Is the 'Slasher' Dead?
The “Under the Mask” Blog is an online outlet for the “Dont Go Out There” podcast hosts to further add creative content into the horror community.
by: Michael Settle Jr.
Is the ‘Slasher’ dead?
Normally an blog like this would take a long winded way of getting to the answer of the headlining question, I’m not here to do that. Let me answer this right of that bat for you, NO.
No, the slasher is not dead. Halloween 2018 shows that when a character with the longevity of a Michael Myers returns to the screen and is in the right hands, people will line up to see it. The same way a return of Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees or Ghosrface would. So in that way, the slasher is not dead.
However, is it possible to create a NEW iconic slasher villain? That may appear to be as good as dead. Many have tried, the people who made “Terrifer” came about as close as they could with Art The Clown but it’s likely to only hit a cult classic following. To create a new iconic character in modern horror is hard enough without having to follow old classic tropes.
The reason Scream worked so well is it broke from those horror stereotypes and then became one itself. The wheel has already been reinvented in 1996 and it doesn’t seem like there’s anywhere else to go. It’s the reason horror has gone much more supernatural and arthouse style with its approach, for better or worse.
The knife wielding days of yesteryear seem to be just that, a trip down nostalgia boulevard. That’s okay too, every type of film has it’s day in the sun. The late 90’s-early 00’s had the rise of the raunchy teen comedies, they’ve also come and gone. Westerns? Come and gone. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get the gang back together and visit Haddonfield, Crystal Lake or Elm Street once or twice a decade.
So let me repeat, the slasher genre isn’t dead. But I would be hard pressed to say that’s it’s alive. I don’t see a future where a new iconic character can be seep into the pop culture consciousness but there’s always a future for the masked men and the burned guy to wreak havoc on teenagers everywhere.