The slasher genre has a long history. Many people credit movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Black Christmas with creating the genre, and Halloween certainly popularized it in 1978. By the time Scream came around in 1996 (over 20 years after Texas and Black Christmas), the genre had long established its tropes and clichés. Audiences knew exactly what to expect, and Scream intelligently relied on these expectations through its meta humor.
But Scream certainly isn't the only slasher to play with the genre's tropes. It's arguably the most popular, but far from the only self-aware horror-comedy-slasher.
10 Scream (1996)
Arguably the greatest postmodern slasher ever made (and certainly the most popular), Scream was released to incredible success in the holiday season of 1996. Written by slasher movie aficionado Kevin Williamson, Scream actively commented on the genre's tropes, with many of its characters referencing horror movie clichés and commenting on their horror movie-like situations.
In one case, Randy even spells out the "rules" of the slasher movie while watching Halloween, which instantly became one of the movie's most popular scenes.
9 Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
Freddy Krueger is arguably the creepiest killer from a Wes Craven movie, and he was utilized to his most creative degree in Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Released two years before Scream, New Nightmare actively comments on and spoofs the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
In this film, Freddy Krueger is a fictional movie character who invades the real world and torments the people working on his movies. Heather Langenkamp even plays herself, and the movie often re-creates famous quotes and scenes from the original film.
8 The Cabin In The Woods (2011)
Arguably Drew Goddard's best movie, The Cabin in the Woods could very well be the most meta slasher ever made. Even the simple name itself conjures classic images of horror movie lore and cliché, which is exactly the point.
In this film, a group of stereotypical horror movie characters (stoner, jock, virgin, etc.) travel to a cabin in the woods that is controlled by an underground laboratory who kill the inhabitants via a variety of traditional horror movie villains. The movie is wickedly intelligent and hilarious, throwing up the slasher genre with immense glee and love.
7 Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
One of the first instances of a meta slasher belongs to the iconic Friday the 13th series. Following the critical and commercial failure of A New Beginning, the franchise resurrected the popular Jason Voorhees. In this film, he is depicted as a truly unstoppable supernatural force, which serves as a great bit of meta humor targeting the unrelenting nature of slasher villains.
The movie is also filled with self-referential humor and fourth wall breaks from Jason's victims, resulting in a surprising degree of critical favorability. To this day, it remains one of the funniest and cleverest entries in the series.
6 Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil (2010)
A sort of "slasher movie in reverse", Tucker & Dale vs. Evil contains a brilliant concept. The movie stars Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk as friends who buy a lakeside cabin in gross disrepair. They eventually fall in with a group of young adults who are going camping and continuously mistake Tucker and Dale as the sort of dangerous hillbillies that one sees in slasher movies.
As the young adults repeatedly kill themselves in elaborate accidents, their violent and bloody deaths are misconstrued by the others as the actions of Tucker and Dale.
5 Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon (2006)
One of the most affectionate parodies of the slasher genre, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon never gets much attention, despite its obvious quality. The movie stars Nathan Baesel as Leslie Mancuso, a man who wishes to kill people according to traditional slasher movie conventions.
The film is shot in a mockumentary style, following journalist Taylor Gentry and she films the depraved actions of Leslie for a documentary.
4 Funny Games (1997)
The reactions to Funny Games have always remained divisive. Written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, Funny Games was created simply to provoke the audience. The story follows two young men who torture a family inside their vacation home.
It breaks from typical slasher movie tradition, as the villains have no motive to speak of and the film actively (and infamously) breaks the fourth wall in the third act by literally rewinding the movie to depict a more nihilistic ending. It asks viewers why they enjoy watching movies of this kind, and the answers may prove elusive.
3 Rubber (2010)
One of the most bizarre slasher films ever made, Rubber concerns a rogue tire that kills people in exceedingly violent and elaborate ways. Of course, the premise is absolutely ridiculous, but that is entirely the point.
The movie is a hilarious bit of satire, often commenting on the sometimes ludicrous nature of slasher films and depicting over-the-top deaths as a means to patronize the genre's violence. It's certainly an unconventional film, but a great one, nonetheless.
2 Final Destination (2000)
Final Destination was one of the best horror movies from 2000, spinning a gloriously unique twist on the tired slasher genre. This movie concerns a small group of teenagers who survive a plane crash thanks to one student's premonition. Having cheated death, Death (with a capital D) hunts them down and kills them in the order they were supposed to die on the plane.
The film forgoes traditional slasher convention by portraying an unseen villain - the very personification of Death itself. It also comments on some of the genre's tropes, including the clean "order" of deaths and the inability to escape an unrelenting force.
1 The Final Girls (2015)
The very title of The Final Girls inspires thoughts of slasher movie convention, as "the final girl" is an age-old trope dating all the way back to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
The Final Girls is one of the most affectionate and caring homages to 1980s slasher movies (arguably the heyday of the genre), as it concerns a group of high school students who are magically transported into a cult classic slasher movie from the '80s. It parodies nearly every aspect of '80s slasher films, and it makes for highly entertaining and intelligent viewing.
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August 07, 2021 at 11:31PM
