Slasher movies are a beloved subgenre of horror that feature masked killers stalking and brutally murdering their victims, usually with a bladed weapon. The slasher craze began in the late 1970s and hit its peak in the 1980s, giving us many of the most iconic horror villains of all time, like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger.
If you’re a fan of horror movies, then you owe it to yourself to check out these 30 classic slasher films that helped define the genre. These influential movies laid the groundwork for the countless slashers that followed and remain just as terrifying today as when they were first released. Let’s count down the best of the best.
30. Prom Night (1980)
Prom Night is a Canadian slasher released in 1980 to capitalize on the success of Halloween. It even stars Jamie Lee Curtis in one of her earliest horror roles. The movie follows a group of high school seniors preparing for their prom. But an unknown masked killer is on the loose, seeking bloody revenge for the death of a young girl six years prior.
Prom Night hits a lot of the familiar beats you expect from a slasher movie. There’s the tragic past event, the warning signs that go unheeded, the killer’s POV shots, and of course plenty of gory murder sequences. While it may not be the most original slasher, it executes the formula very effectively. The creepy atmosphere inside the high school is a highlight, especially the nerve-wracking chase scene where the killer pursues Curtis’ character through the darkened hallways illuminated by slashes of red light.
29. My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Released in 1981, My Bloody Valentine helped establish the tradition of holiday-themed slasher movies. The story is set in a small mining town that is gearing up for its first Valentine’s Day celebration in 20 years. They previously stopped holding the event after a mining accident left a sole survivor named Harry Warden, who murdered the supervisors he blamed for the tragedy. Now Harry is back to terrorize the town and punish anyone who dares to celebrate the holiday.
My Bloody Valentine stands out for its unique mining town setting and the grimy, industrial feel of its death scenes. The movie doesn’t hold back on the nasty kills, though some gore was cut to appease the censors. The miner getup also makes for a very creepy killer costume, complete with blackened eyes and a gas mask. There’s a nice whodunit mystery surrounding the killer’s identity that keeps you guessing until the end.
28. The Burning (1981)
The Burning is another summer camp slasher in the mold of Friday the 13th, released less than a year later in 1981. It has a very similar setup – a tragic accident at Camp Blackfoot leaves caretaker Cropsy horribly burned. Years later, after being released from the hospital, he returns to the reopened camp to get his revenge on the campers with his trusty garden shears.
What sets The Burning apart is its extremely graphic kill scenes, courtesy of gore effects maestro Tom Savini. The raft massacre scene is especially notorious and remains hard to watch to this day. The movie also features early appearances by future stars like Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and Holly Hunter. While it may not be as well-known as other summer camp slashers, The Burning delivers some of the most brutal and wince-inducing death scenes of the era.
27. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
The Slumber Party Massacre was written by feminist author Rita Mae Brown as a parody of slasher movie tropes. But the film plays it completely straight, making it a unique entry in the genre. The story focuses on a high school slumber party that is interrupted by an escaped mass murderer with a power drill. The movie hits all the expected slasher beats – the killer POV, the gory deaths, the nubile young victims fighting to survive.
What makes Slumber Party Massacre stand out is its sly subversive streak. The all-female cast allows it to flip the gender dynamics often seen in slashers. You get the sense that the movie is poking fun at the genre’s voyeuristic male gaze and misogynistic undertones. At the same time, it still works as an effective, suspenseful slasher movie in its own right. The juxtaposition of the innocent girly sleepover and the crazed, phallic drill-wielding killer creates a lot of uncomfortable tension and dark humor.
26. Sleepaway Camp (1983)
Sleepaway Camp is a very bizarre movie, even by slasher standards. The story follows shy, traumatized teenager Angela as she attends the summer camp of the title. Soon campers and counselors start getting knocked off in various gruesome ways. It seems like someone at the camp is harboring a deadly secret.
Sleepaway Camp has earned a cult following for its odd, unsettling tone and shocking ending which comes completely out of left field. It’s the kind of twist that you’ll never see coming on first viewing. The movie doesn’t always make a lot of sense, but it keeps you on your toes. There’s an amateurish quality to a lot of the acting and filmmaking, but that arguably adds to its quirky charm. Sleepaway Camp is definitely not for all tastes, but it’s a must-see for fans of left-of-center, oddball slashers.
