A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as monster movies, splatter films, supernatural and psychological horror films.
Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher film produced and directed by Bob Clark, and written by Roy Moore. It stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. The story follows a group of sorority sisters who receive threatening phone calls and are eventually stalked and murdered by a mentally ill killer during the Christmas season.
The final girl is a trope in horror films. It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including Psycho, Voices of Desire, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Alien, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and Train to Busan. The term was coined by Carol J. Clover in her article "Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film" (1987). Clover suggested that in these films, the viewer began by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experienced a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.
Terror Train is a 1980 slasher film directed by Roger Spottiswoode—in his directorial debut—written by Thomas Y. Drake, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson, and Hart Bochner. The film follows a group of pre-medical school students holding a New Year's Eve costume party on a moving train who are targeted by a killer who dons their costumes. It features supporting performances from Sandee Currie, Anthony Sherwood, and David Copperfield.
Black X-Mas is a 2006 Christmas slasher film written and directed by Glen Morgan and starring Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Crystal Lowe and Andrea Martin. The film takes place several days before Christmas and tells the story of a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered in their house during a winter storm. It is a loose remake and reimagining of the 1974 film of the same name. A co-production of Canada and the United States, the film was produced by Morgan and James Wong through their production company Hard Eight Pictures, along with 2929 Productions, Adelstein-Parouse Productions and Hoban Segal Productions. It is the second film in the Black Christmas series.
Kelli Presley is a fictional character in the 2006 slasher film Black Christmas. The character, created by writer-director Glen Morgan and portrayed by actress Katie Cassidy, serves as a replacement to Jess from the original film.
Child's Play is an American slasher media franchise created by Don Mancini. The films mainly focus on Chucky, a notorious serial killer who frequently escapes death by performing a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into a "Good Guy" doll. The original film, Child's Play, was released on November 9, 1988. The film has spawned six sequels, a television series, a remake, comic books, a video game, and tie-in merchandise. The first, second, and fourth films were box office successes with all of the films earning over $182 million worldwide. Including revenues from sales of videos, DVDs, VOD and merchandise, the franchise has generated over $250 million. It also won a Saturn Award for Best Horror Franchise.
The Exorcist is an American horror media franchise that originated with William Peter Blatty's 1971 horror novel of the same name and most prominently featured in a 1973 film adaptation of the novel, and many subsequent prequels and sequels. All of these installments focus on fictional accounts of people possessed by Pazuzu, the main antagonist of the series, and the efforts of religious authorities to counter this possession.
Brittany Ann O'Grady is an American actress and singer. She is known for her leading roles in the Fox series Star (2016–2019), and the Apple TV+ series Little Voice (2020), as well as her role in the first season of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus (2021), and a lead role in the Amazon Prime series The Consultant (2023). She has also acted in the film Black Christmas (2019).
Into the Dark is an American horror anthology television series produced for Hulu, with each stand-alone episodic installment based around a different holiday. The first season premiered on October 5, 2018, and consists of twelve feature-length episodes of television films. Into the Dark was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 4, 2019, and also consists of twelve episodes.
Theresa "Tree" Gelbman is a fictional character in Christopher Landon's slasher film Happy Death Day (2017) and its sequel, Happy Death Day 2U (2019). She was created by writer Scott Lobdell and portrayed by Jessica Rothe in both of her performances. Gelbman's storyline revolves around her being murdered on the night of her birthday and finding herself reliving the day repeatedly. She uses this as an opportunity to figure out her killer's identity and prevent her death from ever occurring.
Billy is a fictional character from the Black Christmas film series, first appearing in Black Christmas (1974) as a deranged murderer who taunts and kills a group of college students during the Christmas season. Created by Bob Clark and A. Roy Moore, the character was partly inspired by the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs", as well as a series of real murders in Montreal during the 1943 holiday season.
Black Christmas is a 2019 slasher film directed by Sophia Takal and written by Takal and April Wolfe. Part of the Black Christmas series, it is the loose second remake of the 1974 Canadian film of the same name, after the 2006 film and follows a group of sorority sisters at Hawthorne College as they are preyed upon by an unknown stalker. The film stars Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O'Grady, Caleb Eberhardt and Cary Elwes.
Jess Bradford is a fictional character in the Black Christmas franchise. She is the main protagonist of Bob Clark's seminal slasher film Black Christmas (1974) in which she was portrayed by actress Olivia Hussey. Hussey, known internationally at the time for her role as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1968), signed on to the role after a psychic told her that she would be involved in a profitable Canadian film. Despite the dark undertones of the film and the mature themes, Hussey has described shooting the film as a great experience.
The Strangers film series consists of American psychological horror films. Based on an original story by Bryan Bertino, the plot centers around three masked psycho-sociopathic home invaders that prey on the innocent owners. Though the first film was marketed as "based on a true story", this was a slight misdirect as the filmmaker stated that he wrote the concept from a series of break-in burglaries that took place in his neighborhood when he was growing up, as well as borrowing elements from the Manson Family Tate murders. Continuing this marketing technique, a "based on a true story" tag was also included at the beginning of the sequels.
The Malevolence film series consists of American slasher-horror crime films, written, directed, and produced by Stevan Mena. The series center around various groups of people who come into contact with a serial killer named Martin Bristol, who was kidnapped as a child and raised in an abusive upbringing by a murderer named Graham Sutter. The series explores the investigations surrounding his crime scenes, and attempts made by law enforcement to put an end to his murderous pattern.
