A knife-wielding cross-dresser… A killer who sports razor claws and a fedora… A sack-headed maniac prowling a deserted tourist spot… The murderous glare of a mysterious eyeball… These vintage villains from the 1920s to the 1950s prove that trends in slashing are as cyclical as fashion…
America leads the way when it comes to releasing slasher movies on DVD, with lesser-known gems like Sweet Sixteen and Final Exam finding their way onto feature-packed special editions, and companies like Shriek Show, Code Red and Blue Underground bringing even greater obscurities kicking and screaming into the digital age. But slasher fans continue to wait for a handful of missing classics from the 80s golden age to turn up on Region 1 DVD, which is why Retro Slashers recommends a trip to Europe – and the UK in particular – to fill those annoying gaps in your collection. So grab your passport, pack a multiregional DVD player and leave that sunscreen behind, as we head off to investigate the joys of Region 2…
CURTAINS skated onto DVD in the UK in 2007, courtesy of Cornerstone Media. First the good news: it’s uncut – although it never was the goriest of slashers, to be honest. The bad news, however, is that it’s a poor-quality 4:3 video transfer with washed-out colours (which prove particularly noticeable during the blurry darkness of the final chase) and muffled sound. Worth seeking out? No. An old VHS copy is just as desirable.
THE MUTILATOR has had a couple of European DVD releases, the first being an uncut German edition from Dragon, which is now as rare as it is incredibly expensive. In the UK, however, it’s still fairly easy to get hold of the 2003 Vipco release, despite the fact that it’s also now out of print. What makes this edition less appealing is that the British Board of Film Classification ordered 7 seconds of cuts for “sexual violence” to the fishhook murder. In any case, the “Fall Break” theme song is arguably more gruelling… Worth seeking out? Yes, actually. The cuts are minimal and the affected scene is still shocking enough to retain its power.
Another 80s slasher still widely available (though technically out of print) in the UK is 1982’s DEATH SCREAMS, a.k.a. House of Death. Thanks to Vipco, fans are treated to an uncut edition with unspectacular (but watchable) fullscreen picture quality. If the censors, had wanted to cut anything, perhaps thirty minutes’ worth of teenagers wandering around a fairground from the first hour would have been a start. Worth seeking out? If you’re a fan.
1987’s underrated backwoods slasher BERSERKER: THE NORDIC CURSE has been kicking around on DVD in the UK since 2001, thanks to Moonstone Pictures. As well as being easy to find at exceptionally cheap prices, it’s uncut, the transfer is watchable and, if you’re really lucky, you might find it in a double-pack with the Wings Hauser zombie movie, Mutant (a.k.a. Night Warning). How’s that for a perfect double-bill of mid-eighties low-budget horror? Worth seeking out? Yes! A pristine digital remastering would only ruin this one.
Holland is the place to go if you want a DVD of 1988’s DEATH SPA – especially if you also want your DVD to feature a giant naked ass on the cover. The Dutch release is uncut and allows you to watch the film in English. Worth seeking out? If it’s a matter of completing your Ken Foree collection, then damn right it is!
And, still on the subject of gym-stalking slashers, there’s the über-cheesy Killer Workout, released in Britain as far back as 2001 under the alternative title, AEROBICIDE. Again, it’s not the best of transfers, but at least it’s uncut and there’s just no better movie dealing with the controversial subject of giant safety-pin murder, unless you count Fulci’s Murder-Rock and its hat pin of horror. Worth seeking out? Yes, it’s the only slasher that combines gore and nudity with a full upper-body workout to keep you trim.
Linda Blair followed her slasher classic, Hell Night, with the lesser-known backwoods effort, GROTESQUE, in 1988. While still unavailable on DVD in region one, it’s easy enough to get hold of in the UK from Pegasus Entertainment, who unleashed it in all its grainy glory back in 2004. Uncut? Yes. Worth seeking out? Why not?
