Retro Slashers

This first article in a new series focusing on great slasher-movie chase scenes looks at 1979’s The Demon, a not-so-hot horror flick with a hotter-than-hot climax. Prepare for disappearing dressing gowns, gratuitous nudity, and the most ingenious use of a showerhead and some bubble bath since MacGyver accidentally wedged himself in his shower cubicle while reaching for the soap… Spoilers ahead!

THE SETUP: Nice schoolteacher Mary (Jennifer Holmes) is home alone, running a bath and, naturally, belting out a hearty rendition of “Show Me the Way to Go Home”. But, before you can say “razor-clawed intruder”, there’s a strange noise and all the lights go out, leaving Mary half-dressed and, even worse, only halfway through the first verse of her performance… What’s a wannabe showgirl to do but throw on a dressing gown and head for the basement to fix those faulty electrics?

THE KILLER REVEAL: After discovering that someone’s not only trashed her neatly-made bed, but also unceremoniously dumped a reading lamp on top of the mattress, Mary finds an even bigger mess in the shape of the bloody body of her housemate, wrapped in plastic and lying quite, quite dead in a downstairs room. And to think she’d only just decluttered! Screaming, Mary runs out into the hallway and straight into the path of a shadowy figure with a mean-looking scowl and a nasty set of razorblades where his fingernails should be…

THE PURSUIT: This being a slasher, Mary decides to run upstairs and into the bedroom, where she spots the perfect hiding place… Under the bed! Unluckily for her, however, the killer’s a pro when it comes to hide-and-seek, and knows exactly where to find her, tearing up the mattress and hurling it across the room, before, um, just standing there as she runs safely out of the door. From here on, however, it’s a full-on cardio workout for Mary as she runs down – and then back up – the stairs, evading the killer by hiding in a succession of different closets while looking for an unlocked exit. The bedroom closet turns out to have a handy hatchway leading to the attic, so Mary does what any sane person in the same situation would do and strips to her panties, before hoisting herself up into the eaves to noisily paw at the roof tiles. Hearing the scrape and clatter of a victim on the verge of escape, the killer clambers up into the attic and grabs Mary by the ankles, causing himself and Mary to fall through the bedroom ceiling and onto the floor below, where the killer’s knocked out just long enough for Mary to bounce gymnastically off the bed and back into the bathroom where the terror began…

THE OUTCOME: Displaying a natural aptitude for prioritizing, Mary quickly fashions a stylish poncho from her shower curtain and twins it with a plastic shower cap to prevent any further damage to her hairstyle from either moisture or crazed killers. But her quick-thinking and invention don’t stop there… Hearing her attacker regaining consciousness in the next room, she grabs the showerhead from the bath and affixes it to the nearest handrail with a wet flannel, thereby creating a lethal water-spout that will sprinkle directly in the face of any intruder! Sure enough, the killer bursts in and is subjected to the full force of Mary’s patented Death Drizzler™, whereupon he’s instantly blinded, and starts skidding on the oil slick of bath products that she’s cleverly sloshed all over the floor. It’s an orgy of blood, violence and sweet pine-scented fragrances, as Mary stabs the killer again and again in the neck with a large pair of scissors, until he collapses, dead but spotlessly clean, in the tub. Hurrah!

THE VERDICT: The only thing scarier than the last 10 minutes of The Demon is the thought of sitting through the first 80… But, as dull as they may be, they’re worth it for the pure joy of what amounts to one of my all-time favourite slasher chase-sequences. It’s creepy, breathless and funny, with inserts of irritated neighbours (“That sounded like breaking glass!”) intercut via witty editing (I laughed out loud at the tease-shot of Mary’s robe slipping down to reveal… the elderly lady next-door climbing into bed!). Interestingly, The Demon also managed to introduce a blade-gloved killer five years before Freddy Krueger and fade out on the screams of its heroine blending with its end-credits music three years before Tenebrae. Not that it’s a masterpiece – far from it – but, as obscure slasher oddities go, this one’s well worth the chase.