25. Maniac (1980)
Maniac is an especially grimy and sleazy entry in the slasher canon. Joe Spinell stars as Frank Zito, a deeply disturbed man who prowls the streets of New York City, killing women and scalping them. He then takes the scalps back to his apartment and nails them to mannequins. It’s eventually revealed that Frank is a schizophrenic, traumatized by abuse from his prostitute mother. He befriends a female photographer, but struggles to control his violent urges.
Maniac is an unrelentingly bleak and nasty film, with an air of seediness that makes you want to take a shower after watching it. But it’s also shockingly violent, with several extremely graphic, drawn-out kill scenes courtesy of splatter king Tom Savini. The movie is also unique for putting us in the perspective of the killer, allowing us to see his mental deterioration and tortured psyche. Spinell’s twitchy, unhinged performance makes Frank Zito one of the most memorable slasher villains of all time, despite not wearing a mask. Maniac is a hard watch, but an undeniably disturbing and effective one.
24. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is often cited as a major influence on the slasher subgenre, even though it predates the slasher boom by several years. The movie follows a group of friends on a road trip through rural Texas who fall victim to a family of cannibals, including a chainsaw-wielding maniac known as Leatherface.
Texas Chain Saw has an almost documentary-like rawness to it that makes it feel all too terrifyingly plausible. The grimy 16mm cinematography gives it a gritty, sweat-soaked realism and the unknown actors make you believe these horrors are actually happening. Much of the violence is implied rather than graphic, but that arguably makes it even more impactful, as your mind fills in the grisly blanks. The frenetic, abrasive sound design of the chainsaw and the screaming victims is especially unnerving. While it may not have established all the slasher conventions, Texas Chain Saw set a new bar for sheer visceral terror and became a key influence on the genre.
23. The House on Sorority Row (1983)
The House on Sorority Row puts a unique spin on the slasher formula by having the main characters be responsible for the inciting incident. After a prank gone wrong leads to the death of their house mother, a group of sorority sisters try to cover up the accident. But months later, an unseen killer starts picking them off one by one. Is it the house mother back for revenge?
The movie builds suspense nicely as the girls wrestle with guilt over their actions while also trying to survive a stalker. The killer’s identity is a nice surprise and the motive ties in well with the setup. Sorority Row features some memorable kill scenes, including a particularly shocking one involving a toilet that rivals the famous bathroom death in Psycho.
22. The Funhouse (1981)
Tobe Hooper followed up The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with this twisted take on the carnival slasher. In The Funhouse, four teenagers spend the night in a sleazy carnival funhouse on a dare, only to be locked inside with a deformed killer in a Frankenstein mask.
Hooper makes great use of the surreal carnival setting and the colorful cast of supporting characters, like the freaky magician and the misshapen monster boy. The funhouse itself becomes almost like another character, with Hooper milking scares from every dark corner and hall of mirrors. While it may not reach the heights of Texas Chain Saw, The Funhouse is a solid, spooky slasher with a unique backdrop.
21. Terror Train (1980)
Terror Train is another holiday-themed early ’80s slasher, this time set aboard a chartered train on New Year’s Eve. A killer sneaks aboard, disguising himself in a series of stolen costumes and gruesome masks, and starts killing off the partygoers. Could it be the same killer who committed a terrible prank gone wrong years earlier?
Jamie Lee Curtis stars in one of her post-Halloween slasher roles, playing essentially the same “good girl” character. Ben Johnson of The Last Picture Show fame appears as the train conductor trying to protect the passengers. The claustrophobic train setting adds to the suspense, with no way for the victims to escape the killer’s clutches. Terror Train chugs along on its simple but effective premise, delivering creative kills and an intense climax atop the moving train.
20. Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Happy Birthday to Me centers around a clique of popular high school students called the “Top Ten” who start dying in bizarre ways, like being shish-kebabed on a kabob skewer. New girl Ginny seems to be at the center of the mystery, but she suffers from blackouts and memory loss, making her an unreliable protagonist.
The kill scenes are the highlight here, with the shish kebab death and a weight-lifting impalement ranking among the most creative slasher kills of the ’80s. The movie keeps you guessing with its many red herrings and plot twists, leading to a delightfully bonkers climax with a reveal that needs to be seen to be believed. Happy Birthday to Me doesn’t always play fair with the audience, but its audacious ending makes it a memorable entry in the early ’80s slasher boom.
19. Madman (1982)
Madman is a campfire tale come to life, with a group of campers being stalked by the mythical “Madman Marz,” a deranged farmer who murdered his family. The counselors try to survive the night in the woods as Marz hunts them down with his axe.
