The Dark Hall Top 25 Slashers of All Time: #20–16

We’ve officially crossed into the Top 20.

From here, the movies get harder to separate. Some are scarier. Some are more original. Some are simply more entertaining. And a few have flaws that should probably sink them—but somehow don’t.

That’s the fun of ranking horror.

Let’s keep moving down the hall.

#20 — Sleepaway Camp (1983) — Robert Hiltzik

Most people who know Sleepaway Camp know one thing about it above everything else:

That ending.

And you’ll get no argument from The Monitor there. It is genuinely unnerving, deeply uncomfortable, and one of the most memorable final images in slasher history.

But the rest of the movie is actually pretty good too.

Is it loaded with early-’80s camp and cheese? Of course it is. That’s practically part of the admission price. But underneath all of that, Sleepaway Camp has a strange quality that separates it from a lot of the other summer-camp slashers of the era.

A huge part of that comes from Angela’s Aunt Martha.

Desiree Gould gives an absolutely bizarre performance, and I mean that as a compliment. There’s something almost Lynchian about her. Her pauses are strange. Her mannerisms are slightly off. Everything about her feels disconnected from normal human behavior in exactly the right way.

And once you understand Angela’s childhood, that performance becomes much more disturbing.

Angela isn’t simply growing up in an eccentric household. Aunt Martha has completely imposed an identity and life onto her after an already traumatic childhood. Whatever you think about the movie’s infamous reveal—and there is plenty to unpack about how the film handles gender—the psychological control Martha exerts over Angela is genuinely horrifying.

That part sticks with me more than most of the kills.

There are certainly some effective deaths, and the movie has plenty of the same summer-camp DNA as Friday the 13th. But Sleepaway Camp has something stranger underneath it. It feels warped even before you fully understand why.

Is Sleepaway Camp scary?

For most of its runtime, not particularly.

But that ending is still nerve-racking, and when you start thinking about Angela’s childhood and the environment she was raised in, and being forced to live as something you are not for all those years, the movie becomes more disturbing in retrospect than many of its schlockier moments suggest.

It may have borrowed some ingredients from Friday the 13th, but Sleepaway Camp added enough weirdness, personality, and psychological darkness to become something entirely its own.

And with one of the most unforgettable endings in slasher history, it earns the #20 spot.

#19 — The Collector (2009) — Marcus Dunstan

When it comes to a horrifying premise, The Collector absolutely brings it.

Arkin, our protagonist, decides to burglarize a house where he had previously been doing construction work. Unfortunately for him, he happens to break in on the exact same night that one of the most demented killers in horror has turned the place into the world’s most brutal game of “the floor is lava.”

The house is booby-trapped from top to bottom.

And that’s where the real anxiety comes from.

Honestly, you’d almost rather Jason Voorhees or Ghostface just stab you than accidentally step into one of the Collector’s traps.

Suddenly we’re rooting for Arkin—the burglar—to escape a house he had absolutely no business being inside in the first place. But Arkin isn’t portrayed as some purely selfish criminal either, and his reasons for needing the money give him enough humanity that you’re quickly invested in seeing him make it out alive.

The tone is relentlessly dark. The atmosphere is oppressive. And unlike plenty of slashers where you’re waiting for the killer to appear, here almost everything in the environment itself could potentially hurt you.

You don’t want to see anybody get caught in these traps.

And that’s important, because The Collector doesn’t create anxiety by making you wonder when the killer is going to jump out.

It makes you say:

“Watch the trip wire.”

“Don’t open that door.”

“Don’t step there.”

The Collector himself also had—and still has—the potential to become a genuine slasher icon. The mask, the eyes, the brutality, the traps and the almost workmanlike way he operates give the character an identity immediately.

Is The Collector scary?

Not necessarily in the kind of way that stays with you when you’re trying to sleep.

It’s anxiety-inducing.

It’s the kind of horror that has you watching the edges of the screen, studying every doorway and yelling at the characters not to touch anything.

And for that, The Collector earns #19.

#18 — Terrifier 2 (2022) — Damien Leone

Damien Leone has become one of the biggest names in independent horror, and it isn’t because he created some psychological thriller designed to make your head spin.

He didn’t make a religious demon story.

He didn’t build the whole thing around some massive twist ending.

What Leone created was something much simpler—and much harder to pull off than people give it credit for:

A wildly enthusiastic, fun, and brutal slasher villain in Art the Clown.

And if Halloween costumes, merchandising, and the growth of the franchise are any indication, Art has been launched almost immediately into horror-icon territory.

Terrifier 2 might be the most fun movie on this entire list.

The plot is not something you’re supposed to dissect like The Shining. That isn’t the point. But the production itself absolutely deserves to be taken seriously, because Leone took a relatively small independent horror creation and turned it into something audiences actively seek out.

Art himself is the engine.

He can be hilarious.

He can be demented.

And he can be unbelievably violent.

The Terrifier movies have become the kind of films where part of the appeal is simply wondering whether Art can somehow outdo himself in the blood-and-gore department.

