The 1980s slasher boom produced an avalanche of copycat films. They were full of masked killers, high school hallways, one-note authority figures, and unlikable protagonists. By the late ’80s, horror was starting to feel worn down.

You’d sit there and recognize the beats before they happened, the kills piled up, the style and credibility stretching thinner each time. While the good ones stood out, the surrounding films seemed rushed with very little intelligence behind them. At the same time, TV shows like Twin Peaks kept the viewers unsettled.

Films like Carrie, The Fury, and Videodrome were invading homes via VHS tapes. What made them remarkable was the way things weren’t conveniently wrapped up or explained by the end. Most slashers ignored that evolution entirely.