These are in no particular order (save the last ten which will be ordered depending on their influence, style, technical ingenuity and, of course, entertainment factor as A to B-grade horror films) and they're all personal picks, so, nope. Your faves or your orders do not matter here! (Muahahaha!...ha!) All save the final ten slashers listed.
And so, that being said, here be my Top 101 slasher movies EVURRRR!
A wanted serial killer gets the best of luck (and worst for his victims) when an experimental serum gets doused all over him and merged his soul with the surrounding winter ice. The result? One pissed-off snowcone, a sheriff scrambling to save his town, and a hilarious slasher movie with loads of cheese
Bloody Best Bits: An entire town prepares to fight off Frosty with hairdryers and a furnace. Pretty cool even if it didn't work...
A macabre and deeply atmospheric hybrid of Western thriller, mystical fantasy and slasher horror, as a drifter stalks, haunts and even swoons a troubled wife. It isn't too long before she finds out what he's really up to.
Bloody Best Bits: A sexy opening murder plus that one climatic head decimation that'll leave us baffled with the ending.
A classic teen slasher released at the wake of the sub-genre's 90s revival, following three teens and Jennifer Love Hewitt dumping a road kill body into the ocean instead of going to the cops. A year after making a pact of secrecy, they begin to die at the hands of someone in a rain slicker and with a hook.
Bloody Best Bits: A worthwhile stalk and chase scene that has Sarah Michelle Gellar running for her life through a near-empty town while the fisherman slice and diced anybody who got in the way.
A groovy retro-stab at the classic backwoods kill-a-thon with a lot of religious satire, sinful sex scenes, and a whole lot of gory violence as a masked nun axes her way through horny teens at a Bible Camp. Their only protection against the psycho? A homosexual priest and the guiding light of Ron Jeremy as Jesus.
Bloody Best Bits: That quippy little opening that looked a lot like the middle part of any Friday the 13th film, only with a hairy pussy and a guy being disemboweled while shittting.
What happens when you take a young lad from his father some time in the 60s and turn him into a brainwashed hippie-hating Republican? A lot of modern tree-huggers in a Free Love Festival done away by a loon in a Ronald Reagan mask.
Bloody Best Bits: A balls-out hippie hacking spree! (Complete with one axed butterball brat!)
One underrated title that simply proves a point: never pick on the nerd. Because sometimes, said nerd can come back in a Cupid's mask to kill you and your friends' sorry asses one by one. Too bad the hapless Prima Donnas in this movie didn't think this one through.
Bloody Best Bits: An intense opening murder at a morgue with a lot of Halloween (1978) influences, plus that drillbit nightmare with a shocking ending. (ba-dum-bum! tshh!)
In this creepily intense shocker, a mysterious occurrence forces a vacationing family to fight for their lives when their Christmas Holiday is murderously threatened by the youngest of their loved ones.
Bloody Best Bits: A mother finds out her little angels are not so angelic anymore when the kids begin pulling down her earrings and brandishes a sharpened pencil.
Chilling and creepy, controversial director Victor Salva's underrated slasher taps into your worst fears as a trio of face-painted escapees terrorize three prepubescent boys in their own house.
Bloody Best Bits: Goosebumps this way come as our coulrophobic lead gets the shock of his life in public, plus our killers apply what they learned in balloon animal-making
Story might be a little thin, but when a chrome-masked killer with a knack for making snuff films and shiny customized weapons knows how to deliver the some traditional gore, some flaws are bound to be ignored. (And sequels not to exist. So far)
Bloody Best Bits: Too many to choose from, but I would say the best ones would be the "surprise gutting" and the the tire sealant kill.
92. The Hill Have Eyes (2006)
One part slasher film, one part survival splatterfest, Alexandre Aja's remake of Wes Craven's 1977 proto-slasher of the same name simply outdid almost everything from the original. Save, of course, some metaphorical symbolism behind it, but if what you get is a gory exploitation in its place instead, I'm sure we can overlook this!
Bloody Best Bits: two mutants perfectly plans a motor home raid, leading to an unsettling rape, a burning father and one traumatic shooting spree. Seconds go to the mano-a-mutant showdown between a father and one big freak.
Bloody Best Bits: Probably their massacres: one at the park and another at a Battle of the Bands party. Most preferably the party (gotta love a shoot-out!)
A better effort from Tobe Hooper that manages to out-do the original crime-thriller shocker it is based on, Toolbox Murders takes a gory stab on being a "straighter" slasher with tenants living in a run-down hotel prowled upon by a messed-up looking psycho with a penchant for powertools and black magic.
Bloody Best Bits: Loads! Apart from the Sheri Moon Zombie cameo, we also have a dying chick somehow nailgunned unto the ceiling, death by powdered lye, and a guy being tortured to with a hedge trimmer to the spine.
A fairly basic slasher with scantly clad girls being murdered by a random psycho with a powertool, diverting itself from most of its kin for being one of the few misogynistic-looking slasher films to be directed by a woman! She clearly knew the rules and how to make it fun!
Bloody Best Bits: After finding the pizza guy eyeless, one coed thinks with her stomach and wondered if the pizza's cold.
