Lady Krampus (2018)
Christmas Slasher
This is a misleadingly titled film that features no Krampus and is actually a low-budget Christmas slasher that has been renamed by the distributor. Poorly made on all accounts.
Slasher Films
The slasher film was a genre created with the enormous success of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), which was followed by Friday the 13th (1980), which was made as a quick copycat. (There have been some works cited as earlier influences but these two films created the genre). Both spawned a long line of sequels and numerous imitators using similar holiday titles.
The slasher film mostly focuses around a group of teens often isolated at a locale like a summer camp or in the woods as they are stalked by a hulking, frequently deformed maniac who hides their face behind a mask and despatches them in a series of novelty deaths.
The genre underwent a revival in the 1990s where the tropes and cliches of the genre have been deconstructed, homaged and parodied in some often witty ways. The 2000s/10s has also seen a number of remakes of the 1980s originals.
Party Hard, Die Young (2018)
Slasher Film
From the director of Attack of the Lederehosen Zombies, a slasher film set at a rave event
The Ranger (2018)
Psychopathic Park Ranger/Black Comedy
Slasher film with a diabolically funny sense of humour as a psychopathic park ranger stalks a group of partying punks
Lake Fear 2: The Swamp (2018)
Backwoods Slasher
Slasher film in which a group of unlikeable teens on Springbreak are slaughtered by backwoods hicks in the Everglades. Sold as a sequel to Lake Fear despite neither film being connected in any way
You Might Be the Killer (2018)
Slasher Deconstruction/Possession by Indian Mask
There have been some clever and witty deconstructions and parodies of the slasher film in recent years. This starts in with an immediately captivating hook where the title phrase is turned around on the protagonist
The Lurker (2019)
High School Play Slasher Film
Scout Taylor-Compton stars in a slasher about a killer stalking the cast of a high school play. She plays with a professionalism but the rest feels like an amateur production
Aquaslash (2019)
Slasher Film at a Water Park
A French Canadian (Quebec)-made slasher film set around an aqua park. This builds to a memorably gore-drenched finale
The Mortuary Collection (2019)
Horror Anthology
A horror anthology with a mordant sense of humour with Clancy Brown doing a great turn as an octogenarian mortuary attendant who tells several stories of the bodies he has tended
Game Over (2019)
Bollywood Horror
A reality bending Bollywood film in which a wheelchair-ridden woman videogame designer is haunted by mysterious events, although quite what is all about is a very good question
Black Christmas (2019)
Girl’s Dormitory Slasher
A remake of the work that has been cited as the first slasher film. This is less a horror film than a horror film that has been hijacked by a political agenda, delivered with a relentlessly loud and damning misandrist tone
Freaky (2020)
Bodyswap Slasher Film
A slasher film with a novelty (gimmicky?) premise where the Final Girl and the hulking killer of the show end up swapping bodies. Essentially a conceptual mash-between a slasher film and Freaky Friday
Cabal (2020)
Hitman vs Hulking Backwoods Killer
Film from low-budget director Rene Perez where a hitman who wears a beaten steel mask is pitted up against a hulking backwoods killer
Slumber Party Massacre (2021)
Slasher Film
The original feminist slasher film gets the remake treatment with interesting results
Halloween Kills (2021)
Slasher Film
Sequel to the 2018 reboot/sequel to Halloween from David Gordon Greene, this is more scrupulous about paying homage to the original and recapturing something of John Carpenter’s original stylism
Fear Street 1994 (2021)
Slasher Film/R.L. Stine Adaptation
The first of the Fear Street films, somewhat more adult than the usual R.L. Stine adaptations. This can be considered the first Woke era slasher film
Fear Street 1978 (2021)
Slasher Homage/R.L. Stine Adaptation
The second of the R.L. Stine adapted Fear Street films, this one takes the action back to 1978 where it then becomes a vigorous homage to the slasher film
13 Fanboy (2021)
Killer Stalks Friday the 13th Actresses
Slasher film that comes with a great hook – one where various real-life actresses from the Friday the 13th films are stalked by a masked maniac
Terror Train (2022)
Trainboard Slasher
Terror Train starring Jamie Lee Curtis was one of the classics of the original slasher film fad. This is a remake
Halloween Ends (2022)
Slasher Film
David Gordon Green and Jamie Lee Curtis return to round out their highly underwhelming Halloween reboot trilogy. By now, this feels like a Halloween film in name only
Don’t Fuck in the Woods 2 (2022)
Body-Snatching Parasites
Don’t Fuck in the Woods was a reasonably smart slasher film that came with an attention-grabbing title. This is a sequel that introduces body-snatching parasites to the mix
Terror Train 2 (2022)
Trainboard Slasher
Sequel to the remake of the 1980s horror classic, shot back-to-back with its predecessor, this is a better film than the remake was
Scream (2022)
Slasher Sequel Parody/Deconstruction
Following the recent reboot of the Halloween franchise, many of the original cast and a new directorial team resurrect Wes Craven’s Scream franchise in some undeniably appealing ways
Pillow Party Massacre (2023)
Slasher Film
A well made tribute to the 1980s slasher film with characterisations and performances that make much rounded characters than usual
Piglady (2023)
True Crime
A True Crime film where the story of a woman who killed two men and fed their remains to her pigs is essentially turned into a slasher movie
Scream VI (2023)
Slasher Sequel
The sixth entry in a series that began as a smart and clever parody/deconstruction of the slasher film. Now this has become just another teen franchise film that has forgotten all the meta margin notes.
