Slashers (film)

Slashers, or slasher films, are a subgenre of horror films involving a psychopathic killer who stalks and murders a group of people, typically by using bladed tools (such as knives, axes, or machetes) or other sharp objects.

Slasher films often feature a high body count, graphic violence, and a focus on suspense and terror. The victims are often teenagers or young adults, and the killer is frequently a mysterious and masked figure. Many films follow a set of tropes, including the "final girl" (the last female survivor who confronts and often defeats the killer), a pattern of sexual activity leading to death for characters who engage in it, and the use of jump scares and suspenseful music to build tension.

The origins of the slasher subgenre can be traced back to films like Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), but it gained significant popularity and solidified its tropes with John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). The 1980s saw a surge in slasher film production, with franchises like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Prom Night becoming cultural phenomena.

While the slasher subgenre declined in popularity in the early 1990s, it experienced a resurgence later in the decade with films like Scream (1996), which self-referentially commented on and deconstructed the genre's tropes. Slasher films continue to be made today, often incorporating modern horror elements and updating the formula for contemporary audiences.