Components of the Slasher Film
Victims and the Final Girl
The role of the victims differentiates slasher films from others in the horror genre.10Scholars include other markers of the slasher which I either omit or add in relation to other features, including "shock," and "final girl." for Carol Clover, "special effects," "past event" and "points of view shots," for Adam Rockoff, and "plot structure," and "production" for Vera Dika. First, the vast number of murdered victims in these films became a central point of criticism for opponents of the slasher film. The liberal death tolls, however, were not always in place since the slasher film's inception. As Clover pointed out, there were only four deaths in Halloween, released in 1978; five years later, Jason took the lives of fourteen poor souls in Friday the 13th: Part III.11Carol Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 32. Rockoff insightfully described how the mere frequency of killings cannot, however, be taken as something unique to the slasher, otherwise any 1980s action film would be severely criticized for its superfluous violence and death. Rather, during the emergence of the slasher's popularity, "the body count rose steadily in an effort to keep a rapidly desensitized audience stimulated." To his credit, Rockoff explained that later eighties action films like Commando and Rambo: First Blood Part II had equally, if not more, deaths than the typical slasher film.12Adam Rockoff, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986 (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2001), 7-8.
The victims also share a collective yearning to do what we can expect teenagers to want to do—have sex. They are "sexual transgressors" as Clover put it, doomed to suffer under the sexually and gender confused killer. Interestingly, this is especially true for those teenagers, mainly men and boys, who "seek or engage in unauthorized sex," perhaps a nod to a growing discussion of sexual violence in the United States.13Carol Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 34.
The Final Girl
There is one victim in most slasher films, however, who is fundamentally different. Carol Clover famously dubbed this victim "the final girl," always female, asexual, masculine, and smarter than her friends who eventually find themselves at the wrong end of knife. The final girl evolved during the slasher film's rise in popularity. Sally, the lone survivor of 1974's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, passively suffers throughout most of the film, tortured by the mad Texas family and Leatherface. Sally only survives with some luck, breaking through a window and saved by a passing trucker. Contrast this with Jamie Lee Curtis's character Laurie in Halloween four years later. Laurie actively fought against Michael, stabbing him in the eyeball when cornered in the closet. By the time slasher films reached the peak of their popularity in the mid 1980s, the final girls became active participants in bringing about the killer's demise, not waiting, like Sally did, for outside help. Clover called the final girl "boyish," with "her smartness, gravity, competence . . . and sexual reluctance" setting her apart from her more feminine friends. "Just as the killer is not fully masculine," especially with his inability to perform sexual intercourse, "[the final girl] is not fully feminine."14Carol Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 40.
Conclusion: A Rising Audience
Source: Variety, June 8, 1988, pg. 24
With a general definition of the slasher presented, it is helpful to establish how successful these films became in their golden era. Their fan base did not soar overnight. Tobe Hooper directed the first of the major slasher films released in the 1970s, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for less than $150,000. While financial and critically successful, the film was marred by a financial scandal with the Peraino brothers embezzling box office profits from the filmmakers. Four years later, Halloween encountered even more favorable critic reviews and profitably success. The film was made for a measly $300,000 and returned over 150 times its value with a gross of over $50 million.16Adam Rockoff, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986 (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2001), 50.Rockoff's figures may be slightly conservative. According to other sources, the film has grossed more than $70 million, or $240 million in 2013. See Phelim O'Neill, "John Carpenter: 'Halloween's a very simple film'" The Telegraph, October 31, 2013. However, Halloween was initially seen as only a minor success. As historian Richard Nowell noted, "The fact that Halloween had taken eighteen weeks to accumulate [$5 million] was not necessarily a sign of its continued longevity at the box-office."17Richard Nowell, Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle (London: Continuum, 2011), 109. Hollywood studios were unsure the slasher film formula set by Halloween and its predecessors would pay off in the future.
Until 1980, slashers like Driller Killer and The Toolbox Murder were largely unknown and unseen by audiences nationwide. Sean S. Cunningham's 1980 Friday the 13th finally fully commercialized the genre, eventually making over $40 million. "I was trying to make something that people had to go see," Cunningham explained, "Because I was in the movie business, I wasn't doing high art or anything."18Adam Rockoff, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986 (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2001), 78-79. Cunningham illustrated what he thought made the Friday the 13th more attractive to teenage audiences compared to the previous, limited success slashers. His film was admittedly not supposed to be about exploitation or rape revenge but rather pure, classic horror. "Halloween ha[d] warmed up the crowd," Rockoff concluded, "and audiences were begging for the headliner."19Adam Rockoff, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986 (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2001), 78.