Killer Book Club (2023)
Slasher Film
A Spanish slasher film reminiscent of I Know What You Did Last Summer, albeit rewritten for the Cancel Culture era, where a clown-masked killer eliminates their way through members of a book club
Thanksgiving (2023)
Slasher Film
Eli Roth’s homage to the slasher film that comes with a dark sense of humour and a series of novelty deaths that rival the best of the 80s slasher heyday
It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023)
Slasher Version of It’s a Wonderful Life
The last few years have seen the slasher film conduct some odd conceptual crosshatches – this offers a mash-up between a slasher film and It’s a Wonderful Life
Totally Killer (2023)
Time Travel/Slasher Film
A Blumhouse production that ends up being a smart conceptual mash-up between Back to the Future and Halloween
Kill Her Goats (2023)
Folk Slasher
You could maybe coin the term Folk Slasher for this low-budget film where girls are pursued by chainsaw wielding figures in goat-headed masks. Painfully bad on all counts.
The Mouse Trap (2024)
Mickey Mouse Horror Film
Another of the Mickey Mouse horror films that emerged when the character entered public domain. This features a Mickey Mouse masked killer pursuing teens through an amusement arcade
Horny Teenagers Must Die! (2024)
Slasher Film
A slasher film that certainly grabs your attention with a sensationalistic title. While not without occasional amusements, this is mostly amateurish
Timecut (2024)
Time Travel/Slasher
A time travel film produced by Christopher Landon that has a number of similarities to Totally Killer in which a girl travels back in time to 2003 to prevent her sister being murdered by a serial killer
In a Violent Nature (2024)
Slasher Film
A uniquely original film. Almost an arthouse take on a slasher film where we are placed in the hulking killer’s shoes and the rest of the show takes place in abstract brushstrokes
Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025)
Slasher Film Homage
Follow-up to the R.L. Stine-based Fear Street films of a couple of years back, this conducts a not bad homage to the 1980s slasher film and gets the period setting right
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
Slasher Film
In recent years, we have seen successful revivals of the Scream and Halloween franchises. Now it is the turn of another classic 1990s slasher film, a reworking that emerges with hugely underwhelming results
Shiver Me Timbers (2025)
Popeye Horror Film
In 2025, Popeye entered public domain in the US. As with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, this was immediately greeted with several horror takes on the character. This is one of them – essentially a Popeye slasher film
Mouse of Horrors (2025)
Mickey Mouse Horror
One of several horror films based around Mickey Mouse now that the character has entered into public domain. Here Mickey Mouse is a half-human hybrid slaughtering victims at a deserted fairground
Heart Eyes (2025)
Slasher/Romantic Comedy
This is a film that manages to be both a slasher film and a romantic comedy, two genres that do not at all seem to go together but are made to with undeniably appealing results
Popeye’s Revenge (2025)
Popeye Horror Film
One of several Popeye horror films that were made after the popular comic-strip character came into public domain in 2025. This is essentially Popeye by way of Friday the 13th
Scary Movie (2026)
Genre Spoof
The Wayans Brothers and most of the regulars return to revive the franchise to make more crude farce of the Scream and Halloween revivals and other horror films to come out in the last few years
Scream 7 (2026)
Slasher Sequel
The Scream series drags itself for another sequel but at least performs a course correction by bringing back original screenwriter Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair, along with appearances of many past cast
Trick (2019)
Halloween Killer
In an era where horror has become safe and mainstream, where content is specifically marketed to PG-audiences, this film about a killer that strikes on Halloween comes with a ferocious gore-drenched enthusiasm