Your favorite slashers

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So I've now seen Just Before Dawn, and I think it's definitely worth checking out, if you're willing to watch that Dailymotion post above. (Looked OK on my TV) It's also on BluRay for those of you who are in the habit of blind-buying stuff.

This is just a personal preference, but when it comes to slashers I'm always going to gravitate towards the gritty rural variety and this definitely fits that description. The kills aren't very creative, with one exception, but I "felt" them if you know what I mean. We've all seen countless people get stabbed, but some of these made me say "ouch" out loud. And then there was the one kill that was...something else. Not even sure what the official cause of death would've been, but it was novel.
The characters were mostly likable, something I often struggle with in this genre.
But if I'm attempting to pitch this one and peer-pressure a bunch of you into watching it, I'd say that there's an interesting twist on the final girl element that I don't think I've seen before (keep in mind my limited experience with the genre). There's also a wrinkle involving the killer that deviates from the norm. Can't really explain further without spoilers, I'm afraid. But yeah, I liked it.

I also watched Squirm from the same director, and in terms of rural Southern atmosphere that one almost achieved Boggy Creek levels of authenticity, if not quite getting there. I recommend that one too. (on Tubi)
Breaking news:

Just Before Dawn has just been added to Shudder. Watch it, and be one of the cool kids.

(It's the same 90-minute cut that Rock and I watched, evidently.)
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Captain's Log
My Collection



Victim of The Night
Breaking news:

Just Before Dawn has just been added to Shudder. Watch it, and be one of the cool kids.

(It's the same 90-minute cut that Rock and I watched, evidently.)
Yeah, I saw it pop up on there and remembered the discussions.



As some of you know I've been attempting to make friends with the slasher genre, after ignoring it for the first 40 years of my life. I've now seen quite a few (and liked some of them), but I'm not sure if I'm missing any good ones. So here's a list of what I've seen along with my rating. What should I watch next?

5 stars (unassailable)
Halloween

4 stars (genuinely liked, with no qualifiers)
Just Before Dawn
Fade to Black
Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker
Innocent Prey
Blood Beat
Happy Birthday to Me
The Last Horror Film
Alice Sweet Alice
Black Christmas


3-1/2 stars (liked slightly less, but still have positive feelings about)
Friday the 13th Part 2
The Initiation
Cassandra
Curtains
Madman
Cutting Class
Trick or Treats
Terror Train
The Final Terror
The Prowler
Child's Play
Bloody Birthday
Stage Fright
Frightmare
The Hills Have Eyes
Next of Kin


3 stars (these are fine)
Friday The 13th
The Fantasist
? (can't remember if this is a slasher)
Slaughterhouse
Sorority House Massacre
Slumber Party Massacre
My Bloody Valentine
Prom Night
Final Exam
Eyes of a Stranger
Sleepaway Camp
The Funhouse
Tourist Trap
New York Ripper

*it feels like some of these should be rated higher, but I guess I had my reasons. My rating system is...unscientific to say the least

2-1/2 (anything under 3 stars actively annoyed me in one way or another)
Mutilator
Blood Rage
Don't Go in the Woods


2 stars
Slumber Party Massacre II
The Hills Have Eyes Part II


unrated because it's been too long since I've seen them
Shocker
Maniac
Halloween II
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Wes Craven's New Nightmare


Caveats:
*I've seen a bunch from the 70s as well but I left them off this list because I didn't want to get into the "is it a slasher" argument. I also left off a bunch of gialli.
*No need to recommend any installments of the big franchises. I'm aware of them and if I ever decide to watch them that will be its own project.
*No need to recommend anything past 1990 or so. I'm trying to focus on the essentials from the heyday.
*Films that are already on my watchlist:
Visiting Hours
The Burning
Mother's Day
Madhouse (1981)
Hellhole


