June is Slasher-Hybrid Month at Retro Slashers!
Not to be confused with quasi-slashers, which are movies with vague slasher elements (in which case, I’m pretty sure every single horror movie and serial killer thriller would be valid), slasher-hybrids are films that specifically combine the slasher film with an outside genre but can exist in both worlds on their own merits.
One example is Without Warning (1980), which uses the slasher structure to a T – random killings, bodies stashed to be discovered by the heroes, prime whodunnit paranoia – but drops in an alien monster (played by Kevin Peter Hall, who would later play pretty much the same role in Predator!). Another example is Silent Rage (1982) starring Chuck Norris, where The Beard fights an indestructible proto-Terminator who keeps on coming back. This one combines action elements within a slasher framework – and yes, there’s roundhouse kicking. And hopefully I don’t have to tell you about the incredible Maximum Overdrive (1986) directed by Stephen King – a slasher movie where trucks, vehicles and even a soda vending machine are the killer! Thank the lord Stevie boy was nose-deep in coke or that flick wouldn’t be nearly as goofy and awesome.
Some movies even attempt to combine multiple types of film, like Future Kill (1985, review) which uses a chase movie scenario to bolster its slasher trappings, while also integrating post-apocalyptic styled mayhem.
With hybrid-slashers, it’s the mish-mash of separate genres that make for fun watching. We plan on offering reviews and articles from our senior writers that will bring to light some of these combos. By no means will June necessarily feature only slasher-hybrid coverage, but I was looking for a way to provide more consistency instead of segregating our top contributions to the small window of theme weeks. We’ll give it a try, anyhow.
What are your favorite slasher-hybrids and what genres do they criss-cross?
I believe the original “Terminator” movie can fall into this catergory. Linda Hamilton being relentlessly pursuited by a killer from the future? Sounds like a slasher film to me.
I’ve always enjoyed ‘The Internecine Project’ with Coburn and Lee Grant from 1974. It’s a thriller about Coburn trying to knock off people from his past in order to go onward with his job with nothing to come nack and haunt him. 5 people die, one by shower strangulation, one from being bashed in the head with a hammer, and then three other unique slasher methods. Even more interesting, they all are committed by different people!
I like Chopping Mall! Robots are scary . . . And not just for what they’ve done to me already.
Slasher Hybrids.
Chopping mall is a good one. The Majorettes mutates from pure slasher movie into an action movie. Scarecrows combines the heist gone wrong sub-genre with gory rural massacre, para military action and, well, scarecrows. The Invisible Maniac even manages meld sub Russ Meyer nudie comedy films and slasher film tropes,
Predator is an interesting one because it does bare a strange resemblance to The Final Terror. The ending is very similar and both killers use camouflage. But it’s more of a slasher influenced monster movie than a hybrid.
COBRA (1986) WITH STALLONE!!!!!
I guess you could say “Wolfen” falls into this category. It’s starts with a nasty murder of three done by something not human, but then later it becomes a whodunit sprinkled with indian lore, killer wolves and even more murders!
Then there’s Slugs the movie, which we have killer mutant slugs as killers, munching their way through a small town’s population if they’re not infecting people with their parasitic flukes. Doesn’t that sound similar somewhere? A killer on the loose in a small town, killing people in random while cops figure it out who it is? Slugs is sortah like that.
Trailer park of Terror (2008) is also one; a mix of zombies and slasher, where the undead fellas living in the mentioned trailer park goes beyond the grave and into the living to have fun with a few teenagers in their own (gory) way. This tilts more into the slasher area since there’s very little zombies eating anyone. (save one fat zombie, but then again, she’s fat so I cut her a break)
Anoher zombie movie, “Wicked Little Things” / “Zombies” (2006) is a mish-mash of ghost, zombie and slasher, with a dozen killer kiddies of the dead, stabbing, hacking and impaling victims to death before killing them. This one, however, is more zombie than slasher.
And then there’s the 1988 remake of The Blob, though it seems more of a creature feature done in a Slasher skeleton than a slasher film done in a creature feature. (pretty much like Humongous only in reverse)
i know it’s not entirely in tune with Retro to mention a recent movie, but The Cottage is a lot of fun. For your money, you get violent slapstick, ninja gangsters, Brit gangster parody and Jenifer Ellison as a victim more terrifying than the deformed farmer hacking people to pieces. I like it more than Hatchet.
More in keeping with the site are Graveyard Shift and Martin both essentially slasher vampire hybrids. Christine, which let’s be honest is a slasher film with a car. And Witch Bitch aka Death Spa which is best seen with Aerobicide.
Hausu 1977 is a slasher at its core, but then not one when you add the silliness and fantasy.
One slasher hybrid I remember from my youth is Angel. It’s part seedy after school special (student by day, hooker by night), but since that’s not drama enough they have her cross paths with a slasher killer.
Cop with James Woods is another one.
I think Battle Royale (2001) can be considered as a hybrid of teen slasher, twisted survival stories and, well, action flick.
Dolls (1987), though a fore-runner to the slasher toys flick, is part adult fairy tale, part slasher