YouTube doesn’t get enough credit for murdering the slasher genre. After the golden 80s and the 90s revival, slashers were already on life support by the early 2000s. But there was nothing preventing another revival. All it would take is a modernizing of the genre’s retrograde gender politics. But in 2005, the era of internet video began in earnest with the founding of YouTube and the bedrock appeal of the slasher genre was undermined forever.
After Halloween, slashers came to be defined not just by spree killers or violence, but instead by an unrelenting focus on THE KILL. Slasher talk centered on the best kills, the most gruesome moments, the bloody bits of viscera peppered throughout. Slashers could fail for not having enough kills or not having creative enough kills. The hero of the slasher genre was not a director, but make-up effects artist Tom Savini. His work on The Prowler, Nightmare, Friday the 13th and The Burning defined slashers more than any other name, except perhaps Halloween director John Carpenter.
But you don’t have to go to the theater or watch an entire movie for the kills anymore. Since there’s no more getting away with a dull teenage drama with intermittent, showstopping kills, the middle of the genre scene has been hollowed out. If you want to make a good Friday the 13th now, it better be more than good kills. The demands of the genre have become, in some ways, more rigorous. Violence that can be presented out of context will be presented out of context, so your movie better have something else to offer.
Enter Friday the 13th: The Game. Now this looks like the natural home for Jason. A new Friday the 13th movie has so much to overcome, but a game can put the focus back on the kills that defined the genre in the first place.
The new Friday the 13th: The Game trailer is an exemplar of this approach. It can showcase kills set to music — a fanboyish impulse made official — because its core gameplay appeal doesn’t rely on hoarding kills for the home VHS rental market.
The new trailer for Friday the 13th: The Game is the most slasher a thing can be these days:
Soak up those violent vibes, because you still have until October before Friday the 13th: The Game comes out on PS4, Xbox and PC.