A sweet little revenge flick that has a slasher offing people who bullied him in highschool, only to discover he's the father of an estranged girl who ran away from her mum. Will he choose to be a killer or a parent? A question interesting enough to keep you glued til' the ending.
Bloody Best Bits: A fatherly bonding between our titular guy who kills people and his daughter through a game of basketball. Plus that bit about two cops with a possible reading problems really left me in stitches.
You can't beat this classic backwoods slasher and the first of a very popular franchise in the subgenre. When the would-be counselors of a "jinxed" camp decided to re-open it, they meet foul bloody ends at the hands of a machete wielding sicko who may have a thing or two against the place.
Bloody Best Bits: Kevin bacon being throated...with an arrow head!
Part torture porn, part home invasion slasher, The Collector runs through the entire plot with much gusto and mean-spirited tone that it's fairly scary and really cool. A would-be thief turns into a struggling hero as he tries to save as captured family from a masked man with a talent for setting booby traps in so little time.
Bloody Best Bits: After watching a couple fondle each other, the titular killer easily makes his way through one of them by shoving him into a room filled with bear traps. Also, there's that cool "heated jar of roaches" scene.
One indie slasher that was been on my list for a long time and the wait was well worth it as well-balanced comedy, mystery and gory kills awaits in this B-Flick goodness following a student body election having its candidates killed off by a psycho in an Abraham Lincoln get-up.
Bloody Best Bits: I guess if they're crazy enough to go off killing people just for a student body election, then chopping up a wheelchair bound candidate shouldn't be a shocker for our killer. For us however...
You think your boss is hell? Then you haven't met this guy. Kidnapping those responsible for putting him behind bars (which eventually leads to a mental asylum) a former company head kills off one captive at a time while going through them explaining his side of the story. Apparently, not all is what it seems.
Bloody Best Bits: The final fight. I won't say much so I wouldn't spoil the fun but our killer was really cool there!
An underrated creeper, wherein teens break into an abandoned dark ride only to face against a recently escaped nut who traps them inside and proceeds to hunt them. Really decent scares and gory kills soon follow.
Bloody Best Bits: a rent-a-cop discovers a new meaning for "splitting headaches"
After a prank by some frat boys puts him in a straight jacket years ago, a killer somehow finds his way back to their graduation party to snuff them one by one. Sounds basic? Well, did I mentioned this all takes place in a train? And the killer switches costumes with his victims? And Jamie Lee Curtis is in here? Paranoiac Claustrophobic star action FTW!
Bloody Best Bits: trapped inside a caged room, Jamie Lee has to defend herself against another slasher with an axe to grind.
Zombie clowns with supernatural powers were never been this fun thanks to Ross Noble's creepy performance as a clown gone bad beyond the grave, out to seek deadly revenge against the tykes-turned-teens responsible for his death. Sure wished there's a bigger kill count though...
Bloody Best Bits: something I'm glad to call "2 Men 1 Air Pumper"
After his death through a giant turbine (my fave Chucky death in the whole series), the killer doll returns, patched up for a new Goth-Punk look and even snags a bride in this side-tracked franchise entry that puts Chucky into a realm of satirical black comedy thanks to the 90s Self-reference shtick. Not that it's a bad thing of course!
Bloody Best Bits: Apart from the Doll Sex? This exchange:
Jesse (Our lead. Referring to Chucky and Tiffany being sentient dolls): How'd you end up like this?
Tiffany: It's a long story.
Chucky: Let me put it this way. If this were a movie, it would take three or four sequels to do it justice.
Cracks me up every time!
A hulking psycho with a thing for plucking out eyes somehow returns after being shot on the head, hunting down delinquents tasked to clean up and renovate a murky old hotel. Simple and savage. Just the way I like it!
Bloody Best Bits: Bitchy shoplifters are always a pest and our killer couldn't agree more. His solution? Death by cellphone!
A classic Action-slasher hybrid that brings out B-flick stars Tom Atkins and Bruce Campbell against a wrongfully accused and superhuman ex-cop out for blood through the city.
Bloody Best Bits: Who needs a bridge if you could just kill a guy with wet cement the way our titular killer did?
My advice on how to love this film? Forget that it's a loose remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)! Seriously, this holiday slasher boasts a pretty neat stand-alone comeuppance for everybody naughty in a small sleepy town as an effectively intimidating Santa slasher shreds, burns and mutilates his way through them.
Bloody Best Bits: Hohoho, where will I start? A spoiled brat electrocuted with a cattle prod, a thieving (and perverted) pastor gets some chopped fingers, a cool head split. My list goes on!
Three backpackers find themselves under the mercy of a deranged local with torture in his mind. Incredibly intense and grim despite it's low kill count, this true event-based Ozploitation introduces a new memorable face to the ever growing rouge gallery of slasher villains, with an equally haunting story to boot!
Bloody Best Bits: That classic "THAT'S a Knife" quote from Crocodile Dundee suddenly sounds more painful now after said knife made a "Head on a Stick"
After being disfigured by an April Fools prank gone too far, those responsible find themselves invited to a ruse party years later, only to be bumped off by a really pissed off nerd. An underrated gem with a fairly confusing ending, but boasts great kills for deserving victims.
