A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as monster movies , splatter films , supernatural and psychological horror films.
158-413: Scary Movie is a 2000 American slasher parody film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans (who both also star), alongside Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer . Starring Jon Abrahams , Carmen Electra , Shannon Elizabeth , Anna Faris , Kurt Fuller , Regina Hall , Lochlyn Munro , Cheri Oteri , and Dave Sheridan , it follows
316-617: A guillotine -like device known as a Fallbeil ("falling axe") since the 17th and 18th centuries, and decapitation by guillotine was the usual means of execution in Germany until the abolition of the death penalty in West Germany in 1949. It was last used in communist East Germany in 1966. In Nazi Germany , the Fallbeil was reserved for common criminals and people convicted of political crimes , including treason . Members of
474-582: A sword , and commoners with an axe . The last executions by decapitation in Finland in 1825, Norway in 1876, Faroe Islands in 1609, and in Iceland in 1830 were carried out with axes. The same was the case in Denmark in 1892. Sweden continued the practice for a few decades, executing its second to last criminal—mass murderer Johan Filip Nordlund —by axe in 1900. It was replaced by the guillotine, which
632-480: A $ 19 million budget. It was the ninth-highest-grossing film of the year domestically in the United States. The film is the first installment in the Scary Movie film series , as well as being the highest-grossing film in the series. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with the film's humor dividing critics. Although it has received more favourable reviews from audiences and has become
790-521: A 2006 documentary, the movie "became the flashpoint, igniting protests across the nation". Protesters picketed theaters playing the film with placards reading, "Deck the hall with holly – not bodies!" Released in November 1984 by TriStar Pictures , persistent carol -singers forced one Bronx cinema to pull Silent Night, Deadly Night a week into its run. The widespread outrage led to the film's removal, with only 741,500 tickets sold. As interest in
948-623: A UN report from Congolese refugees, they believed the Bana Mura and Kamuina Nsapu militias have "magical powers" as a result of drinking the blood of decapitated victims, making them invincible. Besides the massive decapitations (like the beheading of 40 members of the State Police), a globally notorious case happened in March 2017 to Swedish politician Zaida Catalán and American UN expert Michael Sharp, who were kidnapped and executed during
1106-538: A brief period. Jamie Lee Curtis , daughter of Janet Leigh , was cast as the heroine Laurie Strode while veteran actor Donald Pleasence was cast as Dr. Sam Loomis , an homage to John Gavin 's character in Psycho . Halloween 's opening tracks a six-year-old's point-of-view as he kills his older sister, a scene emulated in numerous films such as Blow Out (1981) and The Funhouse (1981). Carpenter and Hill deny writing sexually active teens to be victims in favor of
1264-496: A budget of just $ 1.8 million, the film was a commercial success, grossing more than $ 25.5 million (7.6 million admissions) in North America and launched one of the most successful film series in history. A Nightmare on Elm Street provided the success that New Line Cinema needed to become a major Hollywood company. To this day, New Line is referred to as "The House That Freddy Built". The final slasher film released during
1422-489: A cult classic. It later spawned four sequels, starting with 2001's Scary Movie 2 . On Halloween night, Drew Decker receives a threatening phone call while home alone. Chased outside by somebody dressed as Ghostface , she is stripped to her bra and panties before being stabbed in the breast, removing one of her silicone implants . Her father, who is distracted by receiving fellatio , accidentally hits her with his vehicle, and she looks at her murderer just before she
1580-510: A device used in subsequent films Prom Night (1980) and Graduation Day (1981). Early examples include a maniac seeking revenge in The Terror (1928), based on the play by Edgar Wallace . B-movie mogul Val Lewton produced The Leopard Man (1943), about a murderer framing his crimes against women on an escaped show leopard . Basil Rathbone 's The Scarlet Claw (1944) sees Sherlock Holmes investigate murders committed with
1738-415: A family death but are murdered one by one. William Castle 's Homicidal (1961) features gore in its murder scenes, something both Psycho and Peeping Tom had edited out. Richard Hillard's Violent Midnight (1963) showed a black-gloved killer's point of view as they pull down a branch to watch a victim and also featured a skinny-dipping scene. Crown International 's Terrified (1963) features
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#17327731362601896-414: A few years earlier, had been very profitable. Many 1984 slasher films with brief theatrical runs found varying degrees of success on home video, such as Splatter University , Satan's Blade , Blood Theatre , Rocktober Blood and Fatal Games . Movies like The Prey and Evil Judgement were filmed years prior and finally were given small theatrical releases. Silent Madness used 3D to ride
2054-410: A final episode. The killer abruptly arrives and stabs Ray and fights Cindy until she kicks him out a window, employing moves from The Matrix . However, the killer vanishes before the police arrive, to Cindy's dismay. At the police station, Cindy and the sheriff discover that David Keegan, the man the teens killed the previous year was not the killer who came back for revenge but was actually Doofy who
2212-600: A firing squad was used (including that of Jean Bastien-Thiry ), the guillotine was the only legal method of execution from 1791, when it was introduced by the Legislative Assembly during the last days of the kingdom French Revolution , until 1981. Before the revolution, beheading had typically been reserved for noblemen and carried out manually. In 1981, President François Mitterrand abolished capital punishment and issued commutations for those whose sentences had not been carried out. The first person executed by
2370-583: A five-pronged garden weeder that the killer would raise in the air and bring down on the victim repeatedly, an editing technique that became familiar in the genre. Robert Siodmak 's The Spiral Staircase (1946), based on Ethel White 's novel Some Must Watch , stars Ethel Barrymore as a sympathetic woman trying to survive black-gloved killers. The Spiral Staircase also features an early use of jump scares . British writer Agatha Christie 's particularly influential 1939 novel Ten Little Indians (adapted in 1945 as And Then There Were None ), centers on
2528-598: A group of people with secret pasts who are killed one-by-one on an isolated island. Each of the murders mirrors a verse from a nursery rhyme , merging the themes of childhood innocence and vengeful murder. House of Wax (1953), The Bad Seed (1956), Screaming Mimi (1958), Jack the Ripper (1959), and Cover Girl Killer (1959) all incorporated Christie's literary themes. Alfred Hitchcock 's Psycho (1960) used visuals that had been deemed unacceptable by movie studios, including scenes of violence, sexuality, and
2686-412: A group of teenagers who accidentally hit a man with their car, dump his body in a lake, and swear to secrecy. A year later, someone wearing a Ghostface mask and robe begins hunting them one by one. The film is a parody of multiple genres including the horror, slasher, and mystery film genres. Several 1990s films and TV shows are also spoofed, and the script primarily follows
2844-505: A healthy 6.2 million. Both series fell out rather quickly, when Child's Play 3 (1991) selling only 3.5 million tickets in North America and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) selling only 3.2 million. Decapitation Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through
3002-664: A home on VHS. Paul Lynch 's Humongous was released through AVCO Embassy Pictures , but a change in management severely limited the film's theatrical release. Films such as Hospital Massacre and Night Warning enjoyed strong home rentals from video stores, though Dark Sanity , The Forest , Unhinged , Trick or Treats , and Island of Blood fell into obscurity with little theatrical releases and only sub-par video transfers. Supernatural slasher films continued to build in popularity with The Slayer , The Incubus , Blood Song , Don't Go to Sleep and Superstition (the supernatural-themed Halloween III: Season of
3160-417: A house party, hoping for safety in numbers. One of her friends, Tina, is killed while getting beer from the garage. During the party, Cindy and Bobby go upstairs and have sex. The killer gets stoned with Shorty and his friends in the basement, but accidentally kills all but Shorty. After the pair has sex, the killer stabs Bobby and disappears. Cindy gets a gun from a drawer and Bobby follows. Shorty comes up from
