There are erotic thrillers, and then there’s Color of Night, which looks at the genre’s rules, rips them up, sets them on fire, and then has sex on the ashes. It’s a movie that tried to be everything at once—psychological drama, giallo-style murder mystery, softcore fantasy—and face-planted at the box office, only to crawl back … Read More “Color of Night, 1994 – horny, pulpy, gloriously unhinged” »
If you’ve ever wanted to watch three different movies fight for control of the same 90 minutes and all lose, Killer Party is your moment. It’s a campus comedy, a hazing slasher, and a demonic possession flick all jammed into one film like someone crammed three VHS tapes into the same slot and hoped for … Read More “Killer Party, 1986 – hazing, demons, and a script that flunked out” »
If you’ve ever wondered what a slasher film would look like if it were dropped on its head during production and then left unattended in an abandoned psychiatric hospital for a decade, Doom Asylum has your answer. Richard Friedman’s “comedy slasher”—quotation marks required by law—tries very hard to be funny, edgy, and gory, but mostly … Read More “Doom Asylum, 1988 – the autopsy of a movie that was never alive” »
A holiday where everyone lives (sort of) In the great family tree of 80s slashers, April Fool’s Day is the cheerful, slightly deranged cousin who shows up to the reunion in a cable-knit sweater and then rearranges all the silverware just to see who notices. It’s marketed like a straightforward body-count movie—group of horny college … Read More “April Fool’s Day, 1986 – slasher that actually smiles” »
If you’ve ever wanted to watch the slasher genre go through puberty in real time, Torso is your movie. Sergio Martino’s gloriously nasty little giallo doesn’t just flirt with the slasher template—it basically writes the first serious draft. You get the masked killer, the horny students, the isolated house full of doomed young women, the … Read More “Torso, 1973 – scarves, sex, and screaming” »
If you’ve ever wondered what The Love Boat would look like if you replaced the cruise ship with a ski lodge and tossed in a serial killer with a modest TV budget, She’s Dressed to Kill has your answer. Sadly. This 1979 NBC Movie of the Week is technically a “slasher,” but really it’s more … Read More “She’s Dressed to Kill, 1979 – runway show from hell” »
Redneck noir on a shoestring There are classy hitman thrillers, there are gritty exploitation flicks, and then there’s Psycho from Texas—a movie that looks you dead in the eye, wipes its boots on your carpet, and proceeds to chase an oil baron through the woods for half the runtime. It’s regional horror in its purest … Read More “Psycho from Texas, 1975 – beer, bullets, and bad decisions” »
A slasher that mostly stabs itself The Love Butcher is the kind of movie that wants to be shocking, daring, and psychologically complex—but mostly ends up looking like it tripped over its own premise and landed face-first in a rake. Twice. It’s a 1975 slasher about a crippled gardener with a dead-brother complex who moonlights … Read More “The Love Butcher, 1975 – clumsy, cruel, and half-baked” »
Hollywood has made a lot of movies about itself, but Hollywood Boulevard might be the only one that fully admits, “Yes, we’re awful—and also broke.” Shot in ten days for the price of a mid-range used car, this satirical exploitation Frankenstein is part comedy, part slasher, part scrapbook of other people’s stock footage, and somehow … Read More “Hollywood Boulevard, 1976 – cheap thrills on no budget” »
New Year’s Eve, New Murders You know you’re in a proper giallo when the movie opens with a New Year’s party full of beautiful, unhappy people and you immediately think, “Ah, yes, at least one of you is doomed.” The Fifth Cord wastes no time. Drunks, simmering resentments, unrequited love, a crippled wife, an old … Read More “The Fifth Cord, 1971 – booze, bodies, and brilliance” »