Slasher genre

Recently watched Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and although it has a reputation for being one of the very first dumb "body-count" movies, I thought it was far more psychological than people make it out to be. The idea of a killer who murders people in their sleep was very disturbing and the hookline summed up the fears of the character's and the audience well: "If Nancy Doesn't Wake Up Screaming, She Won't Wake Up At All"

The film was very influential and helped spawn many sequels, although many agree they were not up to the high standard set by the original. Other "slasher" movies took the narrative structure and replicated it. There is a murder of a character near the beginning of the film who we were lead to believe was the protagonist. The cast usually involves teenagers, and those that do drugs and have sex normally die, whereas those who don't and work hard at school survive.

Other films that influenced the genre include:

• Halloween
• Friday the 13th
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• My Bloody Valentine

The genre was at it's height during the 1980's but died out towards the end of the decade due to constant repitition of storylines, and a lack of originality. However, in 1996 Wes Craven directed "Scream", which once again revived the genre. It was very satirical of it's own "slasher/horror" genre, which gave it originality. This lead to several other films much in the same vain, for example "I Know What You Did Last Summer". This revival also lead to some sequels of classic films such as "Halloween H20" and remakes such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

The "Scream Trilogy" also helped establish some 'rules' for the slasher genre. Below are some of these laws which the characters say in the film:

1. You may not survive the movie if you have sex.
2. You may not survive the movie if you drink or do drugs.
3. You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back."
4. You may not survive the movie if you ask "Who's there?"
5. You shouldn't go out to investigate a strange noise if you wish to survive.