Let’s end on a high with a relatively glossy studio effort that, despite starring James Spader and Cynthia Gibb, is really just a down-and-dirty-old slasher at heart. It’s 1988’s JACK’S BACK, a Jack the Ripper-themed thriller from director Rowdy Herrington, who went on to make Road House. Thanks to Showbox Entertainment, who put this out in the UK in 2007, it’s uncut and neatly presented (but why in fullscreen?). Worth seeking out? Yes, especially if you haven’t seen it.
Before you continue with this particular mystery, start by taking out your DVD of April Fool’s Day. Now, you have two options… If it’s the remake, throw it in the nearest bin. If it’s the Paramount release of the original, turn it over and take a look at the pictures on the back. You’ll notice that one prominently featured image shows the character of Skip apparently dead – which is a little odd if you think about it, considering he survives the film.
Well, he survives in the version that Paramount actually released, anyway. The original cut had an entire third act that was filmed but completely deleted before the movie hit theatres, resulting in the current love-it-or-hate-it ending we all know and love (or hate). If you want to read the original ending in its entirety, you can do so right here at Retro Slashers, thanks to a full transcription of the final section of the tie-in novelization. Or, if you’re more of a synopsis-type person, try reading the section in Lost Scenes.
Now the only remaining mystery is: why did that picture turn up on the DVD sleeve in the first place?
Life is full of tantalizing mysteries… How did they build the Pyramids? What are UFOs? Is there an afterlife? And how did Lipstick Jungle get a second season? Okay, some of those are perhaps not quite so tantalizing, but I’m ignoring them all anyway in order to concentrate on some of horror history’s most intriguing unsolved mysteries… Well, they wouldn’t be mysteries if they had been solved, would they? Let’s kick off with a classic conundrum from the Friday the 13th series…
CASE #1: The Rat Piddle Riddle
We all know what happens every time you find an apparently safe hiding place whilst on the run from a deranged killer… Yes, a snake, tarantula or other creepy creature of some description will appear from nowhere and proceed to crawl all over your face. This will force you, not only to stifle your cries of terror at being chased by a killer in the first place, but also to keep a stiff upper lip (quite literally) in the face (again, quite literally) of something else almost equally unpleasant.
In the case of Friday the 13th Part 2, it’s poor final girl Ginny who comes face-to-face with a stinking, suspense-inducing rat whilst hiding from Jason Voorhies under a bed. But Ginny’s hide-and-don’t-shriek moment is famous for another reason – the combined shock of a sack-headed Jason and a smelly rodent causes her to have a little accident, and said accident is shown dribbling out from under the bed, forming a puddle of pure shame on the pinewood flooring…
OR IS IT?! Director Steve Miner has since claimed it was the rat with the bladder problem, forcing legions of slasher fans to question the identity of the mysterious pisser – and possibly their own sanity. It’s true: Ginny doesn’t seem to have the tell-tale wet-patch we all remember from school when she stands up. But it’s also true that the pee-pee comes from the bottom of the bed, when the rat is up at the other end gnawing at Ginny’s head (well, potentially). But who knows? Maybe rats are able to cover a surprising distance with their lavatorial antics. I wouldn’t put it past them. Only one thing seems certain, however: we may never be certain who really did the business in Friday the 13th Part 2.
CASE #2: The Puzzle of the Absent Author
While Stephen King can’t write a note to the milkman without TV networks queuing up to turn it into a miniseries, it seems that some other genre specialists are lagging behind in the movie adaptation stakes. But while some of these, such as Jack Ketchum, have started seeing interest from the studios in recent years, one genuine giant of the horror literature field has yet to have a single movie based on one of his books.
Richard Laymon’s clever yet streamlined narratives read almost like ready-made slasher movie scripts: there’s the pre-Haute Tension home-invasion horrors of 1993’s Endless Night; backwoods slasher books like No Sanctuary (2001); and even a campsite massacre with sorority house flashbacks in the shape of 1992’s Blood Games. But none have yet made the leap from page to screen… Well, actually, there is one borderline case – a low-budget take on In the Night (1994) that Laymon himself was apparently impressed by, but which has yet to see a release and doesn’t even have an entry on the Internet Movie Database. So what’s the deal? Is the estate of the sadly now deceased author sitting on all the rights? Are Laymon’s tales of terror simply too nasty to film? Or is it simply a case of no one having the guts to take a stab at it?