3318-463: A limited time even after connection to the brain is lost, responding to any nearby stimulus. In addition, the bodies of chickens and turtles may continue to move temporarily after decapitation. Although head transplantation by the reattachment of blood vessels has seen some very limited success in animals, a fully functional reattachment of a severed human head (including repair of the spinal cord , muscles, and other critically important tissues)
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#17327731362603476-861: A masked killer. Spain's The House That Screamed (1969) features violent murders and preempted later campus-based slashers. Subgenres that influenced slasher films include splatter films , Krimi films, and giallo films. Splatter films focus on gratuitous gore. Herschell Gordon Lewis 's Blood Feast (1963) was a hit at drive-in theaters and is often considered the first splatter film. Lewis followed with gory films Two-Thousand Maniacs! (1964), Color Me Blood Red (1965), The Gruesome Twosome (1967) and The Wizard of Gore (1970). This grotesque style translated to Andy Milligan 's The Ghastly Ones (1969), Twisted Nerve (1968), Night After Night After Night (1969) as well as The Haunted House of Horror (1969). Post-World War II Germany adapted British writer Edgar Wallace 's crime novels into
3634-627: A mission near the village of Ngombe in Kasaï Province . The UN was reportedly horrified when video footage of the executions surfaced in April that same year, where some grisly details led to assume ritual components of the beheading: the perpetrators first cut the hair of both victims, and then one of them beheaded Catalán only, because it would "increase his power", which may be linked to the fact that Congolese militias are particularly brutal in their acts of violence toward women and children. In
3792-588: A more honorable instrument of death. Those who could verify that they were Roman citizens were to be beheaded, rather than undergoing crucifixion . In the Roman Republic of the early 1st century BC, it became the tradition for the severed heads of public enemies—such as the political opponents of Marius and Sulla —to be publicly displayed on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum after execution. Perhaps
3950-475: A movie on home video, resulting in shot-on-video slashers Blood Cult (1985), The Ripper (1985), Spine (1986), Truth or Dare? (1986), Killer Workout (1987), and Death Spa (1989). Lesser-known horror properties Sleepaway Camp , The Slumber Party Massacre and Silent Night, Deadly Night became series on home video. The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985) and Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) were theatrically released but neither film
4108-402: A much healthier life on home video. The Dorm That Dripped Blood and Honeymoon Horror , each made for between $ 50–90,000, became successful in the early days of VHS . Because of this change, independent productions began having difficulties finding theatrical distribution. Girls Nite Out had a very limited release in 1982 but was re-released in 1983 in more theaters until finally finding
4266-462: A new bar for acceptable levels of on-screen violence. The criticisms that began with Friday the 13th would lead to the genre's eventual decline in subsequent years. The small-budget thrillers Silent Scream and Prom Night were box office hits with 3.2 and 5.5 million admissions, respectively. Jamie Lee Curtis starred in the independent Prom Night , as well studio films Terror Train and The Fog to earn her "scream queen" title. MGM 's
4424-467: A nursing academy. Hands of the Ripper (1971) depicts the psychological trauma suffered by Jack the Ripper 's daughter, who continues the murderous reign of her father. Fright (1971) is based on the " babysitter and the man upstairs " urban legend while Tower of Evil (1972) features careless partying teens murdered in a remote island lighthouse. Pete Walker broke taboos by advertising his films' negative reviews to attract viewers looking for
4582-521: A period of 10 seconds that have been linked to nociception across a number of different species of animals, including rats. Some animals (such as cockroaches ) can survive decapitation and die not because of the loss of the head directly, but rather because of starvation . A number of other animals, including snakes , and turtles , have also been known to survive for some time after being decapitated, as they have slower metabolisms and their nervous systems can continue to function at some capacity for
4740-482: A rapid fall of intracranial perfusion of blood"). A laboratory study testing for humane methods of euthanasia in awake animals used EEG monitoring to measure the time duration following decapitation for rats to become fully unconscious, unable to perceive distress and pain. It was estimated that this point was reached within 3–4 seconds, correlating closely with results found in other studies on rodents (2.7 seconds, and 3–6 seconds). The same study also suggested that
4898-445: A recurring theme in later horror films. Along with the "madman on the loose" plotline, these films employed several influences upon the slasher genre, such as lengthy point of view shots and a "sins of the father" catalyst to propel the plot's mayhem. George Archainbaud 's Thirteen Women (1932) tells the story of a sorority whose former members are set against one another by a vengeful peer who crosses out their yearbook photos,
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5056-497: A saturation point in 1981, as heavily promoted movies like My Bloody Valentine and The Burning were box office failures. After the success of Friday the 13th , Paramount Pictures picked up My Bloody Valentine with hopes to achieve similar success. The film became the subject of intense scrutiny in the wake of John Lennon's murder , and was released heavily edited; lacking the draw of gore, My Bloody Valentine barely sold 2 million tickets in North America, much less than
5214-921: A series. Three other spoofs , Evil Laugh (1986), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), were box office disappointments; Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 sold just 2 million tickets while Jason Lives sold 5.2 million, both significantly down from their predecessors. The home video market saw the output of low-budget, tongue-in-cheek slashers like Stripped to Kill (1987), Return to Horror High (1987), and Killer Workout (1987), and previous franchises foregoing theaters for direct-to-video self-parody sequels in Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987), Slumber Party Massacre II (1987), Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989). Trying to cater
5372-559: A similar route with a cameo in Maniac Cop 2 (1990) and no participation in Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence (1993). The Nightmare on Elm Street series dominated the late 1980s horror wave, with A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) selling 11.5 million tickets in North America, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) following another 12 million tickets. By comparison, Friday
5530-587: A specific formula: a past wrongful action causes severe trauma that is reinforced by a commemoration or anniversary that reactivates or re-inspires the killer. Built around stalk-and-murder sequences, the films draw upon the audience's feelings of catharsis , recreation , and displacement , as related to sexual pleasure. Paste magazine 's definition notes that, "slasher villains are human beings, or were human beings at some point ... Slasher villains are human killers whose actions are objectively evil, because they’re meant to be bound by human morality. That’s part of
5688-919: A subgenre of their own called Krimi films. The Krimi films were released in the late 1950s through the early 1970s and featured villains in bold costumes accompanied by jazz scores from composers such as Martin Böttcher and Peter Thomas . Fellowship of the Frog (1959), about a murderer terrorizing London, was successful in America, leading to similar adaptations like The Green Archer (1961) and Dead Eyes of London (1961). The Rialto Studio produced 32 Krimi films between 1959 and 1970. Italy's giallo thrillers are crime procedurals or murder mysteries interlaced with eroticism and psychological horror. Giallo films feature unidentified killers murdering in grand fashions. Unlike most American slasher films
5846-698: A surprising 3.9 million admissions, making a hit erotic slasher-thriller that predates blockbusters Fatal Attraction (1987) and Basic Instinct (1992) by several years. Internationally, Australia released Next of Kin while Puerto Rico's Pieces was filmed in Boston and Madrid by an Italian-American producer with a Spanish director. Italian gialli saw slasher film influences in their releases for Sergio Martino 's The Scorpion with Two Tails , Lucio Fulci 's The New York Ripper and Dario Argento 's Tenebrae . Traditional slasher films saw less frequent output. The House on Sorority Row followed
