Monster of the Day #3082

Updated on August 10, 2020 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

So, does anyone here like slashers? Not my bag, obviously, as I’ve established a million times. Still, at this time it’s a venerable sub-genre and I was wondering if anyone here did have a soft spot for them. Today’s example is The Burning, which is now 40 (!) years old. It’s largely remembered for it’s Tom Savini gore effects, and for having a young Jason Alexander (and Helen Hunt around somewhere) in the cast. YouTube is pretty weird, because there’s a full unedited print of this up with all the nudity and splatter intact.

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  • Beckoning Chasm

    I’m not a slasher fan, but this one is pretty good.

  • I thought this one took forever to get going. Not a huge fan of the subgenre myself, but I’ve sure seen a lot of them.

  • A good slasher flick is as good as any Horror flick. The Burning doesn’t reach great heights, but it’s not as bad as some of it’s kin. Haven’t watched it in years. One of the rare Slashers with a boy as the Final Girl.

  • KeithB

    Holly Hunter or Helen Hunt?

  • I think it is more a matter of taste than whether the movies themselves are subjectively good. I don’t much care for either gore effects (although I can admire the technical prowess of well done ones) or nihilism, so I don’t care for a lot of slashers, which tend to revel in both. Actually the distaste for nihilism means I don’t like a lot of modern horror, period. Although the movies I do like, I like a lot.

  • kgb_san_diego

    According to IMDB, Holly Hunter. I simply must check this one out…

  • Eric Hinkle

    Are there any that stand out in your memory as especially good?

  • Depends, I suppose, on your definition. Among the movies that codified the genre, I’m fans of both the original Halloween and Black Christmas, although both are super-light on gore. I still really like the original Nightmare on Elm Street and think Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is seriously underrated, but not sure if they are slashers or dark fantasy. With the same caveat, I liked the first two Candyman flicks. It’s been a while, but I remember really liking the original April Fools Day for it’s subversion of expectations. Slumber Party Massacre isn’t exactly good but manages to be pretty fun.

    I probably am not a huge fan of any slasher made later than early 90s (actually, I just haven’t watched many, if any, I don’t think), although I likes Scream the first time I saw it, it’s less clever than it thinks it is and way too self congratulatory.

    Fairly significant ones that I don’t like that much would include Friday the 13th, because it is stupid and the last 20 minutes or so just piss me off because there is no setup whatsoever, and Slumber Party Massacre, because I think it is just mean-spirited from beginning to end.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thanks for the detailed response. I agree on your choices though I’ve never seen ‘April Fools Day’. I happen to be pretty fond of first ‘The Hills Have Eyes’; Craven had a better grasp of how people would actually behave under nightmarish circumstances than many other Hollywood directors. And both the cannibals and the behave with some intelligence.

    I’m also fond of ‘My Bloody Valentine’, too.

    I am confused by one thing. You say that Slumber Party Massacre is both one of your faves and one of the worst. Am I reading that wrong?

  • Whoops, under ones I don’t like, I meant Sleepaway Camp. That is the one I think is too mean-spirited to be fun. Will correct that.

    I’m kind of middling on My Bloody Valentine. It’s definitely far from the worst.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thanks for straightening me out on my question. And I think you might like Hills. It’s brutal in spots and the violence can get disturbing. But that seems to be the whole point, delivered by Craven with some pretty decent subtlety for one of these movies. I.e., that real-life murderous violence is not fun.

  • The Rev.

    As far as slashers go, I found this to be one of the better ones. I suppose that’s damning with faint praise, but I’m not trying to. I also enjoyed Bay of Blood which honestly feels like the first “true” slasher, the giallo touches notwithstanding. Also up there would be NoES (and I’ll echo GJ on New Nightmare), You’re Next, Stagefright (the Michele Soavi one), Slumber Party Massacre, and My Bloody Valentine. And, obviously, Halloween and Black Christmas are both great, even though the former never felt like a slasher to me. (The latter hews closer, in my opinion.)
    Then there are the oddities that I enjoy. The Forest and Just Before Dawn are kind of slasher/backwoods horror pastiches, with the latter more of a “proper” slasher (with an unforgettable takedown by the Final Girl), while the former also throws other things into the mix and is carried by likable characters, with some pretty good acting from the leads. Sledgehammer I can’t call good, but certainly not for lack of trying, with some bizarre supernatural touches, decent gore for a no-budget DTV movie (one of the first, in fact), and an above-average Final Girl.