A notch above most Young Adult thrillers thanks to its author’s dryly humorous tone, Deadly Detention is a playful riff on school-set slasher movies that whistles along swiftly and keeps up the suspense to the end.
Think back to the 1985 John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll remember a lot of teenage bonding and not nearly enough severed heads. Writer Eric Weiner rectifies the problem by putting six high school students into evening detention and ensuring that staying popular isn’t their main concern – but staying alive.
There’s Glen, the nice-but-dim star athlete of Harrison High, who’s wound up staying late after being caught in a steamy make-out session with senior year bitch, Jaclyn – also in detention. Then there’s chunky nice girl Jill, still carrying the pack of cigarettes that got her into trouble, and equally geeky Owen, who’s landed a late shift thanks to a below-par term paper. Perpetual troublemaker Mike rounds out the group, while straight-A scholar Fran is a surprise addition, having been accused of stealing another girl’s wallet.
“Chill out, guys. I have detention all the time. It’s not so bad,” Mike reassures the gang, but they haven’t counted on being supervised by the school’s strictest teacher, Mr Crowley. And what Crowley has in mind isn’t quiet study but hard graft, scrubbing the classroom clean while he retires to the staff room for an hour. But 5.15 comes and goes. Along with 6.15. And soon the school is dark, the parking lot deserted, and no one else seems to be around. Until the deadly threats start spewing out of the loudspeaker system, that is, and the students realize they’re locked in the school with the windows barred, the phone lines cut, and a maniac out for blood…
Several 80s slashers utilized high school settings as the backdrop for their killings, with Fatal Games and Cutting Class making particularly good use of the sneaking-back-in-at-night conceit. Prom Night and The Slumber Party Massacre both have great after-school sequences, in which usually jam-packed hallways turn sinister once the crowds have deserted, but Deadly Detention is the only slasher tale to my knowledge to explicitly use detention as a reason to isolate its victims. And very effective it is too, meaning that most of the characters don’t even really know each other before ending up fighting for their lives, and allowing plenty of scope for character development as each explains the problems that led to their punishment, as well as their hopes for the future if they ever make it out alive.
Pacing isn’t a problem since, even though it’s the usual halfway-mark before the action kicks in, Weiner sends the group scurrying through every part of the school building, penning shock scenes that range from the basketball court to the library with an aplomb that screams “make this movie!”. Indeed, later films have used elements already given a thorough workout here, from the climax of Scream with its heroine unable to trust any of her former friends, to Horror 101, which lifts almost the entire set-up but does manage to come up with a nice twist of its own.
Published in 1994, the fashions described in Deadly Detention are very early-90s, but these only add to its charm. Because that’s what the book has in spades: good, honest likeability that keeps you hooked all the way to a pleasing pay-off. Well worth staying after school for.
A is for AGAIN? Platinum Dunes’ remake of Friday the 13th opens worldwide this week, and producer Brad Fuller is already hoping there’ll be a sequel, according to ShockTillYouDrop.com.
B is for BLOGS. Stay up-to-date with the latest F13th news with the Friday the 13th Blog and Scab’s Friday the 13th & Horror Blog.
C is for CRAZY RALPH, of whom no mention is made on the cast list of the new remake, suggesting the character won’t be resurrected. The original gloomy caretaker was played by Austrian-born actor Walk Gorney, who died in 2004 aged 91.
D is for DEREK MEARS. Previous horror credits for the stuntman/actor behind Jason’s latest incarnation include playing Chameleon in The Hills Have Eyes II, a werewolf in Wes Craven’s Cursed, and the Devil in John Carpenter’s Masters of Horror episode, Pro-Life.
