Friday the 13th (1980)

When it comes to cult classics, the horror genre has always had an overwhelming number of B-movies. Horror B-movies refer to the low-budget feature films as compared to major feature films. One might call them “low-grade” cinema as opposed to the more artistic endeavours, but I’d refrain from saying that. The horror B-movie is a source of unbridled entertainment and for the fans of spooky business, it’s the perfect way to round out Halloween night or any night in which they’re in the mood for horror. Usually characterized by a somewhat loose storyline, sometimes some quite silly characters, a little over-the-top acting and a bunch of practical effects, horror B-movies used to rule the world of horror during the ’70s and ’80s with franchises like Friday the 13, Slumber Party Massacre and Halloween.

But since the late '90s, with big-budget horror films like End of Days and Hollow Man, the focus has shifted from the horror B-movie. We now have major horror features like It and Midsommar and every year, there are almost ceremonial releases from the studio A24 which gave us The Witch and Hereditary. This year itself, Ti West's X and Jordan Peele’s Nope came out, which are far from being horror B-movies. But that being said, it’s only the focus that has shifted because we still have horror B-movies being made. If you enjoy the bizarre, less refined and entertaining world of the horror B-movies and want a break from the nuanced and poignant big-budget horror releases, I have a list of gore-fests from the last ten years to enjoy this October. Here are fifteen films for the fifteen days that remain till the auspicious date of Halloween!

The biggest subcategory of horror B-movies by percentage is the slasher film. Almost overdone violence and heavy reliance on practical effects as opposed to CGI characterize the slasher. And of course, the heavily criticized but also equally loved trope of the final girl is a slasher staple. Some of the most gruesome on-screen deaths have been courtesy of the slasher horror B-movie and I’m here to offer you some more horrible killings. If gore makes you queasy, you may consider skipping this segment.

LGBTQ+ conversion therapy is a sensitive subject matter, and for first-time director and three-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Logan, it’s a personal topic. However, They/Them, which is a passion project he wrote during the lockdown and subsequently directed, loses some of its prominence because it’s made as a slasher. That is not a general statement, however, because as Vince A. Liaguno observes here:

So what about They/Them being a slasher film makes it not as compelling as it could be? Before I get into that, I want to make an observation about the conversion therapy films I personally love and the various tones they adopted.

The first that comes to mind is the RuPaul and Natasha Lyonne starrer But I’m a Cheerleader. It came out 22 years ago and is still one of the most openly confrontational and relevant works against conversion therapy. However, it delivers the commentary through comedy. Anyone with a taste for dark jokes will fall in love with the light-heartedness with which the film deals with the grim reality of conversion therapy. Another much more recent film is The Miseducation of Cameron Post directed by Desiree Akhavan. It’s an intense coming-of-age drama that chooses to dwell on the terrifying nature of conversion therapy and culminates in a climax that feels like a much needed breath after a series of tortuous exercises at the hands of bigots. The film Boy Erased also falls in the same sub-genre of drama. Finally, there’s the documentary format. Pray Away was released last year and is a documentary about the infamous Exodus International. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.

There are other films too, some comic, some dramatic, some documentaries, but I haven’t seen any conversion therapy films which are also slashers, which is strange, given the slasher film’s formulaic approach in the 80’s of being set in campsites. Think Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13, Madman,  among others. So, when They/Them was announced, I was really excited to watch it the moment it came out, pun intended. It’s also Kevin Bacon’s return to the slasher genre. However, after watching it, They/Them falls short because it’s a slasher and here’s why I think that is:

TW: Transphobia, Sexual Assualt, Violence, Misogyny // Spoilers for Sleepaway Camp ahead

We [meaning mainly the girls, the gays, and the theys] all love a good revenge film — Jennifer’s Body, Ms. 45, Carrie, and the new addition to the canon: Promising Young Woman. All the films feature a woman who enacts her own version of justice against those who are not being punished for a heinous crime — normally upholders of oppression like sexual assaulters. Though violent, sometimes exploitative, and not usually having a happy ending for the femme protagonists, at the center of these stories are questions about how justice truly functions in our society. As we’ve seen post #metoo, industries have slowed in making progress and even the so-called damaging “cancel culture” has not removed most abusers from their platforms. In this subgenre, fantasy and catharsis intertwine as one where we can escape to an alternate reality where the oppressed play karma in making those who killed our soul suffer in response. Though it does not fix the structural roots and usually punishes the women in the finale, the everlasting images are an escapist fantasy where related audience can feel sublime satisfaction that only comes with pure vengeance. That’s why we [see previous] love them.

For anyone who is not a cis white woman, a justice-fueled murderous rampage is not framed as liberation. Instead, they contribute to harsh stereotypes that vilify minority women with dangerous consequences. Particularly, trans women have been coded as serial killers for decades — especially since, possibly the most famous horror film ever, Psycho. The trope has expanded since then where explicitly or implicitly coded trans serial killers have made up some of the most well-known villains in horror and cinema history: including Leatherface, Bobbi, and, worst of all, Buffalo Bill. The most explicit — and “coincidentally” the most egregious, in my opinion — is the 1983 B-movie Sleepaway Camp. The protagonist is revealed to be trans, forced into being a girl by the eccentric aunt she is sent to live with after a freak boating accident kills both her sister and father. She goes on a killing rampage murdering all the bullies who torment and do her wrong during her time there. When Carrie did this to her classmates, there was a certain sympathetic tone to her atrocities. There’s even a clear case of justification for her murderous escapade. She, however, has never been referred to as a serial killer in cinematic discourse but more as something closer to a misunderstood superhero. For trans women in media, their perception and representation are completely different with grave consequences. Historically, when they have been shown in mainstream media, there is an association of fear, intense violence against women, and an issue of severe psychological trauma on part of the trans character. Cis white women from Carrie to Cassie are given the guise of innocence and retaliation while trans women are stereotyped into monstrous creatures more often than not.