Twisted. Mingled. Ugly. Big. Scary… The history of the monster is full of rich creations of man’s twisted immagination. However, as with most previous entries, there is one commonality with many monsters. I dare even say that some of the greatest monsters of mankind’s imagination have been nothing but human in their essence. Man has always been a major device in the anatomy of monsters. Man has always been the monster of monsters.
Over the following two entries in the Anatomy of Monsters, we will dive into some of the most popular monsters of recent memory. In this particular edition, I will dive into the goriest monsters of them all; the ones equipped with little but a blade or an axe and most often, some sort of a mask. Without further ado, let me dig up some of the human monsters: The Slasher from the slasher sub-genre that was particularly famous during the 80s and 90s but has had roots much older which I will briefly discuss.
Much like vampires, slashers have a long history that is inspired by truly horrible people auch as Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer; both of whom were murderers whose identity was never discovered. Other murderers that inspired the genre are known to the public such as Ed Gein and Danny Rollings. But the most infamous of those is actually a character from a different movie; namely Norman Bates from Psycho: The movie that started it all.
There are many different takes on the slasher, while some borrow from the occult and folktales, others take a more creative turn, and others again take more of a meta approach. However, there are two main things that the slasher character does: They stalk and they murder. And most importantly, it starts with pretty and preppy girls who seem to have a major struggle to make the right choices, or to run.
Jason Voorhees
The Friday the 13th film series started in 1980 and became one of the most-grossing and popular series in the slasher genre. While, in the first film, it is actually Jason’s mother who is the killer, the popularity of Jason immediately took over. He is a tragic villain who was born with physical deformities, and while attending Camp Crystal Lake, he was bullied by the other kids and drowned in the lake. It is the mother, Pamela Voorhees, who attempts to avenge him. However, in the second film, it is revealed that Jason survived and has grown into a feral adult living in the woods near the camp. He avenges his mother’s death by targeting anyone who trespasses the camp.
Jason is a huge human being with a deformed face. And while he is famous for the hockey mask, he originally wears a burlap sack over his head in the 2nd part. It wasn’t until the third film that he dons the hockey mask. Jason uses any weapon to his advantage, but he is most famous for the machete.
Then there is the supernatural element…
Any reader who is familiar with leveling up in video games will understand how the evolution of Jason’s character progresses:
Jason dies.
Jason actually survives and turns feral.
Jason wears the hockey mask.
Jason evolves into an undead being who is nearly invincible.
Much like Jason, the character Michael Myers from the Halloween series presents a very similar slasher-type character. Here are some of the major similarities:
Silent and masked: Both Jason and Michael are silent killers, and they both wear masks that do not show any emotion
Indestructible: Both characters seem to be indestructible. Jason becomes an immortal undead starting with the 4th movie.
Blades weapons: Both Jason and Michael prefer to use bladed weapons; the machete for Jason and the kitchen knife for Michael.
There are many other similarities between the characters, but since Michael Myers does not get a dedicated entry here despite the cultural legacy of the Halloween films, the two characters present something very similar.
Freddy Krueger
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is a supernatural slasher film presenting one of the most popular characters in the slasher genre: Freddy Krueger. Freddy, when he was alive, was a child murderer who escaped justice by a technicality, only to be cornered in a boiler room by the parents of the children he killed and burned alive. There, the nightmare begins, as Freddy makes a deal with dream entities who enable him to gain supernatural powers: He haunts and kills people in their dreams.
Freddy is not a silent slasher. He is in-fact talkative, and often humorous in the darkest way imaginable. Freddy is known for his burnt face, sleazy smirk, and he wears a red-and-green striped sweater, a fedora, and a glove fitted with razor-sharp blades.
Unlike other slashers, Freddy targets his victims when they are dreaming, which makes him a fascinating character, even in a sick way.
Chucky
Chucky is one of the most recognizable slashers in the genre. Like the previous entries, there is a supernatural element to the character as Chucky is not just some malformed doll, but in fact a murderer who inhabits the doll using some voodoo ritual. The murderer is Charles Lee Ray who is a notorious serial killer known as the Lakeshore Strangler. The doll he inhabits is a popular children’s doll called Good Guy. Through the series, the doll becomes the monstrous slasher who haunts people and kills them with enjoyment.