The tradition of telling ghost stories and urban legends around a campfire got an upgrade during the early 1980s when slasher films used campfire chillers to reveal the origin of their star killers.  A campfire chiller is usually told by an authority figure to frighten or warn campers and junior counselors.  While the authority figure details the killers origin in a raspy whisper, the camera pans around the group showing the young lovers holding each other in a tight embrace, a nurturing female squeezing a frightened child to reassure them everything will be okay, and the ostricized nerd/loser siting away from the fire.  Just as the authority figure gets to the punchline someone (usually masked and armed with a nasty weapon) jumps out of the darkness and scares the holy hell out of the listeners.  This person, once unmasked, is revealed to be resident practical joker.

The following films offer some examples of how the slasher genre used campfire chillers to terrify audiences:

Friday the 13th Part II:  This is the most important campfire chiller in a slasher because it took the Friday the 13th films in a new direction and ushered in the era of Jason Vorhees.  As Tom Savini is quick to point out in interviews, there is no Jason.  The killer could be anyone until Paul (John Furey) tells the legend of Jason Vorhees.   Jason, the boy who drowned, becomes Jason, the vengeful son killing campers for his dead mother.  The spear Ted (Stu Charno) brandishes when he jumps out later finds its way into a couple of other campers.  A gory,spiced up version of this campfire chiller makes an appearance at the beginning of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

 Madman: This slasher classic starts off with two campfire chillers.  TP (Tony Fish) sings a song foreshadowing the grisly fates awaiting the camp counselors.  Max (Carl Fredericks) tells the story of the crazed farmer Marz only to be interrupted by wise-ass Richie (Jimmy Steele).  Richie’s mocking of the Madman legends sets off Marz and leads to the deaths of the camp counselors.

The Burning: The Burning, like Madman, is inspired by the legend of Cropsy, a campfire chiller that has haunted summer camps for decades.  The twist here is the story is told by Todd (Brian Matthews), the person responsible for turning Cropsy into a horribly disfigured killer.  When the Crospy legend is told again after his death, it suggests Cropsy has gained a sort of anicdotal immortality.  He lives on in the campfire chillers told at camps all across the country.

The Final Terror:  Boone (Lewis Smith) tells the campfire chiller instead of leader Mike (Mark Metcalf).  This shows Mike is neglecting his duties as head of the forest expedition to spend time with his girlfriend.  The story is interrupted when joker/junkie Zorich (John Fredericks) jumps out of the dark.  Creepy Eggar (Joe Pantoliano) also breaks up the festivities.  The story suggests there may be more one killer lurking in the woods.  And the other killer may be a member of the group.

The Prey:   This is the only slasher on the list that doesn’t use a campfire chiller to explain the origin of the killer.  The campfire scene starts with small talk, sometimes repeated, while the campers eat fish.  Then, the resident nerd gives a brief history lesson on Greek myths in relation to the consilations.  Eventually, Joel (Steve Bond) tells a Cliff Note’s version of W. W. Jacobs “The Monkey’s Paw”, a classic campfire chiller.

Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers: The film opens with TC (Brian Patrick Clarke) telling a ghost story but it’s laughed at by the campers.  Phoebe (Heather Binion) knows a much scarier campfire chiller so she tells the legend of Angela and Camp Arawak.  Young Charlie (Justin Nowell) adds a few urban legends surrounding Angela before Sean (Tony Higgins) completes the tale with the revelation Angela is free after undergoing a sex change operation.  In an ironic twist, Phoebe’s portion of the story is interrupted by Angela (Pamela Springsteen) the killer instead of a practical joker.  It’s significant the campfire chiller is told by the campers because it shows the rowdy campers are in charge of Camp Rolling Hills instead of the counselors.  Charlie’s portion of the campfire chiller represents the crazy  urban legends surrounding the original Sleepaway Camp and the folks involved in its filming.