Bloody Best Bits: Nothing seems to faze these bastards: after seeing two or three of their friends got killed off, a couple had the audacity to have sex later that night. Well, let's see if three thousand bolts will do the trick!
The Tobe Hooper 80s cult classic that dished out awesome visuals and a workably chaotic backdrop, as two couples suddenly got themselves in a deadly situation when they became witnesses to a murder and a horrendously deformed murderer sets out to kill them off.
Bloody Best Bits: The grand unmasking. Which happens halfway into the movie but for a good reason...
A very basic slasher about an escaped loon sneaking his way into a soundstage to kill off all the performers there. What made this quite memorable among others of its kind would be the artsy flair, giallo-esque camera work and lighting, flavorfully mixed in with juicy, bloody red killings.
Bloody Best Bits: After axing one of their own in mistake of him being the killer, a group dwindle down by two when the owl-masked loonie tears one in half and eviscerates another with a chainsaw. All in one scene!
Bloody Best Bits: The opening murder, where The Lord of the Rink gets even on some jerkass and his bystander girlfriend. Hence, luvs, why you should never hang out with jerks.
Bloody Best Bits: Aside from seeing a band lead get scalped in public, there's something about evilly possessed puppets that gets me chuckling.
One of the more notorious entry to the giallo sub-genre doubling as a twisty take on a proto-slasher, complete with overly gruesome killing and random teenagers tossed in for a heightened count as a group of money-grabbers have their bloodlust awakened when a large sum of land is suddenly up for grabs!
Bloody Best Bits: I could go with the crowd and say that the scene involving a skewered couple would be my fave scene, but I'm actually gonna go with the opening scene here. You can't beat the twist of of having the a murdered killed moments later after he'd done the dirty deed!
The very slasher film that proves my point that it's not always about the weapon that makes a slasher film but rather it is format! In a campus where assassinating someone with a toy gun is the latest craze, one obsessed participant gets too much into the game and begins shooting people dead for real after refusing defeat.
Bloody Best Bits: A really intense moment where our gunner sneaks behind the bleachers to kill off a target during broad daylight, in front of a small crowd!
I still don't understand why the lukewarm approach to this. Despite in par with Jason Takes Manhattan in terms of cheesiness, Jason X still drives a powerful movie monster when it comes to futuristic mayhem. After being cryogenically encased for decades, times may have changed but the old slaughtering ways still prove to be as dangerous as ever when Jason wakes up homicidal inside a research ship in deep space.
Bloody Best Bits: Jason goes hand-to-hand against with a cyborg babe, leading to his momentary death and his revival: As an Upgraded Cyborg!
It may have a 7 foot tall monster but Pumpkinhead used enough of slasher clichés and backdrops to be included and considered as one! After his beloved son dies from an accident, a grieving father makes a deal with a witch and summons a powerful demon to sic vengeance at those responsible.
Bloody Best Bits: That tear-jerking performance by Lance Henriksen as his character cradles and washes his dead son's body. (I blame the beautiful score that went on during this, too!)
When a trio of new-age security robots (for its time) malfunctioned due to a freak lightning storm, it spells nothing but bad news for eight teens who decided to stay after mall hours as these killbots are packing heat! Best served with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn smothered in cheese sauce!
Bloody Best Bits: A classic kill: a chick's head got blown up by a laser.
A late 80s slasher entry from the Land of the Rising Sun, a small group of co-workers from a TV Station decides to play detective and solve the mystery involving a snuff tape delivered to them one night. What they find in the murder scene, however, was far more dangerous than they imagined.
Bloody Best Bits: The tape itself is rather disturbing to watch. Then there's the impaling scene that looks awfully well-done. (Oh, Japan and your ultra-violence! What will you think of next?)
Invited to hang out at some boy's ranch over the weekend, Mandy Lane somehow lured in a psycho with a romantic obsession and will kill anybody that gets in his way. A sleepy little dead-teen flick that looks refreshingly calm, almost eerie and uneasy if you dwell in it.
Bloody Best Bits: A killer thinks resourcefully as he saves a single bullet when he uses a shotgun to mutilate a girl's mouth. (Wait til' you hear the sounds it made! Pretty cringing stuff)
A supposed "re-imagining" of the cult classic "The House on Sorority Row" that's better off as a stand-alone movie just like Silent Night (2012), still featuring a group of girls being killed off one by one in link to a murder they themselves committed and kept quiet about for some time.
Bloody Best Bits: A champagne bottle shoved down to a throat before our hapless victim got her neck punctured. Talk about overkill, mate!
Sure it's nothing subtle, but this in-name-only "remake" of a Vincent Price classic delivers all the gooey goods a slasher can offer! A group of teens en-route to a football game painfully discovers a small town's secret, as mad killers with a talent for making life-like wax figures begin to add them to their collection of macabre masterpieces.
Bloody Best Bits: Oh, where to start? The entire "waxing scene" was dreadfully fun. Then there's Paris Hilton getting a rusty pipe through her head. More of the latter actually...
A cult fave of the trashiest kind, about a pantyless bowler getting raped afterhours in a disco-themed bowling joint and bloody vengeance spelling to those responsible, and those who just happen to be around, as a bowling-bag wearing maniac starts to pick them off in various bowling-themed murders the following night. Not for the weak of stomach, ideologically sensitive and lovers of bowling!
