1981, the year of the slasher!

While the Slasher sub-genre got kicked off properly in 1978 with the release of John Carpenters Halloween, and Kicked into high gear in 1980 when Friday the 13th Hit theaters.

It wasn’t until one year later when the Slasher cemented itself as the Horror Sub-genre of the Decade. By the end of the year 25 of them had been released.

Here are a few of my favorites from that year , that don’t feature Micheal or Jason .

1- THE BURNING

While now best known as the first film produced by the Weinstein brothers . The Burning is a Nasty little slasher, Featuring one of the most vicious killers in the entire sub-genre . Whose weapon of choice is a pair of gardening shears.

Inspired by the Long Island legend of Cropsy , the film takes place at a summer camp and features a cast of soon to be well know actors.

https://www.shudder.com/movies/watch/the-burning/2527859 If you subscribe to Shudder you can stream THE BURNING.

2- MADMAN

Believe it of not MADMAN, is based on the Cropsy legend and takes place at a Summer camp in Long island .

It features as cast of actors who are only known for being in the movie Madman, except for Gaylen Ross ( from Dawn of the Dead ) who appeared in the film under another name.

When the producers of this film heard about the film THE BURNING they changed the killers name from Cropsy , to Madman Mars.

I think this worked out for the best, Madman Mars doesn’t come off as another Jason Clone , He’s one of the most original killers of the era.

( also it was released in Jan 1982 , but i’m still counting it