Components of the Slasher Film
Defining what exactly is a slasher film can be difficult. The popular reference of the "slasher" is a relatively modern label. As late at 1981, slasher films were sometimes not even thought of as a part of the horror genre. As film scholar Richard Nowell pointed out, "[movie] industry watchers discussed teen slashers not only has horror films, not even just as thrillers, whodunits, and teen films, but … [similar to] 'melodramas,' 'romances' and boisterous teen comedies."2Richard Nowell, "'Where Nothing is Off Limits': Genre, Commercial, Revitalization, and the Teen Slasher Film Posters of 1982-1984," Post Script – Essays in Film and the Humanities Vol 30, No. 2 (2011): 64.
In this analysis, the slasher film is defined in the manner shared by historian Adam Rockoff and feminist scholars Carol Clover and Vera Dika; the films in the genre, too diverse to encompass into a singe concise definition, nevertheless share distinct commonalties, especially in regards to the killer, location, weapons, and the victims involved.