Bloody Best Bits: I hate rapists. So imagine my glee when one of them gets anally raped with a sharpened bowling pin!
Upping the Wrong Turn franchise's game with loads more gore and smut, Dead End follows a group of teenagers competing in a Survivor-esque reality game show only to be hunted down for real by a family of deranged, inbred cannibals.
Bloody Best Bits: The opening murder pretty much sums up what to expect in this one, plus there's every scene Henry Rollins is in as a badass an ex-marine.
A mockumentary of the slasher kind, Behind the Mask is perhaps one of the more original dead teenager movie to be released on our time and stands proudly of it! Following the life of an aspiring masked killer, a student film crew slowly realizes that they can't just stand back and record while their subject begins to mutilate teenagers.
Bloody Best Bits: Every little bit where our titular psycho shows or explain to us how a certain cliché or gimmick can be done in real life. So far, I'm jotting down notes. (haha!)
Bloody Best Bits: How far will you go to cheat on your exam? How about faking a terrorist attack?
When a group of sorority girls accidentally murder their cruel house mother and try to hide every evidence of the crime from guests they invited for a party, what they didn't expect is that said house owner has a son. And he's crazily pissed off for what they did on dear ole' mumsie.
Bloody Best Bits: The near end. The great reveal.
A Ten Little Indians-inspired plot following a group of teenagers invited to an island home for Spring break only to fall victims to harmless April Fools Day pranks and a deranged killer. Quite infamous for its twist (even if this wasn't the first slasher to do this) but nevertheless a fun, fresh and slick cult fave for the fans.
Bloody Best Bits: One scene shows what would happen if you don't stop horsing around on a boat. It's ain't gonna be pretty!
Employees working in a convenience store suddenly find their night shift to be their last, not just in terms of their employment due to the owners selling the place, but probably of their lives as well when a butcher knife wielding intruder breaks in and begins murdering them. Hailed as one of the best slashers to be released at the end of the 80s decade and for a good reason!
Bloody Best Bits: Am I the only one who noticed the large number of head-related fatalities in this movie?
While the first Cold Prey may be the best Norwegian horror for some, most slasher fans will agree that its sequel (the first one at least) had done something most franchised entries fail to do: outdo the original! When local police discover a survivor of a killing spree walking alone with a bloody pickaxe, they soon made a fatal mistake of bringing in ALL of the bodies found in the scene to a nearby hospital. Medical building stalkings, here we come!
Bloody Best Bits: an "Oh Shit!" moment from our survivor when she walked in to a room where the killer's being revived by doctors who didn't know any better.
When a comatose 70s baby wakes up as a teenager in a clinic, not only will she be having problems adjusting to her new life but she'll also face the wrath of a derange cult leader, calling her from beyond the grave to join him in the afterlife. (Or else) People calling this a Nightmare on Elm Street 3 clone, I wouldn't blame them. But burnt specter and clinic premises aside, Bad Dreams works well on its own with unique twists and a really downbeat tone.
Bloody Best Bits: The Elevator scene. Fuckin' Creepy.
A slasher/monster hybrid that brings out the scares and thrills, old school style~! When two bickering siblings came upon an entire cave decorated with preserved corpses, they soon find themselves hunted down by a seemingly inhuman killer. Obviously, that turned out to be quite true.
Bloody Best Bits: There's something about empty hallways with echoing screams that's downright unnerving. See if you could stick to the end to experience that!
A series of chainsaw murders begin plaguing a campus in Boston and it's up to local detectives to figure out who's carving down the students. Completely cheesy all through-out with no sign of slowing down!
Bloody Best Bits: "BASTARD! BAAASSSTARD!!!!BASSSTARD!!!"
When young tykes and lecherous cooks starts to dye one by one in Camp Arawak, kids and counselors alike are doomed to be victims of a homicidal killer who may have an axe to grind. (In)Famously known for its cheese and the shock ending that came out of nowhere, a cult classic of its own strong following.
Bloody Best Scenes: How to deal with the camp bitch? Kill her via curling iron shoved down to her...
A genuine chiller with a slow start but ultimately unsettling all around as two vacationing best buds find themselves targeted by a trio of masked hoodlums, who proceeds to assault and stalk them all through the night. Nevermind the plot holes, it's all about depravity and bone-chilling hopelessness in this one.
Bloody Best Bits: There's a money shot involving Horsehead looking up the stairs, holding a saber saw. It's no chainsaw but I'm starting to dig it!
Well, it's either this or Student Bodies; Pandemonium somehow won the spot for being closer to its slasher roots and providing us a better ending. But enough about that! We need to help a Canadian Mountie save a bunch of cheerleaders on a cheerleading summer school from A.) a masked psycho, B.) an escaped convict, or C.) A really big chef.
Bloody Best Bits: The House of Bad Pies. For some reason, juicy steak doesn't sound too tasty anymore...
Home Invasion done ala slasher movie, the hype and wait was really worth it for this title! When a family suddenly begins to dwindle down one member at a time, courtesy of three masked assailants, it's up for a wild card to save them with her survival skills. But what could be the reason behind the attacks?
