When it comes to horror subgenres, slasher films have been one of the most popular and enduring. The genre's various films like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Scream have legions of fans. Despite featuring monstrous villains who do not have the same sympathy as the Universal Monsters, they have become pop icons and are seen every year at Halloween and on merchandise year-round.

These films are typically the favorite of a younger audience, as they tap into the unseen darkness hiding in the shadows as well as featuring plenty of nudity and bloodshed that makes for a cinematic experience. Many slasher films have also been criticized by more conservative audiences, typically parents in the 1980s or audiences who did not grow up with them, for glorifying acts that are typically frowned upon.

Yet despite all the violence, profanity, and sex in slasher films, the slasher films do tend to align with some form of traditional conservative thought process. How does a genre, typically aimed at younger teens, end up enforcing traditional family values, and what does it say about slasher movies? Audiences looking deeper at the themes and actions of the films may find an unintentional message of upholding traditional societal structures. While these villains are trapped in darkness, they are also instruments to remind young people to stay on the proper path.

The Rules

Drew Barrymore Scream
Dimension Films

1996's Scream was a meta-commentary on the slasher genre and was able to put into simple precise words the tropes of the slasher genre, based on who lives and dies. Called the rules to survive a horror movie they are as follows: Number one — you cannot have sex. Number two — you can never drink or do drugs for as the film explains it is an extension of number one and is specifically labeled the sin factor. Number three — never saying "I'll be right back."

Related: How Slasher Films Created a New American Monster Folklore

In slasher movies, characters that partake in sex, drinking, or drugs are often the victims of masked killers. The sin factor as Scream explains is notable in that these characters are being punished for their sins. They partook in pre-martial sex, underage drinking, and illegal drug use and are therefore acceptable to be killed for they are not "pure" which is in contrast to the final girl.

The final girl trope is a staple of slasher films and as the name suggests typically involves a single female hero who the movie frames as the innocent one. She is often naive, follows the rules, and is coded as a virgin. This character followed the traditional conservative rules about chastity and is considered worthy to live. They remained pure while their friends were sinful and worthy of sacrifice. Myths and fables have often been used to persuade young viewers to follow the rules, and the slasher genre is just an extension of that same old practice that The Brothers Grimm used.

Slashers as Religious Weapons

Freddy Krueger in church in Nightmare on Elm Street 5 Dream Child
New Line Cinema

Slasher films were quite popular, which meant even more sequels and in those sequels, the origins and powers behind many of these supernatural killers are explained. One notable aspect that characters like Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, and Chucky all share is some sort of religious connection, but are ones that are demonized for being non-Christian.

The Cult of Thorn in the Halloween franchise has connections to paganism, while Chucky is given new life due to a voodoo chant. Freddy Krueger's mother Amanda Krueger was a nun, who was sexually assaulted by multiple patients at an asylum, making him the result of an assault on a holy figure. He then makes a deal with dream demons to gain his powers, making him a direct agent for the forces of hell and an affront to traditional religious values.

Films like Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday and Freddy VS. Jason make this religious connection explicit, showcasing the characters as demonic and serving time in hell. They are weapons of a darker force at play. Religious audiences may not see these horror icons as keeping with their values, but there is an unspoken connection.

Shifting Eras

Pearl with an Axe in X
A24

The slasher genre was kicked off by Halloween in 1978 and really exploded in popularity in the 1980s due to franchises like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, and Child's Play just to name a few. While these genres were typically aimed at young teenagers, they were being made by adults in their 40s. Wes Craven was 45 when he wrote and directed A Nightmare On Elm Street and Sean S. Cunningham was 41 when Friday the 13th was released.

Related: Ti West's X and Pearl: How the Two Perfectly Complement Each Other

These filmmakers were born before the official start of the Baby Boomer generation, and while they had some overlap with the new age era of the 1960s including the sexual revolution and drug experimentation, it is likely they still held some of their more conservative upbringings with them that came out in their work intentional or not. Slasher films have a slight resentment towards young people, and the weapon-wielding monsters tend to act as avatars for the frustration of a previous generation.

The resentment of the older generation toward those younger than them is explicitly made in 2022's dual releases of X and Pearl by filmmaker Ti West. X showcases an elderly couple tormenting a group of young people in the 1970s, jealous and bitter towards the new sexual freedom they are allowed which was denied to them. Pearl goes and tells the origin story of this couple, and what was denied to them. Pearl (Mia Goth in both films) is resentful of the life she was denied, and as she has gotten older now has become bitter, and vengeful and will take it out on everyone. The villains punish the victims for the sheer crime of being young, and for deciding their own path.