The most important part of a slasher is the chase scene. That’s pretty basic but for me to really enjoy a slasher, I need at least one really good cat-and-mouse game between the killer and the main characters. All of my favorite slashers – Scream, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Sleepaway Camp all utilize great chase scenes. A chase scene is what makes slashers – and – any other sub-genre great. A chase scene is what makes a slasher exciting, entertaining and fun. Slashers leave a lot of runners on base when they either don’t utilize a chase scene or the one they have is lackluster.

As mentioned above, Sleepaway Camp is a pretty underrated slasher. The first got released in the early 80s and it unfortunately got lost in the mx between Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. Sleepaway Camp is about a batshit crazy girl, Angela, who wants to protect the sanctity of sleepaway camp (?) by murdering campers who break Camp Code (??). It bounces between camp ridiculousness and the seriousness of traditional slashers. One thing that sticks out to me about this franchise is how it gets increasingly more violent. Angela gets creative, and brutal, with the nature of her killings throughout the progression of her movies. Sleepaway Camp also has one of the best twists in horror cinema history.

My second pick is 30 Days of Night. This film had a wide release in theatres, so it definitely didn’t fly under the radar per se, but I put it here because the film is absolutely incredible and it’s not acknowledged as such for my liking! Hot Take ahead: 30 Days of Night is the GOAT vampire film The entire premise is incredible and provides a new plot for the vampire trope. This is one of the greatest horror, regardless of sub-genre, films of all-time. It’s legitimately scary, has one of my favorite cat-and-mouse scenes, and gives so much anxiety that you’ll need a Xanax midway through.