Men in masks. Final girls. A steadily increasing body count. A memorable weapon (a knife, a chainsaw, a hook, a… salt shaker).
And then, of course, there’s the blood. Lots and lots of blood.
Mix them, bend them, subvert them however you wish — these are the core elements of the slasher movie, one of horror’s most successful subgenres.
Born of the thrills created by Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980), slashers reached their heights in the early ’80s as the successors to proto-slashers like Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood (1971), along with a host of Italian giallo films and independent North American films that established the early tropes. By the mid-’80s, slashers, which were coming out nearly weekly, hit a downward trend until Wes Craven revitalized the formula with A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). And when slashers stalled out again, Craven was back to put more blood in the tank with Scream (1996), which created a ’90s slasher renaissance that led into the slasher remake era of the ’00s.
While slashers have never entirely gone away, the subgenre has had its rise and falls over the years, and currently, we’re amid a rise. One that’s been growing for nearly a decade that shows no sign of slowing down. Whether these recent slasher films have worked as nostalgic callbacks, unique subversions or served as signs of the time, audiences are hungry for more. And part of that enduring enthusiasm is in part thanks to Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), who turned heads in Ti West’s throwback slasher X (2022), which led to a prequel Pearl (2022) and the highly anticipated sequel now in theaters, MaXXXine.
In anticipation of the film capping what may become one of the all-time great slasher franchises, here is a look back over the best modern slasher films within the past decade.
12. Sissy (2022)
Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes’ Australian film Sissy approaches the slasher through the lens of Instagram filters, fake smiles and even faker friends. When dissatisfied lifestyle influencer Cecilia/Sissy (Aisha Dee) reconnects with her childhood friend, Emma (Hannah Barlow), she’s invited to her bachelorette party. Quickly overwhelmed by Emma’s new friends and her former childhood bully, Alex (Emily De Margheriti), Cecilia’s past surfaces as her world becomes increasingly filtered through glitter, stickers and all the unreality that social media apps can offer. And then one by one, the partygoers start disappearing. You’ve rarely seen bloodshed more beautiful.
11. The Fear Street Trilogy (2021)
Leigh Janiak brings Shadyside and Sunnyvale to life in this trilogy inspired by R.L. Stine’s long-running book series. Through 1994, 1978 and 1666, the Fear Street Trilogy explores the secret history of these two towns, blending elements of the slasher movie with witchcraft for a series that feels like a pop mishmash of Scream, Friday the 13th and The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). While each film has different highlights, including the talented cast led by Kiana Madeira and Olivia Scott Welch, 1994 is arguably the highlight. From the core group of friends, neon splashes of color and supermarket massacre that led to a rediscovery of Scott Spiegel’s Intruder (1989), Janiak’s film captures the eternal thrills and excitement of watching a slasher movie in the summer with friends looking to laugh as much as they jump in their seats.
10. Terrifier 2 (2022)
It takes a lot to create a new slasher icon, and often they emerge from places you least expect. Damien Leone introduced the serial killer Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) in his 2013 indie anthology film All Hallows Eve, which spawned the slasher Terrifier three years later. The indie production has a handmade quality that feels admirable, especially when it comes to the practical effects. But the story isn’t particularly memorable. Still, Art is hard to shake. Leone took the criticisms of his first film and returned with slasher epic Terrifier 2 (2022), a nearly two-and-a-half-hour journey through viscera, carnage and kills certain to make even the most steel-stomached horror fan wince (I’m not kidding about the salt shaker as a memorable weapon). But what’s better than all of that is that Terrifier 2 builds up a mythology and gives Art the Clown an adversary worthy in the form of final girl Sienna (Lauren LaVera), who has quickly become a cult icon in the horror community. Leone will bring his trilogy to a close with Terrifier 3, releasing this October.
