Monster Presentation: Slashers

By: Jorge C., Bryan D.,

Qimin L., and Xaiver Y.
What is considered a Slasher?

● The subgenre of slashers is typically generalized into the following idea : a

violent serial killer, psychopath, that tortures and murders several people
with their common weapon being of something of a blade or such that isn’t
a gun.
● Based on the book “Games of Terror, Halloween, Friday the 13th and the
Films of the Stalker Cycle” by Vera Diaz claimed and stated that the
slasher film follow a specific formula: a group of people, mostly
teenagers, committed wrongful acts thus inspiring the killer with goals
that conflicts with the main character of the plot.
 Generic components of Slashers Flim
There are 6 specific components that make up a slasher film:

1. Killer- childlike mentality, early traumatic experiences or sexually disturbed.

2. Locale (Terrible Place)- A desolate house or elaborating tunnel where the
victim would be trapped and at the mercy of the killer. The house is usually
occupied by a degrading and unstable family.
3. Weapons- Virtually guns don’t exist for slasher movies as the killers rely on
pre-technological weaponry- hammers, axes, knives, pitchforks and other of
the sort.
4. Victims- A band or group of youths-consistently the majority are females- amd
are sexualy transgessors looking for a good time.
5. Shock effect- Using visual effects to intensify the dismemberment and
slaughtering by the killer to invoke disgust and fear in the audience.
6. Final Girl- the last female survivor who endured the longest hours of horror
from the killer and must either try to exacpe or kill herself.
Historical View of slashers/killers
● The groundwork...

famous scene

● Early slasher films like Psycho were revolutionary to the Horror genre because they
drove away from featuring the killer as a fictional monster, but instead a human
being
Historical View of slashers/killers
● Friday the 13th ● A Nightmare On Elm
Street
Historical View of slashers/killers
● Reality-based slashers
● Films such as The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre
introduced situations that
could actually occur in real life
Historical View of slashers/killers
● First of many...
Historical View of slashers/killers
● Fictional based slahsers
Chucky Rubber
Historical View of slashers/killers

● Vigilant Figure murder/ Anti-hero

Saw/Jigsaw Dexter
Historical View of slashers/killers
● Modern shift
Horror

spoofs
Reference
Clover, Carol J. Men, women and chain saws: gender in the modern horror film.
Princeton University Press, 2015.

Petridis, Sotiris. “A Historical Approach to the Slasher Film.” Film International, vol.
12, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 76–84., doi:10.1386/fiin.12.1.76_1.

Dika, Vera. Games of Horror: Halloween, Friday the 13th and the films of the Stalker
Cycle. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Slasher Film”. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,

the Free Encyclopedia, 19 Jan.2018. Web. 19 Jan.2018.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slasher_film&action=history>

Pheasant-Kelly, Fran. “Reframing Parody and Intertextuality in Scream: Formal and

Theoretical Approaches to the â€
Postmodernâ€
€ €
Slasher.” Style and Form in the Hollywood
Slasher Film, 2015, pp. 149–160., doi:10.1057/9781137496478_11.