Written by David Boyle. As a horror fan I’m grateful for the long line of films that have drawn me to the most unyielding sectors of reality— and my imagination. Every time I go to see a scary movie, I find myself reliving the exact moment when I first felt a cold surge of fear [...]
The students of Lanier College have more than exams to worry about. A slasher armed with a butcher knife is stalking the corridors of academia. Only the survivors get to exempt this test. Final Exam could have been just another generic campus slasher but is saved by bizarre camera angles, an oddball but loveable cast, [...]
There is something so sumptuous and lush about Mark Rosman’s directorial debut, The House on Sorority Row. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “classy slashers”, they must have been referring to this beautiful horror film. From the music to the women to the photography, House gets it just about perfect. The movie starts out with [...]
With the recent news of Scorpion Releasing’s slasher titles on tap for DVD – Humongous, House on Sorority Row, Final Exam, The Carpenter, The Incubus and American Nightmares as well as other genre titles – Retro Slashers conducted a brief q&a with company president Walter Olsen (yes, brother of Bill Olsen who runs Code Red [...]
A rapist is stalking the quiet streets of Galen. The town doctor (John Cassavetes) and sheriff (John Ireland) are horrified by the vicious crimes and perplexed by the strange evidence left at the crime scenes. The doctor discovers the attacks only occur when Tim, his daughter’s boyfriend, has nightmares. Is Tim responsible, or is there [...]
What do you get when you disguise a Canadian movie as an American slasher flick when it’s really more like an Italian giallo? You get American Nightmare, a 1983 stripper-stalker directed by Don (The Haunting of Lisa, Mrs. Ashboro’s Cat) McBrearty. A concert pianist searches for his missing sister. His search leads him first to [...]
In 1946, a woman is raped during a Labor Day party. 36 years later, a group of teens become stranded on Dog Island after their yacht hits some rocks. The group quickly discovers there is something worse than wild dogs living on the island. While watching Humongous, slasher fans should look for the many Scooby-Doo [...]
An early SOV series that bridges the cinematic gap between Snuff and Hostel. Gary Cohen, a video store owner back during the Mom & Pop glory days, noticed the glut of terrible horror movies flooding shelves on a weekly basis and decided to make his own cheap fright flick. So Cohen rounded up friends, actors [...]
Prof. Richard Harwell (Tom Scheier) discovers Jack the Ripper’s ring in a Tulsa, Oklahoma antique shop. Wearing the ring unleashes Jack from limbo and allows him to increase his bloody body count. Only horror geek Steve (Wade Tower) and skeletal dance instructor Carol (Mona Van Pernis) can stop the two-hundred-year-old killer from completing his mission. [...]
In 1983 David A. Prior wrote and directed Sledgehammer. After languishing for a year, it found a distributor but slasher fans had a hard time finding copies at local mom & pop video stores. Fortunately, Sledgehammer has been saved from obscurity with a new DVD release from Intervision Picture Corp and Severin Films. The movie [...]