Slasher films are popular for lots of reasons - not least the "franchiseability!" :) Studios like pre-branded product and, if it's any good at all, viewers enjoy returning to a known environment for the sequel. I guess it comes down to that whole "an event commemorates" and "reactivates" business. That's infinitely repeatable, if you add something new to the mix to keep it "fresh" with the existing mythos. Something that hasn't been touched on yet, and probably should be, is the other aspect of many of these films. Naked girls. Occasionally naked guys. Almost always sex. That there is a connection postulated between violence and sex, slasher films and youth, and youth and sex isn't new, so a film that thrashes all that at once, well, you're definitely hitting some primal stuff. While modern films have less of the "naked camp girl" than they used to - sex and sin and slasher remain fairly perennial motifs. Personally, I think that has as much to do with vulnerability as exploitation -- how much more vulnerable can we be than in the middle of sex, without standing naked behind a shower curtain? -- but, everyone's mileage will vary on that one, depending on the film. I've had a bit of a question about what is or isn't a slasher film, maybe someone here will have a thought? Vampire films. Some of them seem distinctly slasher-y to me. A start to some vampire films has been the reactivation of some sort of curse, the victims are often young people/women, the body count can be atrocious, and there's usually the vampire hunter who seems to satisfy the "some type of force" requirement. If you look at the past events, even, there's often some quest-y aspect to the vampire's choice of victim: took his love away so he terrorizes the village sort of deal. I'm not thinking all vampire flicks are slasher flicks, but, would it be a useful sort of model in writing some vampire tales? Are some vampire stories also essentially slasher stories? Do fangs qualify as bladed weapons? Thanks as always for the "making me think" part of my day. :)

Great post, NEGenge. Re your question, although they're not usually classified as such, vampire films definitely seem to fit the slasher model provided here. Although, it does seem that vampire flicks are often more subtle in their delivery of the primal bangs that slasher films allow viewers to safely experience (fear, lust, hate, disgust). Also, vampire films sometimes include another emotional element that’s almost always left out of slasher films: love. The vampire usually battles between animal urges and more humane ones, whereas the slasher is always symbolic of pure evil.