The Dark Hall Top 25 Slashers of All Time: #5–1

Five movies remain.

At this point, we are no longer talking about good slashers.

We are talking about movies that helped define the genre, perfected pieces of it, terrified audiences, created legends, or did all of the above.

This is the top of The Dark Hall.

#5 — A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) — Wes Craven

Freddy Krueger has become such a huge piece of pop culture that I think people sometimes forget something important:

Freddy was scary.

Before the wisecracks.

Before the merchandising.

Before the character became somebody you could almost imagine hosting an awards show.

The original Freddy Krueger was genuinely disturbing.

And Wes Craven’s central idea is still brilliant.

You cannot run from somebody who can enter your dreams.

But there is another side to that premise that I think makes the movie even more frightening.

The alternative is staying awake.

And severe sleep deprivation starts destroying your judgment, your perception and eventually your ability to function.

So what exactly are your options?

Go to sleep and fight Freddy?

Or stay awake long enough that your own mind starts working against you?

That is a horrifying trap.

The original A Nightmare on Elm Street is also darker than a lot of people remember.

The town feels wrong.

The adults are hiding something.

The kids know something is happening but don’t fully understand why.

There is this constant feeling of:

“What the fuck is going on here?”

And Robert Englund’s Freddy is at his most unnatural here.

He isn’t yet the fast-talking horror celebrity he becomes later.

He is cruel.

Strange.

Patient.

And deeply unsettling.

Is A Nightmare on Elm Street scary?

Absolutely.

Especially if you saw it young enough for the basic premise to permanently lodge itself in your brain.

It is creative, frightening, beautifully made and one of the defining slashers of all time.

Freddy takes #5.

#4 — Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) — Joseph Zito

The Monitor is fearless.

Jason Voorhees would quiver if he found himself alone in my hallway.

But a baby Monitor?

A baby Monitor remembers watching the ending of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and being genuinely scared.

Not “that was spooky.”

Scared.

And revisiting the movie years later, it still works.

This is one of the most vicious versions of Jason Voorhees ever put on screen.

He feels less like a person and more like a force.

One of the best examples is Rob Dier.

Rob enters the story prepared.

He is looking for the man who killed his sister.

He has gear.

Weapons.

Knowledge.

He has done the homework.

And when he finally runs into Jason, none of it matters.

Jason dispatches him almost immediately.

That says everything.

Preparation does not guarantee survival here.

Then there’s Tommy Jarvis.

Tommy is one of the most interesting child protagonists in slasher history because he doesn’t simply survive Jason physically.

He studies him.

Tommy is an aspiring special-effects makeup artist, and that detail eventually becomes part of the way he fights back.

He alters his appearance and manages to create a moment of hesitation in Jason.

That’s smart.

He isn’t stronger than Jason.

He isn’t faster.

He manipulates him psychologically.

And then comes that ending.

Tommy does not simply stop Jason.

He brutalizes him.

There is a glimmer in that kid’s eye that suggests something might have changed inside him forever.

That gives the victory a price.

The cast is also excellent, with a young Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover adding much more personality than the average disposable slasher lineup.

Is The Final Chapter scary?

Yes.

There are legitimate scares here, a ferocious Jason, a strong cast and a protagonist story that gives the movie more weight than a simple body-count sequel.

Jason takes #4.

#3 — Psycho (1960) — Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived.

And Psycho may be his masterpiece.

The tension starts almost immediately and never really leaves.

At first, we think we are watching Marion Crane’s story.

She steals money.

She runs.

And despite knowing she has done something seriously wrong, we start hoping she gets away with it.

We think maybe this is a story about escape.

Love.

Consequences.

Then she reaches the Bates Motel.

And suddenly we realize we were watching an entirely different movie.

Anthony Perkins is flawless as Norman Bates.

There is something uncomfortable in almost every movement he makes.

It feels like Norman is constantly telling himself:

“Don’t be a weirdo. Act normal. Just act normal.”

And somehow that makes him even stranger.

What I also find fascinating about Psycho is the moral contrast between Marion and Norman.

Marion knowingly makes a serious moral choice when she steals the money.

Norman, meanwhile, is profoundly fractured and seems to be fighting against parts of himself that he cannot fully control.

That does not excuse what Norman does.

Not remotely.

But it complicates the simple idea that one person is the “good one” and the other is the “monster.”

That kind of psychological messiness is part of why the movie remains so compelling.

The mystery is excellent.

The cinematography is iconic.

The characters are memorable.

And Norman Bates sits close to the beginning of the family tree that eventually produces the modern slasher killer.

Calling Psycho the single original slasher is probably too simple.

