So You Wanna Make a Slasher Film?

Since my So You Wanna Make a Found Footage Film blogs have been getting a lot of interest, I figured I would turn my attention toward slasher movies. I have a very deep love of the subgenre and figured it’s always nice to set the table of what makes a remarkable entry. 

So…you wanna make a slasher film?

First, you need the killer. 

The Slasher. 

Let’s face it, if you don’t have an interesting, compelling, and creepy slasher at the heart of your film you’re wasting your time. The subgenre is named for the killer and the act of violence they tend to commit, the slashing. Your slasher needs to interesting, but not chatty (generally, though there are some outliers, like Freddy, Ghostface, and Horace Pinker that were charming because of their banter). You need a good backstory that doesn’t lean into disability to make them sympathetic. I am over the – oh, gosh, Benji had disability X and they bullied him and now he’s a maniac. That’s a bit much, isn’t it?

Yes, it is. 

We can do better than that.
The slasher doesn’t need to be the “hero”, and shouldn’t be. If your biggest selling point is that it’s gory and violent, then you have a shallow film. Oh, it’ll have fans, but it won’t be memorable beyond them. You need to reveal enough about the slasher to make them scary without killing their mystique. 

Don’t get caught up on their gender. 

Sure, in the real world, it’s generally men doing all the killing, but this is a movie. Have fun with it. Take chances. 

I mean, all the boys DID love Mandy Lane. 

Just do the world a favor and give a moment of thought about who your killer is and be mindful of not being mean-spirited. Oh, they’re someone in Community X, that’d be edgy if they were a killer. Sure, maybe, but unless you are trying to be a troll lord with the film, ensure you aren’t being cruel or insensitive to a culture or group that didn’t ask you to bring them into your film. 

Now then, the killer also needs a look. 

Not necessarily a mask, but a style, a weapon, and an aura. While I didn’t love IN A VIOLENT NATURE, I did like the killer’s look. It was super compelling. Heck, even a movie like INTRUDER the killer has a look and feel when you find out who it is. The killer’s look tells as much about them and their story as anything else, maybe more. Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Chucky, and Ghostface (to name a handful) all have a distinct look and it is informed by who they are/were. 

Why are they killing?

This is as important as anything else. 

A good reason. 

A serial killer or real-world murderer kills at random. Slashers have a reason, even if their reason is just because someone is in the way of their end goal. 

Back to the weapon. 

They need either a signature weapon or a bespoke weapon or have to be masters of many. The weapon is an extension of their personality and motive. It is the extension of their arm and will. 

OK. 

Great, we have our killer. 

Now we need…

The Story. 

Yes. The story.
After the killer, it all comes second. If you don’t have even a simple story of – people doing something they shouldn’t, somewhere they shouldn’t be, and they pay for it. It’s pretty basic but, it works. Ideally, you go deeper. I give VIOLENT NATURE credit in that Johnny’s search for his talisman is simple, old-school, and works. Most stories tend to focus on a sin from the past, either against the killer or their loved one/s. They are the personification of revenge. 

Ah, but not always. 

With Michael Myers, he is simply a shark that kills because he kills. They dance around him hunting his sister or niece, but essentially, why he kills is unknown. He just does. 

And again, it works. 

These are not generally deep films, so while I’d love to see more thoughtful slasher films, you don’t have to overdo it here. 

The slasher is killing, and they have a reason for it. Even if we never quite understand it, the killer should, and they should stick to that. 

Place. 

While I feel like you need great characters to be memorable, let’s face it, most slasher movies are full of nondescript people on a conveyor belt to murder. Do you really remember a lot of the characters from THE PROWLER, PROM NIGHT, or VALENTINE? Not really. 

But think of MY BLOODY VALENTINE, FRIDAY THE 13th, and BLACK CHRISTMAS and, oh yeah, the setting is super memorable.

Set your film in a memorable place/places. 

This can be related to the killer or random, but there’s a reason the killer is there and why they are killing in that place. 

And if you are on a low/no budget, then create the killer based on the place where you can film. 

One of our film festival’s got a really fun slasher short and it’s clear that they were able to shoot in a certain place – abandoned industrial factory, and so they made their killer around that. 

And it worked. 

Your place will tell the story as much as anything else, so if you choose it, choose it well. 

Characters. 

The easy way out is to give us caricatures. The joke. The slut. The stoner. The good girl. Blah, blah, blah. 

You can do better than that. 

Play with tropes. 

Build rounded characters. 

Kill the supposed Final Girl/Boy. 

Play with what our expectations are. 

The kills are the thrills but without people you care about getting hacked and slashed it’s just horror porn and we’re fast-forwarding to the good parts. 

Give TERRIFIER credit, its final girl is interesting, as was Laurie Strode in the later films (love or hate them). 

Kills. 

So low on the list?

Yup.

The kills are huge but you have to set the stage first.

Here you can show your style, your flare, and your killer’s personality. 

Are they cruel?

Vicious?

Indifferent?

How they kill and what the yuse defines them as much as anything else. 

Are they like Michael Myers and are just cutting through people to get to the end goal (at least in the first one). Are they a Freddy Krueger, where their kills tell their own story? Are they an Art the Clown where the kills are cruel and drawn out? 

There should be a reason not just for the kill but for its viciousness. The SCREAM films’ kills were interesting because you could track backward and see how some characters may have been killed more brutally because they had made the killer angry. 

The Look.

Your film needs a look. 

This is YOUR personality. 

YOUR vision. 

Do you want it to be stark and minimalist?

Stylized?

Do you want your quacking slasher under garish lighting or stalking through the woods as we follow them from kill to kill?

What will set your film apart from the other ones out there?

What makes it special?

That’s up to you, friend. 

So there you have it, a crash course in making a great slasher from someone who has watched their fair share of masked killers tearing through coeds. A lot of what you’ll bring to it is based on your passion for the subgenre and which ones you like. 

The Reveal.

Eventually, you need to reveal your killer and it should be worth the wait. Unless you were clear that this is a Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger and we know who it is, you need to play cat and mouse with the audience. Some of the best slashers are the ones where a masked killer could be ANYONE and audiences are guessing who they are. It’s a tough road, for sure, as then you have to make a film good enough to get people to watch AFTER they learn the identity of the killer. 

You’ve got that covered, though, champ. 

So, the reveal has to be shocking and earned. Whether you want to have them monologue their way through the finale is up to you, but you should have a good reveal, or you’ll ruin all the tension you’ve worked so hard to build up. 

Are you a down-and-dirty fan of movies like PIECES and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE? Do you like the suspense that many of them have, making them almost mystery films? Are you into supernatural killers? Do you want to make them very human and very fallible? 

Like found footage films, it’s all up to you. 

There are flavors for every taste, whether you’re a fan or a filmmaker. Now, it’s on you to decide what you want to say and how you want to say it. It’s so hard to make a movie, expensive, and time-consuming. 

Unless you have a gold-plated idea you factually know can make you money then make something you can be proud of. 

Make something you’d want to see more than once. 

That’s how you make something memorable. 

Now go out there and kill some coeds on screen!

…c…