1 of 2

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 8

Halloween) were seemingly causing a rift in their society that had to be put right, and this meant being killed by the hand of a usually masked, always unstoppable (until the end) murderer.

In slasher films the killers are predominantly male and regardless of how inhuman their actions or reactions, they are still human. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1978), the killers are reflections of the family unit as idealized by American society. They are rendered monstrous by their actions subverting what has been idealized as they are violent, cannibalistic, deadly, threatening forces. While post-Halloween slashers had single killers, Hooper and Craven's earlier films, and Hitchcock's Psycho, played on the gothic Americana, in that these families protected their own frontiers, their homes and the family. In The Hills Have Eyes the evil cannibals don't like the inner city holidaymakers setting up camp on their land as if accidental trespass is a crime to be paid with one's life. Likewise, in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the victims come under threat after wandering onto the family's land. Interestingly, as the family settle down for a meal at the dining table, much like any family, the idealism of such an act is subverted as the meal is tied to a chair at one end of the table begging for her life. Slasher films post-Halloween used these ideas, especially that of the family unit. Freddy Krueger killed the children of the families that burned him many years previously in A Nightmare On Elm Street, while Michael Myers in Halloween felt compelled to finish the job he started as a child after killing his sister, by tracking down and killing his only remaining sister, and Mrs. Voorhees in Friday The 13th took revenge for the death of her son. Revenge is an important part of the killer's mindset, and it is interesting to note that in most high school/campus set slasher's, they are based upon the premise of someone avenging a wrong, committed to them or to a loved one by a particular group' (Whitehead, M. 2003, page 12). In Friday The 13th, the particular group' that committed the wrong are the camp site counselors who are responsible for the death of Mrs. Voorhees son, while in Prom Night the particular group are four teens responsible for the death of a fellow student.

The killing within slasher films does suggest something deeper within the act, than just one more bloody death. The family unit and the break-up of this unit is an important

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• ...
• 8
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about The slasher movie: An introduction?
We want to hear your view. Write now!