Retro Slashers

You are browsing the archives of 1982.

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 [...]

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 [...]

*Note: I wrote this review before Code Red’s release of this incredible film. For those of you unaware of who exactly to blame for the shot-on-video sub-genre, look no further than director David Wintergate who made the first SOV flick, Boardinghouse. It would be easy enough to attack the poor Mr. Wintergate for creating such [...]

One of the biggest criticisms levelled at the slasher is its supposed misogynistic tendencies. Many have stated that its need to cater for the teenage male market who would make up the majority of its audience would force filmmakers – who were also male – to fill the screen with scantily clad young females

For every studio-produced slasher to emerge during the early eighties (especially throughout the genre’s heyday of ’80-’83) there was a batch of independently made features. The Dorm That Dripped Blood was such a film.

Vinny Durand (Joe Spinell) is a taxi driver with an unhealthy obsession (is there any other kind?) for actress Jana Bates (Caroline Munro). He wants her for a movie he’s making. Of course, like a pre-cursor to 70% of horror fans you meet on the internet, he has no actual plan in place to make [...]

I’m a little bit country, I’m a little bit rock and roll. Yeah, I like my movies gory and scary. As time passes, I’ve discovered a camp of moviegoers who find gore scary and sometimes prefer the sharp end of a blade to a shot of a bomb under a table, ticking away. Far be [...]

Vinny Durand (Joe Spinell) is a delusional taxi driver who dreams of making a big screen horror movie with the ultra-famous Jana Bates (Caroline Munro). Disregarding some relentless teasing from the neighborhood losers and after his mother asks him to “quit talking the crazy talk” Vinny heads off the Cannes Film Festival to woo Jana [...]

Being the rabid slasher freak I am, I sometimes find myself defending all sorts of movies. I can usually find a far-fetched excuse which will explain why the victim-to-be took a flashlight instead of a gun. But once in a while I’ll come across a movie that cannot be defended. One such title is Don’t [...]

Lee Grant stars as a tough fem news woman fighting to save a battered woman from prison. Grant’s activism sets off a maniac (Michael Ironside), is attacked, and spends the rest of the film in a hospital. Ironside follows Grant to the hospital to finish the job. William Shatner is Grant’s TV producer and Linda [...]