Slumber POLLty Massacre: Favorite Offbrand Old School Slasher Flick

Sleepaway Camp is going to run this, but almost all of them are as good as, if not better than, Brand-name Friday the 13th sequels.

With the exception of Friday the 13th part VI: Jason Lives, which is by far the best of the series. But I digress.

I have a weakness for April Fool's Day, so threw it a vote. I fondly remember a lot of movies on this list.

I'd also like to use this thread to discuss offbrand slasher flicks in general – any I might have missed, favorite moments/kills, memories of seeing these as a child, etc.

Happy Birthday to Me a sleeper in this poll.

Allow me to make an argument for Slumber Party Massacre, which I watched last night and which inspired this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c3/Slumbermassacre.jpg/220px-Slumbermassacre.jpg

– Incredibly efficient. 76 min. run time, main character gets naked in practically the first shot, killer is already on the loose before the movie starts, doesn't really bother building tension or character in order to get right to the good stuff.

– Written and directed by women. Apparently it was intended as a feminist sendup, but the producers turned it into a serious entry in the genre.

– Killer has remarkable fealty to his weapon of choice (a drill). He kills a couple characters with knives when unable to use the drill, and he decapitates one dude off screen (although I like to think that he did that using the drill), but he offs the vast majority with his preferred tool.

– Really high body count for a non-supernatural killer in a situation that isn't isolated.

– Amazingly stupid behavior on the part of the teenagers (probably a remnant of the satirical script).

– Really horrific death for the killer.

Were actual high school girl slumber parties in the 80s like the one depicted in this movie?

Damn, meant to do this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c3/Slumbermassacre.jpg/220px-Slumbermassacre.jpg

I don't like "Sleepaway Camp," think it's a snooze that would be utterly forgettable if not for the utterly unforgettable final shot. Don't like Black Christmas, either. So I'd say "My Bloody Valentine" (which I think is honestly kinda scary) or perhaps "Prom Night."

lol was gonna say this is between Black Christmas and Sleepaway Camp. Prom Night is pretty terrible apart from some bits near the end.

but really love pretty much everything I've seen on this list (which is, surprisingly, not everything!)

black christmas i think, altho yeah i agree happy birthday to me deserves a few votes. i've seen only about a third of these

I didn't want people bitching about how I left off their obscure favorite, so I tried to include as many notable contenders as I could. Pretty sure some of these aren't even on DVD or streaming.

iirc The Burning had some of Tom Savini's best F/X work ever, but almost all of it wound up getting cut out to avoid an X

That's the one where someone has their fingers sliced off through the air?

Black Christmas is great and pre-dated most of the 'classic' US slashers.

This is killing me

Black Christmas, The Burning, and Toolbox Murders are all three pretty all-time slashers for me. The last one takes such a bizarre, sordid turn about 2/3 through that it's hard to root for. Have to think which one of these I'd really rep for if pressed.

The Burning has Jason Alexander AND Fisher Stevens, so probably that. Although Toolbox Murders has erstwhile Disney star Wesley Eure and child star Pamelyn Ferdin, so probably that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lekxSn2RpnM

no Slumber Party Massacre II, no credibility

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKPDAa46yXo

and it's got wotserface from Wings

I always get Happy Birthday To Me and Bloody Birthday confused and can't remember which I've seen.

i wanted to throw a sentimental vote to Silent Night, Deadly Night, but Sleepaway Camp

When I was 8 or 9 years old I convinced my Dad to rent Sleepaway Camp for me based solely on this:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5042/5215898341_b047bbb376_b.jpg

Lets try that again...