But the DNA is all over what came later.

Is Psycho scary?

Yes.

But more than that, it is tense, strange, psychologically rich and almost impossible to separate from the history of horror itself.

#3.

#2 — Black Christmas (1974) — Bob Clark

Black Christmas by Bob Clark is a beautiful story about giving and Santa Claus and your cousins com—

Oh wait.

Wrong Bob Clark Christmas movie.

Black Christmas is a legitimate horror masterpiece.

And I’ll go even further:

This is the scariest movie on the entire list.

The atmosphere is diabolical.

Everything feels dark.

Cold.

Uneasy.

The movie gives its characters actual lives outside of the killer too.

There are relationship problems.

A serious disagreement over a pregnancy.

Friendships.

Family dynamics.

A house mother with her own problems.

These people feel like they were already living before the horror arrived.

And then there are the phone calls.

Those calls are brilliant.

They sound like a psychopath’s fever dream.

Half the time, you can barely understand what you’re hearing.

But you know enough to understand that whatever is on the other end of that phone is deeply fucked.

The kills are also extremely effective without relying on constant gore.

They happen fast.

Violently.

And sometimes almost casually.

That makes them feel more real.

The weather adds another layer too.

Everything outside is freezing.

Icy.

Hostile.

You almost feel like you’d rather stay inside the house where the killer might be than go outside and get frostbite.

And then comes the ending.

No neat answer.

No clean victory.

No reassurance that the danger is gone.

The possibility remains that the killer is still inside the house.

That is terrifying.

And unlike so many horror villains, this one was never dragged through ten sequels explaining every piece of mythology until the mystery disappeared.

The unknown stayed unknown.

Is Black Christmas scary?

Yes.

From beginning to end.

This is the one on the list most likely to give you chills after the credits roll.

It takes #2.

#1 — Halloween (1978) — John Carpenter

Here we are.

The greatest slasher movie of all time.

Contrarians may feel free to love whatever they want.

The Monitor has spoken.

Halloween is a masterpiece from start to finish.

The score is incredible.

The atmosphere is perfect.

The filmmaking is precise.

And the relationship between Dr. Loomis and Michael Myers gives the movie something that elevates it beyond almost every imitator that followed.

Michael is Loomis’ white whale.

His Moby Dick.

Loomis understands something about Michael that almost nobody else in Haddonfield does.

This is not a confused kid.

Not a misunderstood patient.

Not somebody who needs the right conversation.

Loomis believes he is looking at evil.

And the rest of the town slowly learns that he may be right.

That is what I love most about Halloween.

Haddonfield is normal.

Peaceful.

Easygoing.

People live their lives.

Kids go to school.

Teenagers make plans.

Families cherish the quiet.

And one man arrives who revels in violence and destroys all of it.

Michael does not need revenge.

He does not need some elaborate history of abuse.

He does not need a grand explanation.

He simply snapped.

It is almost as if some rogue wind blew an evil spirit into him and never left.

John Carpenter understands exactly how to use that idea visually.

Michael appears in the background.

Then he’s gone.

He stands across the street.

Then disappears.

He becomes part of the environment.

And nobody stalks like Michael Myers.

Michael Myers stalks like Michael Jackson dances, Michael Jordan plays basketball, or Michael Mann directs film.

With precision, power, and pure brilliance.

One man turns an ordinary town into a minefield.

One wrong step and you’re dead.

The blank white mask is perfect.

The slow movement is perfect.

The darkness around him is perfect.

And because the movie refuses to explain exactly why Michael is doing any of this, the story often feels closer to a psychological thriller than a simple body-count movie.

Laurie Strode is also an elite final girl.

She isn’t presented as some invincible action hero.

She gets scared.

She panics.

But when she has to act, she acts.

Still, Loomis and Michael are the straw that stirs the drink.

The movie ends with Loomis finally finding Michael.

He shoots him.

Michael falls.

Loomis looks down.

And he’s gone.

Then Carpenter shows us the familiar rooms.

The hallways.

The stairs.

The quiet spaces we’ve spent the entire movie moving through.

And over all of it, we hear Michael breathing.

He could be anywhere.

He could be walking toward another house.

He could be walking toward yours.

Is Halloween scary?

Yes.

Is it influential?

Obviously.

Is it beautifully made?

Absolutely.

But more than anything, it understands something fundamental about fear:

You do not always need to know why something wants to hurt you.

Sometimes knowing that it does is enough.

Halloween is #1.

This has been The Monitor speaking.

Hopefully this list pleased the masses.

Until next time, embrace the darkness. Just never get caught wandering The Dark Hall alone.
— The Monitor