Bloody Best Bits: Just when you thought it's safe to run for your life, out comes a thin wire...
Somebody is killing off the staffs at a vacation resort with a bloody kukri. Somebody who is a fan of a stoner's song. Some body in a pancho. Somebody...who's not afraid to kill in a ridiculous pineapple suit! What supposed to be a comedy film, Club Dread somewhat did the slasher elements so right it's no longer a spoof but a really great horror-comedy! Ah well, one man's failure is another man's treasure!
Bloody Best Bits: Would you really think you could outrun a killer riding a golf cart? Of course not, but there's that one dame who would try and suffers the consequence...
Out of all the Korean slashers I've seen, this one really made the most impact for me; a lone survivor of a massacre re-tells the event that unfolded earlier that night, tangled with intrigue, grudges, secrets and a man wearing a creepy looking cardboard rabbit mask. Some might not buy the twist in the end but the totality is plainly savage and disturbing.
Bloody Best Bits: After being sliced to ribbons with a box cutter, one unfortunate fellow was force-fed with razors and boiling water. (And I scream in silence...)
One of horror's worthiest sequel. And not just any sequel, but that for a true classic! Deemed fit for society once again, Norman Bates unfortunately begins to see and hear ole' mumsie again, beckoning murder. Is Bates going crazy once more?
Bloody Best Bits: The reveal. Nobody saw it coming. Not even Norman.
Picking Signs and angry mothers. Never a good thing for movies to draw in that kind of crowd but for us horror fanatics, it's an invitation. And for this slasher, said invitation should be spread! After years of growing up traumatized after his parents were brutally murdered by a robber dressed up as Santa, Billy's Santa-phobia finally took toll on his psyche when he's forced to dressed up as the jolly ole' fat man during Christmas Eve and unleashes a homicidal fury to all naughty boys and girls.
Bloody Best Bits: Love the intense scene between a post-murder Billy encountering a curious little sister of a victim.
Bloody Best Bits: Love the intense scene between a post-murder Billy encountering a curious little sister of a victim.
Bloody Best Bits: Oh God, um, lemme see: that one flashback when we finally see poor Billy stand up to his trashy step family and mum? Yeah, always cheered for that one! Also, there's that really cool and kinda depressing law few minutes towards the end. Let's just say Christmas just went bloodier that year.
41. Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988)
Bloody Best Bits: Freddy and Jason vs Leatherface.
40. End of The Line (2009)
May not be as shocking as some might describe it but the film is pretty controversial at some point. When a worldwide religious cult believes that the Apocalypse is finally at hand and the only way to save mankind is by massacring them, an unfortunate group stuck on a subway find themselves fending dagger-wielding zealots as well as seeing what could be demons.
Bloody Best Bit: There's a really distressing scene where a member is forced to murder his pregnant wife in order to save her from the End. This scene was apparently inspired by the Mason murders.
Bloody Best Bit: There's a really distressing scene where a member is forced to murder his pregnant wife in order to save her from the End. This scene was apparently inspired by the Mason murders.
39. Hellbent (2003)
Lo and behold, the one movie that helped me accept gays for who they are, Hellbent focuses on a quartet of homosexual men in a Halloween party, being hacked off by a sickle carrying topless killer in a devil mask.
Best Bloody Bits: The opening murder was pretty sick in a cool queer way. Then there's that scene that ended up with blood on the disco floor and dancers ignoring a freshly beheaded man.
38. Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
Plenty of slashers had hicks for killers and teens for victims, but will it also work the other way around? Heck yeah! When a duo of lovable bumpkins working on their summer house saves a girl from near drowning, they're met with gratitude from the nice gal. Unfortunately, same can't be said from her friends when paranoia got the better of them and misunderstood the two's real intention. Hilarity and accidental bodycount soon ensues.
Bloody Best Bits: I chuckled at the Texas Chainsaw "homage" (with an added bonus of killer bees!)
37. Phantom of the Opera (1989)
Criminally underrated and under discussed, this real work of art stars Robert Englund of the Freddy Krueger fame as a slasher take of the Phantom of the Opera, killing off those who dare ridicule and/or get in the way of his own prodigy, Christine, played by Jill Schoelen. Yay for star power!
Bloody Best Bits: There's a cool scene where the Phantom fought off and murders a trio of thugs, who made a fatal mistake of mugging him in an alley.
36. Alone in the Dark (1982)
This is one of the few slashers that really pulled up quite a star power: Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Donald Pleasance and Erland Van Lidth of various B-Movie fame took in roles as crazies (and one possibly unhinged doctor) escaping their asylum when a city-wide blackout renders their electric locks useless, going on a killing spree hunting down a new doctor who they believe is out to get them.
Bloody Best Bits: There's a sweet kill that had Lidth breaking a victim's back against his knee. There's also another murder involving a phallic looking hunting knife punching through under a bed for a stab.
35. High Tension (2003)
Two college friends, Marie and Alexa, suddenly finds themselves in a situation involving a home invasion, a family slaughtered and a kidnapping while on vacation at Alexa's parents' country home when a misogynic killer invades their quiet getaway. Notorious for anti-climatic twist and it's excessive grue, High Tension still wins for being one of the most satisfying, brutal and thrilling New Age French Movement.
