Slashers: is there a story left to be told?

Freddy haunted our dreams, Jason paved his way with a machete and hills had eyes. Despite the essence of those stories they seem to repeat themselves and are trivial in their simplicity: a creep hunts, tortures and kills dozens of innocent victims, blood is shed from bystanders as well as previously picked targets. As years pass by we still intently spectate this gruesome game of cat and mouse. We return to the same stories, retold once again: battle of good and evil, where at the end the woman slays the monster – just until the time when he returns (even from the afterlife) to spread death and destruction. So why do we watch slashers? Is there a place for them in 2018 mainstream pop-culture? Do those movies represent the most misogynistic film genre? Or maybe, it is a display of feminism when the last girl defeats her oppressor? How did the films change with time? All those questions will be addressed during the Warsaw’s Splat!FilmFest.

Paweł Mączewski – sociologist by training, journalist by trade. Managing editor of Vice Poland. Published for Gazeta Wyborcza and reviewer for Film.org. Each week you can listen to his broadcast at Radio Kampus. In his free time, he draws comics about monsters, watches old horror and action movies.

Lecture only in Polish