9. Freaky (2020)
Kathryn Newton has certainly made an impact in the horror space this year with Lisa Frankenstein and Abigail. But it’s not her first time spilling blood, as she took on the role of Millie in the Freaky Friday-inspired slasher Freaky. When a supernatural encounter causes Millie to swap bodies with the local serial killer, The Butcher (Vince Vaughn), she has 24 hours to switch back before the change becomes permanent. Newton excels at playing the cold, bloodthirsty Butcher, while Vaughn is equally impressive as a nervous, nail-biting teenage girl. Director Christopher Landon and writer Michael Kennedy have turned the reinvention of high-concept ’70s and ’80s comedies into a slasher subgenre with films like Happy Death Day and It’s A Wonderful Knife. While there’s a nostalgia factor at play, the filmmakers have also found a means to employ a humanist approach to these movies that carve out a space for queer characters that those of the ’70s and ’80s movies never did.
8. Hell Fest (2018)
Maybe it was just a matter of timing, but Gregory Plotkin’s Hell Fest felt tailor-made for a long-running franchise, but it simply didn’t happen. The setting alone — a traveling horror theme park — is enough to give some juice to the franchise notion. Still, Hell Fest remains plenty enjoyable as a single entry, with its ever-winding maze of park attractions and dark corners. Mix in a likable cast of characters led by Amy Forsyth, a real rarity in slasher movies where there’s always at least one person you hate, and you’ve got some genuine empathy established. And set them loose in the park stalked by “The Other,” a killer who has a collection of different masks, and you have a slasher film that speaks directly to the fascination with horror parks and experiences, and the illusory nature of evil, accessed by every young adult eventually. While the film doesn’t reinvent the slasher formula, it’s a reminder that the classic horror formula still works, and that Hell Fest could’ve easily been a sensation in the ’80s.
7. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Those who have seen Halina Reijn’s film know Bodies Bodies Bodies isn’t technically a slasher film, but it’s certainly a deconstruction of one, right down to a therapy mask substituting for the classic mask-like visage of a slasher movie villain. When a group of wealthy young adults — led by a stacked cast that includes Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la, Rachel Sennott, Chase Sui Wonders, Pete Davidson and the non-young adult Lee Pace — become trapped in a mansion during a hurricane, the party game Bodies Bodies Bodies takes a turn when they discover the body of their party. This launches into a storm of accusations, insults, revealed secrets, unresolved jealousy and gaslighting. It’s Gen Z at its worst and, frankly, funniest. From social media obsession, class disputes and long lists of minor grievances, everyone becomes a suspect resulting in an unforgettable ending.
6. The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)
Johannes Roberts’ sequel to Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers (2008) moves the action to a trailer park where a family — Cindy (Christina Hendricks), Mike (Martin Henderson), Kinsey (Bailee Madison), and Luke (Lewis Pullman) — are besieged by a trio of masked killers, Dollface (Emma Bellomy), Pin-Up Girl (Lea Enslin) and the Man in the Mask (Damian Maffei). While the sequel doesn’t reach the same cold and unrelenting heights of the first film, Roberts charts a fresh path, bringing new scares, inventive uses of an unfamiliar setting and ’80s sensibilities to the twisted game of cat and mouse, including a standout pool chase scene set to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
5. The Ranger (2018)
Jenn Wexler reclaims the natural order of things in her punk-rock slasher The Ranger, which portrays its titular axe-wielding villain, The Ranger (Jeremy Holm), as a clean-cut authoritative presence rather than a masked outsider. Still, he’s no less monstrous or overwhelming. When Chelsea (Chloe Levine) and her bandmates find themselves on the run from local cops, they retreat to the woods but encounter The Ranger, who not only seeks to subject the young adults to man-made rules of the forest but also has ties to Chelsea’s past. What ensues is a battle between generations, as the young punks seek to borrow a sanctuary of their own, but are held back by a man who sees the woods as territory and this stolen land as his manifest destiny. A story of cyclical American history plays out within these dark woods, laden with traps, dead bodies and reminders of impermanent existence. The Ranger is a smartly crafted slasher that has taken on increasing meaning in a world where each act of peace, preservation and protest is perceived as a dangerous act against those who claim to possess the world.
