Editing Slasher film (section)

===1984===
The public had largely lost interest in theatrically released slashers, drawing a close to the Golden Age.<ref name="Clayton-2015"/><ref name="Harper04"/> Production rates plummeted and major studios all but abandoned the genre that, only a few years earlier, had been very profitable. Many 1984 slasher films with brief theatrical runs found varying degrees of success on home video, such as ''[[Splatter University]]'', ''[[Satan's Blade]]'', ''[[Blood Theatre]]'', ''[[Rocktober Blood]]'' and ''[[Fatal Games]]''. Movies like ''[[The Prey (1984 film)|The Prey]]'' and ''Evil Judgement'' were filmed years prior and finally were given small theatrical releases. ''[[Silent Madness]]'' used [[3D film|3D]] to ride the success of ''[[Friday the 13th Part III]]'' (1982), though the effect did not translate to the [[VHS]] format.{{sfn|Kerswell|2012|p={{page needed|date=October 2021}}}}

''[[Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter]]'' brought the saga of [[Jason Voorhees]] to a close, with his demise the main marketing tool. It worked, with ''The Final Chapter'' selling 10&nbsp;million tickets in North America, hinting the series would continue even if Jason's demise marked a shift in the genre.{{sfn|Nowell|2011|p={{page needed|date=October 2021}}}}

This shift was emphasized by the controversy from ''[[Silent Night, Deadly Night]]'' (1984): Unlike the recent appearance of other [[Christmas horror]] films, including the same year's ''[[Don't Open till Christmas]]'', promotional material for ''Silent Night, Deadly Night'' pictured a killer Santa with the tagline: "He knows when you've been naughty!" According to ''[[Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film]]'', a 2006 documentary, the movie "became the flashpoint, igniting protests across the nation".<ref>{{cite AV media |url= |title=[[Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film]] |date=2006 |type= |language= |publisher= |trans-title= |location= |time=49:54 |access-date= |format= |id= |isbn= |oclc= |quote= |people=}}</ref> Protesters picketed theaters playing the film with placards reading, "Deck the hall with holly&nbsp;– not bodies!"{{sfn|Kerswell|2012|pages=142–152}}{{sfn|Nowell|2011|p={{page needed|date=October 2021}}}} Released in November 1984 by [[TriStar Pictures]], persistent [[Caroling|carol]]-singers forced one [[Bronx, New York|Bronx]] cinema to pull ''Silent Night, Deadly Night'' a week into its run. The widespread outrage led to the film's removal, with only 741,500 tickets sold.{{sfn|Kerswell|2012|pages=142–152}}{{sfn|Nowell|2011|p={{page needed|date=October 2021}}}}

As interest in the Golden Age slasher waned, [[Wes Craven]]'s ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' revitalized the genre by mixing fantasy and the supernatural in a cost-effective way. Craven had toyed with slasher films before in ''[[Deadly Blessing]]'' (1981), though he was frustrated that the genre he had helped create with ''[[The Last House on the Left (1972 film)|The Last House on the Left]]'' (1972) and ''[[The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film)|The Hills Have Eyes]]'' (1977) had not benefited him financially. Developing ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' since 1981, Craven recognized time running out due to declining revenues from theatrical slasher film releases.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.tribecafilm.com/stories/wes-craven-obituary-tribute-last-house-on-left-nightmare-on-elm-street-scream|title=Master Class: How Wes Craven Reinvented the Horror Genre Three Decades in a Row|work=Tribeca|access-date=May 14, 2018|archive-date=2016-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314060038/https://tribecafilm.com/stories/wes-craven-obituary-tribute-last-house-on-left-nightmare-on-elm-street-scream|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' and especially its villain [[Freddy Krueger]] ([[Robert Englund]]) became cultural phenomenons.<ref name="Rolling Stone-2014">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/making-of-nightmare-on-elm-street-10-best-scenes-20141030|title=Behind the 10 Most Shocking 'Nightmare on Elm Street' Scenes|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=May 14, 2018|date=October 30, 2014}}</ref> On a budget of just $1.8&nbsp;million, the film was a commercial success, grossing more than $25.5 million (7.6 million admissions) in North America and launched one of the most successful film series in history.{{sfn|Nowell|2011|p={{page needed|date=October 2021}}}}<ref name="Rolling Stone-2014" /> ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' provided the success that [[New Line Cinema]] needed to become a major Hollywood company. To this day, New Line is referred to as "The House That Freddy Built".<ref>{{Cite news|title=How New Line Cinema Is Making a Killing in Horror|work=The Hollywood Reporter |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-new-line-cinema-is-912458|access-date=May 14, 2018}}</ref> The final slasher film released during the Golden Age, ''[[The Initiation (film)|The Initiation]]'', was greatly overshadowed by ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (though both films feature dreams as plot points and a horribly burned "nightmare man").{{sfn|Kerswell|2012|p={{page needed|date=October 2021}}}} The success of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' welcomed in a new wave of horror films that relied on special effects, almost completely silencing the smaller low-budget Golden Age features.<ref name="Clayton-2015"/>{{sfn|Kerswell|2012|pages=150–152}}