EDIT: Updated my "Films I've Seen" list



Pieces
April Fool's Day
Alone in the Dark
Alice Sweet Alice
Doom Asylum
Hills Have Eyes
Cannibal Man
Frightmare (1974)
Black Christmas
Tourist Trap
Island of Death (I feel I either liked this one, or hated it)
Effects
Psycho II
Slaughter High
New York Ripper
Absurd
Anthropophagus
Beserker
Anguish
The Boogeyman
Christmas Evil
Edge of the Axe
Madhouse
Roadgames
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain
Next of Kin
Maniac Cop
Mortuary
Ogroff
Silent Night Deadly Night II
Truth of Dare: A Critical Condition
Don't Go Into the House



I think it goes without saying, only a handful of those I would consider as being actually good movies. Some are just terrible, but fascinatingly so. Some are just passably entertaining. And a couple are just little more than WTF's (Truth or Dare which is just impenetrable stupidity, and Doom Asylum which is a slasher comedy that fails on both levels, but I can't help always being entertained by). Some of them are also iffy as being classified as slashers ( Don't Go Into the House)


I also kept a couple off that I think are just simply too unpleasant or icky (Don't Answer the Phone and I Dismember Mama), that I am mostly interested by what I hate about them. And also death traps like A Night to Dismember and Boardinghouse I kept far away since they cause brain tumours.



Christ, they made a lot of these!
Thank you sir, that will keep me occupied for a while. I've seen a bunch of those, but there's some obvious ones in there that I keep forgetting so that helps.

I think it goes without saying, only a handful of those I would consider as being actually good movies.
Yes, this was understood from the get-go.



As some of you know I've been attempting to make friends with the slasher genre, after ignoring it for the first 40 years of my life. I've now seen quite a few (and liked some of them), but I'm not sure if I'm missing any good ones. So here's a list of what I've seen along with my rating. What should I watch next?

5 stars (unassailable)
Halloween

4 stars (genuinely liked, with no qualifiers)
Just Before Dawn
Fade to Black
Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker
Innocent Prey
Blood Beat
Happy Birthday to Me
The Last Horror Film


3-1/2 stars (liked slightly less, but still have positive feelings about)
Friday the 13th Part 2
The Initiation
Cassandra
Curtains
Madman
Cutting Class
Trick or Treats
Terror Train
The Final Terror
The Prowler
Child's Play
Bloody Birthday
Stage Fright


3 stars (these are fine)
Friday The 13th
The Fantasist
? (can't remember if this is a slasher)
Slaughterhouse
Sorority House Massacre
Slumber Party Massacre
My Bloody Valentine
Prom Night
Final Exam
Eyes of a Stranger
Sleepaway Camp
The Funhouse

*it feels like some of these should be rated higher, but I guess I had my reasons. My rating system is...unscientific to say the least

2-1/2 (anything under 3 stars actively annoyed me in one way or another)
Mutilator
Blood Rage
Don't Go in the Woods


2 stars
Slumber Party Massacre II
The Hills Have Eyes Part II


unrated because it's been too long since I've seen them
Shocker
Maniac
Halloween II


Caveats:
*I've seen a bunch from the 70s as well but I left them off this list because I didn't want to get into the "is it a slasher" argument. I also left off a bunch of gialli.
*No need to recommend any installments of the big franchises. I'm aware of them and if I ever decide to watch them that will be its own project.
*No need to recommend anything past 1990 or so. I'm trying to focus on the essentials from the heyday.
*Films that are already on my watchlist:
Visiting Hours
The Burning
Mother's Day
Madhouse (1981)
Hellhole

Are you not including the Elm Street series or have you just not gotten around to them yet? Also seeing a disturbing lack of Scream.



Victim of The Night
As some of you know I've been attempting to make friends with the slasher genre, after ignoring it for the first 40 years of my life. I've now seen quite a few (and liked some of them), but I'm not sure if I'm missing any good ones. So here's a list of what I've seen along with my rating. What should I watch next?

