Posts Tagged ‘Slasher Search’
Monday, October 26th, 2026
BLOOD FRENZY (1987) was a perfect Slasher Search suggestion from Mr. Majestyk. It’s exactly the type of movie I was digging through for years and I don’t know how I missed it, since it’s one of the remaining VHS tapes in the “Stalkers and Slashers” section at Scarecrow Video. My only guess is maybe I was scared off by the story credit for Ray Dennis Steckler. But also I really don’t know that guy’s movies so I maybe would’ve had to be mixing him up with Jim Wynorski or somebody.
Anyway I would classify it as a bad movie, but the type of bad movie that brings me comfort. It’s shot without any grace or sense of style, in a bland location, and most of the cast either read the lines like they’re not clear which word to emphasize in any given sentence, or like they’re a hungry community theater actor throwing their entire being into every squint or turn of the head. Each of their characters is introduced with one psychological condition that determines most of what they do in the movie. There’s not much thought of doing anything else with them. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Hal Freeman, Hank Garrett, Lisa Loring, Ray Dennis Steckler, Slasher Search, slashers, Ted Newsom, Wendy MacDonald, whodunit slashers
Posted in Reviews, Horror | 7 Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2026
Here we go with another October, and another struggle to continue the tradition of Slasher Search in some way. The shadowy corners of the shelves have been excavated, the bottoms of the barrels have been scraped squeaky clean, and I don’t know where else to look for vintage slasher movie gold that’s still obscure. If there’s any of the kind of stuff I was looking for left undiscovered, the boutique blu-ray labels are better at finding it than I am. So I’m not really searching for slashers as much as I’m searching for new approaches to Slasher Search.
This year the answer came in a comment from “Dan the Man” on my FACES OF DEATH (2026) review:
“Very long time reader, first time commenter. I have scoured the site and as far as I can tell you’ve never reviewed the French slasher film Orgoff. Slasher Search must continue!”
I had maybe seen the title before, but didn’t know what it was, so I figured this is what I’ll do this year: all requests. If you suggest a movie that I haven’t heard of or at least seems obscure, and I can find it, I will try to review it. (Please try to make it slasher or slasher adjacent and preferably not well known enough to be released on blu-ray.) CJ Holden has already recommended a few more, and I invite you all to add any others in the comments.
Upon further research I learned that Bleeding Skull Video is about to release the first blu-ray of OGROFF, calling it “the zenith of accidental avant-garde horror.” That’s a label that goes for only the most underground of movies (usually shot on video), and it’s currently only up for pre-order, so I’ll say Dan the Man made it just under the wire for OGROFF to be considered eligible for Slasher Search. Theirs is sourced from “the newly discovered U-matic tape masters,” and I don’t know what that means other than it will look better than the Videonomicon dvd I rented. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: French horror, Howard Vernon, Norbert Moutier, regional horror, slasher, Slasher Search
Posted in Reviews, Horror | 22 Comments »
Wednesday, October 29th, 2025
Slasher Search: A New Beginning: Stream Warriors: The Next Generation – Part I: Shudder
So, a few years ago I conceded that I have to change the rules if I’m gonna continue my Halloween tradition of searching for unknown slasher gems. I don’t think there’s much in the way of obscure vintage shit I haven’t come across, and if there is I’ll probly only find out about it when Vinegar Syndrome or somebody releases it on blu-ray (maybe even 4K).
But many of you seem to enjoy the ritual as much as I do, so I’m trying my best to do some variation on it, and the most realistic approach seems to be checking for newer slasher-ish movies on streaming services. When it comes to Tubi, the trick is digging through a million horror movies you never heard of trying to find the good ones. I plan to do some of that soon (probly after the holiday, sorry), but this month I’ve mostly been using the actual curated horror service, Shudder. So here’s an investigation of a trio I watched that are in the slasher tradition.
(read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Brandon Christensen, Fred Olen Ray, Jay Baruchel, Jesse Williams, Jessica Clement, Jordana Brewster, Linnea Quigley, Niamh Wilson, Ryan Robbins, Shudder, Slasher Search, slashers, Summer H. Howell
Posted in Reviews | 6 Comments »
Thursday, October 10th, 2024
A couple years ago, you may remember, I was kind of giving up on my Slasher Search tradition, because the pickings were getting really slim when it came to the type of undiscovered ‘80s slasher I was looking for. Some of you talked me into broadening or adjusting the criteria, so I’ve been experimenting with the mostly more modern horror obscurities that can be found scrolling through the horror sections on Tubi and similar free streaming services. That’s been going okay so far, so I’ll try dipping in a little again this year and see what happens.