Madman hits a lot of the expected slasher beats, but it has an effectively creepy atmosphere, with the upstate New York woods serving as a memorably eerie backdrop. Madman Marz, with his wild beard and denim overalls, cuts an imposing figure as he lurks in the trees. The movie also gives its Final Girl a little more agency than many slashers, as she turns the tables on Marz for a tense showdown. Madman may be a lesser-known slasher, but it’s a solid entry for fans of backwoods horror.
18. The Mutilator (1985)
The Mutilator, also known as Fall Break, follows a group of college students who stay at a beach condo over fall break, only to be picked off by a mysterious killer. It’s eventually revealed to be the father of one of the kids, seeking revenge for his wife’s accidental death years earlier.
The Mutilator was a late entry in the ’80s slasher boom and it feels like a collection of the subgenre’s greatest hits – the tragic backstory, the horny teens, the creative kill scenes. But it executes the formula quite well, with a menacing villain and some truly grisly, over-the-top deaths. The movie has a sleazy, low-budget charm and delivers plenty of gore for fans of the red stuff. It’s not the most original slasher, but it’s an entertaining one.
17. Pieces (1982)
Pieces is a Spanish-American slasher about a Boston college campus being terrorized by a chainsaw-wielding maniac. The killer is assembling a human jigsaw puzzle made of body parts. But who is the mysterious figure behind the grisly murders?
Pieces is a completely bonkers movie, full of absurd plot developments, terrible acting, and extreme gore. But that’s all part of its charm. The kill scenes are the main attraction, with gallons of blood being sprayed across the screen and body parts flying. The movie has a campy, over-the-top tone that makes it darkly funny, especially the infamous “bad chop” scene. Pieces is a trashy good time for fans who like their slashers extra sleazy and nonsensical.
16. Curtains (1983)
Curtains is a unique slasher set in the world of acting and filmmaking. A group of actresses travel to a remote house to audition for a role in a movie. But someone starts killing them off and the culprit seems to be a mysterious figure wearing a creepy hag mask.
Curtains has a surreal, dreamlike quality, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. The snowy, isolated setting adds to the eerie atmosphere. The hag mask killer is a very creepy visual, used to great effect in a memorable ice skating scene. The movie also offers some commentary on the cutthroat nature of show business and the way aging actresses are treated. Curtains is a quirky, offbeat slasher that tries some interesting things with the formula.
15. Just Before Dawn (1981)
Just Before Dawn follows a group of campers in the Oregon mountains who are stalked by a hulking, backwoods killer. The young people try to survive in the dense forest as the maniac hunts them down.
Just Before Dawn makes great use of its lush wilderness setting, creating a real sense of isolation and vulnerability. The cinematography captures the beauty and menace of the dense trees. The killer is an imposing, almost supernatural presence, seeming to be everywhere at once. Director Jeff Lieberman generates suspense from the cat-and-mouse gameplay and stages some intense stalking scenes in the woods. Just Before Dawn is a well-crafted, slow burn slasher that should appeal to fans of survival horror.
14. The Prowler (1981)
The Prowler, also known as Rosemary’s Killer, is set in a small New Jersey town that becomes the hunting ground for a crazed WWII veteran in army fatigues. The killer targets teenagers, brutally dispatching them with a pitchfork and other weapons. Can anyone stop his bloody rampage?
The Prowler was one of the more graphically violent slashers of the early ’80s, thanks to the visceral special effects of Tom Savini. The killer’s pitchfork is put to extremely grisly use in several wince-inducing scenes. The movie also has an effectively moody atmosphere, making great use of the nighttime small town setting. The killer’s motive is a bit thinly sketched, but he’s a physically imposing and intimidating presence. The Prowler doesn’t break much new ground, but it delivers the gory goods for fans of hard-R slashers.
13. Hell Night (1981)
Hell Night stars Linda Blair of The Exorcist fame as one of four college pledges forced to spend the night in a supposedly haunted mansion as part of a Greek hazing ritual. But the mansion’s dark history proves to be all too real as a deformed killer starts picking them off.
The atmospheric old house makes for a spooky setting and the young cast, including Blair and Vincent Van Patten, is likable. There are some tense stalk-and-slash sequences as the killer pursues his prey through the mansion’s dark hallways and hidden passages. While it may not break much new ground, Hell Night is a solid entry in the college-themed slasher subgenre.
