Review of Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006) by Dr. Jack G — 30 May 2011

I think John Dunning says it best about the slasher genre, "I don't know where it can go in the future. Maybe we can start by killing the audience.".

Dating back to Paris in the time of 1897 where naturalistic horror shows gave viewers the chance to watch "death" being portrayed, to the time when the people of Rome got enjoyment from watching people fight to the death, to 1960 where two films (Psycho and Peeping Tom) offered something new in the realm of thrills, then onward some more to 1977 with John Carpenter's Halloween paving the way for a newly discovered genre: Slashers.

Halloween, however, didn't have much gore to it. It's scary and thrilling, but not bloody. In 1980 a film called Friday the 13th would in fact provide the essential in your face gory moments that we've come to know and love about the genre itself. Sean S. Cunningham's story of how the film came about is interesting. He almost didn't want to do it and then did it and it's the best decision he's ever made. It would be the first slasher film to have a major Hollywood studio backing it, Paramount Pictures.

Much of Paramount studios helped with pushing these films into the limelight. Especially once horror films were being made with titles such as 'Prom Night', 'My Bloody Valentine', 'April Fools Day' and of course the Friday the 13th franchise (that is until New Line Cinema bought the rights, but I digress.).

Slasher flicks based on Holiday events were the pinnacle attribute to the Slasher genre since 'Halloween' was made. Every slasher film in the 80s wanted to be just like 'Halloween'. So every Holiday was lampooned as a horror flick. Even Christmas which was turned into Silent Night, Deadly Night, Christmas Evil or Don't open Til Christmas. This was highly frowned upon among parents especially the ads to Silent Night, Deadly Night for which Beavis and Butthead (I mean Siskel & Ebert) did a show on blaming the genre for being only about slaying young innocent women and turning a loveable holiday into a vicious spectacle. It's funny how much they can put down a genre like horror while at the same time praising films like 'Silence of the Lambs' which is said to be NOT a horror picture, but really is.

Would the world be better without Slasher films? No. Even before slasher films there were serial killers. People can be impressionable though, but films aren't the cause. Horror is made for the masses of those who do not take it seriously. Who go to have a fun, horrified time and then leave to return home and never sleep again! Of course you'll have a few knuckleheads who'll say that 'Jason made me do it!' or 'Freddy made me do it'. The blame game is made for those who don't take responsibility for their own actions. If something inspires you to kill people than you need to seek help or just not watch horror movies in general.

The height of the 80s in the slasher genre started to dwindle once the cult film cash machine kicked in. Soon the franchise chain churned out a Jason Voorhee's, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers flick almost every year. It soon got tiring and people went elsewhere with their interests. By the earlier 90s, the slasher flick was put to rest almost entirely until the mid-90s when it was brought to life with a film called 'Scream'. It got every one, teenagers especially, wanting more of the slasher bandwagon.

Nowadays, the slasher genre hasn't really picked up. It's turned into something more graphic. It's funny how in the 80s that horror back then was perceived as graphic compared to the new 'Torture Porn' genre we've invented among the horror genre. Nothing is off limits in this day and age. Horror has been given a newly acquired genre and it's the most grisly of all.

Torture Porn not only provides gore, but it also over-indulges and tries too hard in providing gory elements as shocking devices. The point being is that these types of films only want to disturb you. Not scare you which was the point of the Slasher genre.