ACTION SLASHERS: The Rise and Fall
Posted by Stephen Lambrechts - 3/1/2014
We love our slasher films around these parts, and the late ‘70s and early ‘80s had some of the very best. Sure, they’re mostly interchangeable, with almost identical storylines and villains, and after a while it became easier to tell these films apart by nudity rather than character, but they’re still fun as hell.
Critics may have hated them, but audiences loved them, which is something that studio execs knew all too well. Figuring that introducing these thrilling slasher elements into more marketable genres could make truckloads of money, studios started taking big action stars and making films with them that had an unmistakable slasher edge.
The Terminator (1984) is probably the most well known of these, but two years before that film, Columbia Pictures released the Chuck Norris starring film Silent Rage (1982), a martial arts-slasher hybrid in which Chuck played a Texas sheriff who must stop a Frankenstein-like psychopath who can’t be killed. ‘Science created him. Now Chuck Norris must destroy him,’ read the tagline for the film, making it absolutely irresistible to action fans.
When crazy bastard John Kirby (Brian Libby) flips out and murders some people in the house he’s staying at, Chuck Norris appears (as he tends to do, like a looming spectre of righteous death) and beats that mothertrucker down. Alas, the axe-murderer did not die, presumably because Chuck skipped breakfast that morning. After attempting to escape and being shot down by several deputies, this psycho is taken to an institute where a mad doctor and genetic engineer (Steven Keats) applies an experimental formula to Kirby in an attempt to save his life. Unfortunately, this makes Kirby an invulnerable death machine; one that only Chuck Norris can stop.
While not the most violent slasher around, the unstoppable killer provides the film a real sense of menace, not unlike that of the original Terminator film. Eventually, Kirby proves no match for Chuck’s slow-as-molasses roundhouse kicks, and is knocked down to the bottom of a well. With Kirby presumed dead, Chuck leaves, and in a moment that freaked the shit out of me as a child, Kirby’s head emerges out of the water again right before the credits roll.
Which brings me to my personal favourite of the Action Slasher sub-genre. 10 to Midnight (1983) from Cannon Films, starring Charles Bronson. The slasher film gets the Death Wish treatment, with Charles Bronson playing an LAPD cop who must break the rules (and the law) to stop Patrick Bateman-esque killer Warren Stacey (Gene Davis), a man who likes to stalk and kill women who reject his sexual advances. Did I mention he likes to kill them in the nude?
Shit gets personal when Bronson (no character name necessary, we all know he’s playing himself) realises that the killer’s latest victim is his daughter’s childhood friend. While Warren is caught pretty quickly, the slimy prick created a rock solid alibi for himself and is set free. This forces Bronson to plant evidence in order to make the arrest stick, but when his tampering is revealed in court and his career ruined, he must pick up a gun and take the law into his own hands, before the killer gets to his daughter, Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher).
'CRITICS MAY HAVE HATED THEM, BUT AUDIENCES LOVED THEM, WHICH IS SOMETHING THAT STUDIO EXECS KNEW ALL TOO WELL.'
The film is filled with copious amounts of violence and nudity, with an incredible (and ludicrous) finale that has several dorm-room girls getting themselves killed in order to protect Laurie from Warren. The film is nasty, mean-spirited and gratuitous; exactly what every slasher should aim to be! Need more of an endorsement? Roger Ebert famously gave the film Zero Stars in his review, saying “This is a scummy little sewer of a movie, a cesspool that lingers sadistically on shots of a killer terrifying and killing helpless women, and then is shameless enough to end with an appeal to law and order.” Seriously, how could you possibly pass that up?
Even Clint Eastwood got in on the action, returning to the serial killer theme he’d explored in Dirty Harry (1971) and taking it up a notch in the Warner Bros. film Tightrope (1984), best known as ‘that Clint Eastwood movie that uses the Blade Runner font.’
In the film, Clint plays Wes Block, a (you guessed it) cop on the edge. There’s a masked killer on the loose, raping and strangling prostitutes. The killer starts making things personal, by killing some hookers that Block had been interviewing (and sleeping with) as part of his investigation. Aside from the prostitutes, he has also been working with Beryl Thibodeaux (Geneviève Bujold), a woman that runs a rape prevention program.
'THE FILM IS NASTY, MEAN-SPIRITED AND GRATUITOUS; EXACTLY WHAT EVERY SLASHER SHOULD AIM TO BE!'
Eventually the killer breaks into Block’s house, killing his pets and nanny, as well as threatening his family. Of course that shit don’t fly in Clint’s house. Now, he’s pissed. Clint eventually figures out the killer’s identity, tracking him down right in the middle of a Beryl-choking session. Naturally he runs, and Clint chases him through a cemetery to a railyard into the path of an oncoming train. Like any good slasher, the film is filled with sexualised violence, a masked maniac and many creepy stalking and killing scenes. Definitely worth checking out.
Abel Ferrara’s Fear City (1984) is a fantastic piece of sleazy slasher goodness set in the grimy heyday of ‘80s Times Square. A martial artist killer (strangely not credited, though thought to be a guy called John Foster) is running around Manhattan, slashing up strippers, and it’s up to ex-boxer turned strip-club private eye Matt Rossi (Tom Berenger) and cop Al Wheeler (Billy Dee Williams) to stop him.
No one captures the dark, gritty underbelly of New York quite like Abel Ferrara. Here, his camera prowls the creepy alleyways, subway stations and strip clubs in extreme voyeuristic detail. The naked dancers include Rae Dawn Chong, Maria Conchita Alonso, Ola Ray and a young Melanie Griffith, the one stripper that Rossi falls for and must protect before the killer gets to her (and you know he will).