6004-452: A violent exploitation film, with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert famously despising the film. Siskel, in his Chicago Tribune review, revealed the identity and fate of the film's killer in an attempt to hurt its box office, and provided the address of the chairman of Paramount Pictures for viewers to complain. The MPAA was criticized for allowing Friday the 13th an R rating, but its violence would inspire gorier films to follow, as it set
6162-532: A virginal " final girl " survivor, though subsequent filmmakers copied what appeared to be a "sex-equals-death" mantra. When shown an early cut of Halloween without a musical score, all major American studios declined to distribute it, one executive even remarking that it was not scary. Carpenter added music himself, and the film was distributed locally in four Kansas City theaters through Akkad's Compass International Pictures in October 1978. Word-of-mouth made
6320-416: A wave of "dream" slashers that included Dreamaniac (1986), Bad Dreams (1988), Deadly Dreams (1988), and Dream Demon (1988). Of those films, Bad Dreams was a minor hit with 2.4 million admissions. Paramount Pictures released the parody April Fool's Day (1986) with hopes to start a sister series to its Friday the 13th property, though the film's modest 3.5 million admissions never led to
6478-609: A wave of protest from the National Organization for Women (NOW), who picketed the film's screening on the University of Iowa campus. The year's most controversial slasher was William Lustig 's Maniac , about a schizophrenic serial killer in New York. Maniac was maligned by critics. Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that watching the film was like "watching someone else throw up." Lustig released
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6636-413: A wonder it landed an R rating instead of an NC-17." Other reviewers, such as A.O. Scott of The New York Times , argued that the jokes were "annoying less for their vulgarity than for their tiredness." Scott remarked "Couch-bound pot smokers, prison sex, mannish female gym teachers, those Whassssup Budweiser commercials—hasn't it all been done to death?" Peter Howell of The Toronto Star wrote that
6794-496: A worldwide gross of $ 278 million. Scary Movie received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 117 reviews, with an average score of 5.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Critics say Scary Movie overloads on crudity and grossness to get its laughs." On Metacritic , the film received a score of 48 based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave
6952-427: Is a whodunit featuring a subplot depicting creative death sequences on a secluded lakeside setting, which greatly inspired Friday the 13th (1980), its 1981 sequel and subsequent slashers. Sergio Martino 's Torso (1973) featured a masked killer preying upon beautiful and promiscuous young women in retribution for a past misdeed. Torso 's edge-of-your-seat climax finds a sensible "final girl" facing off with
7110-556: Is discussed in film studies as being a young woman (occasionally a young man) left alone to face the killer's advances in the movie's end. Laurie Strode ( Jamie Lee Curtis ), the heroine in Halloween , is an example of a typical final girl. Final girls are often, like Laurie Strode, virgins among sexually active teens. Others have called the trope "self-mythologising" based on a handful of especially high-profile examples, asserting that its prominence has been overstated – particularly
7268-513: Is envisioned and embedded into the public psyche as the main and most marketable/recognisable character, even if his screentime is dwarfed in any specific film by the nominal protagonists. The Scream film series is a rarity that follows its heroine Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ) rather than masked killer Ghostface , whose identity changes from film to film, and is only revealed in each entry's finale. Another alleged trope frequently associated with slasher discourse - and horror more broadly -
7426-455: Is estimated that some 16,500 persons were guillotined in Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945, a number that includes resistance fighters both within Germany itself and in countries occupied by Nazi forces . As these resistance fighters were not part of any regular army , they were considered common criminals and were in many cases transported to Germany for execution. Decapitation
7584-434: Is fatally stabbed. Cindy Campbell meets up with her boyfriend Bobby Prinze and her friends, Brenda Meeks, Ray Wilkins, Greg Phillippe, Buffy Gilmore, and Brenda's stoner brother Shorty. News teams, including hack reporter Gail Hailstorm, converge on the school because of Drew's murder. Gail seduces Buffy's intellectually disabled brother, Special Officer Doofy, to elicit information from him. While in class, Cindy notices
7742-660: Is not likely. Early versions of the guillotine included the Halifax Gibbet , which was used in Halifax , England, from 1286 until the 17th century, and the " Maiden ", employed in Edinburgh from the 16th through the 18th centuries. The modern form of the guillotine was invented shortly before the French Revolution with the aim of creating a quick and painless method of execution requiring little skill on
7900-472: Is sometimes called a headsman. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, a car or industrial accident, improperly administered execution by hanging or other violent injury. The national laws of Saudi Arabia and Yemen permit beheading. Under Sharia , which exclusively applies to Muslims, beheading is also a legal punishment in Zamfara State , Nigeria . In practice, Saudi Arabia
8058-674: Is that of the "black character(s) dying first" (often formulated as " always dying first"). Actual analyses of the films, such as a 2013 investigative piece in Complex , have found that the trope is largely self-mythologising as opposed to being a statistical reality (per Complex, in only 10% of the fifty analysed movies, all containing one or more speaking black characters, did any of them die first). The appeal of watching people inflict violence upon each other dates back thousands of years to Ancient Rome , though fictionalized accounts became marketable with late 19th century horror plays produced at
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#17327731362608216-449: Is the only country that continues to behead its offenders regularly as a punishment for capital crimes. Cases of decapitation by suicidal hanging, suicide by train decapitation and by guillotine are known. Less commonly, decapitation can also refer to the removal of the head from a body that is already dead. This might be done to take the head as a trophy , as a secondary stage of an execution by hanging, for public display , to make
8374-429: Is visually and thematically a precursor to John Carpenter 's Halloween (1978), as young women are terrorized in a previously safe environment during an iconic holiday. Like Halloween , Clark's film opens with a lengthy point-of-view , but it differs in the treatment of the killer's identity. Despite making $ 4,053,000 on a $ 620,000 budget, Black Christmas was initially criticized, with Variety complaining that it
8532-621: The 1937 British film ) and Peter Cushing starred in Corruption (1968). Hammer Studios , a London-based company, followed Psycho 's success with Taste of Fear (1961), Maniac (1963), Paranoiac (1963), Nightmare (1964), Fanatic (1965), The Nanny (1965), and Hysteria (1965). Hammer's rival Amicus had Robert Bloch , author of 1959 Psycho novel , write the script for Psychopath (1968). Francis Ford Coppola 's debut, Dementia 13 (1963), takes place in an Irish castle where relatives gather to commemorate
8690-555: The AIDS crisis , the film's portrayal of the gay community fueled subsequent backlash once the virus became an epidemic. Low budget exploitative films New Year's Evil , Don't Go in the House and Don't Answer the Phone! were called-out for misogyny that dwelled on the suffering of females exclusively. Acclaimed filmmaker Brian De Palma 's Psycho -homage Dressed to Kill drew
8848-485: The Anglo-Afghan Wars would behead enemy soldiers who were captured, such as British and Sikh soldiers. In Japan , decapitation was a common punishment, sometimes for minor offences. Samurai were often allowed to decapitate soldiers who had fled from battle, as it was considered cowardly. Decapitation was historically performed as the second step in seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment ). After
9006-509: The Bosnian Army . At least one case is documented and proven in court by the ICTY where mujahedin, members of 3rd Corps of Army BiH, beheaded Bosnian Serb Dragan Popović. In British history , beheading was typically used for noblemen, while commoners would be hanged; eventually, hanging was adopted as the standard means of non-military executions. The last actual execution by beheading
9164-681: The Grand Guignol . Maurice Tourneur 's The Lunatics (1912) used visceral violence to attract the Guignol's audience. In the United States, public outcry over films like this eventually led to the passage of the Hays Code in 1930. The Hays Code is one of the entertainment industry's earliest set of guidelines restricting sexuality and violence deemed unacceptable. Crime writer Mary Roberts Rinehart influenced horror literature with her novel The Circular Staircase (1908), adapted into
