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What Should The Next Ultimate Slasher Film Consist Of?

Hey everyone I hardly ever post on here, although I have been following headlines on here for quite a while :) anyway like many of you I have had a strong pason for horror (slasher in particular) nce I was a kid, and now nearly finishing college in media my journey of making short films is about to begin.

And I just know I was born to make a slasher

as my first feature film, so I thought why not start planning for the future

right now? and what better research to gather than the opinions of my target audience? (you guys, because unlike big movies like all the new remakes,saw etc I dont have to please mainstream audiences just good old slasher fans like

myself :) )



So I want to hear from everyone here at the 'Bid what would they like to see in the ultimate slasher film/next slasher icon character?

As someone who just released a slasher film with real cinema fans in mind (not horror fans per se, but fans of quality cinematic experiences regardless of the genre), all I have to say is don't try to create an icon. Fans create icons out of characters that were never intended to be iconic. No one in 1978 thought that Michael Myers would still be slashing his way through cinemas in late 2009, and the same can be said for Leatherface, Jason and Freddy. These characters resonate with us for some unquantifiable reason, there was just that special "something" they had that separated them from the herd. You, as a film maker, do not have the power to create an icon, only the fans have that power.

That being said, don't try. In addition, what makes the "ultimate" slasher? What I fear is MORE gore, MORE blood, MORE frights... which will guarantee only one thing: MORE of the same. I like the way Ti West is going with his horror films, he is scaling back, harkening back to an age when storytelling and characters were more important than inventive kills and jump scares. He and I share the same ideals. My film, BLOOD WAS EVERYWHERE, is both a throwback/homage AND a critique on modern horror, more specifically modern slashers. For me, I have already made the quintessential slasher film, others will disagree and that's fine, especially nce the title implies buckets of gore and what you really get is a well thought out stream of scenarios that all interconnect through the actions of a killer.

The title is meant as a headline, something a news reporter might say about what he or she saw at the scene of the crime, it wasn't meant to promise excesve gore (though from a marketing perspective it helps that it does!). If you want to make just another run-of-the-mill slasher, feel free, no one is stopping you and people WILL buy it. But I hope you decide, like I did, that the slasher genre is one that has never been truly given credibility, and that is in large part due to the MANY lame attempts to cash in on the success of a better film. For every HALLOWEEN there are hundreds of copycats, by this day and age there are probably thousands.

I want to give the genre credibility, I want to make the genre one that critics won't dismiss on a whim just because of history. I hope you agree with me. I hope the new age of horror cinema is filled with high quality stories, interesting and engaging characters, and frightening killers that are scary because they feel real, frightening in a way that makes you believe that it could really happen to you.

It's too bad no one else has commented, I would love to see other people's replies to your post. Take care.

-Jason Torrey

http://www.bloodwaseverywhere.com

Fans create icons out of characters that were never intended to be iconic. No one in 1978 thought that Michael Myers would still be slashing his way through cinemas in late 2009, and the same can be said for Leatherface, Jason and Freddy. These characters resonate with us for some unquantifiable reason, there was just that special "something" they had that separated them from the herd. You, as a film maker, do not have the power to create an icon, only the fans have that power.

Very well said. There is no formula for an icon, it's something that just happens.

I think the harder one tries to create a character who will be taken as a new horror icon, the more likely it is to come off as hackneyed and laughable.

Look at it in terms of Child's Play. The original film was about the terror of a possessed toy, but as the series went on (and on... and on...) it became a caricature of the original intent and it was then all about Chucky as a thinking speaking character and not Chucky as the instrument of posseson. So while the character and the films are remembered, at times even fondly, they will never be at the same level as Freddy or Jason.

That being said, I think slashers as a genre would benefit from some new blood (pun intended). Preferably not just a human killer with a mask, something with a good helping of supernatural power.

Does a slasher have to be seen??

Or can u see the kills and not the killer, most off the time that is??

