Popularity Killer (Horror Movie Script)

They need at least a modest group of potential victims, and they often need to rack up a few early kills to establish both their modus operandi and threatening credibility. Many home invasion movies, such as The Strangers or Hush , share common elements with the slasher genre. As another Paste writer put it during our discussion: Home invasion movies operate more on tension than violence. The Strangers is an exercise in suspense rather than gore.

Slashers generally focus on turning murder into a creative exercise. Regardless, Pieces is a delightfully stupid movie, featuring a killer who murders his mother with an axe as a child after she scolds him for assembling a naughty adult jigsaw puzzle. The whole thing takes less than a minute.

Pieces also boasts one of the best film taglines of all time: Hatchet 2 Director: Everything about the film was calculated to draw comparison to classic slasher franchises—especially Friday the 13th , which permeates its every frame, right down to the casting of Kane Hodder as the deformed monster Victor Crowley—but it was still fairly effective, as far as modern devotionals go, especially in terms of its gross visual effects.

As for the rest: The effects remain icky, the makeup remains pretty solid, and the plot remains … not great. But all in all, Hatchet 2 just seems like a more pure distillate of what Hatchet was meant to be all along.

The Return of Michael Myers Director: The return of Michael Myers to the franchise after Halloween 3: However, we are here to defend it: This is arguably a more entertaining film than first sequel Halloween 2 , and one that gets an above-average horror movie performance out of Harris as Jamie Lloyd, who was only nine at the time.

Loomis is more histrionic and hyperbolic than ever as he insists—loudly and constantly—that Myers is a monster that must be destroyed once and for all. This is instead a movie made to capitalize on the former, although it does so with style.

Discussion

In truth, it seems heavily inspired by slashers in the mold of Prom Night in particular, wherein the guilty parties in an old crime are hunted down one by one. Happy Birthday to Me Director: The original version of The Town That Dreaded Sundown feels like a strange outlier among other proto-slashers, thanks to its insistence on marketing itself as a dramatization of a true story.

This it does with surprising fealty in many ways—its depiction of a string of murders in Texas is actually pretty accurate to the historical record, but that accuracy sometimes comes at the cost of a complete narrative. In the end, this film is a gritty, sober, almost depressive slice of rural bloodthirstiness that raises more questions than it answers.

We should note that there is one extremely goofy kill, involving a trombone, that seems much more slasher-esque than the others. Happy Death Day Director: Still, it has a few things going for it. If you ask us, Happy Death Day seems more like a one-and-done proposition, best left to stand on its own. Prom Night Director: Stalked by an axe-wielding killer in a ski mask, the frenzied, eight-minute scene spools out for an eternity as Wendy is chased through the locked, echoing halls of the high school, illuminated in impressionistic, Argento-esque shafts of red light.

Not all of Prom Night can live up to it the disco dance sequences are dreadful , but the chase alone makes it a classic. Terror Train , Director: Today, this mostly run-of-the-mill slasher is buoyed by several oddities: First, by the fact that magician David Copperfield is present, literally playing a magician red herring; and secondly by the novel concept of a masked killer who is regularly switching masks throughout the movie, leaving the characters guessing. The Slumber Party Massacre Director: In fact, Brown originally wrote the film as an early parody of the genre, playing off the tropes established by Halloween and Friday the 13th , but the movie was ultimately filmed as a legitimate horror vehicle instead, leaving it in a unique tonal middle ground that retains a fair amount of black comedy.

• The 50 Best Slasher Movies of All Time.
• Secret Treasures of Blackston Lake : The Blackston Lake Saga!
• I Will Carry You.

Halloween II Director: Halloween 2 is an odd beast. Loomis, as both are consumed by a fire that was supposed to be the end for both characters. Indeed, the more we discuss this, the more we come up with other movies that almost make the grade, or entire sub-genres that we have missed entirely. We had a long list of also-rans and have ignored almost 70 years of film-making canon.

But we hope this gives you a good start for watching some of the most satisfyingly crafted and scary films in the last forty years. Fiction, poetry and art you love Log In Sign Up. People Authors Books Publishers. Leopold McGinnis, James Grant. Leopold started this whole Red Fez thing. Where it stops, nobody knows. If you liked this, I've also written five books, which you can see on Also, you've got some mustard on your collar.

Gotta be careful with the mustard. More work by Leopold McGinnis: Optimist and 34 more. But just we enter this deserted tomb, a few caveats: Now, in honor of striking fear into your brain as well as your heart, here are our top 10 best-written horror films: View all Leopold McGinnis's books.

Red Fez’s Top 10 Best Written Horror Films

There's something appealing about a lo-budget film that takes advantage of its lo-budgetness. Now I want to see Cube. I love "creeptastic" love made up words and the utterly brilliant way of describing "Alien" as the story of an "inhuman stowaway. It's a tongue in cheek homage to the cheesy 50s horror movie, but with updated effects.

What makes it brilliant, in my mind, is how it's not trying to be more than that, but captures and plumbs the depths of its potential so well. It's kind of like There's something delightful about a sure hand taking the reigns of a carnival ride. Don't get me wrong, I love cheese fests. I haven't seen Splice, Slither or Ringu, but I've seen the other seven and I think they're all well written.

Red Fez’s Top 10 Best Written Horror Films

However, I prefer the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the remake. I think it's more tightly written. And my personal favorites of the "Dead" Browse through thousands of stories, poems and more.

• ?
• ?
• AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE FREQUENT EXECUTIONS AT TYBURN.;

Whether you're into crimes comitted, tales true or dragons slayed, we have what you're looking for — written by professional and proven authors. Automatically make and receive recommendations as you read. Extend your experience through comments, sharing, connecting with authors and following readers with similar tastes.

Reading becomes both personal and social. The more you do, the better your experience! We'll improve our recommendations to you and others based on what you've enjoyed and followed. The more a work is liked or person followed, the more impact they have. Set up a personal challenge to read more.

Explore a new genre or author.