9322-432: The Halloween -clone He Knows You're Alone sold nearly 2 million tickets, though Paramount Pictures John Huston -directed Phobia only sold an estimated 22,000 tickets. Two high-profile slasher-thrillers were met with protest, William Friedkin 's Cruising and Gordon Willis ' Windows , both of which equate homosexuality with psychosis . Cruising drew protests from gay rights groups, and though it pre-dates
9480-598: The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War . In traditional China , decapitation was considered a more severe form of punishment than strangulation , although strangulation caused more prolonged suffering. This was because in Confucian tradition, a person's body was a gift from their parents, and so it was therefore disrespectful to their ancestors to return their bodies to the grave dismembered. The Chinese, however, had other punishments, such as dismembering
9638-661: The Son of Sam slayings, cashed-in on headlines and public fascination. Wes Craven modernized the Sawney Bean legend in The Hills Have Eyes (1977) by building upon themes presented in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . The Hills Have Eyes was another huge financial success, relaunching Craven's career after it had been damaged by controversy surrounding his previous film, The Last House on
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#17327731362609796-721: The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973 . One of the most notable executions by decapitation in Britain was that of King Charles I of England , who was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall in 1649, after being captured by parliamentarians during the English Civil War and tried for treason . In England, a bearded axe was used for beheading, with the blade's edge extending downwards from
9954-544: The White Rose resistance movement, a group of students in Munich that included siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl , were executed by decapitation. Contrary to popular myth, executions were generally not conducted face-up, and chief executioner Johann Reichhart was insistent on maintaining "professional" protocol throughout the era, having administered the death penalty during the earlier Weimar Republic . Nonetheless, it
10112-573: The counter-culture and traditional conservative values, with the film's squealing antagonist Leatherface carrying a chainsaw and wearing the faces of victims he and his family eat. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre spawned imitators and its false "based on a true story" advertisements gave way to reenactments of true crime . The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), based on the Phantom Killer case, and Another Son of Sam (1977), based on
10270-570: The drive-in success of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Toolbox Murders was quickly and cheaply shot but did not generate the interest of the former films. Exploitative Killer's Delight is a San Francisco-set serial killer story claiming to take inspiration from Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer . Leading up to Halloween 's October release were August's gialli -inspired Eyes of Laura Mars (written by John Carpenter) and September's " babysitter in peril " TV Movie Are You in
10428-444: The jugular vein and common carotid artery , while all other organs are deprived of the involuntary functions that are needed for the body to function. The term beheading refers to the act of deliberately decapitating a person, either as a means of murder or as an execution ; it may be performed with an axe , sword , or knife , or by mechanical means such as a guillotine . An executioner who carries out executions by beheading
10586-403: The telekinesis -themed slasher Tourist Trap was initially unsuccessful, it has undergone a reappraisal by fans. 1979's most successful slasher was Fred Walton 's When a Stranger Calls , which sold 8.5 million tickets in North America. Its success has largely been credited to its opening scene, in which a babysitter ( Carol Kane ) is taunted by a caller who repeatedly asks, "Have you checked
10744-413: The 13th (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Child's Play (1988), Scream (1996), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). Many slasher films released decades ago continue to attract cult followings . The slasher canon can be divided into three eras: the classical (1974–1993), the self-referential (1994–2000) and the neoslasher cycle (2000–2013). Slasher films typically adhere to
10902-457: The 13th Part III , the first slasher trilogy, was an enormous success, selling 12 million tickets and dethroning E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial from the top of the box office. The film's iconic hockey mask has grown to pop-culture iconography . Universal Pictures had a tiny release for Death Valley , while Columbia Pictures found modest success with Silent Rage . Independent distributor Embassy Pictures released The Seduction to
11060-651: The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) sold approximately 4.5 million tickets each, less than half of the Elm Street films. The personality-driven appeal of Freddy Krueger was not lost on filmmakers, as characters like Chucky and Candyman were given ample dialogue and placed in urban settings that had largely been ignored by the Golden Age. Chucky's Child's Play (1988) and its 1990 sequel sold over 14.7 million tickets combined, while Candyman (1992) sold
11218-404: The 15 million sold by Friday the 13th the year beforehand. Thematically similar to My Bloody Valentine , The Prowler hoped to lure an audience with gore effects by Friday the 13th 's Tom Savini but large MPAA edits contributed to its failure to find a nationwide distributor. Suffering similar censorship was The Burning , which also employed Savini's special effects, though it does mark
11376-401: The 16th and 17th centuries, noblemen were sometimes executed by means of beheading. Examples include Anthony van Stralen, Lord of Merksem , Lamoral, Count of Egmont and Philip de Montmorency, Count of Horn . They were tied to a chair on a scaffold. The executioner used a knife to cut the head from the body. It was considered to be a more honourable death if the executioner started with cutting
11534-642: The Black Cat (1972) paying homage to Hitchcock's film. Gialli were popular in American cinemas and drive-in theaters . Thriller Assault (1971) and Spanish mystery A Dragonfly for Each Corpse (1974) share many traits with Italian gialli . Death Steps in the Dark (1977) spoofed the familiar conventions found in giallo films. Despite successes from Deep Red (1975) and The Blood-Stained Shadow (1978), giallo films gradually fell out of fashion by
11692-673: The Dimension Home Video banner). Scary Movie opened theatrically in the United States and Canada on July 7, 2000, on 1,912 screens, and debuted at number one at the US box office, grossing $ 42,346,669 during its opening weekend. It went on to break Air Force One ' s record for having the biggest opening weekend for any R-rated film. The film ultimately grossed $ 157,019,771 in the United States and Canada, surpassing Good Will Hunting as Miramax's highest-grossing film in that market. It grossed $ 121,000,000 in other markets, for
11850-504: The French word décapitation was produced. Humans have practiced capital punishment by beheading for millennia. The Narmer Palette (c. 3000 BCE) shows the first known depiction of decapitated corpses. The terms "capital offence", "capital crime", "capital punishment", derive from the Latin caput , "head", referring to the punishment for serious offences involving the forfeiture of
12008-585: The Golden Age of slasher films is 1978–1984, with some scholars citing over 100 similar films released over the six-year period. Despite most films receiving negative reviews, many Golden Age slasher films were extremely profitable and have established cult followings . Many films reused Halloween 's template of a murderous figure stalking teens, though they escalated the gore and nudity from Carpenter's restrained film. Golden Age slasher films exploited dangers lurking in American institutions such as high schools, colleges, summer camps, and hospitals. Cashing in on
12166-861: The Golden Age slasher waned, Wes Craven 's A Nightmare on Elm Street revitalized the genre by mixing fantasy and the supernatural in a cost-effective way. Craven had toyed with slasher films before in Deadly Blessing (1981), though he was frustrated that the genre he had helped create with The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977) had not benefited him financially. Developing A Nightmare on Elm Street since 1981, Craven recognized time running out due to declining revenues from theatrical slasher film releases. A Nightmare on Elm Street and especially its villain Freddy Krueger ( Robert Englund ) became cultural phenomenons. On