E is for EXTENDED CUT. According to remake producer Andrew Form, interviewed at Fangoria.com, “there were a couple of story points cut out of the movie that will appear in the extended version [on DVD] and maybe a little bit more violence and nudity. There’s one story point, a big thing that happens in the extended cut, that doesn’t occur in the [theatrical] movie.”
F is for FREDDY VS. JASON, the only previous screenwriting credit of Friday the 13th remake writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.
G is for GORE, without which no Friday film would be complete. The latest instalment is set to feature death by machete, screwdriver, arrow, poker, bear trap and campfire, amongst other methods.
H is for HARRY MANFREDINI, who scored the original Friday the 13thand voices the classic “Ki ki ki, ma ma ma” musical sting. His other sinister scores include The Hills Have Eyes Part II, Swamp Thing, Cameron’s Closet, DeepStar Six and all four House movies.
I is for “IN MEMORIAM”, Benevolent Street’s excellent profile of 12 actors connected with the F13th series who are no longer with us.
J is for JARED PEDALECKI, star of the new remake, who likes cheeseburgers, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, The Great Gatsby, Good Will Hunting, Our Lady Peace, dogs, and wearing hoodies.
K is for KILLS, of which Jason has notched up an impressive 146, prior to his latest outing.
L is for LAKE. The real-life Camp Crystal Lake, where the original Friday the 13th was shot, is actually Camp Nobebosco, located at 11 Sand Pond Road, Blairstown, New Jersey. The new movie was filmed entirely in Texas.
M is for MRS. JASON VOORHIES… Well, who did you think made Jason’s packed lunch in the mornings? And check out that natty purse.
N is for NANA VISITOR, perhaps best-known as Major Kira in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, who takes over from Betsy Palmer to play Pamela Voorhies, Jason’s murderous mother, in the remake.
O is for OPENING WEEKEND. This year’s Friday the 13th will be the fifth in the series to have an actual Friday the 13th release. Previous entries that took advantage of the date were parts 3, 4, 7 and 9.
P is for PARASKAVEDEKATRIAPHOBIA, the medical name for the fear of Friday the 13th, which is unpronounceable but scores highly in Scrabble.
Q is for QUINT, the roving reporter from Ain’t It Cool News, who writes of the remake: “end of the day it’s a fun Jason flick and one that pays enough homage to not warrant pitchforks and torches. They essentially cram the first 3 movies into one, but it works for the purposes of this story.”
R is for ROLE-REVERSAL. Back in 1980, Paramount released Friday the 13th in America, with Warner distributing the film abroad. This year’s remake will be handled by Warner (as New Line) in the US, with Paramount taking charge around the rest of the world.
S is for SPOILERS courtesy of the British Board of Film Classification, whose consumer advice for the upcoming Friday warns: “In one scene, a woman tied up in a sleeping bag is hung upside down over a campfire so that her head starts burning before the rest of her catches fire. While she screams and burns in the background, a man in the foreground is screaming because his foot is caught in a large iron trap with clawed jaws which dig deep into the increasingly bloody wound before the killer plunges a machete into the man’s head.”
T is for TRAILER, which can be viewed at Yahoo! Movies.
U is for ÜBER-JASON, the masked killer’s futuristic incarnation featured in Jason X, who features nanotechnology-enhanced metallic skin.
V is for a surprisingly nasty and funny VIRAL VIDEO promo for the new remake, featuring an ill-fated camper at Crystal Lake and a chance to scare your friends.
W is for WILLA FORD. The young actress who stars as Chelsea in the upcoming remake is previously best known for portraying tragic model Anna Nicole Smith in the 2007 biopic Anna Nicole (which was, coincidentally, also scored by Harry Manfredini).
X is for X CERTIFICATE, the rating awarded by the BBFC when the original Friday the 13th was submitted for classification on 8 May 1980. The MPAA gave the film an R rating.
