Copy of Slashers in the 1980s

Aim: How can we explore slasher films in the 1980s?

HW: Read and annotate article

A New Golden Age for Horror?

The 1980s would see a massive rejuvenation and reinvention of the horror film, largely around what would be termed the "slasher" genre.

There were some industrial and economic reasons behind this.

• Suburban teenagers with disposable incomes.
• Niche marketing and the ratings system (PG-13)
• VHS arrives

Friday the 13th (1980)

Counselors at Camp Crystal Lake just want to have some fun, but they are hunted down by a mysterious figure, supposedly the ghost of Jason Voorhees, a young boy who drowned when camp counselors were having sex.

Slasher Conventions

Far from an idyllic respite from the chaos or urban life, the suburb in Poltergeist (and many slasher films that would follow) becomes a source of terror.

TV as a destructive force:

Really, we learn that it was Mrs. Voorhees, Jason's mom, exacting her revenge on the counselors. The one survivor, Alice, faces off against her.

Halloween would help establish the conventions of the genre:

• Teenagers in suburbia drinking, having sex
• Mysterious killer stalking them while they are unaware
• Graphic violence and creative deaths
• Sexual promiscuity punished through violent death
• Tough, virginal female typically survives or kills the killer
• Male authority figures not super helpful

And everyday objects become a source of terror:

Scream (1996, Wes Craven) acknowledges and pokes fun of these "rules."

The Slasher Emerges

This concern with suburban spaces is also reflected in the first popular "slasher" film that would help establish the boundaries of the genre: Halloween (1978).

Directed by John Carpenter, who had a reputation for making decent films on a small budget.

Produced for about $320,000 and grossing $65 million in its initial theatrical run, Halloween would become one of the most profitable horror franchises and spawn the slasher cycle.

Welcome to the Suburbs

Friday the 13th II (1981)

But we find out that Jason never drowned! And he watched Alice decapitate his mother. So when they try to start up a new camp at Crystal Lake, now it really is him coming after the counselors.

While suburban growth had become the norm in U.S. culture in the 1950s, it wasn't until the late 1970s and early 1980s that the horror genre really started exploring the suburbs as a nightmarish space.

Emblematic of this shift is Poltergeist (1982), directed by Tobe Hooper.

Friday the 13th III (1982) In 3D!

Jason, of course, is back. And now he's finally wearing that hockey mask!

Halloween (1978)

Opening scene: issues of sex, violence and voyeurism.

VHS and the Slasher Boom

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Camp Slashers

Franchises...

Directed by Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street would be the third of the big three horror franchises of the 1980s.

Thanks to the VHS market, films such as The House on Sorority Row (1983), Alone in the Dark (1982) and The Burning (1981) expanded on the slasher formula

These three films would spawn hugely profitable franchises for Hollywood, each producing a series of sequels and remakes.

Flash forward 15 years and it is Halloween night.

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In Poltergeist, horror stems from greed and capitalism.

The pressure to expand the American Dream leads directly to a supernatural nightmare.

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Teens are haunted in their dreams by a gruesome, knife-fingered man. If you die in your dream, you die in real life.

Focus on teens, sex, and psychological repression.

The success of these franchises was bolstered by the emergence of the VHS market in the 1980s.

At first, Hollywood was terrified of VHS, but then they realized that home video would be a major market. Soon, sales of VHS and then DVD would overtake profits from theatrical release.

The rise of VHS led to low budget, straight-to-video productions. The 1980s saw an explosion of hundreds of schlocky slashers.

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Critical Responses

Men, Women and Chainsaws

Identification

Shifting Identification

The Final Girl

The spate of slashers in the 1980s quickly became objects of critical ire, with most commentators describing the trend as trashy, debased, vulgar, and obscene.

In particular, feminist critics

frequently condemned the

slasher film's gender politics.

Linking of sex and violence.

A backlash aganst feminism?

At the start of the film, the audience is aligned with the killer:

• Lots of POV shots from the killer's perspective
• Such shots allow for the display of female sexuality (being with the killer means we see nudity and sexuality before he kills)
• Male authoritiy figures usually aren't much help.

• Teenager. Not quite an adult.
• Sexually repressed. Often the prim and proper friend contrasted against sexually liberated figures.
• Smart and responsible.
• Stalked by the killer, but defends herself using phallic weapons (knitting needles, knives, chainsaws, etc.)

This perspective on the slasher would be challenged by a groundbreaking study of popular slashers by Carol Clover in 1992.

Clover argued that condemnation of the genre was reactionary and oversimplified the complex gender appeal of the slasher.

Clover's book offers many astute interpretations of a variety of slashers, but perhaps her biggest contribution was her emphasis on the "final girl."

While other feminist critics condemned the slasher for misogyny, Clover asked why almost all of them ended with the survival of a tough, resourceful teenaged girl.

Why do you think slashers link sex and violence? What might it say about how we se sex? About how we see death?

What are the pleasures of the slasher for female audiences?

The Killer

For Clover, these dynamics make sense because the slasher is largely a genre for teenaged boys.

This is a period in their lives in which they aspire to full masculinity but are still considered children. They are in an in-between state of gender development.

The killer provides identification with a hyper-masculinity that is kind of feminine. He is not a male role model but a sexually repressed deviant.

But then identification shifts to the final girl, a femininity that is masculine. The in-between-ness of the final girl provides an ideal site of identification for the in-between-ness of teenage boys. And her sexual repression is overcome through an act of violent penetration.

But as the film progresses, the audience becomes aligned with the final girl.

• More POV shots from the final girl as she is stalked.
• We identify with her as she releases her sexual frustration by penetrating the killer.

• Seemingly masculine, but asexual and gendered deviant.
• Lashes out against open, female sexuality.
• A stalker and voyeur.