In Honour of Friday the 13th: 7 Slasher Movies to Watch Today

Today is Friday, February 13; the perfect excuse to revisit one of horror’s most durable subgenres. The slasher film, built on tension, pursuit and the inevitability of bloodshed, has long been the natural companion to this date. It is visceral, often simple in structure, and thrives on high stakes that leave little room for escape.

It all traces back, in many ways, to Friday the 13th (1980). Directed by Sean S. Cunningham and featuring special effects by Tom Savini, the film helped codify the rules of the genre. A group of young camp counsellors attempt to reopen Camp Crystal Lake, a site long associated with tragedy, only to be stalked and murdered one by one. The film established the isolated setting, the escalating body count and the tension that would define the genre for decades.

If you’re marking the date with something sharp and unsentimental, here are seven slashers worth revisiting.

Chris Nash’s Canadian horror film approaches the slasher formula from an unusual angle by focusing almost entirely on the killer rather than the victims. The story follows Johnny, a mute, undead figure resurrected in the Ontario wilderness after teenagers steal a locket from his grave. From there, the camera lingers behind him as he walks through dense forest to reclaim what was taken.

The film moves at a slow, deliberate pace, blending long, meditative shots of nature with bursts of graphic violence. Instead of cutting between frightened teens and frantic escape attempts, the audience remains aligned with the killer’s steady, mechanical pursuit. It is both stripped back and experimental, proving the genre can still be reshaped without losing its brutality.

Directed by Eli Roth and expanded from his mock trailer in Grindhouse, Thanksgiving turns a holiday into a hunting ground. Set in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the story unfolds one year after a chaotic Black Friday riot at a local superstore leaves several people dead.

A masked killer known as “The Carver,” dressed as historical figure John Carver, begins targeting residents connected to the tragedy. The murders are theatrical and holiday-themed, each staged with deliberate cruelty. At its centre is Jessica and her circle of friends, who find themselves pulled into the fallout of a night that never really ended. The film balances satire with excess.

This Australian horror-comedy follows Cecilia, a wellness influencer whose carefully curated online persona masks unresolved trauma. When she reconnects with her childhood best friend and attends a remote bachelorette weekend, old tensions resurface, particularly with a former school bully also in attendance.

What begins as awkward reunion drama escalates into violence that is both graphic and darkly comic. Sissy examines how self-help language and curated positivity can obscure deeper psychological wounds, using slasher mechanics to peel back the façade.

This reboot shifts away from the cannibalistic mutants of the original series and instead introduces “The Foundation,” a self-contained society established in the 19th century that has chosen to live in isolation in the Appalachian wilderness.

Six friends hiking the trail stumble into their territory and are forced into a fight for survival. The film blends slasher elements with social commentary, exploring isolationism, suspicion of outsiders and the friction between modern values and insular tradition. The violence is direct and physical, rooted in the tension of being trapped in unfamiliar terrain.

Few films capture late-90s slasher energy as cleanly as this Kevin Williamson-penned thriller. Better than the recent movie sequel, it shows four friends who cover up a hit-and-run accident, only to be stalked a year later by a hook-wielding figure who knows exactly what they did.

Led by performances from Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar, the film leans into guilt as its driving force. The threat is not random; it is tied directly to a secret that refuses to stay buried. Its polished, coastal aesthetic and tight pacing helped define an era of teen horror that still holds up.

This darker entry centres on a group of bullied high school students who orchestrate an elaborate revenge plot against their tormentors. Under the leadership of Dane, they lure the popular crowd to a farmhouse party, drug them and subject them to calculated physical and psychological punishment.

The film is less about a masked outsider and more about what prolonged humiliation can produce. It presents violence as a consequence of unchecked cruelty, pushing the slasher formula into uncomfortable territory.

Produced by WWE Studios, See No Evil follows a group of juvenile offenders assigned to clean up an abandoned hotel in exchange for reduced sentences. Inside the Blackwell Hotel, they are hunted by Jacob Goodnight, a towering killer who removes his victims’ eyes.

The setup is straightforward and contained, with the hotel functioning as both maze and trap. The film embraces physicality and scale, using its confined setting to sustain tension as the group’s numbers dwindle.

Let Friday the 13th be the ultimate excuse to shut out the world, kill the lights, and indulge in a high-stakes cinematic escape.

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