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5042/5215898341_b047bbb376_b.jpg

ha shit I've seen nearly all of these, this thread is like getting the results of a personality test you didn't know you'd taken

lol, i've seen almost none of these. though i'm a big horror fan, i've never much liked slasher movies, not even in their 80s heyday. did loving reading about the gore effects in books and magazines. went with sleepaway camp, which is 80% terrible, maybe 5% brilliant.

i got terror train confused with this movie (here's the trailer for it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY-6Ba9PPnQ

most underrated on this list is prob THE PROWLER (aka ROSEMARY'S KILLER), which has a slightly different 'prior evil' set-up, fairly dece production values, and some of Savini's best (and uncensored) gore effects, including an unforgettable pitchfork in the shower scene.

missing from this list - bava's BAY OF BLOOD, the daddy of them all, and very blatantly ripped off by FRIDAY THE 13TH

This list seem like a too complete list of a particular type of off-brand movie to the point that I can't even imagine what's missing from it

the only one i've seen is April Fool's Day but i feel very confident in voting for it, genuinely gorey and disturbing at times with good amount of comic relief and hot chicks

I guess the "The slasher film in its prime" part of this wiki entry is the final word, but poll touches most of these bases

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_film

I'd forgotten that I've seen April Fool's Day

still voting Black Christmas, as I actually enjoyed the experience of watching it, to date still the only slasher flick I can say that about

Black Christmas, but I haven't seen most of these.

most underrated on this list is prob THE PROWLER (aka ROSEMARY'S KILLER), which has a slightly different 'prior evil' set-up, fairly dece production values, and some of Savini's best (and uncensored) gore effects, including an unforgettable pitchfork in the shower scene.

The Prowler gets my vote actually. Pretty great mood throughout. I want to vote Silent Night, Deadly Night, because I watched the sequels in the early 90s during a time that wound up being pretty important for me (I would write stuff with the TV going, just because I seemed to get good work done that way, and I went through the whole SNDN series that way), but the first one is one of those "this is seriously depressingly nihilistic and amoral" slashers.

I haven't seen nearly as many of these as I should have, considering I started the poll… I have some of them on DVD, and some are on Netflix, so I'm going to get on that.

Interesting bit of trivia: The Burning was the first Miramax film. Also, music by RICK WAKEMAN.

watching Happy Birthday to Me tonight (was between that and Driller Killer at the video store. They didn't have the Burning)

The Burning is on Netflix streaming. Black Christmas, the Prowler, and Toolbox Murders all used to be on there as well, but when I went to watch them the other night, they had vanished.

Holy crap, Night Train to Terror looks AMAZING.

Very obviously lack Christmas, though I like Happy Birthday To Me, My Bloody Valentine, and Silent Night Deadly Night as well (the latter gets extra ludicrous moral outrage points, for sure)

*Black Christmas

many many lolz at multiple reveals at the end of Happy Birthday to Me. well done, Melissa Sue Stabberson

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Hell Night is super, super boring, with teenagers that are even dumber than usual. Can't really recommend it.

Just watched Black Christmas yesterday, and it was amazing. Probably the second best slasher movie I've ever seen, after Halloween. Haven't seen most of the rest of these, but Sleepaway Camp and Slumber Party Massacre are intensely mediocre. My Bloody Valentine was pretty good. I think I need to watch The Burning next.

The thing that really elevates Black Christmas is that, by and large, nobody really does anything stupid given what they know of the situation, including the police, and there's STILL this impressive escalating body count

Well, Jess does go upstairs at the end to look for her friends, even though the police asshat is like, "get out of the house now!" But, yeah, in general I agree that there is a refreshing lack of stupidity.

That's excusable at least; she had no idea her friends were dead until she went upstairs, and she didn't really come across as the type to leave ppl she cared about to fend for themselves.

Barb OTOH would have been like "okay BYE" and wouldn't have stopped running until she hit the train station

Barb would have been too drunk to run to the train station.

She'd have circled the sorority house a few times, true.

I will say this about Hell Night – they pad a really impressive amount of time with the characters walking verrrrrrry sloooooowly through hallways/down staircases/etc.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

other than no votes for the burning, these results are pretty much totally otm

actually i would also have dug some love being thrown at terror train and my bloody valentine, now that i give the list a better once over. still, top 2 are both amazing and desrve their spots.

the right winner won.

are there other films like these not listed of note? kinda really into the creepy 80s generic slashers, although I've been told "Three on a Meathook" (not on this list) ain't very good

Pieces is quite watchable iirc.

I want to vote Silent Night, Deadly Night, because I watched the sequels in the early 90s during a time that wound up being pretty important for me (I would write stuff with the TV going, just because I seemed to get good work done that way, and I went through the whole SNDN series that way), but the first one is one of those "this is seriously depressingly nihilistic and amoral" slashers.