5 stars (unassailable)
Halloween

4 stars (genuinely liked, with no qualifiers)
Just Before Dawn
Fade to Black
Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker
Innocent Prey
Blood Beat
Happy Birthday to Me
The Last Horror Film
Alice Sweet Alice
Black Christmas


3-1/2 stars (liked slightly less, but still have positive feelings about)
Friday the 13th Part 2
The Initiation
Cassandra
Curtains
Madman
Cutting Class
Trick or Treats
Terror Train
The Final Terror
The Prowler
Child's Play
Bloody Birthday
Stage Fright
Frightmare
The Hills Have Eyes
Next of Kin


3 stars (these are fine)
Friday The 13th
The Fantasist
? (can't remember if this is a slasher)
Slaughterhouse
Sorority House Massacre
Slumber Party Massacre
My Bloody Valentine
Prom Night
Final Exam
Eyes of a Stranger
Sleepaway Camp
The Funhouse
Tourist Trap
New York Ripper

*it feels like some of these should be rated higher, but I guess I had my reasons. My rating system is...unscientific to say the least

2-1/2 (anything under 3 stars actively annoyed me in one way or another)
Mutilator
Blood Rage
Don't Go in the Woods


2 stars
Slumber Party Massacre II
The Hills Have Eyes Part II


unrated because it's been too long since I've seen them
Shocker
Maniac
Halloween II
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Wes Craven's New Nightmare


Caveats:
*I've seen a bunch from the 70s as well but I left them off this list because I didn't want to get into the "is it a slasher" argument. I also left off a bunch of gialli.
*No need to recommend any installments of the big franchises. I'm aware of them and if I ever decide to watch them that will be its own project.
*No need to recommend anything past 1990 or so. I'm trying to focus on the essentials from the heyday.
*Films that are already on my watchlist:
Visiting Hours
The Burning
Mother's Day
Madhouse (1981)
Hellhole


EDIT: Updated my "Films I've Seen" list
Dude, where the f*ck is April Fool's Day?!

(Also, I give a tentative recommendation to House On Sorority Row, only tentative because I know I like it but I don't know if anybody else does.)



Victim of The Night
Some of them are also iffy as being classified as slashers ( Don't Go Into the House)
I feel like DGitH is a slasher but like if 70s Abel Ferrara made a slasher.



Dude, where the f*ck is April Fool's Day?!
Yep that's one of the obvious ones that Crumbs reminded me of.

(Also, I give a tentative recommendation to House On Sorority Row, only tentative because I know I like it but I don't know if anybody else does.)
I could swear I watched this, but I didn't log it so I guess I didn't. Probably confusing it with Sorority House Massacre.




(Also, I give a tentative recommendation to House On Sorority Row, only tentative because I know I like it but I don't know if anybody else does.)
No need for any trepidation. It's legitimately a very good movie.



I feel like DGitH is a slasher but like if 70s Abel Ferrara made a slasher.
On that note, The Driller Killer.



April Fools
Hills Have Eyes
Mother's Day
Sleepaway Camp
Halloween
Nightmare on Elm Street
Galaxy Quest



IA Night to Dismember

If Captain Terror really wanted to break his brain, he would watch this in a marathon with Ray Dennis Steckler's slashers:


Blood Shack
The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher
Las Vegas Serial Killer


Pretty sure his head would implode.



Victim of The Night
Yep that's one of the obvious ones that Crumbs reminded me of.


I could swear I watched this, but I didn't log it so I guess I didn't. Probably confusing it with Sorority House Massacre.
Yeah, you gotta get on that.

Also, Sorority House Massacre, while the tee-pee scene is kinda cool, is no House On Sorority Row.



Victim of The Night
No need for any trepidation. It's legitimately a very good movie.
Cheers.
Glad I'm not the only one.



The trick is not minding
I’m still wading through the never ending pool of slashers, but a few I particularly enjoyed are Funhouse, My Bloody Valentine, April Fools Day (gotcha!) aside from the usual heavyweights.

I’ve watched Maniac twice and don’t see the love others give it, but I do think there are some compelling early scenes.