4. In a Violent Nature (2024)
Chris Nash takes the slasher formula and shifts perspective from the campers to that of the vengeful, mask-clad Johnny (Ry Barrett), who awakens after a locket near his burial site is stolen. Nash makes no effort to hide the fact that he’s riffing on Friday the 13th, with Johnny’s visage and backstory being close approximations to Jason and Mrs. Voorhees. But Nash’s experiment with perspective creates a different relationship between the viewer and killer. In following Johnny as he stalks and kills campers, it’s hard not to think about how so many of us slasher fans often have an affinity for, or even root for, the killer. There’s something about Michael, Jason and Freddy that we like, often more than a lot of the characters themselves. Perhaps because we’re kept at a distance, and they are shrouded in some mystique. In this film that distance disappears and the campers are given the mystique usually afforded the killer. Come for the gory kills — including one that vies for one of the all-time great in slasher history — but stay for the experiment on the relationship between perspective and empathy.
3. Scream VI (2023)
Radio Silence resurrected the Scream franchise in 2022 with Scream VI, which served as a legacy sequel and introduced a new cast of characters, the core four: Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding). The sequel moves the squad to New York City, where they face a new and more ruthless Ghostface. While it’s not meta on the level of Craven’s first two entries, Scream VI does provide interesting commentary on continuing legacy sequels after the torch has been passed, the occasionally oppressive nature of fan theories and the purpose of killing off beloved characters. Scream VI thrives on the strength of cast members, set pieces and a ridiculously bloody finale that sees Sam fully unleashed. The sixth entry doesn’t rewrite rules, but when it comes to following compelling characters and weaving together this multi-generation franchise, Scream VI is a hell of a scary movie.
2. Halloween Ends (2022)
Sure, David Gordon Green’s final installment in his Halloween trilogy has its share of detractors. I can accept that. Yet, I find it his most meaningful consideration of Myers and Haddonfield. Green lands on the core of the Halloween franchise, “evil doesn’t die. It just changes shape.” Despite the expectation that the film would mainly focus on a showdown between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney), Halloween Ends largely focuses on a newly introduced Haddonfield resident, Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), a town pariah falsely accused of murdering a kid he was babysitting amid the fervor created by Myers’ rampage. Through Cunningham, and his relationship with Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), Haddonfield is exposed as not simply a town corrupted by Myers’ existence, but one that may very well be the cause of it. It’s a sick place, full of cruel people and cruel ideas, and one in need of a boogeyman. Evil isn’t something simply passed from one individual to another, but spread and absorbed, and can be contracted by a chance encounter in the sewers or staring out a window and seeing the town reflected back. Haddonfield isn’t so different from any town or city in America, and that’s what makes it so frightening. There’s a Michael Myers being shaped everywhere.
1. X (2022)
Don’t be fooled by its aesthetic trappings. Reminiscent of Tobe Hooper and horror and pornography of the late ’70s, Ti West has more on his mind than titillation. X follows a group of pornography filmmakers and actors — Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), Bobby-Lynne Parker (Brittany Snow), Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi). RJ Nichols (Owen Campbell), Lorraine Day (Jenna Ortega) and Wayne Gilroy (Martin Henderson) — who rent a guest house at a Texas farm to shoot their latest picture, unbeknownst to the farm’s elderly owners, Howard (Stephen Ure) and Pearl (also played by Goth). While the crew and actors are looking to satisfy audiences with their latest feature, Pearl is looking for satisfaction of her own. What could be played for laughs becomes a tragic and frightening exploration of sexual repression, aging and the loss of beauty that comes with the loss of dreams. X is further strengthened by its prequel Pearl, which explores Pearl’s youth and dreams, and what led her to become the threat she proves herself to be in X.