I just watched this for the first time a couple nights ago (with a live improvised score) and yeah, it’s just so mean-spirited and ugly. Just ridiculously cruel to every character, I’m pretty sure every woman murdered in it is topless at the time, it’s like the stereotype of amoral misogynist slasher flicks taken to the next level.

Pieces is a blast though!

Yeah, how the eff was Pieces not among these poll options?!? YOU BASTARDS! BAS........TARRRRRRRRDS!

agree that SNSD encapsulates everything that was wrong w this subgenre taken to the nth degree, it's practically archetypal in its grossness

Adding to the post upthread stumping for Slumber Party Massacre, the first was written by Rita Mae Brown and all three installments were directed by women.

I can't remember if I've seen that or not

The killer's preferred method of dispatch is a giant penis substitute drill.

yeah well it's not alone in that respect (Body Double!)

I watched it last night and it was ... really bad? I mean it had one trick (jump scare/fake out) that it does over and over again in lieu of plot, character, dialogue, atmosphere, subtext etc. The villain is just awful, no distinguishing characteristics at all, a completely boring automaton. The production value (usually something I can enjoy or overlook depending on the era) is terrible the sound was bad. just new levels of badness all around.

Look, you'll notice I said nothing about the quality of the film...

I was just expecting something interesting to occasionally happen but aside from some of the totally bizarre and hamfisted sexual stuff (the little sister sneaking upstairs to steal a peek at her older sister's copy of the Playgirl with Sylvester Stallone?! yeah ok lol) it was just really boring, a series of badly executed cliches strung together.

As hinted a few posts back, Pieces is the only slasher film I would (mostly) unreservedly recommend (because, speaking as a big horror fan, most entries in the genre are the hottest of trash). Everyone who's seen it at my behest has been thoroughly entertained.

hey I too have watched many a bad slasher flick, I get the genre

The Burning was kinda fun.

just imagining the newspaper headline the next day

"NEGLIGENT SUMMER CAMP LETS 10 CAMPERS GET MURDERED!"

"CAMP COUNSELOR IS FORMER BLACKFOOT DELINQUENT!"

"LOTS OF BUTTS!"

had no idea Fisher Stevens was Woodstock! lolol

The House on Sorority Row (1983) 0

robbed!!!!!!

lmao at shakey completely misunderstanding slumber party massacre, it’s a slasher parody played straight (and it rocks, what other slasher film has the characters eating pizza from a box that’s on top of a dead delivery guy)

did I ever mention I did some work for George Mihalka of My Bloody Valentine fame? anyway, good movie. the remake is silly gonzo fun as well

Nobody voted for My Bloody Valentine??

also robbed!!!!

definitely one of the most novel settings of any horror film

I read a good piece ages ago on My Bloody Valentine and class, but it appears to be impossible to google for (thanks, Kevin Shields).

Prom Night was a series!

Seen about a third of these, and Black Christmas is immeasurably the best of them.

i'm tempted to watch all of the ones I haven't seen this week.

black christmas is a perfect film but house on sorority row is my personal favorite for its dreamy psychedelic third act and of course the acting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeZOjz2qKFc

so I enjoyed the OG My Bloody Valentine, but the twist bothers me because....if everybody knew Axel's dad was one of the two supervisors killed years ago, would they really be so gung ho about having a valentine's party that might dredge up bad memories in him?. felt like a "deus ex machina" but not enough to affect my enjoyment.

characters you actually rooted for too, for the most part. also I love any movie that does at least one POV killing.

watching 3 on a Meathook, against my better judgment

2 on a meathook is already straining credulity.

1 on a forklift was a better film

well that was certainly terrible.

it was like a Bread music video with a few murders thrown in

last scene almost a note for note copy of the end of Psycho

plot twist obvious from opening minute

entire 10 minute scene which is stock footage from some local band's club show

there is at one point a murder where comedy sound effects play as the pick axe goes into the victim, and yet the scene isn't played for lols, it's probably the only effect they had on hand.

