Evolution of slasher horror

House of wax (1953) 

- A disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated corpses as displays.

- Budget- $1,000,000 
- Box office- $23,750,000- very successful

- Mystery

Blood Feast (1963)

- First ever slasher film

- Violent

- It concerns a psychopathic food caterer who kills women so that he can include their -body parts in his meals and performs sacrifices.

- Budget- $24,500- low budget

- Box office- $4,000,000

- 4 days to film

- Very few deaths
 

Alice, sweet Alice (1976)

- The narrative focuses on a troubled adolescent girl who becomes a suspect in the brutal murder of her younger sister at her first communion.

- Budget- $340,000

- Filmmakers were forced to change the title from Communion to Alice, Sweet Alice, out of fear that the public would perceive it to be a Christian film.

- Masked killer

- Religion

- Female victim- stereotypical throughout the years

Halloween (1978)

- The film was the first instalment in what has become the Halloween franchise.

- On Halloween night in 1963, a six-year-old Michael Myers dressed in a clown costume murders his older sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Fifteen years later, he escapes from a psychiatric hospital, returns home, and stalks teenager Laurie Strode and her friends.

- Masked killer

- Female heroine

- Minimal images of blood

- Budget- $300,000- $325,000

- Box office- $70 million

Maniac (1980)

- The plot focuses on a disturbed and traumatized serial killer who scalps his victims. Spinell also developed the story and stars as the lead character.

- Budget- $350,000

- Serial killer

- Filming locations- Brooklyn, new york

Scream (1996)

- Mystery and violence

- Highest-grossing slasher film in the US

- Scream‍ ' s success spawned a series of sequels, though only Scream 2, released in 1997

- Scream follows the character of Sidney Prescott (Campbell), a high school student in the fictional town of Woodsboro, who becomes the target of a mysterious killer known as Ghostface.

- Budget- $15 million

- Box office- $173 million- very successful

The Texas chainsaw massacre (2006)

- After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a deformed chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of equally psychopathic killers.

- Budget- $9.5 million

- Box office- $107.1 million

- Filming location- Texas USA
- Masked killer

- Very graphic
 

Saw(2009)

- Insurance executives find themselves in another game set by jigsaw.

- Filming locations- Toronto USA
- Budget- $11,000,000

- Box office- $27,700,000

- Torture

Hatchet II(2010)

- A woman returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact the bloodiest revenge against the bayou butcher.

- Box office- $156,190

- Budget- $800,000

- Weapons- axe

- Strong bloody horror violence

- Unsuccessful film

Texas chainsaw 3D(2013)

- A young woman travels to Texas to collect an inheritance; little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-wielding killer is part of the reward.

- Budget- $20,000,000

- Box office- $47.2 million

- 3D

- Weapons- chainsaws and knives

- Gory

- Female victim- very stereotypical

- Psychopathic serial killer