12324-417: The Golden Age such as Too Scared to Scream (filmed in 1981, released in 1985), The Mutilator (filmed in 1984, released in 1985), Blood Rage (filmed in 1983, released in 1987), Killer Party (filmed in 1984, released in 1986) and Mountaintop Motel Massacre (filmed in 1983, released in 1986) found video distribution. Mirroring the punk rock movement, novice filmmakers proved anyone could make
12482-432: The Golden Age, The Initiation , was greatly overshadowed by A Nightmare on Elm Street (though both films feature dreams as plot points and a horribly burned "nightmare man"). The success of A Nightmare on Elm Street welcomed in a new wave of horror films that relied on special effects, almost completely silencing the smaller low-budget Golden Age features. Despite A Nightmare on Elm Street 's success, fatigue hit
12640-643: The House Alone? Of them, The Eyes of Laura Mars grossed $ 20 million against a $ 7 million budget. Influenced by the French New Wave 's Eyes Without a Face (1960), science fiction thriller Westworld (1973) and Black Christmas (1974), Halloween was directed, composed and co-written by Carpenter, and produced and co-written by Debra Hill on a budget of $ 300,000 provided by Syrian-American producer Moustapha Akkad . To minimize costs, locations were reduced and time took place over
12798-636: The Japanese troops who beheaded prisoners during World War II. In recent times, it has become associated with terrorism. If a headsman's axe or sword is sharp and his aim is precise, decapitation is quick and thought to be a relatively painless form of death . If the instrument is blunt or the executioner is clumsy, repeated strokes might be required to sever the head, resulting in a prolonged and more painful death. Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , and Mary, Queen of Scots required three strikes at their respective executions. The same could be said for
12956-469: The Left (1972). Following holiday-themed exploitation films Home for the Holidays (1972), All Through the House (1972) and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1973), Christmas horror film Black Christmas (1974) uses horror as a board to debate social topics of its time, including feminism , abortion, and alcoholism. Using the "killer calling from inside the house " gimmick , Black Christmas
13114-474: The Scarecrow brought the genre to the small screen. Two sequels had bigger body counts and more gore than their predecessors, but not higher box office intakes. Friday the 13th Part 2 sold 7.8 million tickets and Halloween II sold 9.2 million. Both sequels sold under half of their original film's tickets, though they were still very popular ( Halloween II was the second highest-grossing horror film of
13272-738: The Witch , though part of the Halloween franchise , does not adhere to the slasher film formula). Alone in the Dark was New Line Cinema 's first feature film, released to little revenue and initially dismissed by critics, though the film has gained critical reappraisal. Director Amy Holden Jones and writer Rita Mae Brown gender-swapped to showcase exploitative violence against men in The Slumber Party Massacre , while Visiting Hours pitted liberal feminism against macho right-wing bigotry with exploitative results. Friday
13430-481: The basement warning about the killer, but Bobby shoots him. Ray arrives on the scene, still alive, with a voice changer. Bobby and Ray confront Cindy in the kitchen, announcing they will only kill her and her father, and that they are merely copying the real killer. Bobby admits to being gay, while Ray denies it. The plan backfires when Ray stab and kills Bobby out of anger because his favorite show, The Wayans Bros. , has been canceled after five seasons without getting
13588-495: The block, or submit to a sentence where she had received no trial. She told the executioner, that if he would have her head, he must win it the best way he could: and thus, shaking her venerable grey locks, she ran about the scaffold; and the executioner followed her with his axe, aiming many fruitless blows at her neck before he was able to give the fatal stroke. To ensure that the blow would be fatal, executioners' swords usually were blade-heavy two-handed swords. Likewise, if an axe
13746-565: The body into multiple pieces (similar to the English quartering ). In addition, there was also a practice of cutting the body at the waist , which was a common method of execution before being abolished in the early Qing dynasty due to the lingering death it caused. In some tales, people did not die immediately after decapitation. The British officer John Masters recorded in his autobiography that Pathans in British India during
13904-503: The children?" Less successful were Ray Dennis Steckler 's burlesque slasher The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher and Abel Ferrara 's The Driller Killer , both of which featured gratuitous on-screen violence against vagrant people. The election of Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States drew in a new age of conservatism that ushered concern of rising violence on film. The slasher film, at
14062-581: The deceased more difficult to identify, for cryonics , or for other, more esoteric reasons. The word decapitation has its roots in the Late Latin word decapitare . The meaning of the word decapitare can be discerned from its morphemes de- (down, from) + capit- (head). The past participle of decapitare is decapitatus which was used to create decapitatio , the noun form of decapitatus , in Medieval Latin, whence
14220-402: The depraved, using a "no press is bad press" mantra with The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), Frightmare (1974), House of Mortal Sin (1976), Schizo (1976) and The Comeback (1978). Other filmmakers followed Walker's lead, as posters dubbed Blood and Lace (1971) as "sickest PG-rated movie ever made!", while Scream Bloody Murder (1973) called itself "gore-nography." By 1974
14378-534: The early Meiji era. A similar scene is described in the last page of James Clavell's book Shōgun . Historically, decapitation had been the most common method of execution in Korea, until it was replaced by hanging in 1896. Professional executioners were called mangnani (망나니) and they were volunteered from death rows. Historically, decapitation had been the main method of execution in Thailand , until it
14536-499: The execution of Johann Friedrich Struensee , favorite of the Danish queen Caroline Matilda of Great Britain . Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury , is said to have required up to 10 strokes before decapitation was achieved. This particular story may, however, be apocryphal, as highly divergent accounts exist. Historian and philosopher David Hume , for example, relates the following about her death: She refused to lay her head on
14694-435: The exploitation film battled political correctness and their popularity waned, and while films like The Love Butcher (1975) and The Redeemer: Son of Satan (1976) were accused of promoting bigotry, the low-budget independent film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) became a major hit and the most commercially successful horror film since The Exorcist . The story concerns a violent clash of cultures and ideals between
14852-457: The fear that the genre is meant to prey upon, the idea that killers walk among us." Films with similar structures that have non-human antagonists lacking a conscience, such as Alien or The Terminator , are not traditionally considered slasher films (though many slasher antagonists are superhuman, have supernatural traits, or possess slightly warped or abstract anthropomorphic forms both physically and metaphysically). The final girl trope
15010-559: The feature film debuts of Brad Grey , Holly Hunter , Jason Alexander , Fisher Stevens , Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein . Profits of Halloween and Friday the 13th drew studio interest, to varying success. Warner Bros. 's Eyes of a Stranger (402,386 admissions) and Night School (420,818 admission), Paramount Pictures ' The Fan (1.1 million admissions), Universal Pictures The Funhouse (2.8 million admissions), and Columbia Pictures Happy Birthday to Me (3.8 million admissions). CBS ' TV movie, Dark Night of
15168-519: The film "doesn't just push the gross-out envelope, it folds, spindles, mutilates and mails it to your mama." He adds, however, that " Scary Movie has a nasty side to it that negates much of the humour. Many jokes are just plain sexist, racist, homophobic, violent . . . and not funny. A scene where a woman is knocked to the ground by an angry man who then proceeds to brutally kick her is sickening to watch. The film's frequent use of profanity also seems gratuitous, even by these standards, but that may be beside
15326-428: The film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. Joe Leydon of Variety said that the film was "unbounded by taste, inhibition or political correctness" and that "the outer limits of R-rated respectability are stretched, if not shredded". Leydon concluded the film is "practically guaranteed to make you laugh until you're ashamed of yourself". Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, saying it "delivers
