Retro Slashers

You are browsing the archives of 1985.

It’s the near future and young adults are divided into two factions: the ‘Frats’, the privileged college upperclass, and the poverty-stricken ‘Mutants’, a society of punk protestors. We start out with each group separately but in mirrored situations – a pack of ‘bad’ frat members are in trouble for repeated pranks on a ‘good’ frat, [...]

Sometimes slasher films fail to live up to their titles – The Toolbox Murders, The Driller Killer, Nail Gun Massacre and countless others were nothing more than yawn-inducing drivel.

After the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street in November 1984, it seemed inevitable that a sequel would soon follow. The final moments of the first movie had been manufactured by the producer in an effort to allow for further instalments

The standard six-pack of college students (the Virgin, her Loving Beau, the Wiseass, his Nice Girlfriend, the Scrawny Slut and her Dim-Witted Mancub) head to the beach for a week of sun, surf and sex. But as we’ve learned in the prologue, our hero accidentally killed his mother while cleaning pop’s gun and dad ain’t [...]

Euro slashers are unlike any movie from any other genre. They often manage to push the envelope even farther than American slashers and are notoriously unique. Do they work as good horror films? Not really, but Blood Tracks, which is more Hills Have Eyes than Friday the 13th, is certainly not like any other film [...]

Construction workers are the prime targets for a killer armed with a nail gun. The local Doc and Deputy try to track down the elusive killer while the body count continues to rise. Maybe elusive is too strong considering the killer and Deputy pass each other on the highway half a dozen times. I don’t [...]

Harvey the psycho escapes from a mental institution and returns home to kill his wife. One month later, a disheveled drifter (Tony Crupi) follows Jessie (Molly Cheek) to her secluded farm house. While Jessie prepares for an evening dinner party with friends, the drifter peeks in windows and a slasher thins out the guest list. [...]