We’ve all seen or know of the horror films out there where there is some iconic bad guy. They have made it into popular culture, even if people don’t know the movies, they know who Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees are and know about their films, the Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th.

So what makes those characters so Iconic and more, like Pinhead from the Hellraiser films, Pennywise from IT, etc?

I think that the starting spot is the look. Michael Myers has his mask, Voorhees his hockey mask, Freddy Krueger his gloves, and more. Each of these slashers or monsters has their very specific look to them and that’s going to make it stick out in your head more and be more memorable. And while there was something that it stick out in memories, they weren’t extremely over the top in their outfits with the exception of Hellraiser and Pinhead, but even his was more muted in tones. I think something that feels reasonable makes it stand out more with the parts that aren’t reasonable.

I think that a lot of them too hit about the right time for something like that. If you look at the iconic horror movie slashers, Halloween was made in 1978, Friday the 13th was made in 1980, A Nightmare on Elm Street was made in 1984. There was a peak time for these horror films that really made them stick out. Now, what the reason for that is, I’m not sure. But there is something about the 80’s horror icons that really stand out compared to a lot of the newer ones. It’s tough to put your finger on it, but I think the newer ones either go too light, in that they are shooting for a PG/PG-13 rating or delve too much into the R rating. The 80’s horror films definitely have horror, but there is some bit of camp to them.

And I would say that’s another thing, and might be why it works from the 80’s and less so now. But the movies having camp to them just a bit, makes it more iconic as well. It can’t be an intentionally campy movie. If it’s too obvious that the movie is trying to be campy, the slasher might get recognized for a little bit, but generally the movies don’t have as much staying power. None of the big three, or even the earlier Hellraiser films (later ones intentionally campy) are attempting to be campy, there is just something about them that allows them to blend horror and that campiness really well. I think some of it is budget, and I think some of it is technology. No matter how large budget or how much effort they put into making it feel horrific, it was never going to look like real life, so it was always going to be just a little bit off, which oddly enough, I think makes them stand the test of time and be memorable.

I think the final question to ask, and I’m not sure I know the answer to this, would it be possible for there to be a modern iconic slasher. Now, there have been good modern horror slasher films, and a lot of bad ones, and don’t think that in the 80’s there aren’t a lot of bad ones as well, but what would it take and would it be possible, to have a modern horror slasher film spawn a series the way that Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween have? And even those iconic ones as remakes really didn’t capture the same feel. The closest that I can see are the Saw films. Though, I’m not sure that I consider Jigsaw to be a slasher, but that started with a kind of absurd premise that took itself seriously, but overall couldn’t be actually taken that seriously. And even with those, I feel like Jigsaw wasn’t the iconic piece to it, like Freddy or Jason on to their franchises, but it was the traps and the puzzle horror.

So, what are your thoughts, what makes in iconic slasher? Is it possible to have an iconic slasher created like we had with Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers again?

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