Let's discuss the big guns of horror throughout the 80s. Jason, Freddy, Michael and anyone else you feel deserves mention. I think that the Nightmare on Elm Street series is my favorite of all of these. Second would be Friday the 13th, then Halloween. Here is how I rank them:

NOES - 1, 3, New Nightmare, 4, 6, 5, 2
F13 - 1, 4, 2, 3, 6, 7, X, 8, 5, Goes to Hell
H - 1, 4, 2, The Curse, H20, 3, Ressurection, 5

These movies just remind me of my childhood so much. I have all of them on DVD now. I haven't watched any of them in a few years, but hopefully a new Freddy vs. Jason and Halloween movie will come out soon to re-spark my interest. In the large scale of things, are they great movies?...absolutely not. But, I'm corny with this kind of shit. I can find a way to enjoy the cheesiest slasher.

Slasher movies usually have lots of nudity. The more tits, the better.

I tend to not like the mainstream stuff. Far too weak in terms of carnage. I thought A Nightmare On Elm Street was a little on the boring side and I haven't seen the sequels. I disliked Halloween and also haven't seen those sequels. I did think Friday The 13th was a fun little movie, though, and I plan on watching all the sequels this summer.

I think Italy was doing much more interesting things with the slasher genre, though. They called it the Giallo there, and they tended to be more murder mysteries, but it's pretty much the same deal. Profondo Rosso, despite being overall rather dull and plodding, has some of the most interesting camerawork and ideas in any slasher movie. And Michele Soavi did a rather interesting take on the genre with Deliria. And D'amato's Anthropophagus, while being a rather hard-edged and cannibal-oriented flick, could still be considered a slasher...and it's just awesome.

And some others worth mentioning, be it for better or for worse...
Black Christmas
Sleepaway Camp

Haha...how about that ending? The second one was decent too, but the third one was god awful.

Yeeeaaahhhh...it's a bad movie.

The first four Friday movies are some of my favorite ever. I can watch them anytime, anywhere, and still have fun. I will always giggle like a Japanese schoolgirl when Crispin Glover does his dance in Part 4, or when the boy gets chopped right through the balls mid-handstand in Part 3. They will always hold a dear place in my heart.

I love Halloween, but the sequels are not good, and none of the NoES movies have really ever done that much for me (although they do have some kickass vintage posters, and I'm partial to some stuff in Dream Warriors).

As for one-off slashers I love: The Prowler, Just Before Dawn, My Bloody Valentine (which might be my fav if they ever release it uncut), Maniac, Madman, Maniac Cop, April Fool's Day, Happy Birthday to Me, Chopping Mall, Pieces and Prom Night are all great.

And btw, I consider gialli totally separate from slashers.

First of all, I don't really think it's fair to call Maniac a slasher. It's really not.

And what's so different between Gialli and slasher?

I'll never get tired of mentioning how disturbing the end of that film is.

If by "disturbing" you mean "absurdly, ridiculously hilarious", then yeah.

haha...yea. But in a way, I thought it was kind of funny too.

Did you see it coming at all? I remember showing this movie to my friend and he figured it out halfway through. It was a surprise to me, though. A true gem among slashers.

You mean you actually think it's good?

Of course. It's funny, cheesy, good ending...what more do you want in a slasher?

Well, I prefer my cheese and fun with a heaping helping of blood.

I love the Prowler, I thought it was such a great film for the 80's genre. I caught about half of Chopping Mall on IFC, but I would love to see the rest of it.

As for Sleepaway Camp... I cherish my signed movie poster by Jonathan Tiersten. When I saw CKY last year, I saw Felissa Rose running around and such (she eventually went on the stage later..) and I was going to ask her if I could take a photo with her but I didn't want to bother her.

I've only seen the first part in each of those series. I liked Elm Street and Halloween almost equally but was a bit disappointed in Friday the 13th.

Elm Street and Halloween scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. Friday the 13th just made me think either all women were sluts, nuts, or a combination of the two.

Exactly. I could watch basically any of these movies, no matter how bad they are. The badder the better in fact. Nightmare on Elm Street was such a huge part of my childhood I don't even know how to describe it. The first one in the series I saw was Dream Warriors and I was hooked. There was a lot of imagination in the series at that point and you really couldn't beat Freddy as a horror icon in the 80's (sorry Jason). I was in love with Heather Langenkamp....hell...I'd still bang her.

The Friday the 13th movies are fantastic for what they are, and are still pretty much what the average person thinks of when they think of a "slasher" movie. I always get nostalgic for these in the summer. It's just the simple pleasure of tits, blood and really cool ways of killing people. Tom Savini always was good for that.

The Halloween series is a mixed bag for me, I love the original, a stone cold classic for the score alone. I remember sneaking and watching this one from under the sheets when I was very small and just being freaked out by the ending so bad. The sequels are definitely a mixed bag, ranging from ok to horrible. I can actually stomach them up through part 4, but after that it just becomes unwatchable, even for me.

This is a fantastic thread for one liners:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:



and:

dirtyfrank0705 wrote:



I personally think NOES is the best of the 3 mentioned because there was more than 2 realistically good movies in the series. Halloween was one of the best movies ever and I love the concept of Jason, I'm just not sold on the execution.
Freddy was different because he was sadistic. The others just killed. Freddy fucked with people. I always thought that put him above the herd... even Leatherface.
I saw the 1st NOES when I was really young. Way too young to watch that movie. It totally left an impression.

It boils down to this: When I'm in the mood for a slasher, I don't put on The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. When I want to watch a giallo, I don't pop The Prowler in. They're both basically about watching people get naked and/or be killed, but the execution (no pun intended) is completely different.