies released into box office was significantly less than in previous years. Instead of box office films, low-budget filmmaking made for the VHS started to trend during the “Direct-to-video and series” age (1985-1995) of the slasher genre, also known as Shot on Video (SOV) slashers. Despite not being as popular as box office, these movies are essential in the timeline of slasher movies as they prevented the genre from being forgotten by introducing the use of 8mm film. At the time, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) only covered censorship of movies released to box office – this was to prevent young audiences from viewing potentially harmful content that could traumatise them.
On the other hand, providing more content for the audience is arguably what began the slasher genres downfall. Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (GTP) (Dir. Jeff McQueen, 2006) describes the processes of making slasher movies, as well as the responses that the audience and the bad reputation gory horror movies received from the media. It also details that as the audience watched more and more frightening, murder filled movies, they started to become desensitized to the content that they were being shown. During the late 1980’s, the “direct-to-video" age, low budget movies that were unable to reach box office where instead published straight to VHS. Which meant that movies like Eaten Alive! (Dir. Umberto Lenzi, 1980) and Mausoleum (1983) were able to avoid censorship and be released as a watchable VHS; anyone could watch these, including children. Films that included inappropriate content which should have had a certificate age recommendation where named Video Nasties. Now that these movies where easy to gain access too, as well as being even more gory and hostile than previous slasher films, the audience was regularly viewing shocking content, causing desensitization. Shortly after realizing their mistake, the BBFC passed a new law, called the Video Recordings Act (1984), that all movies should have a recommended certificate rating, preventing filmmakers from having a loophole for producing obscenely graphic movies. Many of the Video Nasties that where created where taken in for re-evaluation with the BBFC have legal responsibility to do so. This often resulted in movies to have seconds, sometimes minutes, cut from the film to make it appropriate and fit the certification.
Given all this information about desensitization, it is also a possibility that horror and the sub-genre of slasher movies are a dying subject. Due to the overuse of clichés and character tropes, the audience’s interest was no longer being held, resulting in less views and a slowing in movie production. This is entirely plausible as proven by the end of The Golden Age, where SOV slasher movies such as Blood Cult (Dir. Christopher Lewis, 1985) had to become independent because they no longer had the shock value and were made with a low budget.
Arguably, slasher is not a dying genre as the demands for content in the late 1990's and modern day where too great to end the genre. Furthermore, as times continued to change, rules against what production companies can show on the screen differed. As mentioned in GTP, production artists and early slasher movies received negative backlash from the gore and subjects that where covered in movies, this is a result of audience’s experiencing this for the first time. As a contrast, modern day film includes this gore frequently; it is normal for audiences to turn on a television and see shocking and murder-related scenes, on top of this, some people partake in acts of violence as shown in video games. Due to this normality, graphic violence in films began to go too far. Companies where creating scenarios in films that where questionable and went against censorship guidelines. Additionally, the possibility of slashers becoming a dying genre could be slimming as a company names Arrow Films have begun re-distributing and refurbishing old horror/slasher movies. They are the “leading restorer and theatrical distributor” (Arrowfilms.com, n.d.) of classic and cult/horror films, the work that they do allows for collectors and other audiences that are interested in classic horror to be able to gain access to and watch the old movies that could possibly not be found anywhere else. This is a positive for people who are still invested in the slasher genre as it means that the popularity of slasher is still alive, and others who did not know about it before may join the metaphorical bandwagon. The movies that they re-distribute are also known as B movies (budget movies),
Horror and its slasher sub-genre have changed continuously throughout the late 20th century, debatably in a negative way. The Golden Age allowed for original content to become successful, it entertained its target audience appropriately and set an example of what successful slasher movies where supposed to look like. Whilst low budget movies took their ideas from these popular movies, meaning that subjects and clichés were re-used too often, they also popularized the even gorier side of horror, expressing no boundaries due to the lack of certification from the BBFC. The introduction of low budget movies being produced on to VHS tapes meant that people could now watch slasher movies in the comfort of their own homes, resulting in less money being made in the film business as they were no longer being played in box office. As a result, the audience became desensitized and films had to change from being age appropriate and certified to more thrill seeking, gruesome content. Alongside desensitization, the repetition in these low budget films caused audiences to become bored, seeking a new way to fulfill their sensation seeking; only made possible by exploring more genres such as action, sci-fi and comedy. Importantly, it appears that the directors and filmmaker's persistence in creating new content and greed for money is a key reason for the horror genre having a steady decline in popularity during the mid 1980’s - others created slasher movies purely to gain money quickly because the formula of spending a small amount of money and receiving larger sums back purely due to the popularity of the genre at the time worked. Therefore, the horror genre was forced into change throughout the latter years of the 20th century because of the overused, repetitive clichés, alongside studios being able to exploit their movies for views, causing the audience to become bored and aware that they are no longer getting the original content.
References
Tyrrell, K., 2001. The Serial Killer in Cinema. Alternative Law Journal, [online] 26(6), pp.274-278. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1037969X0102600602?journalCode=aljb [Accessed 3 March 2020].
Why do we like watching horror films?https://partner.sciencenorway.no/film-forskningno-inland/why-do-we-like-watching-horror-films/1451826
Atwood, K. (2019, March 19). The Golden Age of Slasher Films. Retrieved from ReelRundown: https://reelrundown.com/film-industry/The-Golden-Age-of-Slasher-Films [Accessed 4 Mar. 2020].
The Numbers. (2020). Halloween (1978) - Financial Information. [online] Available at: https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Halloween-(1978)#tab=box-office [Accessed 4 Mar. 2020].
Navarro, M. (2018). The 30 Most Influential Slasher Movies of All Time. [online] Vulture. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/article/best-slasher-horror-movies.html [Accessed 5 Mar. 2020].
Ragusa, G. (2018). What Was the Budget for The Original 'Halloween' And What Did The Cast Get Paid?. [online] Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Available at: https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/what-was-the-budget-for-the-original-halloween-and-what-did-the-cast-get-paid.html/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
Arrowfilms.com. (n.d.). About Us | Arrow Films. [online] Available at: https://arrowfilms.com/about-us/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
Movie References
The Pray. (1983). [film] Directed by E. Brown. USA: Essex Productions (III).
Halloween. (1978). [film] Directed by J. Carpenter. USA: Compass International Pictures.
A Nightmare on Elm Street. (1984). [film] Directed by W. Craven. USA: New Line Cinema.
Friday the 13th. (1980). [film] Directed by S. Cunningham. USA: Paramount Pictures.
Mausoleum. (1983). [film] Directed by M. Dugan. USA: Western International Pictures Inc.
Madman. (1981). [film] Directed by J. Giannone. USA: The Legend Lives Company.
Sleepaway Camp. (1983). [film] Directed by R. Hiltzik. USA: American Eagle Films.
Eaten Alive!. (1980). [film] Directed by U. Lenzi. Italy: Dania Film.
Blood Cult. (1985). [film] Directed by C. Lewis. USA: United Entertainment Pictures.
Maniac. (1980). [film] Directed by W. Lustig. USA: Magnum Motion Pictures Inc.
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film. (2006). [film] Directed by J. McQueen. USA: Starz Entertainment.
Drive-In Massacre. (1976). [film] Directed by S. Segall. USA: S.A.M. Productions.
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