The Slasher

So I was talking with my friend Jesse last night, who has a friend Peter that might possibly be getting some movie equipment with an inheritance he received. Since I'm the only writer they like (or know I guess) I've been asked to start kicking around some ideas for a cheap horror movie. I mean really cheap. I have no idea if anything is going to materialize but it's nice to have a new idea regardless, so I sat down last night and started thinking about the different types of cheap horror movies. There was one resounding sub-genre that came to mind, the quintessential cheap horror movie: the slasher flick.

The problem with the slasher genre is that it's been done to death. Psycho started it all way back in 1960 and it's evolved from there. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Child's Play, Scream... and a million little ones that I'm not listing. They have spawned such iconic figures as Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, Freedy Krueger, Chucky and some less than memorable ones such as the people from those other movies.

What makes a memorable villain? Out of the four I listed, two don't talk, one grunts and the other two make wisecracks. I can strike Chucky off the list immediately as after the first Child's Play they all stunk. Freddy Krueger stopped being scary after the second film as he then became more of a humorist than a villain. Leatherface is Leatherface, there's not much to him, it's more the family atmosphere that made him an iconic figure. Jason Vorhees didn't appear until the second Friday film and evolved into a supernatural being of unlimited regenerative power with a phobia of water for some reason, then got very silly towards the end (though was redeemed in Freddy vs. Jason). Michael Myers, presumably just a regular guy (so was Leatherface) was very scary, in my opinion, simply because he was just a regular guy... so far gone mentally that pain was negligible. Now that's creepy. Of course the latter Halloween films, from three onward, were just damn goofy, but the first two were fantastic.

So what do all of these killers have in common? They kill people. Aside from that, they're all very different, yet all memorable. So they obviously all have human origins and the sequels all went off in weird directions, but let's for the analysis' sake just look at the first films in the series (and Friday the 13th, Part 2. Mrs. Vorhees can take a powder as when she was a "hey surprise" in the film, not even introduced until the last fifteen minutes). Supernatural origins, such as Chucky and Freddy are immediately out. With the boon of supernatural horror in the last ten years it's best to stick to more mundane origins (yes I know, Jason aged at the bottom of a lake, but let's pretend he's some guy with a fetish for burlap). Leatherface was a result of him family, so he's out as well since I plan to stick mainly to killer and victims... plus a family needs a house so that's an extra location, so that's an extra strike. So we're left with Jason and Michael Myers.

Between Jason and Michael Myers, I'm leaning slightly towards Michael Myers if only because you knew his origins. There was even Dr. Loomis popping in and our making cryptic statements about the blackness of the soul and whatnot, Jason was on his own with no one touting his scariness. Even so, that caused Jason to have the element of surprise on his side as no one knew he was there at all.

Time to back it up a bit. I don't want this to completely devolve into who my favorite movie killer is, it's about the development of my own slasher. So I'm going to make a list of questions that need to be answered to really develop a true slasher genre villain. Here goes:

Origins: Known or unknown? (if known, by the audience or by someone in the film?)
Strength: Human or unstoppable? (if human, how do we know they are human?)
Victims: Known to him or random? (if known to him, will there be a time they meet or only an assumed time?)
Motives: Known or unknown? (regardless of Victims answer)
Face: Masked, in the shadows, completely hidden, or seen? (if completely hidden, first person perspective (done to death!))
Weapon: Found, carried or none?
Clothes: Normal, rags, found or stolen?
Ending: Definite or open?
Base of Operations: Woods, suburbs, urban, beach, house or other?
Victims: Hidden or displayed? (Does he create fright with bodies or make people say, "Hey, where's Molly?)
Future Victims: Knowing or ignorant? (this is dependent on the victims answer)
Name: Known or unknown? (Can be approached that origins are known but name is unknown or vice-versa)

I'm sure there are more that will come to me, but these are the questions I think I will answer for the time being over the course of this week. It's like Mad Libs: Killers. These can be answered so many different ways with a lot of combinations, so it would be easy to make several different killers and see which one you particularly like.

One I have my questions answered and I'm really happy with them I'll then start crafting an outline of the killer based around the answers and see what I come up with from there. Hopefully I'll be able to craft a unique and memorable killer that avoids the major cliches. Still, a little cliche is fun in the slasher genre.

Up Next: "The Victims: Who are they and why do I care?"