I’ll Be Right Back! With My Top Five Slasher Movie Monsters

Halloween is upon us - a time for scares and frights. We all have a fear or two like those creepy crawly things or whatever that is going bump in the night. Is that tickle on your leg something crawling on you? No, that is just your blanket brushing against you.   What is that standing in the corner in your bedroom at night!? Oh, it's just a coat hanging there. Our mind plays those tricks on us, but what would you do if that thing you fear doesn’t go away when you adjust your eyes? What if something is there when you reach your hand down in the blanket?  In honor of Halloween, here are my top five monsters from slasher films.
5. Pumpkinhead - A demon that is summoned by someone who wants to extract revenge on another who has hurt them. Read the fine print on this one, because if you summon Pumpkinhead, you feel all the pain he inflicts, or that which is inflicted on him. You will quickly learn you are becoming Pumpkinhead, and that isn’t good. There is no stopping him until his job is done… unless you find out his secret. There have only been four Pumpkinhead movies, but the first one is enough to know you don’t want to hear “Pumpkinhead is gonna get you!”

4. Pinhead – Do not solve the puzzle box or you’ll be dealing with this guy and his group of Cenobites. Pinhead leads a groups of tortured souls that want nothing more than to share their pain with you. It is gruesome and definitely brings a vibrant visual to hellish torture. If you had any qualms about going to hell before, Pinhead will squash that. It definitely makes me not want to go through hell and my plan has always been to try and avoid that! Just know if Pinhead tells you, “We have such sights to show you,” you are not getting to see your Christmas presents early.

3. Freddy Krueger - Nightmares alone can be some scary stuff to deal with, let alone adding a guy who controls them. A child murderer burned to death by the parents of the very kids he attacked, he's returned and now attacks kids in their dreams.  The rule is if you die in your dream, you are dead for real. Over the course of nine films (Including a reboot) he has found some imaginative ways to kill.  But I still remember the first time I saw the scene where he walks down the alley way with outstretched arms, and the image has haunted me for thirty years. “Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.”

2. Michael Myers – He is the stuff of nightmares and he will get you while awake or asleep. A William Shatner mask is creepy by itself, but wait, let’s paint it white and throw it on a silent, unstoppable killer. Originally a kid from a normal middle class family, he murders his older sister for no apparent reason, then returns years later to continue, murdering teens. Of course, his younger sister becomes his main prey. Rob Zombie rebooted this franchise where he removed the origin mystique, while trashing up the Myers family, but added brutality. I love both creations of Michael Myers and whichever one you prefer, you know “It was the Boogie Man…”

1. Jason Voorhees – Essentially Jason is the same character as Michael Myers aside from their upbringing. Jason was a deformed child who lived on campground and was left to drown in the lake by insubordinate camp counselors. That, and the fact his mother was killed by said counselors, might be why returning as an adult he started killing camp staff and anyone else on his land. He has definitely made a hockey mask something to fear. This huge monster has been through so much in twelve movies, including space and he just keeps coming. All reasons I have to put Jason at my #1 spot.