Beyond Redemption? - An Examination of Slasher Movie Villains

Warning: This article contains spoilers for some of the films in the Psycho, Halloween, and Friday the 13^thseries.

The eve of the August 31 cinematic release of Rob Zombie's "re-imagining" of the most influential slasher film ever made, Halloween (1978), seems an opportune time to reexamine the moral dynamics of the slasher subgenre. I am not referring to these movies' oft-discussed treatment of youthful sexual behavior or drug use, but rather to the figure at the heart of all these movies: a character who is not only evil, but the dehumanized embodiment of it - and therefore beyond redemption. This is a conception that numerous filmgoers have found consistently appealing, and it usually goes unquestioned. Yet this notion of someone being beyond hope of moral rehabilitation is alien both to the religious ideals that most people in this country and the world profess and to the reality of human existence. Why then does the quasi-demonic bogeyman hold such appeal - a death grip, if you will -- in slasherdom?