by Spencer Hawken

Created on: August 16, 2011   Last Updated: August 17, 2011

When it comes to slasher movies, top of any list must without a doubt always be John Carpenter's Halloween. Carpenter literally reinvented fear with his creation of Michael Myers, the soulless and seemingly invincible killer, he strikes without warning, and his targets for the most part at least without motive.

The second image that will enter the minds of most is that of Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) in the

Psycho movies. Like Carpenter's Myers (almost two decades later), Alfred Hitchcock re-invented the wheel. Not only did he create a ruthless killer, he included a sexual element, something that had never been handled by the movie industry with any real effort.

Wes Craven is responsible for many of the greatest slasher movies. Back in 1972 his Last House On The Left traumatized its audience, the results so shocking, it was banned in many countries. Many argue that The Hills Have Eyes (1977) is not a slasher movie, but it must certainly be mentioned. Then in 1984, he bought audiences Freddy Kruger, the killer who stalked victims in their dreams. While finally in 1996, he bought one of the most successful modern slasher movies to the screen in Scream. Scream's killer, a masked man with a mask reminiscent of Munch’s Shriek painting, is without a doubt one of the best examples of a modern slasher killer. The added bonus is also that the killer is never the same from picture to picture, each new Scream movie brings a brand new killer, wearing the same disguise, bringing a touch of realism to the story by making its killer both very human and of course vulnerable.

Italy put some fresh blood into the Slasher genre, Mario Bava’s Bay Of Blood made back in 1971 is the “father” of the American modern slasher killers Freddy, Jason, Michael, and Shriek. Dario Argento put some considerable effort in too, Tenebrae is by far one of the best slasher movies of all time, and without a doubt the best of the Italian giallo movies. Italy also bought on one of the most bizarre slasher movies to the screen, in Lucio Fulci’s 1981 classic New York Ripper. In NYR, the killer is completely disturbed, and in turn disturbing to the audience, his bloody brutality mixed by his uncanny fascination with talking and quacking like a duck as he kills.

Halloween struck a number of times, but in 2007 it took its bloodiest stab yet, when musician Rob Zombie retold the original Halloween story by John Carpenter. In doing so he delivered a whole new bloodline to slasher movie. While Carpenter's delivery was subtle, Zombie’s was a punch in the face of reality, it was bloody, unpleasant, and in some ways the closest any slasher movie has ever been to reality. There are no pink soft shades, this is a tour de force of terror that left audiences dumbstruck.

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