Slasher Movies. Mark Whitehead (First Edition Paperback)

SLASHER MOVIES - Almost everything you need to know in one essential guide.

Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees.... sound familiar? These monstrous characters were as popular in the 80s as Dracula and frankenstein's Monster were in the 30s. To do their 'dirty deeds' all they needed was a snazzy mask and access to the local hardware store. Considered by some an aberration of the horror genre, the slasher movie was weighed down by sequels and cheap-jack cash-ins, but the sub-genre that launched Jamie Lee Curtis and the SCREAM trilogy, like its monsters, refused to die. Slasher movie conventions have survived through films such as SINGLE WHITE FEMALE and remain with us in cinema's fascination with serial killers from THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS to AMERICAN PSYCHO.

What;s in this book? As well as an introductory essay, each of the major cycles - the FRIDAY THE 13th, HALLOWEEN and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movies are reviewed and analysed. Many lesser-known examples of the genre are examined, including the original post-modern slasher movie RETURN TO HORROR HIGH. Plus of course, a handy checklist of stars who got their big break being menaced. If stepping into the shower makes you break out in a sweat and the sound of a chainsaw makes you run for the hills, then this is the book for you.

A paperback published in 2000 by Pocket essentials - in AS-NEW, UNREAD condition.