Fact or Fiction: Classic ’80s Slasher Films

From Friday the 13th to The Slumber Party Massacre, the golden age of slasher movies exploded during the 1980s. Some of the best slasher movies ever created happened within a single decade. This includes a mixture of cult classic horror films, serial killer horror films, and horror films starring a masked killer chasing around the final girl throughout the entire film.

The final girls in slasher movies are always the last girl that survives the serial killer in order to tell the true story of the events that happened. Sometimes, the final girl will get her revenge and kill the masked killer. This has now become one of horror’s most well-known tropes.

Besides the classic horror movie story where the serial killer or masked killer gets an ending, the slasher film introduced fans to killers being almost immortal and always coming back for another film.

Do you know enough about the ’80s slasher movies to be able to tell fact from fiction?

slasher films

Slasher films are horror movies usually featuring a rugged, resilient, merciless killer murdering a bunch of people using a knife or some kind of bladed weapon. The subgenre of horror films became very popular in the '80s when iconic films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Halloween, and Friday the 13th were released.

But for every slasher film that made it big at the box office, there were 50 more just like them, normally on a smaller budget. Some of them have become cult classics as they have built a fan following over the decades. These slasher films almost always feature a young woman — aka the final girl — in the lead role who survives the masked killer and lives to tell the story.

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Question 1/10

Prom Night (Choose the answer that is true.)

Leslie Nielsen played Kim's father in the first, and only, serious role of his entire career.
The movie was filmed at an abandoned high school in Canada, which left the young cast plenty of time to spend together and become close friends off the set.
Prom Night had issues getting financed and was nearly canceled until Jamie Lee Curtis was signed on to the film.
Prom Night was not a big hit upon its first release but it became a huge box office smash when it was re-released on its' 10th anniversary.

Question 2/10

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Choose the answer that is true.)

Wes Craven came up with the idea for A Nightmare on Elm Street after remembering being a child and reading about Vietnam refugees who fled to America to escape the genocide war in Cambodia. The refugees suffered so much trauma that they refused to sleep to avoid the nightmares.
New Line Cinema almost produced the film but ended up struggling financially and backing out of the production side of the movie.
Freddy Krueger had a disfigured face because Wes Craven wanted him to look like he had been through hell and back.
While he was writing the script, one of Wes Craven's annoying neighbors would constantly interrupt him, invite himself over, and never leave. The neighbor's name was Fred Kruger.

Question 3/10

Friday the 13th (Choose the answer that is true.)

Friday the 13th was the directorial debut for Sean S. Cunningham, who is now best known for producing some of the bloodiest horror films ever.
Jason Voorhees is shown in the film's very first scene.
Farrah Fawcett-Majors turned down the role of Alice Hardy after being the first person it was offered to.
Director Sean S. Cunningham said that for the actors playing the teenagers at the camp, he only wanted "good-looking kids who you might see in a Pepsi commercial."

Question 4/10

Sleepaway Camp (Choose the answer that is true.)

The film's original tagline, "You'll go there on a bus...and come back in a bag," was considered too offensive for movie posters and was changed just days before the film's release.
The incredible twist ending in Sleepaway Camp was actually created during the first day of filming when they quickly fell behind schedule and had to throw out most of their storyboards.
Someone stole Paul's (Christopher Collet) latex prop head shortly after filming had ended.
Because the movie was filmed in the fall, the leaves and grass needed to be spray painted every day to make it still look like summertime in the movie.

Question 5/10

Child's Play (Choose the answer that is true.)

In the original script, Chucky was supposed to be killed off in the opening scene, leaving the rest of the film to feature a ghost of the boy's toy, but this idea was later axed.
The original title for Child's Play was actually Batteries Not Included. But, as bad luck would have it, Steven Spielberg was actually filming a movie with the same name at the same time so they had to change it.
The toys shown on the shelves of the toy store early on in the film were popular toys like Barbie dolls and Ecto-1 but with different names on the boxes.
The film takes place over the course of four months.

Question 6/10

My Bloody Valentine (Choose the answer that is true.)

The mines used in the film were in Siskiyou County and Calaveras County in California.
After the MPAA cut nine minutes from the film that featured too much violence and gore, they eventually allowed it back into the film shortly after its initial release.
In order to get a true reaction when the killer was revealed, the crew kept the killer's identity secret from the actors until they shot that final scene.
T.J. Hanniger's car in the film was a 1975 Mazda RX-7.

Question 7/10

Halloween II (Choose the answer that is true.)

John Carpenter wanted to direct the sequel, but Universal Pictures wanted to use Rick Rosenthal and give the film a different perspective.
Seven different actors were used to play Michael Myers throughout the filming of Halloween II.
All of the killings in this film happened on Halloween night.
Before they decided to use Haddonfield Hospital as the film's setting, it was actually going to take place in a high-rise apartment building.

Question 8/10

The House on Sorority Row (Choose the answer that is true.)

Director Mark Rosman filmed all of the bloody endings to each death in the backyard of his parents' home during editing.
Harley Jane Kozak, who later starred in films like Arachnophobia, Parenthood, and Necessary Roughness, was originally hired to be Katherine Rose but was moved to Diane after Mark Rosman came across Kathryn McNeil's audition tape.
The movie was filmed on the campuses of Georgetown University and St. John's.
The rock band that performed at the party in the film had no name but would later be known as Motley Crue.

Question 9/10

The Slumber Party Massacre (Choose the answer that is true.)

To get the overhead shots in the gym before Linda's attack, the crew borrowed a camera crane from a local public access network.
All of the people killed in the movie were murdered off-screen, but much of the fighting that led up to it was shown.
Feminist activist Rita Mae Brown wrote the original script as a parody slasher film, but it was later changed against her wishes and turned into a classic slasher movie.
After filming for nearly two months, the director, Amy Holden Jones, was not pleased with most of the film and spent another three months editing and reshooting it.

Question 10/10

The Hills Have Eyes Part II (Choose the answer that is true.)

Wes Craven defended The Hills Have Eyes Part II because he knew they would never have enough money to finish yet still found a way to fill in the blanks left after filming ceased.
The Reaper was the first cannibal ever shown on film eating his victims.
Because of how awful the film was, Wes Craven has since failed to discuss it and often pretends as if the film never existed.
This is one of the few times in cinema history where we get to see a dog having a flashback.

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Fact or Fiction: Classic ’80s Slasher Films