Trilogy of Terror: A Guide To Halloween Horror

(originally published on October 31st, 2017 in Tunnel Magazine)

Happy Halloween, losers! In the spirit of the holiday I wanted to write about three of my favorite sub-genres of horror and my favorite spooky scary movies that fall within each of those genres. They’re gory, trashy, and undeniably the most fun you can have on a Tuesday night.

The Burning stands the test of time as one of the most minute-for-minute perfect slashers of the 1980s

SLASHERS
Best of the Best: Halloween(1978)
Hidden Gem: The Burning (1981)
Guilty Pleasure: Pieces (1982)

Slashers get a bad reputation, which is pretty understandable in that their two distinguishing features are violent misogyny and nauseating amounts of gore. Common knowledge dictates that they’re insubstantial, unsophisticated, and, above all, incredibly formulaic — horny teenagers die because sex = bad while virginal teenagers live because chastity = good.

While those are all valid criticisms even when applied to the best films within the genre, I am a devoted fan of slashers and they are hands-down The Most Fun Horror Sub-Genre, guaranteed. Those same criticisms I just listed — particularly the simplistic and formulaic structure — are, in fact, the greatest assets of the genre; slashers have an unpretentious immediacy of form in that they are designed to be fast-paced…