Bloody Best Bits: Cupboard decapitation. Never seen a beheading that creative and shocking since the glass pane beheading in The Omen (1976)
Bloody Best Bits: Cupboard decapitation. Never seen a beheading that creative and shocking since the glass pane beheading in The Omen (1976)
34. Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)
Well, what can I say? Among all the entries in this supernatural-slasher franchise, I love this one the most for being the most slasher-esque of them all and for trying something entirely different. When a strange disease suddenly grab hold of every child in a small Nebraskan town, a medical student who just came home to take care of her ailing other suddenly finds herself facing a reawakened evil who's murdering adults and claiming their children as his cult.
Bloody Best Bits: Hmm, tough one. There isn't a scene that stood out the most but I guess the intense Multiple Fever Case could count since it did had me glued and intrigued by the scenario.
33. Tower of Evil (1972)
A proto-slasher that's really ahead of its time, showcasing a group of treasure seekers looking for a lost religion's booty on an island wherein earlier, a group of teens were slaughtered by something feral and insane.
Bloody Best Scene: The opening action involving a couple of sea men discovering all the mutilated bodies and one deranged, knife-wielding nudie.
32. Prom Night (1980)
Yeah, fuck you, 2008 remake! Disco slashers are forever! Six years after an accident took the life of a frightened child, those responsible suddenly find themselves hunted and hacked on Prom Night by a killer who may have been involved with the incident.
Bloody Best Scene: That epic chase scene to beat, with everything from good camera work to an intense atmosphere. (some video releases might obscure this scene thanks to crappy transfer, but the version I saw was crisp and clear!)
Personally one of the creepiest slasher for me, a horror hodge-podge mixing surrealism, psychic powers, creepy mannequins and a creative killcount as a group of teens fall victims to a masked psycho with the ability to control glassy eyed dummies and levitate objects.
Bloody Best Scene: That first kill. Oh God, why does it have to be eyeless, laughing mannequins?!
30. Terror (1978)
Another criminally underrated and under-discussed slasher involving the cast and crew that worked on a horror movie about a witch's curse being killed off by a knife wielding assailant nd plenty of gruesome accidents. Pretty much one of the earlier stepping stone for supernatural bodycount films!
Bloody Best Bits: The climax's poltergeist attack that must be seen to be believed!
29. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
One of the true worthwhile entry after Freddy Krueger got his lime light as one of mainstream's hottest and most recognized monster, wherein we watch a group of insomniacs in a clinic getting picked off by the man of their nightmares.
Bloody Best Bits: Freddy goes sky god on us as he puppeteers a poor chap into falling.
28. Superstition (1982)
The melting pot of horror sub-genres that deserves a lot more credit for doing things right and entertainingly cheesy. When a lake's drained and an antique cross was taken out of its place, the spirit of a demonic witch unleashes a fury of bloodshed and mayhem to an unsuspecting family and everybody else that got in the way.
Bloody Best Bits: Too many to pick just one; we got a cool microwaved head, a cheesy witch drowning flashback, a man gets eviscerated by a flying buzzsaw, and perhaps my personal fave, a "staked head"
27. Hatchet (2006)
Gooey gore and old school slaughtering never looked so, well, gory! Adam Green's infamous splatter slasher showcased an unlikely group of tourist getting stranded in a haunted swamp that also happens to be the hunting ground of a deranged, misshapen killer hick.
Bloody Best Bits: a well done jaw ripping with a practical and editing effect to beat.
A bare bone plot about some teens being hunted down by a trio of really deformed mountain men. Nothing complex or hard to swallow, just your typical backwoods slasher. One good reason to love it, honestly.
Bloody Best Bits: Somehow escaping into the thick branches atop of a tree, what was left of the group find themselves stalked by one of the freaks.
25. Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
Perhaps the one slasher movie that turned me into a lapsed church goer with a religious skeptic view, a Catholic community is shaken when a young girl was murdered inside a church on what could have been her first communion. What soon follows is an investigation that leads to twists, turns and a whole lot of guilt.
Bloody Best Bits: The stairway attack is pretty nasty considering what was being stabbed then. Also calling in the best scene shot would be the murder of a horribly obese man.
24. Final Destination 5 (2011)
Surviving a collapsing bridge, survivors find themselves hunted by Death itself, playing along with a new set of rules on who lives or dies. Simply the best of all the sequels made for the franchise, featuring gloriously intense deaths, some characters worth rooting for, and one of the best surprise twist ending in slasher history.
Bloody Best Bits: The bridge premonition is simply tight, and too the first post-premonition death. Also, I don't know if this counts, but the opening credit is also the best I'd seen.
23. Happy Birthday To Me (1981)
Fairly two hours long but worth it, the film had a group of wealthy students being picked off one by one by an assailant with seemingly no motive. Caught here is one survivor of an accident some years ago that nearly killed her if not for a risky operation on her brain. Perhaps this is linked to the murders?
Bloody Best Bits: The most of the kills are memorable for their novelty; one gets his face shredded on a running motorbike, another got killed with barbells, but the best would be the kish-kabob kill. Cringe Medal worthy!