Y is for YOUTHFUL APPEARANCES. Previous F13th films gave early roles to Kevin Bacon (part 1), Crispin Glover, Corey Feldman (both part 4) and Kelly Hu (part 8).
Z is for ZOOMING. The recent Blu-Ray and DVD releases of Friday the 13th feature a reframed and zoomed-in image – at least in the US. It’s not known whether or not the new region 2 versions will be similarly altered.
Friday the 13th Parts 2-8 get DVD re-releases in the UK on Monday 9 February with cover art apparently inspired by The Texas Chainsaw 2: The Gruesome Edition and various Saw movies before it.
Parts 2 and 3 (which are also released on Blu-Ray) inherit the special features from the new region 1 editions, except that Part 3 lacks the option to watch the film in 3D, while the rest are bare-bones.
The rights for Part 1 presumably remain with Warner in the UK, who long ago released the movie uncut with some of the special features found on the new R1 edition.
All in all, it’s a bit pointless, really, especially considering that the Parts 1-8 Box Set was only released in the UK a few months ago and can be had for around £16 online, where these individual releases will be retailing for around £6 each.
There comes a point in every slasher fan’s life when they arrive at the horrible realisation that they’ve seen every decent slasher movie from the genre’s eighties heyday. Sure, newer slashers may promise a retro style but they, like Hatchet and Monster Man, usually turn out to be a mixed bag at best, with far too many nods to the trends of the present.
Faced with this situation, many of us stray further and further into the slasher wilderness, striving for years to find that “lost classic” that probably doesn’t exist, before finally losing ourselves in a graveyard of bad low-budget filmmaking and deeply dubious dress sense. But one man settled on a more ambitious solution: he wrote one. And, as if to ensure that no one could re-script, re-edit and, ten years later, no doubt re-imagine his vision, he turned his back on Hollywood and published it as a novel.
Now, don’t get me wrong: Vince A. Liaguno’s The Literary Six isn’t actually set in the 1980s – at least, not beyond its prank-gone-wrong prologue – but it’s the closest thing to an authentic “lost 80s slasher” you’re ever likely to come across. You know that exciting, fuzzy feeling you got when you switched on this year’s new, uncut version of the original My Bloody Valentine and it seemed like you were watching an entirely new movie? Well, open the pages of The Literary Six and the feeling will wash over you again… slowly at first, like the dusting of snow that welcomes the book’s characters to its remote setting of Shelter Rock Island, and then more forcefully, like the raging blizzard that cuts them off from the mainland.
Unlike its celluloid counterpart, the slasher novel has never really taken off beyond a handful of the more streamlined Richard Laymon stories, a raft of teen-oriented Point Horror titles, and the occasional one-off like Stephen Crye’s Joyride. What passes 85 minutes’ worth of popcorn-munching pleasantly enough doesn’t always translate to the page, where complexities like character description and psychological insight come naturally to the fore and, depending on your reading speed, a story may have to sustain your imagination over the course of several weeks.
In contrast, it’s crucial to the quick-fix nature of the slasher movie that we don’t get too close to its characters – bearing in mind that the majority of them are unlikely to survive until morning. For this reason, we frequently encounter instantly recognizable (and just as instantly disposable) stock types – the virgin, the slut, the jock, the joker and so on. In written fiction, this poses a problem: why spend hours investing in a bunch of people just to see them cynically picked off in random fashion? The author must create a cast that’s interesting enough to engage us, yet not so fascinatingly lovable that, when the blood does begin to spill, the experience descends into a depressing, nihilistic nightmare.
Enter the Literary Six themselves, a diverse sextet of former college buddies united by a tradition of yearly get-togethers – not to mention a dark secret from their collective past involving the fate of a much-despised university lecturer. The group that graduated as a bitchy campus clique has grown up into a successful, if slightly jaded, group of fortysomethings, whose annual reunions spark a flurry of repressed passions and bed-hopping antics that would make John Updike blush. You’ll find at least one character to love – and, quite possibly, one or two you’ll love to hate – but author Liaguno skilfully fleshes each of them out to the extent that you’ll understand the mixed motives of every last one.