12. Intruder (1989)
Intruder is a late ’80s slasher set in a grocery store after hours. The night crew is preparing to shut down the store permanently when they start getting picked off by a mysterious killer. Could it be connected to the recent firing of a disgruntled employee?
Intruder was directed by Scott Spiegel, a frequent collaborator of Sam Raimi, and it features a lot of the same manic energy and gory slapstick as the Evil Dead films. The grocery store setting is used creatively, with the killer dispatching victims in the meat locker, the trash compactor, and with all manner of produce. The splatter effects by KNB EFX Group are top-notch. Intruder is a fast-paced, darkly funny slasher that delivers inventive kills and buckets of blood. A must-see for gorehounds.
11. The Stepfather (1987)
The Stepfather is a bit of an outlier on this list, as it’s more of a psychological thriller than a straight-up slasher. But it features an iconic, knife-wielding killer in the title role, played brilliantly by Terry O’Quinn. O’Quinn stars as a serial killer who marries widows with children, only to murder them when they inevitably fail to live up to his perfect family fantasies. He then changes his identity and moves on to a new family, repeating the cycle.
The movie is a chilling portrait of a psychopath hiding in plain sight, with O’Quinn delivering a truly unnerving performance. You watch with growing dread as his new stepdaughter begins to suspect that something is off about him. The Stepfather is light on graphic violence compared to most slashers, but it’s heavy on white-knuckle suspense. It showed that slashers could still deliver scares without being excessively gory.
10. Alone in the Dark (1982)
Alone in the Dark is a unique entry in the slasher canon, focusing on a group of escaped mental patients rather than a single killer. The patients are led by a paranoid former POW with a hatred of power company workers. When a blackout hits the city, they break into the home of the psychiatrist who treated them, terrorizing his family.
The movie features an impressive cast of veteran character actors as the patients, including Jack Palance, Martin Landau, and Donald Pleasence. They bring a lot of personality to their roles, making the villains feel like more than just generic psychos. Director Jack Sholder creates a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere inside the house and stages some suspenseful cat-and-mouse scenes between the family and the intruders. Alone in the Dark is an offbeat home invasion thriller with a slasher sensibility.
9. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Silent Night, Deadly Night caused quite a bit of controversy upon its release due to its killer Santa Claus premise. The story follows a young man named Billy who suffers a psychotic break and goes on a murderous rampage dressed as Santa after witnessing his parents’ murder on Christmas Eve.
Despite the gimmicky setup, the movie is actually a fairly effective psychological slasher. It delves into Billy’s tragic backstory and his descent into madness. The Christmas setting adds an extra layer of perversity to the proceedings. Silent Night, Deadly Night is best known for the infamous scene of the killer Santa going down a chimney, axe in hand, but it’s a solid slasher in its own right.
8. April Fool’s Day (1986)
April Fool’s Day is a slasher with a comedic twist. A group of college friends are invited to spend spring break at their rich classmate’s island mansion. But what starts as a weekend of pranks and partying turns deadly as the friends are killed off one by one. Is it all just an elaborate April Fool’s joke or is something more sinister afoot?
The movie has fun playing with the conventions of the genre, featuring a number of clever fake-out scares and misdirects. The talented cast includes Griffin O’Neal, Deborah Foreman, and Amy Steel of Friday the 13th Part 2 fame. April Fool’s Day keeps you guessing until the very end and features one of the more unique resolutions for a slasher film.
7. Slaughter High (1986)
Slaughter High is a British slasher about a group of former high school classmates who are invited back to their now-abandoned school for a reunion. But someone has a bloody axe to grind and starts picking them off in revenge for a cruel prank they played years earlier.
The movie hits a lot of the expected slasher beats – the tragic backstory, the creative kill scenes, the Final Girl showdown. But it has a bit of a meaner streak than many of its American counterparts. The characters are mostly unlikable, which makes their grisly deaths all the more satisfying. Slaughter High also has a darkly comedic tone, reveling in the absurdity of its premise. It’s a nasty little slasher that delivers the gory goods.
6. Stage Fright (1987)
Stage Fright, also known as Deliria, is an Italian slasher set in a theater where a group of actors are rehearsing a musical about a mass murderer. Life starts to imitate art as a masked killer begins butchering the cast and crew. Could it be connected to an actress who was murdered in the theater years earlier?