For today’s special programming I tried out two movies that stretch the definition of “slasher,” but they seem at least tangentially related to supernatural slashers like Freddy and Candyman. Or at least one of them has Tony Todd in it. Okay, these are not really slashers, they’re action horror. Instead of a final girl running from a killer they have a martial artist who falls into monster troubles and has to fight.
HELLKAT (2021) stars Sarah T. Cohen (EASTER BUNNY MASSACRE) as Katrina “HellKat” Bash, a former champion fighter who, after a career ending loss, goes on a road trip, gets stranded, finds herself at a mysterious bar with an unholy secret. I was a little worried when Katrina’s “fall from grace” in the ring was depicted with voiceover only, no fighting seen. No ring. Then some pretty rough green screen driving and cg smoke. But that’s okay. That’s what we’re dealing with. Cohen at least has a good tough girl presence to go with her neck tattoos, chainsmoking, fishnets and Doc Martens. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Adrian Bouchet, Andrea Langi, Becca Hirani, Bill Hinzman, Carla Greene, Derek Wan, Erin Brown, Media Blasters, Michael Gingold, Michael Quinlan, Nina Hodoruk, Richard Siegel, Ryan Davies, Sarah T. Cohen, Scott Chambers, Slasher Search, Tony Leung Siu Hung, Tony Todd, Vernon Reid, women in prison, zombies
Posted in Reviews, Horror | 31 Comments »
Monday, November 7th, 2022
THE DEADLY INTRUDER (1985) is not a very good horror movie, but it’s a pretty good Slasher Search find. It’s an obscure only-on-VHS one from not-prolific filmmakers, but watchable due to okay production values, competent acting, a catchy synth score by director John McCauley (whose only other directing credit is a 1976 snake movie called RATTLERS), and a pretty fun (but very easy to see coming) twist. It’s fairly low rent, but it does have a Hollywood veteran (Stuart Whitman, EATEN ALIVE, THE WHITE BUFFALO) as the police chief and a TV star (Danny Bonaduce, H.O.T.S.) as one of the main characters, so I’m sure it fulfilled its modest intent of putting those names on the ads, circulating drive-ins for a while, and making a few bucks from people with nothing else to do.
It uses the most generic premise of post-HALLOWEEN slashers: a maniac has escaped from a mental hospital and is on a killing spree that intersects with the lives of random residents of a small town. They don’t bother with any type of holiday, anniversary or backstory besides some cops saying he killed his wife and kid. He escapes at night, and the next morning he walks up to a random house and murders a woman (a disturbing and sleazy scene where her breasts pop out of her bathrobe as he dunks her head in the kitchen sink) and steals some clothes. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Ben Dover, Christopher Holder, Danny Bonaduce, Molly Cheek, slasher, Slasher Search, Stuart Whitman, Tony Crupi
Posted in Horror, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2022
“Motherfucker, there are coffins in the basement!”
SAVAGE LUST (1989) is a terrible title, and I’m not gonna claim the movie is much better. But as far as a first Slasher Search title of ’22 – and maybe the last if I can’t find anything else that seems to fit the bill – it’s surprisingly watchable. I got through it in one sitting!
This is not an official announcement of an ending to Slasher Search – just a realistic assessment that there aren’t many more of what I’m searching for out there. So I’ll share them with you when I find them, but I hope you won’t be disappointed if they end up being few and far between.
I’ll always be open to recommendations for good slashers and other horror I’ve missed from any era. But the idea of Slasher Search is to discover things too obscure to be recommended to me. But the window for finding vintage slasher movies that I haven’t already seen, and that haven’t already been dug up by somebody else, gets narrower by the week. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Clark Tufts, Greg Rhodes, Jennifer Delora, Jerry Kernion, Jose Ramon Larraz, Slasher Search, slashers, William Russell
Posted in Horror, Reviews | 21 Comments »
Monday, November 15th, 2021
I think you can see why I’d assume a movie called MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE would qualify as a slasher movie, or at least a chopper movie. Surprisingly, if there is a meatcleaver anywhere in the movie I missed it. There is a massacre, but it’s the inciting incident, and the story is about a series of killings to avenge the massacre. I’m using title on the VHS box, but the opening credits expand it to THE HOLLYWOOD MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE, and it does indeed take place in Hollywood. So at least one third, arguably two thirds of the title is accurate in that iteration.
