Does The Slasher Genre Need To Be Elevated?

gamerant.com:

Thanks to Tara Carpenter's love of elevated horror movies, Jenna Ortega's Scream (2022) character started a debate about the purpose of scary films. For some people, horror should always be smart, sophisticated, and meaningful. In their eyes, movies like Hereditary, Get Out, Midsommar, The Lighthouse, and The Babadook are the best that the genre has to offer as they tell horrifying stories that are about something real. For others, fun slashers like Friday the 13th, the Halloween series, and of course, the Scream franchise, are better.

Of course, there's no clear winner here and fans will always have their own opinions. But when it comes to the slasher genre in particular, do all of these films need to be elevated? It's definitely an interesting question.

Iconic Horror Movies That Elevated Genre Tropes

When horror fans think about the best and most famous slasher films of the past couple of decades, Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), Scream (1996), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), and X (2022) stand out. There are so many fun and entertaining movies in this subgenre, from slasher movies that deconstruct the genre like The Cabin in the Woods (2011) and comedies like Happy Death Day (2017). This is a beloved and celebrated genre that isn't going anywhere anytime soon, especially since there are remakes and reboots all the time, from Netflix's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) to the Halloween trilogy.

What defines a slasher movie? A villain/killer uses a weapon to murder people, sometimes people they know, sometimes people they don't. There are often groups of friends and there is always a final girl. By this definition, it doesn't feel like these types of movies need to be