- Slashers got sophisticated in the '90s, evolving from Freddy Kreuger to Candyman to the terrifying Hannibal Lector. The 2000s brought "torture porn" - a response to post-9/11 panic.
- After Halloween, slasher films ruled the box office. But by 1984, audience fatigue and critical backlash had taken hold. Slashers appeared to be dead in the water...but the genre was only sleeping. Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) revolutionized the genre by fusing the slasher with the supernatural, in the shape of the dream-stalking Freddy Krueger. Unlike Jason and Michael Myers, this was a talkative monster with a big personality. Craven made the killer a superstar like never before. Another iconic screen monster, Candyman (1992) was the first major studio horror film to deal with the lasting effects of racial violence in America. Tony Todd's Candyman was the victim of a lynching who returns as a formidable, but strangely romantic, supernatural murderer.
The traditional, non-supernatural masked slasher made a comeback with a postmodern twist in Scream (1996). Writer Kevin Williamson knew that audiences weren't afraid of slasher movies anymore because they knew all of the clichés. He shocked viewers out of their seats by creating characters that also knew all of the clichés, including the serial killers who attempt to bring down the film's strong female protagonist. Director Wes Craven, by this point at the peak of his powers, played the film right at the edge where horror gives way to comedy.
A far more serious reinvention of the slasher, The Silence of the Lambs (1991) made grisly horror respectable with its A-List cast and crew, including director Jonathan Demme and Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore. Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, became one of the most iconic villains of all time, introducing the figure of the hyper-intelligent serial killer into popular culture. Yet the film succeeds because the monster is not the star; the film is told from the perspective of the deeply empathetic FBI agent Clarice Starling, in an Oscar-winning performance by Jodie Foster.
The 21st century began with the 9/11 terror attacks, ramping up national anxiety and fear to almost unbearable levels. That fear was reflected in movies like James Wan's Saw (2004) and Eli Roth's Hostel (2005), which dared us not to turn away from graphic images of torture and bloodletting. Those movies were labeled "torture porn," but it was no coincidence that at the same time the U.S. was under world indictment for actually torturing people. By showing what we imagined was occurring behind closed doors, these films were projections of our mixed feelings about the War on Terror.
Interviewees include Stephen King, Robert Englund, Jordan Peele, Quentin Tarantino, Tobin Bell, Heather Langenkamp, Tony Todd, Kevin Williamson, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Howard Shore, Leigh Whannell, Max Brooks, The Soska Sisters, Retina Wesley, Lin Shaye, Elijah Wood, Ernest Dickerson, Victor Lavalle, Rob Zombie, Greg Nicotero, Tananarive Due, and Mick Garris.
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