Slashers and me

Final Girl throws open the floor for discussion of slasher horror flicks. It's a great post and you should go read it. It also got me thinking about the horror film subgenre of the slasher films best represented by the Halloween and Friday the 13th series. (UPDATE: Kevin at Dark, But Shining has a great post on the 25th anniversary of the first Friday the 13th movie.) I always preferred Michael over Jason though it's a toss up. Possibly the continuity -- what there is -- in the Halloween series tips the weight in Michael's favor. So much is discussed about the subconscious message of sexual teen fears. But there's so many more layers to the slasher flicks than that. For example, one could see the slaying done by the killers as representing the viewers' own remorseless and senseless work routines. Certainly there's been times when I've felt I just had to put my head down and carry on with my routine no matter how elusive the goal or the obstacles thrown in my way. So there's an identification with the killers on that level. Or perhaps, I've said too much and you're already on the phone with the authorities to trace my computer's location. Have no fear. The police already know my location and visited many times. We all have our jobs to perform after all. The other aspect of the slasher flicks of the late 1970s and early 1980s can be seen as a way of Americans trying to come to grips with the horrors of the Vietnam War. Saigon had just fallen in 1975 after 11 years of ever futile killing and destruction. That horror was followed by a red swath of horror flicks filled with blood and gore and mindless terror and violence. Coincidence?