Page "Slasher film" Paragraph 1

Possibly the earliest slasher-type film is Thirteen Women ( 1932 ), which tells the story of an old college sorority whose former members are set against one another by a vengeful peer, seeking penance for the prejudice they bestowed on her because of her mixed race heritage.

Another film influential to the subgenre is Michael Powell's Peeping Tom ( 1960 ).

The film's plot centers around a man who kills women while using a portable movie camera to record their dying expressions.

The film was immensely controversial when first released ; critics called it misogynistic ( as would critics condemn the slasher films during its golden age ).

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho ( 1960 ), released three months after Peeping Tom, is often seen as an important forerunner to the genre.

Even though the villain's body count is only two, the film's " whodunit " plot structure, knife-wielding and mentally disturbed killer, twist ending and ' stalking ' camera technique proved influential on films to come.

Another early pioneer of the subgenre is director Francis Ford Coppola's controversial 1963 film Dementia 13, which was rushed into production following Psycho < nowiki >'</ nowiki > s success at the box office.