Which is all well and good, because the first half of The Literary Six requires concentration to keep up with its tangle of affairs. As in many a slasher movie, the slashing doesn’t actually start until the book’s equivalent of the “45-minute mark”. But, whereas a film might pad out its opening with pranks and locker-room nudity, Liaguno’s novel uses this time to really get inside the heads of the Six’s members. That’s not to say there isn’t a nice “pre-credits” murder, along with a growing sense of impending doom, but it’s clear from the outset that The Literary Six demands more attention than your average slasher.
But how the investment pays off. When the power goes out and the gang’s latest gathering is plunged into darkness, the scene is set for the ultimate slasher showdown, as an unknown killer begins pruning down the party in a variety of brutal ways. Here, Liaguno really shows off his knowledge of – and great affection for – the genre, playing slasher movie clichés off against more unexpected elements as the action hurtles along.
The backdrop of Shelter Rock Island, with its abandoned mansion-house hotel, is straight out of April Fool’s Day, but the snowbound woods and network of wooden walkways that surround it provide a spectacular setting for hackle-raising thrills above and beyond the jokey tone of that particular film. Meanwhile, the references to other slashers come thick and fast, with Liaguno even managing an ingenious homage to My Bloody Valentine when our bemasked murderer reaches for a pickaxe and… well, you’ll just have to find out for yourself.
The Literary Six is a literary treat for fans of good old-fashioned slashers and proves that you don’t have to rely on a battered ex-rental tape and a miracle of VCR tracking to get that authentic fix. When it comes to gripping and intelligent slashers, it seems the pen is mightier than the machete.
The retro-look slasher Babysitter Wanted gets a limited theatrical release in the US this Friday but, meanwhile, sneaks out on DVD in the UK on the 23rd of February. The Lionsgate release offers a making-of featurette and the following cover art:
The movie is the directorial debut of Jonas Barnes and Michael Manasseri, both of whom are better known for small acting roles in everything from Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle to Psycho Beach Party, and stars Sarah Thompson (7th Heaven, Angel) as a small-town babysitter terrorized at a remote farmhouse.
Plot-wise, then, it sounds like the 1971 British thriller Fright, which featured Straw Dogs’ Susan George, but only time will tell as to whether it’ll build on the 80s vibe of recent efforts like All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, or take the more torture-themed route preferred by many a post-Saw slasher… What say you?
It’s not funny if you have to explain it, says conventional wisdom. But the truth is: sometimes you need a little background information to fully appreciate the joke. Here are ten sly slasher movie moments that prove the genre’s just as adept at tickling the ribs as tearing them out with a pair of gardening shears…
10. The Slumber Party Massacre
The first film in this infamous series is famed for its dry humour, the funniest example of which comes as the killer’s whirring drill-bit penetrates a spot in a door next to a list of “Emergency Drill Procedures”. But keep an eye on Trish’s dresser as Kim bombards Russ Thorn with ornaments and you’ll spot a more subtle in-joke lying out: the book Rubyfruit Jungle. This celebrated novel turned its author, Rita May Brown, into a lesbian icon – but critics’ reactions to The Slumber Party Massacre, which she also wrote, must’ve made her feel like running back into the closet and slamming the door.
9. Jason X
Sean S. Cunningham is the man who launched the Friday the 13th series and he – along with his nephew Noel, who produced this instalment – is name-checked on a piece of interstellar debris in Jason X marked “Cunningham Realty”. It’s not the first time the family name has had a mention: in Part VI, Megan gives a location as “Cunningham Road”, while police uniforms in Jason Goes to Hell reveal that Crystal Lake itself is in “Cunningham County”.
8. Urban Legend
Turning urban myths into deadly reality, this campus-set slasher stages every one of its deaths as a big sick joke. Another joke can be found in the details: keep your eyes peeled for the school crest of Pendleton University, seen briefly at various points in the film, including here on Loretta Devine’s shirt. If you understand Latin and don’t mind spoilers, you’ll find a giveaway gag in the motto beneath, which translates as: The Best Friend Did It.