I watched Chopping Mall a few months ago. Oh dear.

that movie is great

Slumber Party Massacre, uhhh.....

s'alright. think the most horrifying line was the older sister fishing by saying "you were beating off all the boys in 5th grade" and the younger sister unwittingly confirming this was true.

but yeah, i picked up on what it was going for. problem was I wanted to watch an Argento tonight and then after dicking around logging back into work to figure out something, it suddenly became 11:30 and that wasn't happening.

if I want to watch something with guts and body count tonight

Chopping Mall or

something else?

and if so

what

else

iirc chopping mall delivers, but also sleepaway camp ii

Watched Maniac Cop the other night. Pretty solid offbrand slasher flick (Larry Cohen script). Pretty much coulda just been called Cop.

I have recently watched the following (some from this list, some outside):

TERROR TRAIN: found this mostly annoying. the plot twist was fairly stupid, because why in the fuck would the killer jump from costume to costume if he already had the perfect disguise, the magician's assistant? it feels like the masks were meant to throw people off of the scent, but it feels more like cheating. also the killings were fairly boring and there was way too much soap opera college kid drama on the train that I didn't care about. but lol @ David Copperfield appearing.

HELL HIGH: This was sold to me as an underrated lost slasher film (indeed, I had to watch the fucker on Youtube). I found it to be half-interesting, half dumb. Basically about a woman who accidentally killed two high school kids when she was a little girl (throwing mud in their face when they were on a motorcycle, and went tumbling, and impaled themselves on.....two metal rods that just happened to be in the middle of the mud patch? idk). and then fast forwarding to her as a biology teacher and fucked up shit makes her snap. Just when the movie starts to go in an interesting director, the biology teacher is killed, stifling the momentum.

THE MUTILATOR: this sucked, flat the fuck out. it often gets boosted for its impressive gore, but it is so fucking boring between slayings that I couldn't even get to the end. it's not like the gore effects were Savini level, either.

THREE ON A MEATHOOK: the worst shit I've ever seen. also only available on Youtube. got sampled on a Mortician album. cool title, plus there are interesting bits of dialogue in the beginning, and it's a neat trick having the main character being gaslit into thinking he's the killer. but after the fast and furious opening ten minutes, apparently they only had 30 minutes of movie scripted, so the main character goes to a bar, where he spends an inexplicably lengthy amount of time watching a terrible bar band play what sounds like their imitation of Blood Sweat and Tears heartland music - like you get through about three songs in their set, with the main character just staring and watching them blankly. like a half an hour of watching him watch a band and then befriend the bartender who he then goes home and has romantic lovemaking with. the plot twist is remarkably dumb but it's the type of gonzo idea that could have worked in a better B-movie.

WIZARD OF GORE: idk that this really counts in this category but I loved this ridiculous-assed movie. especially the pretentious overacting of Montag, who was actually not an actor but a stagehand that got promoted when the actor quit. the premise is kind of neat too - the magician is actually killing people, but he's spellbinding both them AND the audience to not realize it until a half hour after the show, where they finally succumb to their injuries. dumb ending, but fits the film. need to see more Herschell Gordon Lewis.

MADMAN: watching this one now. generic but fun so far. also has Gaylen Ross from Dawn of the Dead! hilarious that itw as supposed to be a Cropsey film but The Burning beat them to it.

oh and BASKET CASE but that amazing piece of art belongs in its own category

It's not on here, but it fits - TOURIST TRAP.

Ok, wanna start by saying the telekinesis at times really got in the way of this movie. and I wasn't surprised to find out afterwards that it wasn't part of the original story, but was demanded by the director/producer. at times it hamstrung things, because he used telekinesis to kill the very first person, then from then on, often just used it to control his mannequins.

I feel like the movie woulda been better if they got rid of the animation of the mannequins and telekinesis and just made Chuck Connors a creepy disturbed guy who killed people and manually turned them into inanimate mannequins.

but...I still liked it, flaws or not. it was definitely original in its concept, and I very much enjoyed the remote setting of the movie, Chuck Connors's mannerisms/demeanor, and the creepy-weird vibe of the museum. I definitely support more odd-ball movies of this type.

anybody seen Cemetery of Terror (1985)? definitely fits this category, though this one was Mexican. definite homages to Halloween in some ways, but mostly it's a thin story with really effective atmosphere and framing. about a serial killer brought back to life through a satanic ritual.