These hidden gems never got the recognition they deserved! Join us as we count down our picks for the most overlooked slasher films that horror fans need to discover. From vengeful masked killers to innovative twists on familiar tropes, these films delivered scares and groundbreaking moments that influenced the genre despite flying under the radar.
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the slasher films that never got the praise and admiration they deserved.
00:15We'll do our best not to spoil these films, but some of the twists and turns involved in them may be revealed in discussing their merit, so be warned.
00:24Yulia!
00:34Number 10, The Prowler
00:39Released just as slashers were truly coming into their own in the early 80s, The Prowler was a down-and-dirty film that helped solidify the genre.
00:46Under-appreciated and under-seen in its time, the film followed a group of California college students who were stalked and killed by the titular Prowler.
00:53While it helped solidify several tropes, it also subverted a number of them by making the villain a World War II veteran.
01:08Coming out when many were returning from Vietnam, it raised many questions about how we treat our veterans.
01:13The film was also revolutionary in its special effects, even with a shoestring budget.
01:18Legendary effects artist Tom Savini designed the intricate and beautifully gory murder sequences, which hold up to this day.
01:25Number 9, Intruder
01:34After an abundance of slashers in the 1980s, where shadowy killers stalked teens staying in cabins or on cul-de-sacs, Intruder switched things up to this day.
01:40Following a group of teens working in a to-be-closed grocery store, the film effectively captured the feeling of retail hell that many of us felt in a crappy first-time job.
01:53Even worse than just working in a terrible dead-end job, the teens were also being hunted in a terrible dead-end job.
02:00Messages about the disposability of minimum wage workers and small roles from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were also being hunted down and killed.
02:07Even worse than just working in a terrible dead-end job, the teens were also being hunted down and killed.
02:23Messages about the disposability of minimum wage workers and small roles from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell merit a second look for the intruder.
02:32Number 8, Blood Rage
02:48Featuring a twisting plot involving a murderous identical twin, this film was initially cut down and heavily censored as Nightmare at Shadow Woods.
02:56Regrettably, the theatrical version had almost all of the spectacularly bloody special effects excised.
03:02It wasn't until the VHS release that these scenes were finally included, and it was retitled Blood Rage.
03:08Hi.
03:09I've lost my cat, have you seen it?
03:11No.
03:12But do you know what?
03:14What?
03:15Cats have a way of finding their own way home.
03:18Confusingly, on screen for that home release, it had a third title, simply Slasher, while TV airings kept the theatrical version.
03:27For decades, tracking down the better and therefore underrated version could be quite a chore.
03:32However, an Arrow video release of the DVD in 2015 contained both versions, as well as the third composite cut, which finally made it easily accessible.
03:42Number 7, The Burning
03:53I want to find out who's in, okay? We're off.
03:56Jamie, you with us?
03:58Right.
03:59Snoop?
04:00Yeah, I'm in.
04:01Conceived in the vein of the low-budget slasher films of the 70s and early 80s, particularly the first two Friday the 13th movies, The Burning followed a killer hunting down teens at a summer camp.
04:11The murderer, out for revenge on the camp counsellors, a burn victim, notably three years before the release of A Nightmare on Elm Street, was inspired by an urban legend.
04:20Woody, get ready to grab it.
04:22We're gonna go on.
04:23You gotta get ready to hold it.
04:24Okay.
04:25Alright.
04:26The film fully leaned into that inspiration, with campers telling the story sitting around the fire.
04:33While The Burning was trashed by critics in its day, many involved with it have gone on to huge success.
04:38Aside from helping establish indie film company Miramax, it launched the careers of Jason Alexander and Academy Award winners Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens.
04:48And every year he picks on a summer camp and seeks his revenge for the terrible things.
04:57Number 6, You're Next.
04:59Stay with me.
05:00I'd have to go check with the kids.
05:08Like so many slashers before and since in You're Next, a group of young people are hunted down by a group of home invaders.
05:14True to slasher conventions, the mysterious invaders wear masks and leave threatening messages and blood.
05:19The film even follows what seems to be a typical final girl with Erin.
05:23Slowly but surely, however, the typical genre tropes are turned on their head.
05:27Erin is able to fend off her attackers and sets traps for them.
05:38Revealing that she grew up in a survivalist cult.
05:40The hunted becomes the hunter as she takes out the masked men in a spectacular final act that cements it as an underrated cult classic.
05:48Look, I know you're pissed at me for not helping out.
05:51I just, I couldn't do it, man.
05:53I told you this might happen.