In Terrifier 2, he certainly does.

But this sequel gets the nod over the other entries for another reason: it actually begins building a larger mythology around Art while introducing a protagonist worth caring about in Sienna Shaw.

That matters.

Without Sienna, the movie risks becoming nothing more than an extended special-effects showcase. With her, Art finally gets someone who can stand across from him and make the conflict feel like an actual battle rather than simply another collection of victims.

Is Terrifier 2 scary?

Not really.

There are absolutely scenes that are difficult to watch, though.

This isn’t fear that follows you into a dark hallway afterward. It’s the kind of horror that makes you recoil, wince, laugh nervously, and wonder how the hell they pulled the effect off.

And as a slasher, the combination of fun, spectacle, memorable characters, and one of the genre’s newest legitimate villains earns Terrifier 2 the #18 spot.

#17 — Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) — Joe Chappelle

This is not a typo.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is sitting at #17.

A lot of people have already decided what they think about this movie before they even press play. Its reputation has followed it for decades, and sometimes those preconceived notions end up shaping the viewing experience more than the movie itself.

Because underneath all the mythology problems, Halloween 6 does a lot right.

For starters, this might have the best actual Halloween atmosphere in the entire franchise.

You can practically feel the crisp fall wind blowing through Haddonfield. The streets, the houses, the decorations, the darkness—it feels like late October. Plenty of movies in this franchise take place on Halloween night. This one actually feels like Halloween.

And the tension starts early.

This version of Michael Myers is absolutely brutal without turning him into some enormous, lumbering monster. He still stalks. He still waits. He still moves with patience. There’s intelligence behind what he’s doing.

Then, when he decides it’s time to attack, there is absolutely no hesitation.

Now, yes—the Curse of Thorn material is corny.

And The Monitor firmly believes a Halloween movie should never work too hard to explain Michael Myers. The mystery is part of what makes him frightening. Trying to give evil a rulebook almost always makes it less interesting.

But here’s the thing:

Even the movie itself eventually seems to realize Michael doesn’t need anyone controlling him.

By the time he’s stalking through the halls and corridors of the institution, killing members of the very cult supposedly responsible for controlling him, Michael feels less like somebody’s weapon and more like an unstoppable force that has simply decided he’s finished playing along.

Those sequences are almost Terminator-esque.

He just keeps coming.

Despite a few weaker performances around her, the movie also gives us a strong central protagonist and someone worth following through the chaos.

And that’s why letting the Thorn storyline ruin the entire movie for you is a mistake.

Watch Michael.

Watch the atmosphere.

Watch the stalking.

Watch how little mercy this version of the character has.

Jamie Lloyd doesn’t get special treatment.

Cult members don’t get special treatment.

Nobody gets to negotiate with him. Nobody gets to reason with him. There is no moment where Michael suddenly hesitates because somebody is family.

If Halloween 6 Michael gets his hands on you, you’re getting it.

Is The Curse of Michael Myers scary?

In certain sequences, absolutely.

But its biggest strength is even more important than that:

It gives us one of the darkest, most sinister, and most brutally efficient versions of Michael Myers ever put on screen.

And that is more than enough to earn Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers the #17 spot.

#16 — Candyman (1992) — Bernard Rose

Candyman is one of the more intense slashers on this list.

The signature hook is iconic, but honestly, that’s just the icing on the cake.

What really separates Candyman from so many other slashers is that its villain is actually sympathetic.

Once you understand what happened to Daniel Robitaille, you’re obviously not rooting for him to murder people—but you understand where the rage comes from.

That gives Candyman something a lot of slasher villains never get:

Tragedy.

And that makes him more interesting.

The Cabrini-Green setting gives the movie an extra layer of grit and unease. The environment feels lived-in, dangerous, and real, which works perfectly with the urban-legend structure of the story.

Virginia Madsen is also excellent as Helen.

She gives the movie a strong protagonist, but what I love most is that by the end, the movie essentially says:

“Yeah, I can also see her becoming the villain.”

That’s a great full-circle turn.

The original Candyman also works far better for me than the later remake/sequel. The gritty, grimy look of the 1992 film is a huge part of its power. It doesn’t feel polished in a way that distances you from the horror.

It feels dirty.

Uncomfortable.

Grounded.

And you cannot talk about Candyman without talking about Tony Todd.

Tony Todd belongs in the same horror conversation as Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, and the other performers who became inseparable from their characters.

And Candyman is probably the strongest display of just how much presence Todd had.

He doesn’t need to scream.

He doesn’t need to sprint.

He barely needs to move.

His voice alone can carry a scene.

Is Candyman scary?

Yes—but in a slightly different way.

Sometimes the fear comes from watching someone become victimized and thinking:

“You know what? Fuck it. Go get them.”

That moral discomfort is part of what makes the movie work.

Will Candyman keep you awake all night?

Probably not.

But it will absolutely stay in your head.

And that earns it the #16 spot.

The Top 15 is next.

At this point, there are no throwaways left.

Embrace the darkness. Just never get caught wandering The Dark Hall alone.
— The Monitor