These days, nearly anyone can make a horror film. Get yourself a DV camera, some fake blood, your sister, some pirated software, and voila! You’re the next Bill Zebub. But for those of you who are looking to go a bit further into the cinematic process of genre filmmaking, look no further. Here, we’re going to present you with the know-how to create your very own slasher film or franchise! Using our extensive knowledge of the sub-genre, we’re going to give you the ultimate step-by-step process into exploiting your exploitation film for all it’s worth! Let’s get slashing!

Giving Birth to Evil:

First off, fuck the plot! You need yourself a villain before you can do anything else. Try and come up with something creative. What does your character wear? Where is he from? Is he vegan? Take all of those little problems you’ve been bottling up inside you for years and fuse them into your ultimate bad guy.

Clothing is a very important part of your villain. Would Michael Myers be scary if he were wearing Freddy’s striped shirt? Would Pinhead send a chill down your spine wearing a jumpsuit? Would Jason be frightening in bondage gear? (Probably so, but for a different reason.) You have to suit up your character perfectly. To help guide you better in this department, I am going to make up a villain on the spot and use him as an example throughout the rest of this tutorial. My character is dressed up in an orange prison jump suit. I’m not basing this on a plot idea or anything yet. This is all I’ve come up with. He has broken hand and leg cuffs dangling from his limbs. He is has a massive build and a shaved head. His face has a scar. He’s vegan.

Okay, there. I have my villain all ready to go!

Next, do I want him to wear a mask? Well let’s think of the pros and cons. If your monster wears a mask, chances are that people will remember him better than if he didn’t wear one. You’re also more likely to spawn a few sequels, maybe even a franchise! Slashers like Freddy and The Leprechaun didn’t wear masks, but they had enough FX to make up for that. If your villain is maskless, he appears more human and less likely to return in a sequel. In this case, I’m going to take the easy way out and give my convict a ski-mask; perhaps to cover up his scar (he’s sensitive). Have you decided yet? When you do, move on to the next paragraph.

Now we need a name. Every classic killer has a name. Even “Dahmer,” “Bundy,” and “Manson” draw up immediate images of horror just as the “Jason,” “Freddy,” and “Chucky” do. So find a name that suits your killer. Now if you want to be ballsy, you can risk it by not giving your killer a name. I’m going to take a chance here and only refer to my villain as “Prisoner #666”.

Now that we have an image of our villain, we can move on to their back-story, which will help to guide us into the plot. I lucked out with my villain because I happened to dress him in prison garb. So already, I know that I can use prison as my starting point. In my case, I’m going to say that my villain was arrested after committing a number of grisly murders. He refused to give his name or any personal information so he was sentenced to prison (and happened to be inmate #666). While there, he wanted nothing more than to escape and continue his bloodlust so he took to killing other inmates to stay sated. Finally when his time arrive to face the electric chair, his violent will was so pure that the electricity only made him stronger and he escaped from the prison (after of course, a brutal massacre). Again, I lucked out with my villain because the first thing I came up with was prison clothes. In your case, think about your character. What are they wearing? Do they look like they would be from a certain area? Are they mutated? These things can give you a great starting point to work with.

If they’re mutated, then you can obviously go with the inbred route, but that’s become a bit too redundant lately so you may want to stray from that. You can go with the “birth defect” route, and have your villain take revenge on those who cruelly made fun of him or tortured him as a child. Remember, almost every horror film made is a revenge film. So, what fuels your character’s bloodlust? Do you want your character’s cause to be at all sympathetic? Why doesn’t he eat meat, anyway?

Also, does your character use a certain weapon? Jason made the machete popular, Leatherface worked up a boner for the chainsaw; what doess your villain use? Is he a jack of all trades or is there that one weapon that he just can’t get enough of? In my case I’m going to start out Prisoner #666 with a crowbar, just for fuck’s sake. He may do a few smotherings or stabbings, but I’ll stick with the crowbar for now. It seems to fit his personality.

Now that you have a back-story you can work on your plot. I’m going fucking plain-jane on mine. Prisoner #666 escapes to continue his unfinished bloodlust and a renegade detective who originally arrested the Prisoner vows to take him down once and for all. In any case, you don’t need much of a story. Jason killed horny teenagers, Freddy killed teenagers who slept, and well, yeah, that’s about all you need really. Get yourself a group of teenagers or college kids who your character can kill off one by one until that one remaining survivor has what it takes to possibly take him down for good. (In my case, I’m using the renegade detective as my “survivor”).