Unlike the previous characters, however, Chucky is not some huge muscular character with intimidating physique, which is perhaps what most unique. He is just an extremely terrifying doll…
Pennywise and the Creeper
While Pennywise and the Creeper are very different characters, they actually have too many similarities that force me to include them both in one entry. Pennywise is the dancing murderous clown from Stephen King’s IT, while the Creeper is a killer from the film series Jeepers Creepers.
Both characters are far more complex than one may admit. While the origins of both characters are shrouded in mystery, there are quite a few similar aspects to them that would define them as super characters. For instance, both characters hibernate, and while Pennywise (or Headlights, or IT) hibernates for 27 years, the Creeper hibernates for 23. When they awaken, they both feed on inhabitants of the towns they live in. Similarly, they both consume parts that they need, and this is where their differences are revealed. Pennywise’s food is fear, therefore, he needs the children whom he can terrify best. The Creeper feeds on certain body parts that he needs to regenerate and enhance his own body.
Another major difference between the two characters is in their appearance: Pennywise often takes the appearance of the Dancing Clown, while the Creeper is a deformed, humanoid character with reptilian-like skin. However, despite those differences, there is a perfectly good explanation for why they are very similar: They both possess supernatural abilities. While the Creeper is more of a physical creature with superhuman strength and speed, in addition to his bat-like wings and sharp claws, Pennywise is more on the psychological side, as he can shape-shift and manipulate minds.
Pennywise is a cosmic entity that arrived on Earth millions of years ago. It does not necessarily portray a slasher in that sense, but as a stalker and a killer, he is very similar to the slasher killer in the genre. The Creeper is a character that is more shrouded in mystery that perhaps we will never get to know much about. But he is a slasher of an unnatural form, similar to a mixture of demons and reptilians.
Ghostface
As we reach the conclusion of this entry, here is my personal favorite character from the slasher genre: Ghostface. Ghostface appears in the Scream series in a different way. The killer is not a particular person, but a bunch of people who don the mask. The film series is perhaps the most important in genre, both reviving it and ending it as it is the most meta of the bunch.
In this particular entry, I feel that it is more appropriate to talk more about the films than the killer. The movies start with a phone call. Someone is calling a girl, he flirts with her, then he tells her that he saw her do this or that by which she is creeped out and threatens to call the police. When she tries to hang up, he gets angry and threatens her. Then, all of a sudden, it is revealed that he is in the house with her. She attempts to run or hide, but she fails in a nearly comical way. The killer wears the Ghostface mask and a black cloak to conceal his identity. Most of the time, he uses a knife and repeatedly stabs the victim. The killer goes on a killing streak, but his ultimate victim is Sydney Prescott who portrays the final girl trope from the genre. Ultimately, the killer(s) is revealed and Sydney survives to tell another tale…
The films play with several topics, such as the unhomely, where the killer is often someone in the close circle of Sydney Prescott. Starting from the second film, it becomes clear that the film plays with the meta-aspect of storytelling, as within the film, the college students form a film club and start talking about characters from the slasher genre… Moreover, the fictitious film Stab is a film that fictionalizes the events of the first film in the second film… How brilliant!
The Ghostface Mask
Unlike the previous entries, the slasher is not a single person, but there are several people through the Scream series that don the mask. The mask is inspired by Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream (1893) and actually predates the series as it was designed as a Halloween costume by Fun World and dubbed “The Peanut-eyed Ghost.” The mask was then used by the production to be the iconic villain’s mask.
Unlike previous entries too, the slasher has no supernatural abilities. The slasher in the series is a normal human being who wears a mask, carries a knife, and uses a voice modulator to conceal their real voice.
Scream reinvented the genre in many ways. It breathed a new life in a declining genre, and continues to do so with its most recent film. Additionally, it has inspired films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Fear Street trilogy, and series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Slasher, in addition to parodies like Scary Movie.
In the following entry of this series, it is the season of the witch… Stay in the light, stay tuned!
Written by Amr Abbas.
Cover illustration by Jaro Mettinisson.
Jason Voorhees by Tom Hilton.
Freddy Krueger by Miguel Mendez.
Chucky by Martin Thomas.
Pennywise by The Disney Chubs.
Ghostface by Annie Graves.