Special Issue #5
Alicia Berbenick
The Neo-Slasher
When Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert famously launched their offensive against what they labeled as “Women in Danger films” in 1980, they effectively positioned slasher films as anti-feminist, exploitative, and lacking all artistic merit. But in the intervening years, this once much maligned sub-genre has enjoyed increasing acclaim for its subversive potential and reflection of cultural norms.
In the midst of a new explosion of slasher films (Halloween, Freaky, There’s Someone Inside My House, and the upcoming new Scream), this special issue asks what the slasher has become in the 21st century–in the “Neo-slasher” that has evolved from the classic slashers of the 1970s and 80s and the post-modern slashers of the 1990s. Read on to hear about new trends, landmark films, and explorations of new slasher media (including novels).
Essay Collection
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Preface: The Neo-Slasher
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Hack the Past: We Will Never Be Broken
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Subtle Sexuality and Quiet Female Rage in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
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Liberation of the Final Girl: Black Christmas and Feminism in the Contemporary Slasher
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When the Monster is Secondary: Grief as Final Girl Foe
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Laurie Strode: An Exploration of Trauma in the Slasher Film
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And Still It Comes: Fate and Mortality in the Halloween Franchise
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Fate in the Urban Slasher: Dallas Jackson’s Thriller
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A Tale of Two Post-9/11 Remakes: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
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Negotiating Franchise Identity in Trailers for Neo-slasher Remakes and Reboots
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Is the Slasher Alive or Dead?: Conflicted Genre Discourse and the Continued Return of Michael Myers
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The Eyes Have It on The Midnight Meat Train: Voyeurism, Power, and Privilege in the City
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Death Proof: Recontextualizing the Slasher Genre
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The Strangers: The Culmination of the ‘Depraved’ Family in Slasher Films and the Reformation of the Nuclear Family for the Twenty-First Century
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Technology, Media, and the Slasher Formula in Scream 4
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“They’re Watching Everything”: Preying upon Paranoia in the 21st-century Cyber-Slasher
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Final Girls in Fear Street
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Unbury Your Gays: Queer Final Girls in Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy
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Adam Cesare’s Clown in a Cornfield: The Not-So-Evils of Technology and Generational Conflict in the Slasher
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Final Girls 2.0: Reimagining a Slasher Staple in Grady Hendrix’s The Final Girl Support Group