Mute, Masked and Murderous: The 1940s Mummy as Proto-Slasher
There are numerous films that could be considered forerunners to the slasher film, including Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) and Italian giallo movies. In ‘Strange Pleasure: 1940s Proto-Slasher Cinema’, Peter Marra makes a convincing case for considering much earlier ‘films from the classical Hollywood era, such as The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943), The Lodger (John Brahm, 1944), Bluebeard (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944), The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak, 1945), and Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945)’ as notable and overlooked American-made precursors to the genre. In this paper, it will be proposed that there were earlier antecedents still and that these existed within the horror genre itself. Discussing the Universal Mummy cycle of the 1940s (The Mummy’s Hand (Christy Cabanne, 1940), The Mummy’s Tomb (Harold Young, 1942), The Mummy’s Ghost (Reginald Le Borg, 1944) and The Mummy’s Curse (Leslie Goodwins, 1944)), it will be argued that these films, featuring a masked, silent, monstrous executioner in the form of the Mummy Kharis, who stalked the inhabitants of suburban American towns, established many of the essential tropes utilised in subsequent slasher films such as Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and the Friday the 13th film series, complicating what the term ‘slasher film’ might signify beyond the killer’s use of bladed tools.
- Basil Glynn (Middlesex University, UK)
There are numerous films that could be considered forerunners to the slasher film, including Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) and Italian giallo movies. In ‘Strange Pleasure: 1940s Proto-Slasher Cinema’, Peter Marra makes a convincing case for considering much earlier ‘films from the classical Hollywood era, such as The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943), The Lodger (John Brahm, 1944), Bluebeard (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944), The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak, 1945), and Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945)’ as notable and overlooked American-made precursors to the genre. In this paper, it will be proposed that there were earlier antecedents still and that these existed within the horror genre itself. Discussing the Universal Mummy cycle of the 1940s (The Mummy’s Hand (Christy Cabanne, 1940), The Mummy’s Tomb (Harold Young, 1942), The Mummy’s Ghost (Reginald Le Borg, 1944) and The Mummy’s Curse (Leslie Goodwins, 1944)), it will be argued that these films, featuring a masked, silent, monstrous executioner in the form of the Mummy Kharis, who stalked the inhabitants of suburban American towns, established many of the essential tropes utilised in subsequent slasher films such as Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and the Friday the 13th film series, complicating what the term ‘slasher film’ might signify beyond the killer’s use of bladed tools.
"There Are Certain Rules That One Must Abide By": An Examination of the Problematic Relationship Between Conservative Morality and the Slasher Film
The main academic and culturally accepted fact of the slasher film is that the subgenre is fuelled by the concept of sin, or the ‘sin factor’ as stated by Randy in Scream (1996). The ‘sin factor’ is a concept that stems from theorists such as Dika (1990) and Clover (1992) who apply psychoanalytical theories on sex, violence, and the family from the work of Derry (1977) and Wood (1978) to the slasher film. This focus on psychoanalysis results in a conservative reading of the texts that detracts from the subgenre’s cultural context.
Psychoanalysis, according to Tudor (1989), gives an esoteric reading of the text that differs from the audience’s experience (1989: 3). Many assumptions are made that are incongruent with the texts, such as the killer lashing out due to Freudian complexes, the victim being murdered due to their behaviour, and that the survivor will live due to her virginal virtues. Despite these assumptions, viewing the films reveal that the subgenre rarely depicts killers that would lead us to a Freudian reading (theorists combine the slasher film and the psychosexual thriller), there is a non-causal relationship between the actions of the victim and the violence inflicted upon them (their location, not their actions, ensure their demise), and that survivors can have sex and can be male.
This paper aims to examine this conservative morality that has been wrongfully applied to the slasher film due to psychoanalytical readings and instead encourage a cultural and historical reading of the subgenre while utilising sequences and imagery from the major slasher film franchises.
- John Kavanagh (Ulster University, UK)
The main academic and culturally accepted fact of the slasher film is that the subgenre is fuelled by the concept of sin, or the ‘sin factor’ as stated by Randy in Scream (1996). The ‘sin factor’ is a concept that stems from theorists such as Dika (1990) and Clover (1992) who apply psychoanalytical theories on sex, violence, and the family from the work of Derry (1977) and Wood (1978) to the slasher film. This focus on psychoanalysis results in a conservative reading of the texts that detracts from the subgenre’s cultural context.
Psychoanalysis, according to Tudor (1989), gives an esoteric reading of the text that differs from the audience’s experience (1989: 3). Many assumptions are made that are incongruent with the texts, such as the killer lashing out due to Freudian complexes, the victim being murdered due to their behaviour, and that the survivor will live due to her virginal virtues. Despite these assumptions, viewing the films reveal that the subgenre rarely depicts killers that would lead us to a Freudian reading (theorists combine the slasher film and the psychosexual thriller), there is a non-causal relationship between the actions of the victim and the violence inflicted upon them (their location, not their actions, ensure their demise), and that survivors can have sex and can be male.