22. The Prowler (1981)
Pacing issues aside, The Prowler's a fan favorite for plenty of good reasons including realistic effects, hardcore brutality and a really cool looking killer. Celebrating their first dance after a bloody incident in the 50s, a killer in a veteran's suit suddenly arrives to murder away some of these nubile teens.
Bloody Best Bits: Pictured above: a boy gets a nasty bayonet impalement which is brutally kept there until the killer's sure he's dead.
21. My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Similarly plotted to The Prowler but otherwise superior. Thinking it's about time to lay the "town curse" to rest, a small community decided to celebrate Valentines the proper way again ever since some people were murdered years ago in vengeance to those who died in the mines. Unfortunately, someone is making sure the legend of a Valentine-hating killer lives on and a high death toll soon follows.
Bloody Best Bits: When an old geezer-slash-doomsayer decided to prank some partygoers with a fake Killer Miner suit, he didn't expect the real one to show up and put his pickaxe through a good view.
20. Identity (2003)
Eleven strangers got stuck in a motel during one stormy night, wherein they find themselves dwindling down in numbers. Sounds pretty generic? Don' be fooled, this movie got more twists and bloody turns to elevate this "thriller" into a pure slasher movie.
Bloody Best Bits: One suspect was left alone and later found killed with a baseball bat in a display most shocking.
19. Evilspeak (1981)
Carrie (any version) may have the "revenge of the teenager with powers" in the bag, but Evilspeak does a little better for me since it had the guts (and blood. and dismembered heads) to give us a much more gorily satisfying finale as one bullied chap got is sweet revenge on everybody that wronged him with the help of a black magic and a computer.
Bloody Best Bits: Again, the finale. Cheesiness aside, it's pretty badass and gloriously gory.
18. Scream (1996)
Wes Craven's bonafide 90s hit gets a warm welcome mat on this list for saving the sub-genre from obscurity and relaunching it for the mainstream audience. How? By giving us one wonderfully written whodunit about a small town terrorized by a ghost-faced killer who may have something to do with a local girl who lost her mum a year prior ago.
Bloody Best Bits: The opening act. Seeing Drew Barrymore terrorized by a masked killer is devilish fun!
17. Freddy vs Jason (2003)
Dracula vs Frankenstein! King Kong vs Godzilla! Adam Sandler vs Ben Stiller! We all love monsters brawling it out, so seeing two slasher icon battle for blood and glory is a dream come true for us horror fans. Left powerless since the Elm street kids stopped believing in him, Freddy brought Jason back to life to spark paranoia under the Springwood Slasher's name. But when the masked hulk begins to murder more than what Freddy would had hoped for, the two clashed for an epic showdown for slasher supremacy.
Bloody Best Bits: The fights. Both in the dream and the real world. Obviously.
16. Severance (2006)
A band of office co-workers from a weapon sales company meet grisly ends when mercenaries show up to make mince meat out of them. Chock full of laughs, gags and bloody mayhem, Anyone with smarts can find a chuckle-worthy time with this.
Bloody Best Bits: How hard is it for four people to remove a bear trap off their buddy's leg? Hard enough for them to mess it up and gets said friend missing a limb.
15. Inside/ A'Linterieur (2007)
On Christmas Eve, a lone pregnant photographer meets her worst nightmare on the form of a deranged woman breaking into her house to steal her baby straight out of her womb. What soon ensues is a body count, one mentally scarring film and a house with each room stained with blood.
Bloody Best Bits: There's this pretty grim scene where the villainess mercilessly murders a hooligan and then watches him death-rattle his way trying to hurt her. Of course, there's also the finale. (You cannot unsee it)
14. Urban Legend (1998)
An underrated 90s teen-kill, this fondue pot of slasher cliches passes with flying colors thanks to its creative streak of utilizing urban legends as the killer's MO, as the hooded maniac slashes their way through coeds in a murderous rampage.
Bloody Best Bits: I adore the opening murder, which is based on my favorite urban legend. Apart from that, there's also the pop-rock prank and one microwaved party animal.
13. The Burning (1981)
A vengeful groundskeeper returns to the old camp he used to work on to terrorize youngsters and counselors in a twisted sense of revenge. Accused of being a Friday the 13th rip-off, The Burning is a slow burn that does things right with brooding tension, a menacing killer and top-of-the-line gore effects courtesy of Tom Savini.
Bloody Best Bits: The raft massacre.
12. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
Taking place some years prior the events of the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacrereboot, we watch how Thomas Hewitt turn from a disturbed meat packer to a powertool-wielding cannibal juggernaut. I really don't understand the hate for this title; I find the story more interesting than the slasher-standard remake this title is supposed to follow, and the kills are a lot juicier with the red stuff.
Bloody Best Bits: Thomas gets revenge on his boss, and does a money shot with him and his first chainsaw.
11. New Nightmare (1994)
Perhaps the most unique entry to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, taking place in the "real world" where an evil entity haunts Heather Langenkamp as Freddy Krueger, seeing this form befitting as he murders everybody dear to her.
