Slasher DVD's

k thanx again.... how bout April Fools Day?

Ok, I'm going to list some ones already said, but basically not counting the big franchises, here are some great ones:

-Black Christmas 1974
-Alice, Sweet Alice 1976
-Tourist Trap 1979
-Pieces 1982
-A Bay of Blood 1971
-House on Sorority Row 1983
-Sleepaway Camp 1983
-The Prey 1984
-Humongous 1982
-Girls Nite Out 1984
-Night of the Demon 1980 [REALLY cheesy bigfoot slasher!]
-Terror Train 1980
-Prom Night 1980
-Blood Frenzy 1987
-Maniac 1980
-The Prowler 1981
-The Burning 1981
-New Year's Evil 1980
-Silent Scream 1980 [Semi-slasher; owes more to Psycho, but still in the genre]
-Madman 1982
-Happy Birthday to Me 1981
-The Funhouse 1981
-Silent Madness 1984
-The Initiation 1984
-Massacre at Central High 1976
-Final Exam 1981
-Fatal Games 1984
-Doom Asylum 1987
-Curtains 1983
-Mortuary 1983
-Silent Night, Deadly Night 1984
-Hell Night 1981
-Tenebre 1982
-Visiting Hours 1982
-American Nightmare 1983
-Night Warning 1983
-Nightmare in a Damaged Brain 1981
-Absurd 1981
-Anthropophagus 1980
-Bloody Birthday 1981
-Blood Rage 1987
-Killer Workout 1986
-The Slayer 1982
-Slaughterhouse 1987
-Intruder 1989
-Slumber Party Massacre 1982
-House of Death 1982
-The Mutilator 1985
-Mountaintop Motel Massacre 1986
-The Dorm That Dripped Blood 1982
-Bloody Moon 1981
-Slaughter High 1986
-Sweet Sixteen 1983
-Don't Go in the Woods 1981 [SOO BAD IT'S AWESOME!]
-Madhouse 1981
-The Final Terror 1983
-Hide and Go Shriek 1988
-The Lamp 1987
-Death Valley 1982
-Hospital Massacre 1982
-Island of Blood 1982
-Twisted Nightmare 1987
-Night School 1981
-To All a Good Night 1980
-Schizoid 1980
-Splatter University 1984
-Nightmares, aka Stage Fright 1980
-Deliria, aka StageFright 1987
-Bodycount 1987
-Cheerleader Camp 1987
-Mirage 1990
-Terror on Tour 1980
-April Fool's Day 1986
-Alone in the Dark 1982
-Just Before Dawn 1981
-Ghost Dance 1980
-Evil Judgment 1984
-Blood Tracks 1985
-Deadly Intruder 1985
-Don't Open Till Christmas 1984
-He Knows You're Alone 1980
-Blood Sisters 1987
-Terror 1978
-Bloody Movie, aka Terror Night 1987
-The Night Brings Charlie 1990
-Rocktober Blood 1984
-Graduation Day 1981











I review horror films at: http://www.oh-the-horror.com/
450 with pics!

The Grandfather of Slasher Films is probably the Mario Bava's Gialli films Twitch of The Death Nerve (AKA Bay of Blood) and Blood and Black Lace which basically were the first graphically violent body count movies.

Scream Bloody Murder came out in 1973, a year before Black Christmas. Some movies like Silent Night, Bloody Night were released in 1974, but filmed 2 years before Black Christmas.

Black Christmas (1974)created a lot of the formula for slasher films but wasn't the first. It also started the trend of Holiday Slasher films. BC gets credit for being the first mainly because it was better/well-made compared to the one or two that came before it. Italian Giallo films and HGL's Splatter films were the main influences on Slashers.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974) is clearly inspired by Spider Baby(aka Cannibal Orgy) from 1964. Spider Baby is the same story about a family of cannibals who kill and eat people who intrude on their house. It even has a dinner scene. However TCM is very intense and scary while Spider Baby is more of an artificial horror style and funny. Like TCM, it also was a big influence on Rob Zombies films(Spider Baby even features Sid Haig).

Halloween was the one that showed studios these movies can make a lot of money (Being shot for next to nothing) and started the craze. Friday the 13th a few years later supported this idea and Slashers started getting pumped out in the 80's. Halloween also started the idea of the unstoppable Killer who keeps coming back in Slashers.

Psycho and Peeping Tom from 1960 were influential thrillers but certainly not Slasher films, despite similar elements. Hitchcock in General was an influence in Italy for the Giallo films which influenced the American Slashers more then Psycho did. The first technical Giallo is The Girl Who Knew Too Much, a nod to Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Francis Ford Coppola did Dementia 13 in 1963 influenced by Psycho, which features an axe wielding killer. Some people consider this one of the earlier Slasher films, but since it wasn't till over 10 years later when others of this sub genre came out it tends to be forgotten as part of it.

Roger Corman made a film before Psycho called A Bucket of Blood(1959) which is more like a slasher film then Psycho. More of a Dark Comedy by today's standards, its influence on HGL's splatter films like Color Me Blood Red definitely was crucial to America's eventual creation of the Slasher Genre.

And if you really want to go back, Thirteen Women (1932) can probably be considered as the earliest example of a Slasher-like film despite being made 42 years before the Slasher Film sub genre started.