Will there ever be another truly iconic slasher villain?

[Guestx]

Well I think being violent is ok

Jigsaw is a pretty big horror icon himself and the Saw movies have historically done really well

Lets see how this new one does

There does seem to be a market for "torture porn" movies. But I think that if you look at the most popular slasher franchises, none of them are as violent than they could've been and I do think that taking it too far is going to be a turn off for some people.

I think that there's a reason why the really extreme horror stuff is on the fridge and only embraced by the hardcore fans of the genre.

Just speaking for myself, I completely avoid movies that are super dark and twisted, but I'm down to go see something like Friday the 13th or NOES.

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

There does seem to be a market for "torture porn" movies. But I think that if you look at the most popular slasher franchises, none of them are as violent than they could've been and I do think that taking it too far is going to be a turn off for some people.

I think that there's a reason why the really extreme horror stuff is on the fridge and only embraced by the hardcore fans of the genre.

Just speaking for myself, I completely avoid movies that are super dark and twisted, but I'm down to go see something like Friday the 13th or NOES.

I'll be in the theater day 1 to see Jigsaw

Love all of them

 

[moreorless87]

No, there won't. Only because when the iconic villains were conceived of, the slasher flick was a new and novel genre. So everything was original. Now, any slasher movie is just reading from the book they wrote, and so any villain is just seen as an attempt to create that which has already been created, and rightfully so.

I think its moreso that horror was a much more creative genre in the late 70's and into the 80's, with the talent involved we got near endless creative ideas.

Horror in recent years though has become a bit of a backwater, a genre happy to sell the same clichés to a narrow audience who lap them up that has very few of the best creative people in the industry involved.

 

[Guestx]

I think its moreso that horror was a much more creative genre in the late 70's and into the 80's, with the talent involved we got near endless creative ideas.

Horror in recent years though has become a bit of a backwater, a genre happy to sell the same clichés to a narrow audience who lap them up that has very few of the best creative people in the industry involved.

Is the audience really that narrow? Annabelle: Creation just made $300 million.

 

[LATEXXX COMMANDO]

When you say "neutered wimpy studio interfered slasher," what do you mean exactly? Are you saying you need a bunch of gore and carnage?

I've been watching through the Halloween films and none of them are especially gory. There's almost no blood in any of them that I've seen, in fact.

Kind of.

Everyone besides the first Halloween had a good amount of violence. That's the reason the genre is called what it's called.

I'm not saying you have to have every kill be outrageous but there has to be some good kills in there.

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

I wonder if Scissorman from the old Clock Tower game(s) had the potential to become iconic if it had been made into a movie and executed right...

Anyway, I'm not very optimistic of it, but maybe one day we'll get lucky and see the birth of a new slasher icon. With the right back story, the right look, the right relatable protagonist to play against, etc., it's certainly possible. I know the slasher genre is pretty dead at the moment, but it was just as dead in the mid-90's when Scream burst onto the scene and captivated everyone. It could happen again.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

It’s now an established genre, with established figures. There’s not really room for new “classics” at this point.

 

[moreorless87]

Is the audience really that narrow? Annabelle: Creation just made $300 million.

That is I spose part of the problem, whilst modern horror doesn't break though the way say Jaws or Alien did theres enough people willing to pay for mediocre cinema that there's little reason to change.

 

[Don Hagliatelli]

I love a good slasher movie.

Something to note here is that in all of the popular franchise mentioned, there are a lot of shit films with a few good ones amongst them.

Also, even many of the good movies are flawed but we accept that because of when they were made and the nostalgia we have for them.

Audiences are far more sophisticated now. They don't just expect higher standards than they did 20 or 30 years ago, they demand it.

The standard slasher format is not very sophisticated. The killer has a pretty simple back story / motivation and goes around bumping off a bunch of stereotypical characters. The final female will start off weak and then find the strength to confront the killer in the final showdown. That's it. If you're lucky there will be a few memorable characters and kills along the way.

That very basic format doesn't appeal to the contemporary audience.

Scream was successful because it modernised the genre and offered something new.

A lot of slashers which have been successful in recent times are self referential and mainly appeal to people who are already fans of the genre.

I think they could create a new iconic killer. It would just be a lot of work. They would have to have a more creative back story, ideally something that makes them somewhat sympathetic. The other characters would need to be much better developed and the kills would need to be original and memorable. Drop the CGI, go old school of the gore. I think you'd also need decent actors involved, at least as your leads. Not necessarily famous, but good.

 

[Guestx]

It’s now an established genre, with established figures. There’s not really room for new “classics” at this point.

That's like saying there's not room for new classic spy thrillers.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Does the thing from It Follows qualify? I could see that having some legs.

 

[Joe Wong]

@Cint reminds me of a real life slasher villian.

I'd hate to see what his victim demographic looks like

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

That's like saying there's not room for new classic spy thrillers.

It’s funny you say that, because after I made that post I thought about it a little and the spy genre specifically came to mind as to why maybe I was wrong. James Bond was the guy forever, but then the early 2000s brought us Jason Bourne, so obviously I could be wrong.

 

[Guestx]

It’s funny you say that, because after I made that post I thought about it a little and the spy genre specifically came to mind as to why maybe I was wrong. James Bond was the guy forever, but then the early 2000s brought us Jason Bourne, so obviously I could be wrong.

I'm still waiting for someone to revive the martial arts tournament genre.

 

[rj144]

Seeing there's probably thousands of years of horror movies yet to be made, I'd say there's a good chance we'll see another.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I'm still waiting for someone to revive the martial arts tournament genre.

Honestly I wonder if the rise of MMA will make that a hard one for a while. MMA has taken a lot of the mystique away from TMA such that it’d be a lot harder to pull something like Enter the Dragon or Bloodsport or even Mortal Kombat off today. And I don’t know about you but I’m not particularly interested in watching MMA versions of those movies.

 

[blaseblah]

I think the different is today the movies have to be good. In the 80s you could just make a crappy, campy movie with some scares in it and it would take off.

Let's be real, the majority of those movies suck. The first couple Jasons were fun to watch but I wouldn't call them particularly good movies. The first Halloween, Psycho, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre are really the only ones of the genre I consider genuinely well made movies.

Happy Death Day is a slasher movie that just came out. Not sure how it's doing.

 

[Guestx]

Honestly I wonder if the rise of MMA will make that a hard one for a while. MMA has taken a lot of the mystique away from TMA such that it’d be a lot harder to pull something like Enter the Dragon or Bloodsport or even Mortal Kombat off today. And I don’t know about you but I’m not particularly interested in watching MMA versions of those movies.

Did you see Warrior? Would we call it a tournament movie? I guess it is, though a decidedly high-brow one that did everything it could to divorce itself from the fun cheesiness of the genre.

As for TMAs, yeah, things will never be what they once were in that regard. But it seems that respect for TMAs has come back around somewhat with the rise of guys like Machida, Wonderboy, Makdessi, Gunnar Nelson, etc.

I know the Undisputed series has remained popular among the DTV action fandom. The last proper tournament movie that I watched and enjoyed was the much-derided (unfairly in my opinion) 2009 adaptation of Tekken. I've actually watched that one a few times now.

 

[Bob Gray]

I think the world unknowingly craves a Blair Witch-style Bigfoot movie.

 

[LATEXXX COMMANDO]

Can you imagine seeing this in a theater with a group of people ready for Jason's return!?

This would have been freaking amazing!