Thomas Ellison

Slasher movies are the work of the Devil and any child who watches one will turn evil and be damned to hell. Such was the battle cry for traveling hucksters posing as preachers during the 1980s. These gypsies made a dishonest living traveling from town to town warning about the diabolical forces lurking in heavy metal music, Saturday morning cartoons, toy boxes, and slasher movies. Often times churches would invite these con artists in as guest speakers during revivals to help improve attendance and plate offerings. Anyone attending the seminars would hear the “TRUTH” about the evil forces tempting young people into a life of sin and debauchery. Attendees were encouraged to steal their children’s belongings, bring them to the special prayer service, and then throw the offensive items on a bonfire after the lecture.

Of course, the lectures had more to do with urban legends or outright lies than any real truth. The murders in {insert slasher title here} were real because the director was a devil worshipper who sacrificed the cast to his dark lord. Some horror films were cursed, The Exorcist and Poltergeist are usually the ones mentioned, and every member of the cast and crew died in accidents just a few years after the film was released. If you watch said horror film then you too would be cursed. Halloween is a loving tribute to a pagan god and promotes the sacrifices of young children on Halloween night. When it came to making up bullshit about movies, these guys were very creative.

These con men played on the fears of parents too stupid to realize teenagers often go through a period of rebellion. The con man was always quick to point out it was never the parent’s fault if the child became a delinquent. With the con man’s help, a parent could save their child’s soul. All the parent had to do was buy a book or video (written by or starring the con man) at the seminar and follow the helpful steps. In the back of these books parents would usually find form letters and the addresses of media companies and government agencies so they could register complaints against the evil products controlling their children.

When the popularity of slasher films began to wane in the mid-80s, the con men shifted their “TRUTH” spotlight to other cultural evils. Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers took a back seat to the dangers of watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, playing with “Pokey-man” cards, and reading Harry Potter novels. By changing the con’s focus to whatever happens to be popular at the time, these crooks ensure perpetual employment. It won’t be long before the Twilight series comes under fire for turning confused young minds into blood drinking ghouls.

Now for a bit of a disclaimer. This article is not an attack on any religion or people who have religious beliefs. This article is intended as a look back at a select group of con artist who used a crusade against the slasher genre as a way to make a quick buck.

While movie critics took to the airwaves to decry the slasher films flooding theaters in the early 1980s, hardcore feminists groups like N.O.W. took to the streets to protest the films, theaters showing slashers, and the dirty degenerates who attended the showings. If the popular feminists propaganda is to be believed, slasher films were designed to teach the lowest level of pervert how to stalk, rape, and murder women. The entire women’s lib movement could crumble into ruins if films like Maniac and Friday the 13th were allowed to be shown in movie houses. Armed with placards and banshee shrieks, these stormtroopers in high-heels marched in front of any theater showing a slasher on the Siskel and Ebert hit list.

While these feminist group claimed to be protecting the female race from dangerous movies, the simple truth is these ladies found an easy way to get on television. All of their rage and fury was nothing more than cheap publicity for their organizations. I suspect some of the protests were actually organized by the producers and distributors for films like Maniac and I Spit on Your Grave. The media attention increased ticket sales for the very films the fems wanted banned.

If the feminists weren’t so intellectually dishonest when it came to arguing against slasher films, then they would’ve seen that no other genre features as many strong female characters as the slasher. Let’s take Jamie Lee Curtis for a quick example. Curtis plays a woman who defeats evil through inner strength and intelligence in Halloween, Halloween II, Terror Train, Prom Night, The Fog, and Roadgames. She wasn’t exploited until she made a mainstream picture, Trading Places, and was reduced to playing a hooker who strips for the camera shortly after walking on screen. Almost every slasher has a warrior woman archetype, an image the fems should’ve praised rather than protested.

When the slasher film stopped being a big money maker at the box-office, the fems moved their protests over to rock and heavy metal music. After metal died a slow death, the fems took up arms against evil video games like Grand Theft Auto. One would think feminist organizations would’ve come to the aid of Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin when Big Media started ripping them to pieces during the last election cycle. Odd, isn’t it, that N.O.W. and those other groups stayed silent when MSNBC accused Clinton of “pimping out” her daughter. They were also silent when media wise-men claimed Palin couldn’t be a politician because she had too many children. Maybe N.O.W. should change its name to the National Organization of Women . . .Just Not All Women.

This is the first in a series of articles that will showcase the people, organizations, companies, and government agencies that tried to ban slasher films in the early 1980s.

The first member of our rogues gallery is film critic Roger Ebert, who savaged the slasher film in his columns for The Chicago Sun-Times and on the television programs Sneak Preview and At the Movies.

Before I go further I would like to point out that this isn’t a personal attack against Roger Ebert. His protests against the slasher film have made him a part of the genre’s history and should be recorded. I do own several of his books and enjoy reading his reviews for slasher films no matter how negative they may be. His writing can be extremely funny even if it does border on elitist snobbery when discussing slashers.

The Critic’s Crusade started with I Spit on Your Grave (a.k.a. Day of the Woman) before taking up arms against Maniac, Friday the 13th, and all of the other slashers released during the genre’s golden age. Attacking a film one finds offensive is understandable, but Mr. Ebert often crossed the line by savaging theater owners for showing the films and the audiences for attending the screenings. He refers to the I Spit on Your Grave audience as “vicarious sex criminals.” On television, Ebert labeled slashers as dangerous films for dangerous minds. These depraved films appealed to the dark, deranged underbelly of society and would only lead to societal decay if left unchecked.

Mr. Ebert’s attacks against slasher films did have an impact on box-office receipts but not in the way he had hoped. Day of the Woman bombed when it was originally released but made a fortune after a title change and Ebert’s rants in the media. The attacks on Maniac helped the film turn a profit for investors shortly after it was unleashed in theaters. All of this rapid money making caused other producers and directors to crank out even more slasher films in the hopes of generating fast cash. Perhaps this is what most offended Mr. Ebert, slasher films made money while the art films he loved vanished from theaters after one week.

It seems rather ironic to me that Roger Ebert, a film critic, would get so involved in an effort to ban slashers just because he hated the genre. Ebert was born in 1942 which means he lived through the witch hunts that targeted Communists in Hollywood, horror comic books, and rock & roll during the 1950s. He had to know lives, careers, and companies could be ruined if his crusade succeeded.

A great deal has changed for Roger Ebert in the nearly thirty years since he lead the charge against slasher films. His very public battle with cancer has left him without a physical voice. Soon, Mr. Ebert may find himself without a media voice as well. The television shows are gone. His newspaper, The Chicago Sun-Times, is in so much financial trouble that it could either go bankrupt or become nationalized by the US government. In a completely unexpected yet strangely poetic twist , the slasher films Roger Ebert despised in the 1980s are being remade, which means he has to watch them all over again.