6WH: The Slasher Movie Book

I like slasher movies. There, I said it. Of course, longtime readers of the site (all 5 of you!) already knew that, as slashers tend to comprise an inordinate proportion of movies watched during the Six Weeks of Halloween horror movie marathon I do every year. As sub-genres go, it’s not particularly well respected, but again, I like them. I’ve written about this before, so I’ll just say that I find them comforting, like curling up under the sheets on a cold autumn night. Oh sure, they’re all working from a relatively limited and predictable formula, but sometimes that works and I’m a big fan of folks who are able to find new and interesting ways to think inside the box.

Despite all the slasher movies I’ve seen, I’m far from an expert. Enter The Slasher Movie Book. I didn’t realize this, but the book was written by J.A. Kerswell, who runs Hysteria Lives! website as well as the Hysteria Continues podcast I mentioned recently.

Having read the book, I think it’s safe to say that Kerswell is indeed an expert, and not just on slasher movies. Indeed, the first several chapters of the book cover broad swaths of horror movie history. He’s mostly focusing on proto-slashers, but it’s clear that Kerswell has broad expertise in the rest of the genre as well. As most horror movie histories begin, this one starts with the Grand Guignol (a theater in Paris that specialized in short plays featuring graphically portrayed acts of torture, murder, and general mayhem), but quickly transitions into silent horror films (which have guided my recent viewings).

From there Kerswell spends a chapter on German “Krimi” (translates roughly to “Crime” or “Mystery Thriller”) films, a sub-sub-genre originating in the 1950s that I’d never even heard of before (as such, I will be devoting this coming weekend to some Krimi films I was able to wrangle from Netflix, tune in Sunday to see the results!), then moves on to the Italian Giallo movement (which is a sub-genre I’ve enjoyed greatly) and other similar proto-slashers from the 60s and 70s.

But the bulk of the book focuses on the Golden Age of the Slasher film, those hallowed years between 1978 and 1984 when slashers were formally codified and replicated ad nauseam. Starting with Halloween and basically ending with A Nightmare on Elm Street, there were seemingly hundreds of slashers made and released in that era. And Kerswell’s seemingly seen every last one of them. I mean, I know I said I’m not an expert, but this dude outstripped my knowledge on just about every page. The book is nearly comprehensive, especially in the Golden Age portions. Unfortunately, that breadth of film knowledge comes at the expense of depth. Most films warrant little more than a sentence or two. The classics of the sub-genre obviously get more attention, though even these portions are not exhaustive. But really, how could they be? There are probably a thousand movies mentioned in the book; going into meticulous detail on every single one would be tedious and boring.

Instead, Kurswell does a pretty deft job and summarizing the ebbs and flows of the genre, from the origins of various conventions in early films to the progression of said conventions through the Golden Age. He traces the genre’s roots as they move from gritty realism to a reliance on the supernatural to the self-reflexive parodies that kept it alive. He’s identified the trends and movements within the genre while cataloging examples to demonstrate. This is a book I assumed would bog down in repetition or simple regurgitation, like that part in the Bible where Jeremiah begat Jededia, Jededia begat Jebediah and so on, for like 10 pages. But this never really reached that kind of boring territory for me. Of course, I’m kinda obsessive about this stuff, so this book fed me a steady stream of new and unknown movies, all contextualized with stuff that I was already familiar with. It worked well.

The book rounds things out with a look at International slashing, the dark days of slashers, “Video Hell”, the reinvigoration of the sub-genre at the hands of Scream, and a survey of latter day horror.

I found out about the book from Brian Collins, the guy who runs the estimable Horror Movie A Day website, and I think his review is pretty spot on, and he’s qualified to make statements like this too:

…there’s enough evidence throughout the book to suggest that I won’t always see eye to eye with him, as he refers to New Year’s Evil as “dull” (no movie with a killer name-dropping Erik Estrada can be considered as such, in my opinion) and considers the (IMO) rather bland House On Sorority Row to be a top-tier slasher on the same level as My Bloody Valentine. But I have to remember that everyone has their own favorites; the book’s introduction explains that Halloween II was his first slasher and thus he has a soft spot for it, though he’s thankfully honest about its shortcomings in the text itself. And he’s on the right (meaning: MY) side for some other underrated flicks, such as the 2005 House of Wax, and he also (correctly) refers to Cold Prey II as one of the best post-Scream slashers, a bit of a surprise given his affection for Halloween II, which it was clearly aping.

I’d never judge a book of this type on a few opposing views of some low-rent slasher films, however – it’s meticulously researched and the occasional flubs are likely due to typographical error, not ignorance (though he seems to suggest Wes Craven directed Hills Have Eyes 2 AFTER Nightmare On Elm Street, when in reality they were just released that way). But I’d have to stop just shy of calling it “exhaustive,” as there are some puzzling oversights. No mention is made of 1991’s Popcorn, for example – strange given the fact that it was one of precious few slashers of that time (and fairly well regarded to boot), and Craven’s Shocker is also missing, odd considering that the “death” of the slasher cycle of the ’80s could probably best be exemplified by one of the genre’s founding fathers trying and failing to create a new slasher icon. No Dr. Giggles either, another “too late” attempt to revive the sub-genre. I wouldn’t consider this odd in a typical book that just covered the marquee titles (Friday the 13th, Halloween, etc), but come on – there’s two paragraphs on To All A Goodnight but not even a passing reference to Horace Pinker? For shame…

Brian is dead on (read: he agrees with me) about New Years Evil and House On Sorority Row, and some of his omissions are good calls to… One omission I would mention is Alice Sweet Alice – Kurswell does mention it in passing under it’s original title (Communion), but I would have expected more info on what I thought was one of the clear proto-slashers (I mean, not even a picture of that creepy mask? Come on!) You can’t please everyone, I guess. As mentioned above, Kurswell needed to walk a fine line here. Too much info and the book gets cumbersome and boring, too little information and doofuses like me whine about it on the internets. Again, this book is about as good as it gets when it comes to breadth of information.

It’s also a very pretty book. Paperback, but all in color, with oodles of gorgeous poster art and stills. I’m not one of them poster art curators that seek out foreign lobby cards and obscure movie art, but I can appreciate that sort of thing when I see it, and if that’s your bag, you’ll love this. Tons of goofy stuff, along with genuinely effective imagery.

It’s a fun book for fans of the sub-genre. Kurswell seems genuinely enthusiastic about the subject and treats it with a respect that few do. As a result, I’ve come away with dozens of movies I want to track down (if not, uh, hundreds). But don’t worry, I’m only planning on spending one week on out-and-out slashers (probably next week).