15484-567: The film and booked her first acting job. Keenen had rejected many other actresses, and was willing to take the chance on Faris despite her lack of experience because of her instinctual performance. He said: "She had this natural innocence and was funny. Jenny McCarthy and Melissa Joan Hart auditioned for the part of Drew Decker, before Carmen Electra was cast. Much of the humor of Scary Movie relies upon specific references to other contemporary films. Roger Ebert remarked in his review that "to get your money's worth, you need to be familiar with
15642-627: The film unrated on American screens, sidestepping the MPAA to still sell 2.2 million tickets at the box office. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho 's influence was felt two decades later in Cries in the Night and The Unseen . Joe D'Amato 's gruesome Italian horror film Antropophagus and the Australian slasher Nightmares showed that the genre was spreading internationally. Slasher films reached
15800-565: The film, and the title "Scary Movie" was originally the working title for the project that would eventually become Scream . At one point the title of this film was going to be "Scream If You Still Know What I Did Last Halloween". Although the Ghostface mask and costume was a replica, the original costume in the Scream series was used when Cindy notices the killer outside of the school. Many scenes and jokes parody or reference other films outside
15958-405: The following about Celtic head-hunting: They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil
16116-450: The goods", calling the film a "raucous, satirical attack on slasher movies." However, Ebert was critical of the film for not being as innovative as other films, saying it lacked "the shocking impact of Airplane! , which had the advantage of breaking new ground." Bob Longino of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution felt that the film's crude humor detracted from the film, saying that Scary Movie "dives so deep into tasteless humor that it's
16274-553: The guillotine in France was highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier in April 1792. The last execution was of murderer Hamida Djandoubi , in Marseille, in 1977. Throughout its extensive overseas colonies and dependencies , the device was also used, including on St Pierre in 1889 and on Martinique as late as 1965. In Nordic countries , decapitation was the usual means of carrying out capital punishment. Noblemen were beheaded with
16432-545: The head; i.e. death by beheading. Some cultures, such as ancient Rome and Greece, regarded decapitation as the most honorable form of death. In the Middle Ages, many European nations continued to reserve the method only for nobles and royalty. In France, the French Revolution made it the only legal method of execution for all criminals regardless of class, one of the period's many symbolic changes. Others have regarded beheading as dishonorable and contemptuous, such as
16590-524: The heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold. Both the Greeks and Romans found the Celtic decapitation practices shocking and
16748-410: The height of its commercial power, also became the center of a political and cultural maelstrom. Sean S. Cunningham 's sleeper hit Friday the 13th was the year's most commercially successful slasher film, grossing more than $ 59.7 million and selling nearly 15 million tickets in North America. Despite a financial success, distributor Paramount Pictures was criticized for "lowering" itself to release
16906-469: The horror film genre. The fight between Cindy and the killer heavily mimics The Matrix , particularly its use of bullet time . The final scene, in which Doofy stops feigning his disability and drives away with Gail, is a takeoff of the final scene of The Usual Suspects . When asked about her favorite horror movie, Drew answers " Kazaam " due to Shaquille O'Neal 's acting. Cindy becomes aggressive and roars "Say my name!" during sex with Bobby, similar to
17064-432: The innocent, virginal qualities ascribed to putative final girls - and that, in the 21st century, the trope has been filtered through the lens of parody, subversion, and self-aware humour (e.g. Final Girl ) rather than deployed sincerely. When slasher films become franchises, they typically take on villain protagonist characteristics, with the series following the continued efforts of their antagonists, rather than any of
17222-479: The killer in an isolated villa. Umberto Lenzi 's Eyeball (1975), which unfolds in an Agatha Christie manner, is noted by some as a slasher precursor, as American tourists are targeted by a killer wearing a red raincoat. The influence of Hitchcock's Psycho extended also to gialli , with films such as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) and The Crimes of
17380-433: The killer watching her from outside before receiving an ominous note and realizes Drew was murdered exactly one year after she and her friends accidentally killed a man by running him over with a car then dumping his body in a lake. After football practice, Greg finds a photo of his small penis on his locker saying "I KNOW" on it. Believing Ray took the photo, he confronts him & their friends. Cindy tells her friends about
17538-444: The killer's disposable victims, including any individual entry's heroes or final survivor(s) (who, in so far as they continue to appear within the series, are often killed off immediately after their next on-screen appearance, which has become its own trope). Examples of antiheroes around whom the respective series have become centered include Michael Myers , Freddy Krueger , Jason Voorhees , Chucky and Leatherface . The antagonist
17696-620: The latter put an end to them when Celtic regions came under their control. According to Paul Jacobsthal , "Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world." Arguments for a Celtic cult of the severed head include the many sculptured representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings, and
17854-499: The massive wave which can be recorded by EEG monitoring approximately one minute after decapitation ultimately reflects brain death. Other studies indicate that electrical activity in the brain has been demonstrated to persist for 13 to 14 seconds following decapitation (although it is disputed as to whether such activity implies that pain is perceived), and a 2010 study reported that decapitation of rats generated responses in EEG indices over
18012-636: The mid-1970s as diminishing returns forced budget cuts. Films such as Play Motel (1979) and Giallo a Venezia (1979) exploited their low-budgets with shocking hardcore pornography . The early 1970s saw an increase in exploitation films that lured audiences to grindhouses and drive-ins by advertising of sex and violence. Robert Fuest 's And Soon the Darkness (1970) set off the '70s exploitation wave by maximizing its small budget and taking place in daylight. The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio (1971) follows an insane killer who stalks and murders victims at
18170-476: The most famous beheading was that of Cicero who, on instructions from Mark Antony , had his hands (which had penned the Philippicae against Antony) and his head cut off and nailed up for display in this manner. In France, until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981, the main method of execution had been by beheading by means of the guillotine . Other than a small number of military cases in which
18328-407: The movie a sleeper hit that was selected to screen at the November 1978 Chicago Film Festival, where the country's major critics acclaimed it. Halloween grew into a major box office success, grossing over $ 70 million worldwide and selling over 20 million tickets in North America, becoming the most profitable independent film until being surpassed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). Though
18486-399: The movie's poster was "No Mercy. No Shame. No Sequel." When Scary Movie 2 was released a year later, the tagline for the sequel was "We Lied." The soundtrack to Scary Movie was released on July 4, 2000, through TVT Records and consists of a blend of hip hop and rock music. Scary Movie was released on DVD and VHS on December 12, 2000 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment (under
18644-433: The note, attempting to convince them to tell the police, but Greg beats her instead, fearing imprisonment for the murder of the previous year. At Buffy's beauty pageant that evening, the killer murders Greg in plain view, while the audience mistakes her pleas for help as part of her dramatic reading . Buffy eventually wins the pageant and forgets Greg. The killer attacks Cindy while home alone but retreats when she contacts
18802-463: The part of the operator. Decapitation by guillotine became a common mechanically assisted form of execution . The French observed a strict code of etiquette surrounding such executions. For example, a man named Legros, one of the assistants at the execution of Charlotte Corday , was imprisoned for three months and dismissed for slapping the face of the victim after the blade had fallen in order to see whether any flicker of life remained. The guillotine
