Editorials
‘The Slumber Party Massacre’: Slashing the Patriarchy
Knife wielding killers, synth scores, and premarital sex are the language of slasher films. Rising to popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this subgenre of horror is known for its violent and exploitative nature. Films like Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre helped create the formula, and ever since films have been copying, subverting, and reinventing the form. Amy Holden Jones’s 1982 film The Slumber Party Massacre dissects the slasher with feminist ferocity, commenting on the misogyny of slasher films as well as the generally male dominated genre.
As the film begins, the audience is informed that a mass murderer has escaped from prison. Within the next few minutes we meet Trish (Michelle Michaels), a high school basketball player who seems like a nice girl. She is shown topless in the very first scene in which we meet her, the gratuitous nudity not wasting a minute of time. Since her parents are going away for the weekend, Trish plans a small get together between her and her friends on the basketball team. With boyfriends, mischievous jocks, and the new girl next door, the night is already primed for trouble. Throw in a drill wielding psycho killer, and you have yourself a slumber party ripe for a massacre.
What distinguishes this film from most other slashers is the approach it takes in portraying the female characters and how it satirizes the elements of the genre. Written by feminist author Rita Mae Brown, the film was originally meant to be a parody of slashers. The producers went against her ideas and wanted a more straightforward horror flick, but Jones’s direction still accomplishes what Brown might have originally intended. Through using the known tropes of slasher films to an exaggerated degree, Jones is able to comment on the stereotypes of the genre in a clever way.
The gratuitous nudity is the most obvious example. At nearly every possible moment, topless women are shown, with the camera slowly gazing over their nude bodies. This happens within the first few minutes when we meet Trish, as well as when the girls are showering after basketball practice. During a later scene in Trish’s house during the sleepover, their jock friends peer in through the window of the living room and watch the girls change into their pajamas. The constant leering at the women’s bodies, done so in an exaggerated manner, highlights the obsession horror has with nude women. They are constantly murdered, raped, and tortured in horror films, seemingly punished for their bodies. The excess of nudity in this film calls attention to itself, highlighting the ridiculous, often senseless disregard filmmakers have for women’s bodies.
Apart from the commentary on female bodies, the film also explores female sexuality. Courtney (Jennifer Meyers), the younger sister of the new girl Valerie (Robin Stille), steals her sister’s porn magazine to look at out of curiosity. Valerie teases her and they talk about masturbation. Courtney’s interest in sex is discussed naturally, not something to be afraid of or something that girls don’t experience. This contrasts with the voyeuristic way in which the girls’ jock friends sneakily look into their window to watch them undress without their consent, which is treated as normal in most films.
Where the most blunt commentary lies, however, is in the portrayal of the killer himself. Russ Thorn (Michael Villella), the escaped mass murderer whose weapon of choice is a power drill, chooses Trish and her friends to terrorize. The immediate irony is his weapon, which is a phallic symbol and is oftentimes held at his waist to appear as so. In an iconic shot, Thorn closes in on one of the girls with his drill, but the shot is taken at a lower angle through his legs so that it looks as if it is his penis. Thorn also doesn’t speak until near the end of the film when he has Trish cornered. She asks why he chose them and he states, “You’re pretty, all of you are very pretty… It takes a lot of love for a person to do this. You know you want it. You’ll love it.” This language is clearly very similar to things that victims of sexual harassment and assault hear, which plays as the killer’s motivation.
In the final showdown, only Trish, Valerie, and Courtney are still alive. It takes the three remaining girls to defeat him, which features Valerie using a machete to slice the drill in half, rendering Thorn useless. The symbolism of her destroying the phallic symbol — the weapon of the killer and a patriarchal stereotype — is a powerful image even if overt in its imagery. A satisfying ‘plunk’ sounds as the end of the drill falls into the pool water beside Thorn. He falls into the pool after Valerie cuts off his hand. Celebrating their victory, Courtney and Valerie don’t notice that Thorn rises from the water — it’s a slasher, the killer always comes back for one last scare. Trish, Courtney, and Valerie struggle with him as he tries to strangle Valerie. Then she grabs her machete and holds it upward as Thorn falls onto it.
Interestingly, the girls are only able to defeat Thorn by also using a phallic shaped weapon. Valerie’s machete is what slices through his power drill, and she also holds it at her waist as he falls onto it. The phallic shaped power drill can be seen as a metaphor for the patriarchy, misogyny, and hypermasculinity. By Valerie cutting through this with her own phallic shaped weapon, it can be seen as her reclaiming power that she has never been granted under a patriarchal society. This extends to how a lot of women are treated in other horror films, their helplessness usually resulting in only one final girl surviving. That doesn’t happen here. There is no final girl.
Slumber Party values its female characters, something that many other slashers tend to disregard. The girls, despite being objectified by the camera in the first half of the film, are rounded out beings with greater depth than their male counterparts. Valerie and Courtney are not sentenced to death because of their interest in sex, and Trish is able to make smart enough decisions to fight off Thorn and survive. After an era of horror films featuring massacred naked girls covered in blood, this underseen gem shines bright amongst the onslaught of slasher movies made in the 1980s. Although overt in its satire and feminist message, The Slumber Party Massacre is a cleverly executed criticism of the slasher genre that still holds up today.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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