05:55Number 5, Behind the Mask.
05:56The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
05:58Like that, that bunch right there.
06:01There's your bread and butter.
06:03The good looking, athletic kids with healthy libidos.
06:07Exploring the very conventions of the slasher genre,
06:10this mockumentary follows an aspiring masked killer training to become one of the greats.
06:15The black comedy shows the titular Vernon's intense training regime to get his body in shape,
06:19while also meticulously planning how to execute his spree,
06:23down to sabotaging his prey's potential weapons.
06:26Exits from the first floor,
06:28and another eight or nine that might be manageable from the second floor.
06:32You want to eliminate as many as you can from being practical.
06:36The film intentionally plays with and subverts familiar slasher cliches
06:40in a final act that shifts away from the documentary style.
06:43These include the killer's childhood trauma,
06:45victims tripping on nothing,
06:47and of course, the virginal final girl.
06:49Despite positive buzz after a festival circuit,
06:52the film only received an incredibly limited release,
06:55and remains largely unknown to all but the most dedicated horror fans.
06:59Number 4, Friday the 13th Part 6, Jason Lives.
07:09Fun out, you guys! The game's over!
07:11You don't know for sure. What about Roy? Nobody's seen him.
07:14Of course not. If he hasn't accidentally pelleted himself, I'm sure he's lost.
07:17Releasing eight films in the 80s,
07:19few if any slasher franchises have so wholly defined a decade as Friday the 13th.
07:25However, as the masked killer Jason had been definitely killed off in a prior entry,
07:29the producers had to get creative with how to continue the series.
07:32As the title suggests, Jason Lives brings him back from the dead via a bolt of lightning,
07:37turning him from nearly invulnerable to literally supernatural.
07:49The film manages to strike the right balance between terror and campy fun,
07:52and would set the tone for the series moving forward.
07:55While other entries may be better remembered,
07:57Part 6 is arguably the best we got.
08:07Number 3, Death Proof.
08:11Wow, that's fucking scary.
08:13Yeah, I wanted it to be impressive.
08:15Scary tends to impress.
08:17Part of the reason Death Proof might be underrated
08:19is that it was initially released as part of a double feature
08:22that underperformed at the box office.
08:24Unsurprisingly, the film contains all the pop culture references
08:27and over-the-top violence one would expect from a slasher directed by Quentin Tarantino.
08:32He also intentionally tweaked the traditionally formulaic structure
08:36of the slasher film to challenge audience expectations.
08:45With a lead performance from Kurt Russell as a deranged stuntman
08:48and featuring several talented stunt performers,
08:50the film was also a love letter to the people
08:52who put their bodies and lives on the line to make these kinds of films.
08:57Number 2, Hush.
09:14Perhaps best known for his Stephen King adaptations
09:16and numerous supernatural horror series for Netflix,
09:19director Mike Flanagan had made a little-known slasher film for the streamer early in his career.
09:25Hush was co-written by Flanagan's wife and frequent collaborator Kate Siegel,
09:29who also stars in the film as deaf and mute author Maddie Young.
09:33This led to an atmospheric and tense film with sparse dialogue
09:47that provided social commentary on ableism via a serial killer targeting Maddie,
09:52assuming she would be an easy target.
09:54However, she proves to be anything but, with many in the deaf community praising the film.
09:58Those outside the community were impressed as well by the creative script,
10:01unique sound design and great performances.
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10:27Number 1. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
10:36Freddy's glove was missing and police are speculating the murders were the result of a bond theft.
10:41Horror films have always pushed meta boundaries, commenting on and even completely going against their own tropes.
10:47Wes Craven, creator of A Nightmare on Elm Street, famously did this with the Scream franchise,
10:51but years earlier went even more meta for this off-the-wall entry in his Nightmare franchise.
10:56Featuring a plot where Freddy Krueger enters the real world and begins terrorising the cast and crew of the films made about him,
11:05the film had much to say about the slasher genre itself.
11:20This concept, and a more sinister, less quippy Freddy, may have scared some audiences away,
11:25as it was regrettably the lowest grossing nightmare film.
11:28Nevertheless, it silently became one of the most influential horror films ever made,
11:32not to mention one of the scariest.
11:34Are there any underrated slashes that you love that didn't make the cut?
11:45Let us know in the comments down below.
11:47Fun out, you guys! The game's over!
11:50You don't know for sure. What about Roy? Nobody's seen him.
11:52Of course not. If he hasn't accidentally pelleted himself, I'm sure he's lost.
