Best Slasher Movies

Well folks – this one is hardcore. Martyrs is not for the faint of heart. It’s deeply, deeply disturbing and shocking in a time in film (particularly this genre) where little manages to surprise us. You are either going to love or hate it. There’s no middle ground. I loved it. I loved everything about it, but don’t look to this as a fun little gorefest because it’s anything but fun.

Martyrs is brutal and unrelenting. The true horror of this film is in the way gore and violence is so perfectly blended with horrific psychological terror. You feel so much for Lucie and Anna and you want them to be okay, but in the back of your mind, you know they’re not going to be – and you can’t help but wonder if you’re even going to be okay by the time the movie is done.

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Leelee Sobieski, Danny Glover and Steve Zahn give performances that are ultimately the best part of Night Train. That’s not to say it’s a bad movie, but it could have been much better.

What Night Train fails to do is really explain what the deal is with the box that causes all the drama on the train. The mystery surrounding said box could’ve made an interesting plot point had there not already been a lot going on with the movie, but ultimately it was completely unnecessary to throw in the mystical aspect. It seems almost like the movie was running short so they threw in a little plot twist. Sad as the movie would’ve been more effective without it.

That said, Night Train is a smart movie. It’s a dark movie about the side of human beings we don’t like to discuss or think about – the money hungry, do anything for a chance to be rich side of human kind – and it doesn’t hold back from really exploring that. Despite its flaws it’s a good thinker and raises some good questions.

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I’m sure The Reaping doesn’t qualify as a slasher movie. I’m not even sure I would classify it a horror movie. That said, it is a good movie that I felt was worth posting. It has a very creepy feel and there are some disturbing images that I think make it appropriate for inclusion on this site. Sorry if you disagree, but it’s my damn site, thank you very much. Now let’s get on to the movie.

Hillary Swank is one of my favorite actresses and one of the main reasons I chose to see The Reaping. The trailer looked alright, but I’ve never been a big fan of Biblical plots. I was pleasantly surprised by The Reaping, though, and I think you will be too.

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There is nothing better than a small budget slasher movies. The focus isn’t all on special effects and making things look cool, but instead goes mainly to the story and the real scares, and The Signal is a perfect example of that. That’s not to say it doesn’t have more than its fair share of the red stuff, but the story doesn’t just exist to lead us to the next kill.

What if technology ran amok and caused people to go insane? The movie poses that question and paints a truly frightening picture of what the result would be.

The thing that works most about The Signal is the way its shot. The film is split into three segments, each with a different director. The first sets everything up so well, the second is filled with delicious dark comedy and the third perfectly ties everything together.

The Signal could’ve failed in so many ways, but it avoids the typical horror movie cliches and works on every possible level.

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I remember when news broke that Uwe Boll was making a movie based on the tunnel rats in the Veitnam war. Anyone at all familiar with his work immediately started predicting the worst. Boll has built up quite a reputation for himself – and not the kind of reputation most people would want. The problem with that is, if I skipped Boll’s movies because of his reputation like most people seem to do, I would’ve skipped Tunnel Rats and that would’ve been a shame.

Good job, Uwe. You finally made a terrific movie.

Tunnel Rats is everything it needs to be – brutal, honest and unflinching. Ignore the typical deluge of negative reviews that Uwe Boll’s movies usually get. I have a suspicion that those panning Tunnel Rats didn’t even take the time to watch it. That’s sad. They missed out on one of the best movies about the Vietnam war in a long time.

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Eden Lake is disturbing. This is not a movie for your typical horror buff because it goes far beyond gore and jump scares. It goes beyond chasing dim-witted teenagers through the woods and hacking them up. It goes beyond zombies or viruses or supernatural ghosts threatening mankind. Eden Lake goes for your emotions and that’s what it’s such a fantastic movie.

Eden Lake isn’t a brainless slasher film although it does have more than a little gore. The gore and the torture is graphic, but in a way that’s necesary to the plot.

I think the thing that’s scariest about this movie is it’s so believable. Gang violence is a real problem and this movie doesn’t shy away from that. It raises a lot of questions, but of course there are no easy answers. That seems to be what bothered people about Eden Lake the most. There was no Hollywood ending. There was no real conclusion that summed everything up. It left you with the questions it leaves you with because in real life, there are no easy answers.

I can’t think of much more terrifying than that.

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Finally a return to excellent Stephen King adaptations.

Frank Darabont does an incredible job of adapting Stephen King’s The Mist into a truly frightening movie. Like King’s original story, the movie doesn’t just rely on gore (although it is definitely top shelf gore and there’s plenty of it) to scare its audience. The Mist’s greatest strength is in the unique way it plays on what a danger we as people are to ourselves. It exposes people’s fears, prejudices and core beliefs as well as effectively showing the real horror of group mentality.

The entire cast performs in such a believable and real way. While they’re all very talented actors I think much of the credit has to go to an excellently written script. There’s a real humanity to this story and while the premise isn’t necessarily believable, the way the people react definitely is. The stand outs in the cast are definitely the incredible performances by Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden. You feel so strongly for these people which is such a rarity in horror movies. You care about them and that makes you want to watch to see what happens.

The Mist is an expertly crafted horror movie with lots of gore but lots of emotion. My only warning is that the ending is truly shocking, disturbing not easy to take. The Mist is not for the faint of heart.

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