Stage Fright was directed by Dario Argento protege Michele Soavi and it shows in the stylish cinematography and elaborate kill scenes. The movie makes great use of its theater setting, from the backstage catacombs to the prop room full of weapons. The owl-headed killer is a memorable visual and there are some impressively staged murder set-pieces. Stage Fright is a classy, operatic slasher with an artistic edge.
5. Maniac Cop (1988)
Maniac Cop is an urban slasher about a murderous police officer stalking the streets of New York City. Is he a vengeful ghost or a deranged member of the force? A determined cop and a plucky female officer attempt to solve the mystery as the body count rises.
Directed by William Lustig of Maniac fame and written by Larry Cohen, Maniac Cop is a gritty, sleazy thriller with a unique villain. The idea of a killer hiding behind a badge is inherently frightening. The movie delivers some solid action beats alongside the slasher elements, including a thrilling finale set atop the Statue of Liberty. Maniac Cop spawned two sequels and remains a cult favorite.
4. Cheerleader Camp (1988)
Cheerleader Camp, also known as Bloody Pom Poms, is a late ’80s slasher set at a remote cheerleading camp. A killer in a jester mask starts murdering the campers in a variety of nasty ways. Is it the work of an escaped mental patient or one of the campers themselves?
Cheerleader Camp doesn’t deviate much from the standard slasher formula, but it executes it with tongue firmly in cheek. The characters are genre archetypes – the good girl, the mean girl, the horny guys – but they’re played with knowing winks by the game cast. The deaths are also amusingly over-the-top, like the infamous “face in the pizza” scene. Cheerleader Camp is a silly, self-aware slasher that never takes itself too seriously.
3. Black Christmas (1974)
Released the same year as Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Bob Clark’s Black Christmas helped lay the groundwork for the slasher genre that would explode later that decade. The film is set in a sorority house over the Christmas break, where an unknown killer starts preying on the coeds one by one. The killer taunts them with increasingly disturbing phone calls before brutally murdering them.
Black Christmas establishes a lot of the tropes that would become slasher staples – the faceless killer, the point-of-view shots, the “final girl”, the police who are powerless to stop the murders. It wrings a lot of suspense out of the simple premise of young women being alone in a big creepy house with a killer on the loose. The cast of likable, progressive female characters makes you genuinely fear for their safety. The phone calls from the deranged killer, with his unhinged rantings and rapid shifts in personality, are bone-chilling. And the fact that we never learn the killer’s identity makes him a terrifying enigma. Black Christmas may have been ahead of its time, but it remains one of the most influential and important slasher movies ever made.
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced a new kind of slasher villain in Freddy Krueger, a supernatural child killer who stalks and murders teens in their dreams. If Freddy kills you in your nightmare, you die for real. This allows for a lot more surreal, imaginative death scenes than what we typically see in slashers.
Freddy Krueger, with his iconic burnt face, striped sweater, and razor-fingered glove, immediately became a horror icon. He was a wisecracking, darkly funny villain who clearly enjoyed toying with his victims. The movie has an unsettling, hallucinatory feel as it blurs the line between dreams and reality. You never know if what you’re seeing is really happening or all in the characters’ heads. The sleep deprivation angle is especially effective – after all, everyone needs to sleep sometime, so there’s no escape from Freddy. Elm Street spawned a hugely successful franchise and countless imitators, but none could top the original’s creativity and scares.
1. Halloween (1978)
Was there ever any doubt? John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween is the granddaddy of the slasher subgenre, establishing the template that countless films would follow. The premise is simple but terrifying – a masked killer named Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital on Halloween night and returns to his hometown to stalk and kill babysitters.
Halloween is a masterclass in suspense, using long takes, deliberate pacing, and unsettling atmosphere to create a sense of dread that steadily builds throughout. Carpenter makes brilliant use of widescreen framing and negative space, crafting many iconic and terrifying images. The movie spawned the career of scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and gave us an all-time great horror villain in Michael Myers, aka The Shape, with his blank white mask and single-minded determination. Carpenter’s eerie synth score is one of the most recognizable themes in horror history.
So there you have it, the 30 best classic slasher movies every horror fan needs to see. These films laid the foundation for the genre and are must-watches for anyone who loves a good scare. Whether you prefer more straightforward, meat-and-potatoes slashers or more outside-the-box takes on the formula, there’s something here for every kind of horror fan. Just make sure you watch with the lights on – these movies prove that you never know who or what could be lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike.