18960-518: The plot of the slasher films Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer . Some films and TV shows like Halloween , The Shining , Friday the 13th , The Usual Suspects , The Sixth Sense , The Blair Witch Project , The Matrix and Buffy the Vampire Slayer were also parodied in some scenes. Dimension Films released Scary Movie in the United States on July 7, 2000. The film grossed $ 278 million worldwide on
19118-596: The point. By the time you realize the four-letter word count is running high, the plot itself has become repetitious and forced." Slasher film Critics cite the Italian giallo films and psychological horror films such as Peeping Tom (1960) and Psycho (1960) as early influences. The genre hit its peak between 1978 and 1984 in an era referred to as the "Golden Age" of slasher films. Notable slasher films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Black Christmas (1974), Halloween (1978), Friday
19276-453: The police. Bobby arrives and is arrested after a cellphone, knife, and gloves fall out of his pocket. As Cindy spends the night at Buffy and Doofy's, she receives a call from the killer. The following day, Bobby is released from jail. Buffy is beheaded by the killer with a cleaver . That night, Gail and her cameraman Kenny go to a makeout spot to get a murder on camera. After they film the killer murdering teenager Heather, he chases them into
19434-477: The protagonists of gialli are frequently (but not always) jet-setting adults sporting the most stylish Milan fashions . These protagonists are often outsiders reluctantly brought into the mystery through extenuating circumstances, like witnessing a murder or being suspected of the crimes themselves. Much like Krimi films, gialli plots tended to be outlandish and improbable, occasionally employing supernatural elements. Mario Bava 's A Bay of Blood (1971)
19592-685: The public of adult action thrillers that were popular in the 1980s, Sylvester Stallone 's cop-thriller Cobra (1986) is a thinly-veiled slasher film advertised as an action movie, and sold 13.2 million tickets. The home video market made stars out of character actors such as Terry O'Quinn and Bruce Campbell , whose respective independent horror-thrillers The Stepfather (1987) and Maniac Cop (1988) found more support on home video than in theaters. Quinn returned for Stepfather II (1989) but chose not to reprise his role in Stepfather III (1992), Destroyer (1988), while Campbell followed
19750-603: The real-life crimes of Richard Speck , promoted star Charles Bronson 's justice-for-all character above its horror themes. Robert Hiltzik 's Sleepaway Camp was a home video hit, being unique for its pubescent victims and themes of paedophilia and transvestism . Sleepaway Camp featured homosexual scenes, which were taboo at the time. In Canada, whodunit Curtains had a brief theatrical life before finding new life on VHS, while criticism toward American Nightmare ' s portrayal of prostitutes, drug addicts, and pornography addicts hurt its video rentals. Sledgehammer
19908-505: The same general plot as Prom Night (1980) with guilty teens stalked and punished for a terrible secret. The Final Terror borrows visual and thematic elements from Just Before Dawn (1981), as Sweet Sixteen borrows from Happy Birthday to Me (1981). The most successful slasher of the year was Psycho II , which sold over 11 million theatrical admissions. The film also reunited original Psycho (1960) cast members Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles . 10 to Midnight , inspired by
20066-407: The same plot point in I Know What You Did Last Summer . Major references to Scream include the identity of Ghostface and the murder of Drew Decker in the opening scene, a reference to the opening scene of Scream in which the same thing occurs to the character of Casey Becker , played by Drew Barrymore . Additionally, the characters of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer are mirrored in
20224-546: The scope of film, such as the parodied version of Sarah Michelle Gellar 's character Helen Shivers in I Know What You Did Last Summer being named Buffy , which is a reference to her character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Others include a brief references to Dawson's Creek , Candid Camera , Big Momma's House , Candyman , Friday the 13th and a parody of the Whassup? ad campaign by Budweiser . The tagline for
20382-529: The search for the missing remains, arrived to a ritual place in Moyo Musila where "parts of bodies, hands and heads" were cut and used for rituals, where they lost track of the victim's head. During the 2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes , Yazidi-Armenian serviceman Kyaram Sloyan was decapitated by Azerbaijani servicemen. Several reports of decapitation, along with other types of mutilation of Armenian POWs by Azerbaijani soldiers, emerged in 2020 during
20540-703: The sex scene between Michelle and Jim in American Pie . The movie theater scene shows a screening of Shakespeare in Love and a trailer for a fictitious sequel to Amistad titled Amistad II with elements of Titanic also appears in the movie theater scene. When Gail and her cameraman are attacked by the killer, she partakes in a parody of the famous scene in The Blair Witch Project where Heather records an apology to her friends' parents. The film also makes other pop culture references beyond
20698-907: The shot of a toilet flushing. The film featured an iconic score by Bernard Herrmann that has been frequently imitated in slasher and horror films. That same year, Michael Powell released Peeping Tom , showing the killer's perspective as he murders women to photograph their dying expressions. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins garnering universal acclaim for his role as Norman Bates . This notice drew bankable movie stars to horror films. Joan Crawford starred in William Castle 's Strait-Jacket (1964) and in Jim O'Connolly 's Berserk! (1967), while Albert Finney starred in MGM 's Night Must Fall (1964) (a remake of
20856-479: The silent film The Bat (1926), about guests in a remote mansion menaced by a killer in a grotesque mask. Its success led to a series of "old dark house" films including The Cat and the Canary (1927), based on John Willard 's 1922 stage play , and Universal Pictures ' The Old Dark House (1932), based on the novel by J.B. Priestley . In both films, the town dwellers are pitted against strange country folk,
21014-536: The sitcom The Wayans Bros . At the same time, Miramax was developing a spoof of Scream scripted by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer . Due to a WGA decision, all six writers were credited, despite Friedberg and Seltzer not actually working on the filmed script. Anna Faris had graduated from the University of Washington and planned to travel to London, but decided instead to go to Los Angeles and after meeting with some managers; she then auditioned for
21172-434: The slasher genre, and its popularity had declined substantially. The home video revolution, fueled by the popularity of VHS , provided a new outlet for low-budget filmmaking . Without major studio backing for theatrical release, slasher films became second only to pornography in the home video market. The drop in budgets to accommodate a more economic approach was usually met with a decline in quality. Holdovers filmed during
21330-469: The success of Friday the 13th Part III (1982), though the effect did not translate to the VHS format. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter brought the saga of Jason Voorhees to a close, with his demise the main marketing tool. It worked, with The Final Chapter selling 10 million tickets in North America, hinting the series would continue even if Jason's demise marked a shift in the genre. This shift
21488-552: The surviving Celtic mythology, which is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the saints who carry their own severed heads , right down to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , where the Green Knight picks up his own severed head after Gawain has struck it off in a beheading game , just as Saint Denis carried his head to the top of Montmartre . A further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in
21646-465: The tales of Connemara 's Saint Féchín , who after being beheaded by Vikings carried his head to the Holy Well on Omey Island and on dipping it into the well placed it back upon his neck and was restored to full health. Pothinus matched Mark Antony in crime: They slew the noblest Romans of their time. The helpless victims they decapitated, An act of infamy with shame related. One head
21804-475: The tip of the shaft. The Celts of western Europe long pursued a "cult of the severed head" , as evidenced by both Classical literary descriptions and archaeological contexts. This cult played a central role in their temples and religious practices and earned them a reputation as head hunters among the Mediterranean peoples. Diodorus Siculus , in his 1st-century Historical Library (5.29.4) wrote
