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First of all, let me get this out of the way: I'm well aware, more than a lot of people, that many slasher films are terrible.

What I'm really asking is, is there potential for the slasher film genre to be met with critical acclaim from more than just gorehounds and teenagers? Is there potential for the slasher film to be held in a higher regard than just low-budget garbage? Here are some things often featured in slasher films that you can find in many major films, even Oscar winners:

1. Gore and violence. One of the biggest reasons people tend to believe that slasher films are nothing more than trash is because of large amounts of bloodshed. However, many dramas, thrillers, and action films feature blood and violence, even frequently. War films are the most obvious example. And religious beliefs aside, the "Passion of the Christ" is a film that's received a lot of praise, and yet it's notorious for it's brutal content.

2. Sex and nudity. Let's be honest here; should it really be that hard to find a film that features sex scenes or nude actors and was critically praised and held in high regard? The Oscar Category for "Best Film" alone has plenty of examples.

3. Language. Considering the cast of characters often featured in slasher films, being college kids, or teenagers (as played by actors in their mid-20's), there's bound to be some cursing and swearing. But foul language happens, more or less, just as frequently in real life, and so, many films also are bound to have it. Again, many Oscar contenders for "Best Film" alone have such language. And of course, no talk of foul-mouthed Oscar contenders is complete without mention of "The Exorcist", which received a whopping TEN nominations, and features not only some of the foulest language in a horror film, but it's all coming from a girl who is just twelve years old.

4. Murder. Murder is always going to be a heavy subject, and for the slasher film, it's almost always the primary catalyst of the plot (however much plot there is). But murder isn't exactly a total stranger to critically-acclaimed, award-winning films. Even many PG-13 rated films feature it prominently, even though it's not always so blunt and in-your-face about it as the slasher film is. "The Dark Knight" featured a villain who killed without any signs of remorse, no matter how high the body count was, and he did not discriminate. Doesn't that sound like a slasher villain? Many actors have won Oscars for playing murderous, psychotic characters. Heath Ledger, Anthony Hopkins, Javier Bardem, just to name a few.

The point I'm getting at is, many of the things that cause people to look down on the slasher genre can be found in films that won heaps of praise from critics and average moviegoers alike, so again, I ask you guys, is it possible for the slasher film to rise up and be considered more than just garbage? I'm not asking you the likelihood of this happening, since few slasher films are made by expert filmmakers with more than $$$ on their minds, and even fewer aren't remakes or sequels. What I'm asking is, is there potential for greatness and/or appreciation of any magnitude?

The reason why they're cheaply made, and tend not to have name actors, is BECAUSE of their reputation. If more intellectual filmmakers, actor, and critics appreciated the ideal and the concept of the genre, more money would be put into them, and more actors would be interested.

Well, you don't need a mega budget, but still, I think there's potential in the genre to be more than cheap B-Movies. For a long time, when people thought Batman, they thought of the goofy Adam West TV series, and the idea of a serious Batman film was laughed at. Then Burton came along, and made a Batman film that was dark, and gothic, and it was a hit. Over time, thanks to one Joel Schumacher, people went back to thinking that Batman was pure camp and couldn't be taken seriously. Then Christopher Nolan came along with Batman Begins and TDK.

I think that, while Halloween brought some respect to the genre, it hasn't stayed with it. I think it's time for someone to tackle the subject with respect, and not look at it as a just another "kids have sex and die" movie, and put a more intellectual spin on things.

Like you said, it's how it is done, and presented. Batman is always going to be about a guy who lost his parents when he was young, and fights crime dressed as a bat. However, you can keep it very simple like the Adam West series, and be really campy with it, or you can take it into some very interesting territory like Christopher Nolan did. A group of people trying to escape an armed psychopath can be given depth just like Batman was. Well, not just lik-oh, you get what I mean. xp

It's, first of all, difficult to make a slasher film that would have any artistic value because it is a slasher film. Personally, I find that the Oscars have meant essentially nothing after The Silence of the Lambs streak (it was a good movie but I couldn't stand it), so to me there's just no way.

Maybe the closest one could get to a "great" or "appreciative" slasher film is Straw Dogs, but only if you chose to interpret it a good way. When I saw it, the film itself seemed like it just senselessly wanted to be a slasher film so it made itself that way--which was stupid and the plot itself was full of holes and the overall directing could have been better--but after realizing that the violence was a catharsis, I have accepted it. After all, it's hard to live in a world that can only seem to take good things and make them bad, so of course once your sanity falters, the best idea is to make it worse and then leave it all behind. It's a twisted form of justice with conditional mercy.

What I'm trying to say is, while some slasher films might be of any cinematic value, it's going to be hard to find any simply because of their genre. No Country For Old Men was a brilliant film despite its portrayal of what could be interpreted as "a manifestation of death" (Anton Chigurh) but it still wasn't just some slasher. The main problem I can point out is that with a slasher film, it's hard to get anything profound out to the audience. All they will want to see is the violence, the nudity, the harsh language, etc. If a director is enough of a genius to get out the message that "death is inevitable" and "humans cannot escape their solitudinous nature even in an interdependent society", or at least explore that theme, it would be so wonderful--but instead what seems to happen is that it creates a cult which only popularizes the villains (e.g. Jason, Freddy).

So there is potential, but it's up to how the director and cinematographer lay it out, if they decide randomly that they would like to impress Roger Ebert or Ray Carney. I, however, only expect more s**t than shine..

I don't discount you for what you said since I agree about there being potential, but my question is (and hence my faithlessness), who could do it and how? I couldn't possibly think that even Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino--should they choose to take up the genre--would be able to lay down any powerful message despite their history of intellectual and entertainment satisfaction. Even if someone with the mind of Stanley Kubrick, the vision of Ingmar Bergman and the heart of Alfred Hitchcock were to appear and lift the Slasher Film Genre up from its grimy knees, I just can't imagine it. There is a lot of potential, so much of it, but I find no possibility.

(My apologies for the disconnect but I personally can't quite see TDK as an intelligent film..)