Description

---

The term "slasher film" was common parlance by the mid-1980s but the horror subgenre it describes was at least a decade old by then--formerly referred to as "stalker," "psycho" or "slice-'em-up." Examining 74 movies--from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) to Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)--the author identifies the characteristic elements of the subgenre while tracing changes in narrative patterns over the decades.

The slasher canon is divided into three eras: the classical (1974-1993), the self-referential (1994-2000) and the neoslasher cycle (2000-2013).

About the Author

---

Sotiris Petridis is an adjunct professor at Hellenic Open University, Greece. His research interests are about film and television genres, audiovisual horror, screenwriting theory and practice, viral marketing, and the new ways of film and television promotion and has written academic books and articles on cinema and audiovisual narrative. He is a member of the European Film Academy and the Greek Film Academy.