Studio tampering is a time (dis)honored tradition in the slasher genre. Horror House, A.K.A. The Haunted House of Horror, a forgotten little British chiller, is an early example of a studio destroying a film by radically changing storylines with unnecessary reshoots made without the director’s input. Continue reading
Parties play a major role in many slasher films. Sometimes the party sets off the killer (My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler) and sometimes people pick the wrong place to have a good time (Killer Party, Hell Night, House on Sorority Row). We’ll start with the best ones and work our way down. Continue reading
This is a difficult one. Along with The Last House on the Left (1972), this is one of those unpleasant 70’s rape-revenge flicks that makes its audience feel dirty for watching a woman being brutalized, and then for cheering her (or her surrogates) on as she seeks revenge. Continue reading
What are Lost Slashers? Some might consider them to be any of the hundreds of titles in the slasher genre that aren’t Halloween or Friday the 13th. Others might consider them to be VHS obscurities that so far haven’t made it to DVD. But to those who dig deeper down the rabbit hole, Lost Slashers never even came out on any format. Continue reading
Sleepaway Camp is a bit of a contradiction. It’s a third-tier Slasher from the sub-genre’s Golden Era, however, it’s a flick that every Slasher fanatic absolutely must see, and its ending is a bonafide Slasher classic. Continue reading
In 1989 Missouri passed the first Slasher Law in the United States. The bill was sponsored by Democrat Doug Harpool and signed into law by Republican governor John Ashcroft. Harpool claimed the law was designed to keep children under 17 from renting or buying any video that included graphic materials. Continue reading
Highway horror is nothing new. The Car, The Wraith and other roadkill flicks such as The Hitcher have used wide-open spaces as inhospitable places of terror. Vehicular manslaughter was certainly seen in a new light after movies like Christine and Maximum Overdrive featured the car as an evil, unstoppable killer. Continue reading
On February 24, 1984, Pitchfork Massacre hit the big screen at the Apollo Cinema in my hometown in South Carolina. The film played for one week then vanished. It has never been mentioned since… until now. Continue reading
Before John Badham became the iconic director behind Saturday Night Fever (1977) and War Games (1982), he cut his teeth on the small screen. Badham worked mostly in episodic television and Isn’t it Shocking? was his 2nd made for TV movie, released in 1973 (his first film No Place to Run aired the year before). Continue reading
We’re “soft launching” a Retro Slashers DVD label with lost sequel Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor, released in finished form for the first time ever next week after 20 years of uphill battle. The spine serial number is RS001 – and as a test case we’re piggybacking on this project which initiated over at companion site Sleepaway Camp Films. Continue reading