In addition, what makes the "ultimate" slasher? What I fear is MORE gore, MORE blood, MORE frights... which will guarantee only one thing: MORE of the same. I like the way Ti West is going with his horror films, he is scaling back, harkening back to an age when storytelling and characters were more important than inventive kills and jump scares. I have to respectfully disagree with some of this. Movies such as Ti West's The Innkeepers, which has likable characters, but a slow and meandering plot, are not slasher films and shouldn't be used as a barometer or what a slasher film should be.Slasher movies really should make you jump at least once or twice, and if they don't, they haven't done their job. There is also really nothing wrong with pushing the gore envelope and even having some fun with it, as long as you don't find that you're only making slashers as vehicle for more gore, and find that character development starts to suffer. There's nothing that says a movie can't be gory and have a strong plot. The level of gore in a slasher is an aesthetic of each individual director. Quentin Tarantino doesn't get panned for having severed body parts constantly flying and blood constantly flowing in his movies, and a slasher creator shouldn't get that reaction either, unless the level of gore is somehow a bad fit for the movie based on some demonstrable element of the premise.I really can't even imagine why someone would ever say they fear slashers might start to have more frights. Really? The problem with slashers is they're too scary? We should try to "scale back" on the scares in scary movies? Dear God, please no!The problem with a lot of slashers (and a lot of horror films in general) is that they can't find a happy medium. It's either JUST gore, or it's JUST character development and a bunch of wandering around in an environment that, if you're lucky, is actually one tenth as foreboding as the movie makers thought it was.My advice is that you can make your death scenes as gory as you want. Someone will always complain that every such scene is either too bloody or not bloody enough. The best thing you can do is craft the scene that you would want to see.

Just make sure the protagonists of your slasher are well-developed characters that an audience can care about without having to try too hard. Don't write every young character as if they only give a damn about sex, drinking and drugs. Don't leave the audience wanting the villain to emerge victorious because the supposed "good guys" are so inpid that killing them would be a mercy. Then your "villain" isn't a villain anymore, and is therefore not as frightening. That's my 2 cents, anyway.

As for what the next slasher boogeyman should look like, just think about what scares you the most and you'll be off to a good start. You really can't predict what will or won't become an icon, but if you're willing to explore your own fears, you'll probably come up with a creation that scares other people, too.

I really can't even imagine why someone would ever say they fear slashers might start to have more frights. Really? The problem with slashers is they're too scary? We should try to "scale back" on the scares in scary movies? Dear God, please no!

My apologies, by "frights" I meant jump scares, cheap tricks used to spook the audience suddenly. It's definitely the happy medium I am advocating. Jump scares have their place, but I fear that they will be the only device employed outde of gore. A truly scary movie gets under your skin, it infects the mind and soul. Gory movies with nothing but jump scares to me aren't scary, it's like making a movie out of a haunted house attraction at a theme park. Scary is something else, something deeper, something that stays with you long after the credits roll. To each their own, it's not like a gory bloodfest doesn't have a market, but that's not what I would go for, I like something a little more cerebral.

Does a slasher have to be seen??

Or can u see the kills and not the killer, most off the time that is??

See the original BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) to see this concept put into practice. It's a very good movie.

Good article and great responses everyone. I agree with a lot of what was said here. It's a subject that has the same ending it seems though.

For whatever reason, the "icons" have been created, set in stone and will forever reign the "slasher" world. Though it is easy to grab a camera, some blood and some editing equipment, it is extremely difficult to create something new because it's nearly the same bac story no matter what. A guy is mental, he wears a mask and becomes a killer.

But who's to say...something new may come along that people like and it may become something. Time will tell.

sorry for my late reply iv unfourtunately been very ill recently so havent had the chance to check the topic.Thank you all for the very good and helpfull replies

I will try to keep in mind what you have said and hopefully one day I can make something that keeps our favourite sub genre alive and away from remakes