Bloody Best Bit: The opening act involving a possessed movie prop in a murderous rampage. And then there's that one scene that kinda tugged a few strings for me: Heather's young son crying out to his imaginary dinosaur for help. Yeah, childhood fears, right there.
And without further delay, our Final Ten:
10. Final Destination (2000)
9. Psycho (1960)
8. Candyman (1992)
7. Child's Play (1987)
6. Maniac (1980)
5. Black Christmas (1976)
4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
3. Halloween (1978)
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
1. Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)
When it comes to this howdunit death porn, nothing beats the original! Supposedly an episode of the popular X-Files TV series, Final Destination follows the methodical deaths of the remaining survivors of a tragic airplane accident, which they avoided thanks to a random premonition.
Bloody Best Bits: The airplane disaster itself is the most terrifying scene I'd seen in a horror movie in the sense it is utterly realistic.
Alfred Hitchcock's genuine cinematic masterpiece and the often argued Grandfather of slasher movies, wherein a thief finds a terrifying twist in her ordeal when her one-night stay at Bates Motel takes a deadly turn at the hands of "Mother".
Bloody Best Bits: The Shower Kill. Nothing can top that! Also the basement scene is the best reveal I'd seen in a proto-slasher!
8. Candyman (1992)
Dream-like and very well-made, the Clive Barker short-based mainstream horror pits a disbelieving woman against a deadly urban Legend Incarnate known as the Candyman in this semi-romantic yet very atmospheric supernatural slasher.
Bloody Best Bits: Visiting the monster's lair. The rundown building housing a slumbering specter is all kinds of spooky and creepy.
While the original draft had us guessing longer whether the kid or the doll was doing the murders, this supernatural thriller/slasher wins a gimmicky landslide by having a sentient killer doll as it's monster, with exceptional special effects.
Bloody Best Bits: Plenty: the first POV murder for one is pretty intense, the creatively painful death by voodoo is another, and then there's that one creepy scene where a charred up Chucky slowly makes his way to knife a young boy.
6. Maniac (1980)
Depressing, misogynic and very gory. One word: infamous. Follow Frank Zito, an overweight maniac who prowls the night for women to murder and scalps to collect. But when he meet a woman that shares some of his interest, will all hell break loose?
Bloody Best Bits: Must we count? The first scalping scene, the shotgun decimation, the subway stalking, the graveyard scare. Take your pick.
5. Black Christmas (1976)
A chiller with a warm bodycount, this creepy proto-slasher features occupants of a sorority house getting harassed and soon murdered by a stalker that, unknown to them, had made it inside the house.
Bloody Best Bits: the Moaner experience (AKA the first creepy phone call). Not sure if everybody else will agree but I also found the rampage in the attic scene to be unnerving enough to be pointed out.
4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The first and original of the powertool-driven exploitation horror franchise, this proto-slasher staples many of the most well-known element in our fair sub-genre, as well as being effectively scary and unnerving itself.
Bloody Best Bits: The backwoods chase, starring one hysterically frightened final picking and one hulking slasher with a chainsaw.
Slasher's personal "messiah", being the very title that started the 80s boom of teen-hunted-by-killer flicks, John Carpenter's independent creeper and soon to be franchise tells the classic tale of a madman's escape and return to his home town to terrorize random babysitters.
Bloody Best Bits: The opening kill is all well and intense. Plus Michael's daring escape gave a great mix of panic, action and jolts.
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The first of the series and the most "slasher" of them all, Craven's immortal story of a supernatural boogeyman, armed with a knifed glove, taking his revenge against the parents of his home town by attacking and murdering their children in the place where they cannot protect them: their dreams.
Bloody Best Bits: Bed Fountain.
And finally, my personal number one slasher of all time:
1. Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)
For me, this is the ultimate slasher movie as it has everything you could ask for; a cool killer, a sizable kill count with imaginative killings to boot, some interesting characters, a few winks and nods to the sub-genre itself, a strange sex scene (interestingly the only one in the series where they're fully clothed on the top) and one of the most epic hero vs monster finale I'd seen. This film is the very epitome of the dead teen film in its simplest and most fun so yeah, more love to Jason Lives! Admin's number one slasher of all TIME!!! (
Bloody Best Bits: The Frankenstein-esque revival of our titular killer, Jason hunting down a paintball team, the eye candy "mirror face press", Jason roaming in a room full of sleeping children (INTENSE!) and, of course, Tommy Jarvis vs Jason in a flaming lake!
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Not seeing your faves? Perhaps they're in this Honorable Mention list? Yeap, I know we can't fit them all but I would still like to let you slasher fans out there know that I also appreciate these slashers I'd seen over the years that could have gotten into the 101 listing but didn't due to several reasons; I either forgotten about them, just seen it recently, or replaced in favor of another title. I would really suggest you all reading this to give the listed titles a try or at least give it a chance! Again, this list is in no particular order:
Hell's Highway (2002)- A sexy homicidal hitchhicker torments an unsuspecting group of teenagers who pick her up off the road to help her out.
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So there you have it, 101 titles plus a number of honorable mentions of the cheesiest, bloodiest, baddest and simply the best of all slasher titles I ever lay eyes on! What say you, dear reader? What's YOUR 100 Top slashers?!
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