21962-525: The trial that followed investigations after the bodies were discovered, and according to a testimony of a primary school teacher from Bunkonde, near the village of Moyo Musuila where the executions took place, he witnessed a teenage militant carrying the young woman's head, but despite the efforts of the investigation, the head was never found. According to a report published on 29 May 2019, the Monusco peacekeeping military mission led by Colonel Luis Mangini, in
22120-408: The undead have nothing to do with the film. Distributors were aware of fading box office profits, and they were attempting to hoodwink audiences into thinking long-shelved releases like Mortuary were different. The public had largely lost interest in theatrically released slashers, drawing a close to the Golden Age. Production rates plummeted and major studios all but abandoned the genre that, only
22278-477: The various teenage horror franchises." The two films on which the script is most heavily based are Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) (both written by Kevin Williamson ), using the general narrative arcs of both films, and featuring comedic recreations of key scenes. The backstory in which the teenagers are responsible for accidentally killing a man following a beauty pageant recalls
22436-462: The victim had sliced his own abdomen open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with a katana to hasten death and to reduce the suffering. The blow was expected to be precise enough to leave intact a small strip of skin at the front of the neck—to spare invited and honored guests the indelicacy of witnessing a severed head rolling about, or towards them; such an occurrence would have been considered inelegant and in bad taste. The sword
22594-527: The woods and murders Kenny. Gail later gives a snot-filled apology to Kenny's family, a parody of a scene from The Blair Witch Project . Later that night, Ray and Brenda go to the movies to see Shakespeare in Love , where Ray is stabbed through his ear in a bathroom stall through a glory hole . The killer nearly murders Brenda, but angry movie patrons, weary of her talking during the film and her obnoxious behavior, stab her to death to silence her, as revenge for spoiling several films. Meanwhile, Cindy has
22752-908: The year behind An American Werewolf in London ). Independent companies churned out slasher films Final Exam , Bloody Birthday , Hell Night , Don't Go in the Woods... Alone! , Wes Craven 's Deadly Blessing and Graduation Day . Fantasy and sci-fi genres continued to blend with the slasher film in Strange Behavior , Ghostkeeper and Evilspeak . The international market found Italy's Absurd and Madhouse and Germany's Bloody Moon . Straight-to-video productions cut costs to maximize profit. The independent horror film Madman opened in New York City's top 10, according to Variety , but soon fell out of theaters for
22910-484: Was Pompey 's, who brought triumphs home, The other Cicero 's, the voice of Rome. — Martial , Epigram I:60 (Trans. by Garry Wills ) The ancient Greeks and Romans regarded decapitation as a comparatively honorable form of execution for criminals. The traditional procedure, however, included first being tied to a stake and whipped with rods. Axes were used by the Romans, and later swords, which were considered
23068-400: Was a "bloody, senseless kill-for-kicks" flick that exploited unnecessary violence. Despite its modest initial box office run, the film has garnered critical reappraisal, with film historians noting its importance in the horror film genre and some even citing it as the original slasher film. Jumpstarted by the massive success of John Carpenter 's Halloween (1978), the era commonly cited as
23226-599: Was also considered a very severe and degrading form of punishment. One of the most brutal decapitations was that of Sugitani Zenjubō [ ja ] (杉谷善住坊), who attempted to assassinate Oda Nobunaga , a prominent daimyō , in 1570. After being caught, Zenjubō was buried alive in the ground with only his head out, and the head was slowly sawn off with a bamboo saw by passers-by for several days (punishment by sawing; [[[nokogiribiki]] [ ja ] ] Error: {{Lang}}: Non-latn text/Latn script subtag mismatch ( help ) ( 鋸挽き ). These unusual punishments were abolished in
23384-484: Was considered a "dishonorable" death, in contrast to execution by firing squad . In the Democratic Republic of Congo , the conflict and ethnic massacre between local army and Kamuina Nsapu rebels has caused several deaths and atrocities such as rape and mutilation. One of them is decapitation, both a fearsome way to intimidate victims as well as an act that may include ritualistic elements. According to
23542-431: Was embraced by fans or critics and took steep box office declines from their predecessors; still, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning was a modest hit opening at the top of the box office and finishing its run with 6.2 million admissions. Rushed into production, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) became the highest grossing horror film of 1985. The success of the first two Elm Street films inspired
23700-465: Was emphasized by the controversy from Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984): Unlike the recent appearance of other Christmas horror films, including the same year's Don't Open till Christmas , promotional material for Silent Night, Deadly Night pictured a killer Santa with the tagline: "He knows when you've been naughty!" According to Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film ,
23858-464: Was expected to be used upon the slightest sign that the practitioner might yield to pain and cry out—avoiding dishonor to him and to all partaking in the privilege of observing an honorable demise. As skill was involved, only the most trusted warrior was honored by taking part. In the late Sengoku period , decapitation was performed as soon as the person chosen to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his abdomen. Decapitation (without seppuku)
24016-415: Was faking his disability and has escaped with Gail Hailstorm after removing his disguise, similarly to the ending of The Usual Suspects . Finding his discarded backpack with his Ghostface mask and knife in the street, Cindy begins screaming but is run over by a car as the sheriff walks away. The screenplay was developed by Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans with Buddy Johnson and Phil Beauman, writers for
24174-420: Was of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat on 9 April 1747, while a number of convicts were beheaded posthumously up to the early 19th century. (Typically traitors were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered , a method which had already been discontinued.) Beheading was degraded to a secondary means of execution, including for treason, with the abolition of drawing and quartering in 1870 and finally abolished by
24332-571: Was replaced by shooting in 1934. Execution by beheading was one of the most common forms of execution in Vietnam under the feudal system. This form of execution still existed in the South Vietnam regime until 1962. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995) there were a number of ritual beheadings of Serbs and Croats who were taken as prisoners of war by mujahideen members of
24490-414: Was shot-on-video for just $ 40,000, with a gender-reversal climax showing Playgirl model Ted Prior as a "final guy." Other home video slashers from the year include Blood Beat , Double Exposure , and Scalps , the latter claiming to be one of the most censored films in history. Releases began to distance from the genre. The poster for Mortuary features a hand bursting from the grave, though
24648-572: Was used for the first and only time on Johan Alfred Ander in 1910. Finland 's official beheading axe resides today at the Museum of Crime in Vantaa . It is a broad-bladed two-handed axe. It was last used when murderer Tahvo Putkonen was executed in 1825, the last execution in peacetime in Finland. In Spain executions were carried out by various methods including strangulation by the garrotte . In
24806-659: Was used in France during the French Revolution and remained the normal judicial method in both peacetime and wartime into the 1970s, although the firing squad was used in certain cases. France abolished the death penalty in 1981. The guillotine was also used in Algeria before the French relinquished control of it, as shown in Gillo Pontecorvo 's film The Battle of Algiers . Many German states had used
24964-701: Was used, it almost invariably was wielded with both hands. Decapitation is quickly fatal to humans and most animals . Unconsciousness occurs within seconds without circulating oxygenated blood ( brain ischemia ). Cell death and irreversible brain damage occurs after 3–6 minutes with no oxygen, due to excitotoxicity . Some anecdotes suggest more extended persistence of human consciousness after decapitation, but most doctors consider this unlikely and consider such accounts to be misapprehensions of reflexive twitching rather than deliberate movement, since deprivation of oxygen must cause nearly immediate coma and death ("[Consciousness is] probably lost within 2–3 seconds, due to
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