This paper aims to examine this conservative morality that has been wrongfully applied to the slasher film due to psychoanalytical readings and instead encourage a cultural and historical reading of the subgenre while utilising sequences and imagery from the major slasher film franchises.
Tools of the Trade: A Statistical Analysis of Slasher Hardware
I have conducted the first empirical study of slasher weapons, based on a corpus of 119 U.S.- or Canadian- produced (or co-produced) slashers from 1974–2019. Rather than focus solely on mainstream box-office hits, I have created a corpus that represents popular franchises, cult classics, and low-budget films that only a die-hard horror fan could love. I have included fourteen films from the 1970s, beginning with Black Christmas (1974) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), followed by forty-two films to represent the prolific golden era of the 1980s, twenty from the 1990s, twenty-three from the 2000s, and twenty from the 2010s. In total, I have recorded 1,177 deaths. I tracked tools used by the aggressor (the villain) and the attacked (the victim) for each kill, and for the fighting sequences leading to each kill. Among other details, I recorded kill locations and the gender, age range, social class, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation of the aggressor and the attacked. In adopting a data-driven approach, I aim to demystify the received slasher “rules” and to question ideas that have been overdetermined by confirmation bias. Other statistical studies of slashers have had a corpus of anywhere from ten to seventy-four films, and all but one have focused on testing Clover’s characterization of the “Final Girl.” My study is therefore unique in scope and in its object-centered analysis.
- Marc Olivier (Brigham Young University, US)
I have conducted the first empirical study of slasher weapons, based on a corpus of 119 U.S.- or Canadian- produced (or co-produced) slashers from 1974–2019. Rather than focus solely on mainstream box-office hits, I have created a corpus that represents popular franchises, cult classics, and low-budget films that only a die-hard horror fan could love. I have included fourteen films from the 1970s, beginning with Black Christmas (1974) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), followed by forty-two films to represent the prolific golden era of the 1980s, twenty from the 1990s, twenty-three from the 2000s, and twenty from the 2010s. In total, I have recorded 1,177 deaths. I tracked tools used by the aggressor (the villain) and the attacked (the victim) for each kill, and for the fighting sequences leading to each kill. Among other details, I recorded kill locations and the gender, age range, social class, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation of the aggressor and the attacked. In adopting a data-driven approach, I aim to demystify the received slasher “rules” and to question ideas that have been overdetermined by confirmation bias. Other statistical studies of slashers have had a corpus of anywhere from ten to seventy-four films, and all but one have focused on testing Clover’s characterization of the “Final Girl.” My study is therefore unique in scope and in its object-centered analysis.
Gazes, Glitches, and Gore: Found Footage Slashers as Records of Violence
As the description of this conference states, the slasher is “a disreputable offcut of the horror genre.” Taking this into account, this paper attempts to explore what happens when the slasher weds an equally disreputable horror form: found footage. While franchise found footage is typically associated with the paranormal (The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity) and the monstrous (Cloverfield, REC), a robust number of slasher found footage films exist and deserve closer examination.
This paper will consider how some of the slasher’s most controversial theoretical issues — such as identification with the killer — are pushed to the limit in found footage where the killer wields the camera. Films such as Home Movie, Hangman, and Capture Kill Release are just a few sites of exploration where the denigrated subgenres of slasher and found footage come together. How do these films document violence? How do they place us even more uncomfortably into conversations with the work of Clover and Mulvey, specifically gender dynamics and the gaze in relation to cinematic violence? This paper will interrogate these ideas utilizing textual analysis of framing and aesthetics in found footage slashers.
- Miranda Ruth Larsen (University of Tokyo, JP)
As the description of this conference states, the slasher is “a disreputable offcut of the horror genre.” Taking this into account, this paper attempts to explore what happens when the slasher weds an equally disreputable horror form: found footage. While franchise found footage is typically associated with the paranormal (The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity) and the monstrous (Cloverfield, REC), a robust number of slasher found footage films exist and deserve closer examination.
This paper will consider how some of the slasher’s most controversial theoretical issues — such as identification with the killer — are pushed to the limit in found footage where the killer wields the camera. Films such as Home Movie, Hangman, and Capture Kill Release are just a few sites of exploration where the denigrated subgenres of slasher and found footage come together. How do these films document violence? How do they place us even more uncomfortably into conversations with the work of Clover and Mulvey, specifically gender dynamics and the gaze in relation to cinematic violence? This paper will interrogate these ideas utilizing textual analysis of framing and aesthetics in found footage slashers.