Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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Massacre (1974; dir. Hooper) also rely on aesthetic suggestion as a preference to
graphic depiction of violence. Films such as The Toolbox Murders (1978; dir.
Donnelly) and even Dawn of the Dead (1978; dir. Romero) owe more to American
exploitation aesthetics, despite the extent of their artistic innovations. 5
This shows
that some films that are sometimes considered a part of the slasher’s developmental
trajectory in fact come from an entirely different tradition. While Halloween became
the template for this new wave of slasher film that includes such Friday the 13 th
contemporaries as Prom Night (1980; dir. Lynch), Terror Train (1980; dir.
Spottiswoode), Hell Night (1981; dir. DeSimone), Happy Birthday to Me (1981; dir.
Thompson), and The Burning (1981; dir. Maylam) to name a few, Friday the 13 th is
the only one of these films that openly acknowledges its roots in this Italian
movement, its graphic depictions of violence stemming directly from this. The
Burning is also included in this tendency to portray graphic violence, and this can be
linked to the work of practical make up and special effects artist Tom Savini, who
gained attention because of his detailed re-creations of bodily mutilation in Dawn of
the Dead. The influence of Friday the 13 th , along with immediate contemporaries
like Prom Night, can be seen in a few of the films released in 1981, such as Hell
Night and Happy Birthday to Me, and even extends to Halloween II (1981; dir.
Rosenthal) which contains set pieces more closely reminiscent of these 1980 slasher
films than Halloween.
5 I would argue that both of these films contain unique narrative designs as well as aesthetic
complexity. However, the unusual narrative structures of both use graphic portrayals of violence as
spectacular set pieces, placed at suprising points in the story. This occurs in a similar way to
contemporary exploitation films, where violence, action, sex, nudity, and so forth are strategically
placed in surprising or provocative points. The form of slasher I am discussing generally uses
violence as the climax of a suspenseful sequence.