“Halloween” to “Scream”: The slasher genre cannot be killed

“Halloween” to “Scream”
The slasher genre can’t be killed

Brothers in the sick spirit: Michael Myers (left) and Ghostface prefer to murder with a knife.

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Whether Michael Myers or Ghostface: Horror films like “Halloween”, “Scream” and more are currently experiencing their bloody renaissance.

The horror festival Halloween is just around the corner – and with it mask killer Michael Myers. “Halloween Kills” starts in German cinemas from October 21st, exactly ten days before little bogeymen ask for sweets and threaten to treat them. A trend continues with the comeback of the unstoppable psychopath who killed Jamie Lee Curtis (62) back in the 1970s. One that was ushered in in 2018 with the start of the three-part “Halloween” new edition. The slasher is celebrating its renaissance once again – and with it its most famous horrors.

Admittedly, the horror subgenre was never completely dead. Its definition – a murderer goes with a knife, hatchet, chainsaw and Co. on the hunt for mostly half-strength teenagers – is too broad. More recent representatives, such as “Freaky” or “Happy Deathday”, chose a humorous approach to the genre. The well-known slasher sizes have to provide real goosebumps.

“Candyman”

Only at the end of August 2021 did the “Candyman” return after almost 30 years of abstinence from the screen. Born as an urban legend, the killer uses a hook instead of a hand to kill anyone who dares to say his name five times in front of a mirror. But his backstory was already tragic in the original from 1992: Because as a black man he loved a white woman, her father had him cruelly executed. The “spiritual successor” of 2021 made use of this topic and took on the still current grievances such as systematic racism and police violence against blacks.

“Chucky the killer doll”

Under the US original title “Child’s Play”, a killer returned in 2019, who should also be known to German non-horror fans as “Chucky – The Murderer Doll”. Once again, a harmless children’s toy comes to life in it. In the original, the ghost of a serial killer was transferred into the doll, in the film from 2019, in the best “Westworld” fashion, the artificial intelligence went crazy. The result, however, was the same: countless sacrifices, brought around the corner as creatively as possible.

“Scream”

The “Scream” series by Wes Craven (1939-2015) brought the slasher genre back to life in the late 1990s. That had previously killed itself impressively with countless and incredibly bad “Halloween”, “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” sequels. But Craven’s self-reflective approach with “Scream” was successful and breathed new life into the slasher. Will “Scream 5” also succeed? On January 13, 2022, the Ghostface will once again hit Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell, 48), Dwight Riley (David Arquette, 50) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox, 57).

“I know what you did last summer”

One of the imitators of “Scream”, who swam in its waters in 1997, was the flick with the awkward name “I know what you did last summer” – from the sequel “I still know what you did last summer” not to mention. Instead of a knife, the hooded killer swung a hook in it, Freddie Prinze junior (45) didn’t necessarily make the whole thing better. Last summer has been on everyone’s lips again since October, albeit in serial form on Amazon Prime Video. Another group of young people has a car accident. Again it is decided not to report anything to the authorities. And again, a year after the tragedy, a stranger takes revenge.

“Halloween”

Because the actual sequels of “Halloween” from 1978 rather qualitatively taught fear, it was decided in 2018 to simply ignore them. The restart of the same name followed exactly 40 years after the original, again Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) was the main target of the stoic Michael Myers. “Halloween Kills” will continue to tell the story seamlessly from October 21st, and the comeback will end in October 2022 with “Halloween Ends”. Was it really going to be Michael Myers? We’ll talk to each other again in 40 years at the latest.

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