Jason,” “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare,” and even “Jason X.” It needs a mix of original franchises that give us new killers to root against - thanks, Ti West! - and creative new takes on the series we know and love. To really return the form, the slasher genre needs a healthy dose of the wacky originality that fueled movies like “Freddy vs. At a certain point, even the good ones start to wear thin. But it’s also clear that nostalgia-fueled reboots only get you so far. With more content than ever - and it’s not slowing down - the conditions are perfect for a quantity-based genre like the slasher movie to enjoy another renaissance. (The reboot trilogy has grossed nearly $310 million worldwide, even despite the last two films opening day-and-date on Peacock.) But for the slasher movie to survive another 40 years, it has to evolve. That wild creativity has since given way to a stream of drudgery in the form of generic, CGI-laden remakes and horrendous attempts at meta-humor.ĭavid Gordon Green’s “Halloween” reboot trilogy likely saw the most artistry that anyone has injected into one of these franchises this century, and its success could be read as proof that there’s a market for more creativity in this niche. The people funding them might have been just as cynical as they are now, but at least you could go to the multiplex every October knowing that Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees was going to do something you had never seen them do. It’s not like these movies were ever high art, but there was a time when they provided a consistent stream of grindhouse creativity. When I Was Attacked, Wes Craven Movies Saved My Life

Sex in the Title by Zack Love