Now that we’ve come this far in the story, all that’s left is the ending. If it’s a slasher film, chances are your villain isn’t going to actually die in the end. Have a hand pop up, have an eye open; something, anything to insinuate that the story’s not over. Hell, even if you don’t intend to make a sequel, end it that way because hey, you never know who may want to dig up a sequel to your movie in a few years! In my case, my renegade detective finds Prisoner #666 just before he kills a beautiful leading lady that he’s been stalking. Renegade detective puts a few slugs into Prisoner #666 and he drops dead. Just as detective and female victim think it’s all over, Prisoner #666 pops back up and again, is shot about six more times. We can tell he’s finally “dead” because there’s a close up of his hand letting go of his crowbar. Before the credits, I’ll have a small scene of his body being wheeled into the morgue. As the morgue attendant goes to start his work, Prisoner #666 opens his eyes and we hear screaming from an outside shot of the room. The last thing we see before the credits roll is Prisoner #666 leaving the morgue dressed as the attendant. End.

P.S. Don’t forget to use a tagline for your film! A catchy tagline will always help people remember your movie.

For my film, I have come up with:

“He was supposed to get the electric chair, but what followed was ironically more shocking than someone getting the electric chair and by shocking i mean because of the electrical currents.”

Or:

“They gave him a death sentence. He turned it into a death fragment.”


The Story’s Over---Or is it?

So there it is. You’ve finished your first slasher film! It gets mixed reviews which pretty much lean to the poor side, but it builds up enough of a cult status to where you’re approached to make a sequel. You have nothing better to do, so why not? But heed this warning! ONLY RETURN BACK FOR THE SEQUEL. After this, only stay attached to the film as an executive producer or a consulting producer. Anything after part two is going to be ravaged by fans and critics alike.

When interviewed about the poor reception for your sequel, simply say something along the lines of “There was more that I wanted to do with the story that budgetary constraints prevented me from doing in the original. So my goal is to truly finish the story in this sequel.” Sound confident. Sure, it’s going to get horrible reviews, but if you believe in your work, then at least three or four fans will as well!

Storylines for a sequel are always the easiest. They’re easily the most revenge-oriented film. Jason comes back to kill those who killed his mom. Michael comes back after Laurie who escaped in the first. In my case, I have two options. First, Prisoner #666 is presumed dead or missing for good. My renegade detective is now retired and extremely family oriented when he realizes that Prisoner #666 is still alive and well and coming for his family. My second option is that all of the witnesses of Prisoner #666’s electrocution start dropping dead, forcing my now retired detective to come back to the case to end the case once and for all. Remember, this is probably the last time you’re going to get your “survivor” person to come back for a sequel so use them to their fullest extent.

Once you’ve completed your sequel, just step back from the project completely. You’ll be approached to do a third, but say no. You’ll have ideas and scripts thrown your way, but just back off for now. Do some interviews. Tell them that you’re working on new projects and have nothing more to do with your original slasher film. However, when production starts on a third film; agree to be producer or a consultant. You can always earn a little green from helping some newbie director run your original idea into the ground. Plus it’s always nice to see “Based on original characters created by” with your name following in the credits. You’re no longer officially doing the film anymore, but you can still milk some cash from it, so why not?

Slasher's Block:

So now some director and writing team is trying to think of a way to bring your character back to life. Well here are some great and easy ways that have always worked before. Put them in “the hood,” or send them into space. If they could send Pinhead, Jason, and The Leprechaun into space, they can very well send Prisoner #666! See for yourself:

“Realizing that Prisoner #666 is an unstoppable force, the government decides to use him in a space experiment involving black holes. What they don’t count on is the shuttle returning to Earth with a more sinister evil than they ever imagined.”

Or if you want to send him to the hood, a la Leprechaun-style:

“After being endlessly pursued, Prisoner #666 decides to lay low in America’s most dangerous hood, where even cops fear to venture. But once his murdering ways start up again, two warring gangs decide to unite to reclaim the turf that was once theirs!”

SEE? It’s SO fucking easy! You can send your killer to McDonald’s and there’s still a story some bored writer can draft up.

If all goes well, you’ll be receiving benefits for another 20 years.

Well, we hope that this has been a somewhat informative guide to creating your own slasher franchise. But please keep in mind, this tutorial will really only help you if you can get a time machine to take you back to the late 80s/early 90s. Otherwise, this will really never work.

Stay tuned for Killer Film's Guide to Making Your Own Asian Horror!