If a decade was the pinnacle of the slasher movie, it was the eighties. Born in 1960 by Squeaky Tom and that of Alfred Hitchcock Psycho and solidified with 1978's Halloweenthe slasher has proven to be one of the most financially consistent subgenres in the film industry.
And it was the '80s that proved it time and time again. The vast majority of the decade had a slasher in the top 20 once all was said and done. Even now, in what is undoubtedly the second golden age of slasher and the huge success of such a thing Scream VI or Halloween (2018), which is very difficult to do. All financial information is provided by Box Office Mojo.
10 1980: Friday the 13th
1980 was the year of The Empire strikes back, but there were quite a few horror films that made a financially strong name for themselves. Ironically, the highest scoring, Stanley Kubrick's The shiningwas actually considered something of a box office bomb.
Of course, that movie made its money back hand over foot thanks to rentals, but it wasn't the only big horror movie that made an impression. Most notable is the real biggest success of the year: Friday the 13th. With a domestic haul of $39 million and a shoestring budget, Sean S. Cunningham's masterpiece was a phenomenal success.
9 1981: Halloween II
1981 had a variety of genre pieces in the top 10. Van Superman II Unpleasant stripes with Bill Murray there was great variety. But not one of them was a horror movie, the first came in at number 11.
Particularly John Landis' An American werewolf in London, widely regarded as one of the best horror comedies of all time. The top-grossing slasher of the year came in at number 12 just after: HalloweenII. The legitimately impressive sequel didn't make the money of the original (nor did that same year, arguably superior). Friday the 13th Part 2) but it did well for itself anyway.
8 1982: Friday the 13th part III
Steve Miner's second and final time at the helm of a Friday the 13th movie, Friday the 13th Part III, was an important installment for the franchise. The body count was increased, the kills got a little more elaborate, the tone darker and the antagonist underwent a phenomenal cosmetic change.
In retrospect, it's not surprising Friday the 13th Part III was the film to dethrone ET the alien from its longtime number one position at the box office. But it's impressive nonetheless, and even if the movie's gimmicky 3D technology hasn't aged far, it must still have been awesome to see it on the big screen during the film's original run.
7 1983: Psycho II
Like The Empire strikes back dominated 1980, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi dominated 1983. There wasn't much room for horror, with regretful regrets Jaws 3D take first place and Amityville 3D fall far behind. But Psycho IIperhaps the earliest example of a Legacy Sequel, it made a solid $34.7 million domestically.
Psycho II definitely won the 1983 box office slasher competition for a few reasons. First, it's surprisingly high quality. Second, it features Anthony Perkins reprising his role as Norman Bates. And third, there weren't really any other slashers released that year. Sleep camp came to the cinemas, but the success of that film only came to fruition over time.
6 1984: Friday the 13th: The Last Chapter
by Joseph Zito Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter has the honest reputation of being essentially a John Hughes movie with knives and gore. The cast isn't that far from a cast that could appear in a Hughes movie, with several members - Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman, for example - delivering performances that rank highly in the overall franchise. There are also some very memorable death scenes, with Glover's corkscrew sendoff being a particular highlight. There are also attempts to diversify the story, for example by including Rob, a character whose motives are directly related to a previous episode: Friday the 13th Part II.
It's the franchise that's firing on all cylinders, and while it's not quite as scary as the three films that preceded it, it's a huge success. It also showed a certain amount of resilience from the franchise as it dropped from the highly successful Friday the 13th Part III was negligible compared to the $39.7 million drop from the original to $21.7 million from the first sequel. Specifically, the domestic total fell from $36.7 million to nearly $33 million.
5 1985: Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Even with its glory days undeniably behind it, the Friday the 13th saga secured victory for 1985 with the Jason-free Friday the 13th Part V: A new beginning. What's surprising about this - aside from the film's success despite fan backlash - is the fact that it beat Wes Craven's perfect movie A nightmare on Elm Street. But it wouldn't be long before Freddy got the fiscal upper hand on Jason.
Friday the 13th Part V: A new beginning's only real claim to fame is a high death count, but even that unnecessary number cannot be attributed to Jason, as he is not wearing the mask. In other words, it's a movie that let down its fairly easy-to-please audience, and it should have been the franchise's last breath. But there were still a few drops of gas in the tank.
4 1986: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Unless one counts the Sylvester Stallone-led hardcore action flick Cobra or James Cameron's Aliens ifa butcher, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason lives was the highest-grossing of its kind in 1986. Though audiences turned on the franchise after that A new beginning, they still showed up, just to a gradually diminishing degree. And fewer people showed up for the superior one Jason lives than what they did A new beginning, and there's a chance that its tongue-in-cheek nature will further alienate die-hard fans. At least at the time.
1986 was the last year of Friday the 13th1980s dominance, as audiences around the world caught on to Freddy's more diverse and intelligent bag of tricks. But a doubling of domestic gross profit of Psycho III And A Nightmare at 2 Elm Street: Freddy's Revenge is a great way to go out.
3 1987: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
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One of the greatest financial successes of 1987, that of John McTiernan Predator, could very reasonably be considered an action slasher. Should that be considered, this is the highest-grossing entry of the year in the subgenre. But otherwise it's great from Chuck Russell A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. The film is the final, true showdown in the universe between Nancy Thompson and Freddy Krueger. Wes Craven's new nightmare stood alone as its own thing, so maybe it's time for a long-delayed rematch.
The franchise has stretched the logic, and Nancy artist Heather Langenkamp is ready, so maybe Dream warriorsFinancial success could be an incentive, even more than 35 years later. Its success should also be a positive proof of how beneficial innovation can be. The original film was certainly innovative, but the second sequel is probably even more so. Each death scene is both stunningly creative (e.g. the puppeteer scene or "Welcome to Prime Time") and a gut feeling due to the likeability of the well-written characters.
2 1988: A Nightmare at 4 Elm Street: The Dream Master
Renny Harlins A Nightmare at 4 Elm Street: The Dream Master was a clear sign of his future as a big-budget director. Ironically, 1988 was the year That hard debuted, and it would be the Dream Master director who would helm the sequel two short years later. And the movie is clearly still having some impact, as Harlin will be directing the third installment of The strangers franchise.
The film entered the top 20 of its peak year, ranking higher than films such as The naked gun, Young guns, The wide nature, broadcast newsand even the original Child's play's impressive $33.2 million domestic gross. Since it came out in August, it was one of the closures of the summer, and since the movie plays more like a blockbuster than a low-key slasher, it's not surprising that Harlin's well-directed film performed as well as it did.
1 1989: A Nightmare at 5 Elm Street: The Dream Child
By 1989, the slasher craze had essentially run its course. Both Halloween 5 And Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan failed domestically, marking the temporary end of both A-list franchises. The public was too busy anticipating Tim Burton's Batmanseeing Tim Burton's Batmanor seeing Tim Burton's Batman again.
But it was still Freddy's year, even if A Nightmare at 5 Elm Street: The Dream Childcould hardly be considered a success, either financially or narratively. It has solid special effects and very little else, not to mention the death count that pales in comparison to the films that preceded it. Entry five in a slasher franchise has people coming back for one thing, and a single memorable murder scene isn't enough to get the job done. years 1991 Freddy's Dead: The Last Nightmare would go on to perform better later on, but that's only because there was a certain amount of finality to it.
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