'LIKE ANY GOOD SLASHER, THE FILM IS FILLED WITH SEXUALISED VIOLENCE, A MASKED KILLER AND CREEPY STALKING AND KILLING SCENES.'
There's an immense level of tension that builds up, where Rossi must decide whether he's going to take the guy down once and for all. Add to that the mounting pile of women getting stabbed, and the looming threat on his main squeeze, it all culminates in an amazing climax, where Rossi must use his boxing skills against the killer’s karate skills in an alleyway fight for the ages. An awesome movie.
Which brings us to the most famous film of the sub-genre, Orion Pictures' The Terminator (1984) from the visionary director James Cameron. No one would've suspected that the man who had previously been fired from his directorial debut, Piranha 2: The Spawning, would create one of the most famous sci-fi action franchises ever (and also go on to create the two highest grossing films of all time), but he did. While the Terminator franchise would eventually become a box-office juggernaut and action extravaganza, many forget of its humble beginnings as a lean, mean, slasher-influenced sci-fi thriller. Arnold Schwarzengger's original Terminator wasn't making friends with little kids - it was a scary, cold machine that killed with absolutely no remorse.
Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), a young waitress from Los Angeles, is being hunted by a killer cyborg from the future known as a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Apparently, Sarah will eventually give birth to a great military leader who will one day win a war against the self-aware machines destined to cause an apocalypse on mankind. Also from the future is Kyle (Michael Biehn), a human soldier whose love for Sarah may be the thing that can protect her from this almost unstoppable death machine.
'THE TERMINATOR IS QUITE THREATENING. THE MACHINE KILLS ALMOST EVERY HUMAN IT COMES INTO CONTACT WITH.'
The general atmosphere of The Terminator is quite threatening. The machine kills almost every human it comes into contact with. He starts by killing a bunch of street punks for their clothes, then a store owner, then any person named Sarah Connor that is listed in the phone book, then some random people at a night club, then an entire police station full of cops, and it just keeps going, until Sarah and Kyle take the cyborg down once and for all. Cameron usually films Arnold's stalking and killing scenes in slow-motion, dialing up the dread to heart-pounding levels, and almost the entire film takes place at night. The only real difference between Arnold's Terminator and Jason Vorhees or Michael Meyers is that he kills with guns, not knives or stabbing weapons. Termintor 2's T-1000 on the other hand...
Sylvester Stallone would eventually come up with his own version of the Dirty Harry / Tightrope formula in Cobra (1986), a dark and menacing film in which Sly must take on a serial killer. Right off the bat, the film feels drenched in death, with Sly’s voiceover informing us about how many rapes and murders occur on a daily basis in the United States. The idea is to make us terrified of our own shadows, with Marion ‘Cobra’ Cobretti being the only guy capable of killing the shit out of anything that is willing to harm us.
Bridget Nielson plays a model that is attacked by an knife-wielding maniac called the Night Slasher (Brian Thompson). Turns out, he is part of a greater scheme - a murderous cult called The New Order, and Cobra must rid this vermin by killing all 41 of its members (yes, that’s the film’s kill count). He saves the best kill for last however, which I won’t spoil for those who haven’t seen the film (seriously though, go watch it now).
'RIGHT OFF THE BAT, THE FILM FEELS DRENCHED IN DEATH. THE IDEA IS TO MAKE US TERRIFIED OF OUR OWN SHADOWS.'
Cobra is easily one of Stallone's darker films, with an oppressive, violent atmosphere covering the entire film. The Night Slasher looks creepy as hell, and the way that he stalks his victims is text-book slasher-style. While the film eventually gives over to Stallone's action side, with car chases and shootouts galore, that nasty vibe remains right until the very end.
While there are a few more entries in the genre, they’re of the barely notable, VHS-only variety and have been mostly forgotten. The sub-genre would pretty much die off entirely, just like the actual slasher genre, until slashers would become fashionable again in the late '90s with box-office hits like Scream and Urban Legend. Sly Stallone would attempt to bring the action slasher-hybrid back with the 2002 film D-Tox (a.k.a. Eye See You).
There was a time when Stallone was inexplicably starring in films directed by guys connected to the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise. This is one of them (see also Danny Cannon’s Judge Dredd). Jim Gillespie’s D-Tox was considered somewhat of a disaster upon release, with a critical savaging and a straight to video dumping in many territories. Granted, it's important to remember that Stallone was coming off of a string of dud films at the time, and critics weren't being kind to him in general.
'WHILE THERE ARE A FEW MORE ENTRIES IN THE GENRE, THEY'RE OF THE BARELY NOTABLE, VHS-ONLY VARIETY.'
Stallone plays Jake Malloy, a cop who goes down the tubes when his friend and fiance are murdered by the serial killer he’s been tailing for years. After some heavy alcohol abuse and an attempted suicide, Malloy is checked into a rehab facility for cops. Unfortunately for all of the patients at the facility, a blizzard comes along and traps them in the place, making all of them perfect targets for a killer who still has a score to settle.
The cast (featuring Charles S. Dutton, Stephen Lang, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Berenger, Robert Patrick and Polly Walker) is excellent, and while I can’t remember too much about the movie, it might be one worth revisiting now that some time has passed.
Sadly it seems that the days of the Action Slasher are long behind us, though it would be fun to dream-cast some new films with today's big action stars. Imagine The Rock or Jason Statham taking on a hatchet wielding killer! Who would you like to see revive this wonderful sub-genre? Let us know in the comments section below!
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