7. Prom Night (1980)
Thanks to tax credit benefits introduced by the Canadian government in 1974, it became cheaper to film your exploitation quickies north of the border, resulting in a string of now-classic slashers like Black Christmas, Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine and Happy Birthday to Me. For set dressers, passing Canadian locations off as American suburbs became quite an art, but few faced as big a challenge as the makers of Prom Night, which was shot at a well-known Toronto school overlooking a rocky beach. Their solution? Rename it Alexander Hamilton Senior High after one of the USA’s Founding Fathers and stick a giant American flag in the grounds. Shame about all the Ontario licence plates, though.
6. Valentine
Jamie Blanks’ 2001 slasher is loathed by many but plays a whole lot better if you approach it as a black comedy version of Sex and the City, with a killer whose nosebleeds hark back to a similar plot device in 1982’s Alone in the Dark. Typical of its wily style is the moment when Kat describes Dorothy’s boyfriend, played by David Boreanaz, as “no angel”… Of course, Boreanaz had made his name as a character called just that in TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
5. Freddy Vs. Jason
It took 16 years and who knows how many boardroom meetings to bring together the heavyweights of horror, after New Line Cinema first approached Paramount with the idea of a match-up suggested for Friday the 13th Part VII. It seems only fair, then, that the studio behind the eventual slasher smack-down should get to make a cameo appearance in the end result. Here, as Freddy hurls a triplicate of metal sheets at Jason, they form the familiar New Line logo as they fly through the air.
4. Evil Laugh
A decade before the Scream trilogy unleashed its multi-level take on slasher movies, Return to Horror High was running fast and loose with the “movie-about-a-movie-within-a-movie” idea. But it was the Fangoria-reading Barney character of Evil Laugh who provided the blueprint for Scream’s Randy, warning his buddies away from cliché-ridden certain death with lines like: “You’re going to have sex? Don’t! Every time someone has sex in a horror story they get murdered!”. Other notable quotables include: “I just hope a guy in a hockey mask named Jason doesn’t show up” and “Why do those dumb kids keep going back to Camp Crystal Lake?”
3. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
This criminally neglected postmodern slasher flick offers a more astute deconstruction of the genre than any textbook on film studies – without skimping on the shocks, laughs and nudity. In one of its more mind-bending moments, Kane Hodder (the stunt man/actor famous for playing Jason Voorhies) is seen entering a familiar-looking house at 1428 Elm Street – Nancy’s address in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Looks like Freddy Vs. Jason could be in for a rematch!
2. Halloween H20
By the late 1990s, ironic slashers were de rigeur, but this belated Halloween sequel managed a compound in-joke more memorable than most: Janet Leigh’s character leaves school in the exact same car she drove in her most famous horror role, Psycho’s Marion Crane, while a familiar snatch of music from the Hitchcock classic plays faintly in the background. Consider that Leigh is the real-life mother of the other actress in the scene, Jamie Lee Curtis (“If I may be maternal for a moment,” she says) and fold in the fact that this was one of Leigh’s final roles, and you arrive at a meta-textual moment that’s both clever and affectionate – and topped off with the “Everyone’s entitled to once good scare” line from the original Halloween.
1. Scream
It’s impossible to conclude a list of slasher in-jokes without arriving at the mother of all homages, Wes Craven’s Scream. Barely a scene passes without a reference of some sort to a horror film or cliché of the past, but it’s this sequence – as Randy watches Halloween on TV – that captures the essence of the film most perfectly. Unaware that a killer’s sneaking up on him from behind, Randy yells “Behind you, Jamie” at Ms Lee Curtis on the screen. Meanwhile, via CCTV, Sidney and a cameraman are watching Randy watching Jamie, themselves screaming “Behind you!” at their screen. Oh, and the real-life name of the actor playing Randy? Jamie, of course. And your head? Spinning.
