The most interesting of the four types of slashers that were
listed are the animal slashers. These
may not usually be categorized as slashers due to the fact that the animals do
not necessarily slash their victims, but eat them instead. For the most part that is true. However, the stories tend to unfold in a
similar manner. There are a bunch of
characters that are put into a bad position with a killer. In this case, the killer is some sort of
animal. The characters usually (there
are exceptions, such as Jaws) do not have depth, outside of some shallow depth
to the main character or two. The movies
are based more on showing interesting death sequences than creating emotion
with the characters. These are similar
to many of the standard slasher movies that are normally seen.
Even more specific would be aquatic animal slasher
movies. The classification basically
says what it is. These are the animal
slasher movies that involve aquatic creatures such as sharks, seals, and
whales. They also require the
protagonists of the movie to be in some sort of aquatic environment. Some environments might include beaches,
boats, pools, or other such things. All
of the aquatic animal slasher movies require a way for the characters to remain
in danger, rather than leaving the water to safely escape. Sometimes this is attributed to the stupidity
of people. Other times, there are
certain unstoppable forces that cause the predicament.
A movie that fully exemplifies what is being described is
the movie Two-Headed Shark Attack. This
was a movie released by the production company The Asylum in 2012. The movie is basically a blueprint of the
exact kind of aquatic animal slasher movie that is being described. Running through each piece of the checklist
will help to verify the claim. What are
the environments of the movie? The
environments are a boat, an atoll, and the water between the boat and the
atoll. The atoll has beaches. What is the problem? A two headed shark. Not only is this an animal, but it is mutated. How deep are the characters? One is an asshole, one is smart, and the main
character knows how to weld and is afraid of the water. Don’t worry, she overcomes the fear. How are they kept in danger? The boat is damaged, and the atoll is
collapsing. Water will be all around the
characters soon. What happens to the
characters? They begin to die off one by
one, due to the attacking shark.
Two-Headed Shark Attack does not add anything new to the
sub-sub-subgenre, but instead, perfectly encapsulates everything that this
sub-sub-subgenre is. The characters
remain in danger throughout. The animal
is extremely dangerous. The cast grows
smaller as time goes on. It’s a classic
animal slasher movie, with the mutation twist.
That does not make Two-Headed Shark Attack a good movie. It brings nothing new to the genre, and
rather just goes over already sailed waters. It is still a fun watch, for what it is.
That is neither here nor there.
The animal slasher movie sub-subgenre is one that is
interesting to look at. Sometime in the
future, a look will be given to the other sections of the slasher movie
genre. Until then, at least you know
about the animal subsection of the subgenre.
Have fun with those movies.
There is one note that I would like to make:
- If you would like to suggest a movie for the Sunday "Bad" Movie tell me on Twitter or leave a comment below.
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