Why We Love Summer Slashers

When it’s a random, hot afternoon during summer break, I always end up rewatching the Friday the 13th movies or Sleepaway Camp. They might not be as supernatural as The Conjuring, or as sci-fi heavy as Alien, but there’s something special about the summer slasher subgenre.

A lot of horror fans of this subgenre can see how these movies are filled with heavy nostalgia. They bring forth a fresh thrill to audiences, taking you back to adolescent years or, like me, making you long for a time you weren’t there for.

These summer slashers usually take place at a cabin in the woods, like at a camp, where the characters feel perfectly frozen in time, wearing ringer tee shirts, high-waisted denim, or dolphin shorts. They’re from the age range of being a bunch of teenagers to young adults, who work long, dreadful hours as camp counsellors. But once the night falls, and the kids are asleep, things start to loosen up with irresponsible drinking, rebellious fun, and unforeseen danger.

The soundtrack always brings a wave of reminiscence, with its classic synth-pop, funk, and soft rock music, or even the shrilling strings splitting through the stillness of the environment as the killer stalks our unassuming characters.

The setting brings terror. Picture this: an isolated camp in the woods, with just cabins and campfires nearby. There are no parents or police around, just rowdy counsellors, cranky cooks everyone wants to avoid, and for some reason, the phones stopped working. This situation leaves people in a predicament. If you try to run away, you might get lost in the vast forests and end up taking the wrong direction, unintentionally leading yourself to the killer. There’s also no connection to the outside world, so you can’t just call for help or send a text message. It’ll make the feeling of dread and suspense creep into the pit of your stomach, as you’re unsure of what’ll happen next. Will they make it? Or will the killer find them hiding?

Honestly, it’s the worst when the fun side character who’s best friends with the main character gets killed off. They’re the relief, brightening the mood with one-liners and fun comfort for viewers to smile at. Now that they’re gone, their absence leaves us more vulnerable, making the camp feel darker and more dangerous. Now the main character is alone, panicking, and from here they start to fall into a singular archetype. The Final Girl!

This is the character that we all adore. Think of characters like Ginny Field from Friday the 13th Part 2, Laurie Strode from Halloween, or Sidney Prescott from Scream. She is the protagonist who stands out completely from all of the other characters.

Unlike the dumb jock or the stoner, the Final Girl is always the most cautious, intelligent one of the group. Because she is observant, she will sense when something is wrong, and figure out what is going on with logical reasoning before anybody else. She is the one to make it to the end and face the antagonist, using everything she’s been through to thrive. Overall, the final girl is a survivor; she will always outsmart the antagonist in their own game. With her resilience and strength, which is why she tends to be the most beloved by the audience.

Then there’s the villain. The killer. Unlike evil entities or aliens, they tend to be either an unnaturally silent, masked killer like the iconic Jason Voorhees and Ghost Face, or the person that you’d least expect anything from. Jason is known for wearing his hockey goalie mask and for being practically invincible. He carries a very stoic and unpredictable demeanour, stirring a sense of unease in the viewers. His victims can’t talk with him to understand why he is doing what he is doing, let alone beg for his mercy.

Yet for these antagonists, rather than being like Halloween’s Michael Myers and killing out of pure evil, they tend to have a motive behind their madness. In Sleepaway Camp, Angela Baker’s actions were a response from childhood experience and her being severely bullied by the other campers for a long time, which made her seek stability. She wanted everything to be ideal, and didn’t want things not to go her way. Although it doesn’t justify her decisions, it gives viewers a deeper understanding of her nature. It adds to our love for these movies and their amazing storylines, moving past the cliché of having no origin or motive and instead lets us see the characters in a better, more emotional light. 

All of these together, from the unwavering nostalgia, classic Final Girls, and the inescapable killers, are the reasons why summer slashers are so great. Even decades later, horror today still loves these ideas . We can see it in American Horror Story, Netflix’s Fear Street Part 2, and even in video games like The Quarry, where you play as the camp counsellors trying to survive their last night. No matter how many times this trope is reused, we keep going back to it, and I’ll still enjoy it each time.

Ultimately, we love summer slashers because they perfectly balance the cozy, warm comfort of summer in your youth years with the thrill of a survival game.

They make us nostalgic for a simpler time, while watching from our own couches, which is way safer than being at Camp Crystal Lake. So, the next time it’s a scorching, summer afternoon where you’re stuck inside with nothing to do, turn off all of the lights, get some popcorn, and go back to summer camp.

If you’re unsure of which lake to visit first, a quick starter pack would be perfect. For that retro summer, in-danger vibe, I’d recommend watching the original Friday the 13th or Sleepaway Camp. If you want something a bit more modern that still has that 80s nostalgia, check out Netflix’s Fear Street Part 2. Hold on, before you go, my home phone is ringing. They want me to ask you something.

“What’s your favourite summer slasher—wrong answer! Just kidding; we love them all.” Anyway, I’m hanging up the phone now. Enjoy your movie marathon, and hopefully you find a new favourite this summer!