It’s from 1977, before the slasher craze took off, and it’s about a supernatural force killing people, but there are definitely some parallels to A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, so if that counts as a slasher maybe this could too. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Christopher Lee, Doug Senior, Ed Wood, Guerdon Trueblood, Paul Kelleher, Ray Atherton, Slasher Search
Posted in Horror, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Thursday, November 4th, 2021
THE SLEEPING CAR (1990) is not exactly a slasher movie, but because it says “Forget Freddy. Forget Jason. Here Comes The Mister!” on the cover it officially qualifies for Slasher Search. Congratulations, THE SLEEPING CAR!
When I saw that title I thought, “huh?” but then I saw the train on the cover and I thought oh, I get it, not a passed out automobile, but the place on a train where you sleep. Okay. I’ll go with it. Actually, this looks kinda good.
But it does not open promisingly. Some guy is making out with some woman in a train car. She strips down to her historical panties and giant boobs and they giggle and make out while the score by Ray Colcord (My Two Dads, AMITYVILLE DOLLHOUSE) erupts into erotic saxophone. The engineer (John Carl Buechler, director of FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE NEW BLOOD) comes in and yells at the guy to stop fornicating and do his job. He chooses instead to continue with the fornicating, and then the engineer jumps off the train right before it crashes head on with another train and then he yells into the sky like newly minted Darth Vader when he finds out Padme is dead. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: David Naughton, Douglas Curtis, Ernestine Mercer, Gary Brockette, Greg Collins O'Neill, Jeff Conaway, John Carl Buechler, Judie Aronson, Kevin McCarthy, Nicole Hansen, Ray Colcord, Slasher Search, VHS
Posted in Horror, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Thursday, October 21st, 2021
“I don’t want to go out like that. I mean, when I die I wanna look pretty, I want to go down into the ground clean, one piece.”
Sometimes a good movie producer is a mastermind. Other times they don’t have an artistic vision themselves, but they have an eye for up and coming talent, for how to nurture them, give them opportunities to shine, protect them, help them bring their vision to life. Maybe Moustapha Akkad was one or all of those things, or maybe he just got really fuckin lucky and the kid he chose to direct “The Babysitter Murders” happened to be a genius who turned the gig into HALLOWEEN, a timeless horror masterpiece and the highest grossing independent movie of all time. I have no idea.
Whatever Akkad’s deal was, he never hit another one out of the park like the first HALLOWEEN. Eight of his twelve credits are on HALLOWEEN movies, none of them half as good as Carpenter’s. But I didn’t know what to expect from his one non-HALLOWEEN horror production, 1985’s APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Alan Smithee, Andrea Saparoff, Bruce Meade, Danny Dayton, Deborah Voorhees, Douglas Rowe, Fairlight CMI, Garrick Dowhen, Kerry Remsen, Malek Akkad, Michael Wyle, Michele Little, Mike Gomez, Moustapha Akkad, Nicholas von Sternberg, Ramzi Thomas, Slasher Search, Vincent Barbour
Posted in Horror, Reviews | 29 Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2020
THE MAN NEXT DOOR is a 1997 film that only came out on VHS. The cover has a big skull, a scary house and a very dated font choice. It’s written and directed by Rod C. Spence, known for his raw suspense. Or perhaps he’s known for editing 2000s reality TV shows like Survivor, The Apprentice, American Chopper and Jersey Shore, which he did for a while after this (and his websight says he writes screenplays and novels).
It was released as part of First Rites, which was an imprint from Hollywood Video (the biggest American video store chain besides Blockbuster) for low budget independent movies from new directors. Showcasing new voices or whatever. It fascinates me because it doesn’t seem to me like they would earn any more money from having THE MAN NEXT DOOR available than just having more copies of CON AIR or whatever. With some research I learned that it was someone else’s deal that partnered with Hollywood in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada, but still, there must’ve been someone within the shitty corporate structure of Hollywood Video that really believed in this mission and convinced someone to get behind it. That’s pretty cool. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: David Huddleston, First Rites, Rod C. Spence, Slasher Search, Virginia Mayo, Zero External Reviews on IMDb
Posted in Reviews, Horror | 5 Comments »
